Prominent Aussies slam indigenous bill

Twenty-seven prominent Australians have written to Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott and Greens Leader Bob Brown to express their anger over plans to extend the Northern Territory intervention.

The government’s Stronger Futures legislation, which will extend the indigenous intervention begun by the Howard government in 2007, passed the lower house late last month.

A Senate committee is expected to deliver its report into the draft laws on Tuesday.

A statement prepared by former Family Court chief justice Alastair Nicholson and signed by prominent Australians such as former prime minister Malcolm Fraser and well-known academics, authors and film makers aims to highlight a number of the bill’s “unsavoury elements”.

They say it breaches the Racial Discrimination Act, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous people.

Mr Fraser said the government had failed to cooperate with indigenous communities in drafting the legislation.

“They must remember they are not the masters of Aboriginal people, they are meant to serve the Aboriginal people and the rest of the Australian community,” he said.

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