$42m land rights dream in ruins

When the primitive communism of Koori communities meets the unbridled capitalism of Koori bureaucrats, the result is $42m land rights dream in ruins.

Now that dream of self-sufficiency - and freedom from what the Aboriginal leader Noel Pearson has called "the poison of welfare" - is in tatters. Angry in-fighting and allegations of violence have riven the community. The independent directors appointed to safeguard the money, ... have resigned. More than $1 million, almost the community's entire income for 21 months, has been spent on legal costs. A QC has said the transfer of the community's money to the trust was unlawful, and a court has frozen the assets.

This is straight out of the business pages of the newspapers. You could say that these Kooris have been throughly assimilated into the wider community. The real beneficaries have been the land developer and the lawyers.

If I were a property developer or a lawyer, I would be a fervent supporter of Aboriginal land rights for this is the most profitable means to get Crown land to market. A land council whose members have the bare minimum of education are suddenly expected to run multi-million dollar enterprises under the strictest conditions. It is very easy for them to fall victim to breaking some government rule and then their wealth is locked up in lengthy court trials while being frittered away in legal fees and costs.

I suppose, that after 200 years of the rich whitefella stealing stuff from the poor blackfella, rich whitefellas giving something back to the poor blackfella was an unexpected change, but it turned out to be a different type of stealing.