The Doctors Reform Society recognises the relationship between the health and well-being of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australian citizens and their land rights. Health improvements and land justice are fundamentally entwined.

We are deeply concerned at hasty attempts to change the policy of leasehold tenure for pastoral lands, which has served Australia well for the past 150 years. The land is used by pastoralists and Aboriginal people for different purposes, and it is possible for both groups to co-exist.

The decision of the High Court in the Wik case has introduced nothing new into the situation, but rather has affirmed the rights of both parties. The rights of pastoralists have been strengthened, because in any dispute the rights to conduct pastoral activities prevail over the rights of the traditional owners. Aboriginal people have been generous enough to accept that point.

The DRS is deeply concerned at attempts to impose changes to this policy which arbitrarily promote the rights of one group over the rights of another. The proposed amendments appear to give pastoralists freedoms that were never intended by British or Australian Governments when the leasehold system was set up.

The proposed amendments would give some citizens and corporations effective freehold on land which they have never bought, while Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander citizens are deprived of their Common Law rights. Such an action will rob of the whole of the nation to enrich the few.

The Doctors Reform Society opposes any tampering of the Native Title Act which would endanger the future health of Australian Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders.

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