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Detailed travelogue on Australia and New Zealand

Detailed Travelogue on Australia and New Zealand

Larry
2006-05-27 03:23:16

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together close to the center of attraction
(whatever it may be), the Aboriginals stayed further back, watching the day
go by from a distance. In the outback, you'd frequently see groups of
Aboriginals together, hanging out by the side of the road just talking or
relaxing, usually next to old, dilapidated cars, and occasionally coming
into town (from the Native Lands) in a bus or truck to get supplies.
One of the hot issues in the news while I was in Australia was who owns
all of the vast grazing lands throughout the country. While I was visiting
the outback, a judge had sided with an Aboriginal claim that much of the
land currently used for grazing could possibly be claimed by Aboriginals as
their own. Then the cattle farmers claimed that it'd been theirs for years,
and should continue to be so, or they could go out of business -- and
besides, how do you prove who owns what -- not to mention that opening the
floodgates like this would clog the courts for years. Government officials
were then saying that if enacted, it might have to be decided on a
case-by-case basis, while the politicians gently danced around the issue,
trying to take both sides as best they could. Even in the hot outback,
there are plenty of cows and cattle farms ("cattle stations"), with signs
warning drivers to be careful ("wandering stock--unfenced areas ahead").
Land rights have been, and will be for quite some time, a hot issue in
Australian politics.
I suppose similar to the way some Americans feel about Affirmative
Action, many white Australians resent the handouts and subsidizing of the
Aboriginal people. Typical is the sentiment that many non-Aboriginal
Australians are tired of seeing their hard-earned money being spent to give
free handouts to people that don't do anything but just collect the
handouts. Of course, an Aboriginal would argue ...

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