Doctors Reform Society of Australia
			supporting health care reforms to ensure justice, equity and quality care for all
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by Ben Bartlett

‘The ‘White Australia’ Policy is the keynote of Australian nationalism. medical opinion is agreed that there is no reason why the white race should not successfully settle tropical Australia, provided protection from endemic tropical disease is assured. The native, after decades of uncontrolled exposure to tropical disease, had become the natural host of endemic disease by which successful white settlement is gravely menaced, and it is manifestly impossible for the hygienists, with any pretence to bona fides, to undertake the safeguarding of the health of the white community and its future unless he has full powers over the native population, not only in regard to treatment for apparent ailment, but also in relation to hygiene, community life, migration and dispersion through the white community.1’

This quote is not from a politician appealing to the British colonial roots of this country’s recent history. It is the words of the Chief Health Officer of the Northern Territory, Dr CE Cook. Cook held this position from 1911 to 1939. However he also held another position and that was as Chief Protector of Aborigines. His words quoted above justify extraordinary powers over Aboriginal people’s movement, where they live, what work they do, and so on, not as part of a colonial paternalism that such powers would be in Aboriginal people’s best interest, but because it would help secure white settlement in the North.

The full text of this article is not currently available online. Contact Carol at the DRS national office for more information.

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			This page was last updated on 10th February, 2003.
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