chips59 replied:

It cant happen quick enough for me, I am a strong believer of one set of rules for everyone. Why should i have to get a permit to see mine and other Australians places.I was born here and it my home as much as anyone else born here. my father was involved i the late 50 and early 60s with having to lock up native Australians at night in camps and I always remember him saying how this country would be far better off as a one set of rules for everyone. but he also said that then there would be a lot of public servants out of jobs. bring it on.

SunWizard replied:

about time long overdue

Rick (S.A.) replied:

Regarding the Access Permit System that closes off some Australian communities:

There is an issue here about the right of all Australians to have access to their country. We do allow access for all to many parts of Australia, but unfortunately, not every part. The aboriginal lands that have entry prohibited and regulated by an access permit system should not be in any way different to other parts of crown held land in Australia. But they certainly currently appear to be different.

The issue of currently closed access, or permit controlled access, is baffling to many of us. We can’t deny access to the road, say between Adelaide and Broken Hill, yet the aboriginal community seems to be able to deny us road access from say, Marla to Kaltukatjara. (a.k.a. Docker River). Why should there be one rule of access for one group, and one rule for another? Surely such rules & attitudes are a major contributor to the ‘them & us’ way of thinking that delivers benefits to no-one. It is unjust and unreasonable to have two policies for one nation of residents. The current access permit system perpetuates a ‘one rule for us and one for them' mentality’. It should be abolished.

It would appear that isolation of aboriginal communities has done no good at all. Let’s share problems & issues, and open the regions to visitors. The people living in the aboriginal lands are not separate Australians; they are merely one sector of our diverse residential population. Why do we continue to perpetuate such divisions? By abolishing controlled permit access in aboriginal lands, we could begin to breakdown some of the destructive attitudes that exist.

While I recognise that many living in currently permit controlled access communities have issues such as health, poverty and abuse, I don’t really comprehend those issues. And I’m unlikely to develop any comprehension while those fellow Australians are in isolation, caused in large part by the current access permit system.

It is very likely that enabling more visitors to be exposed to these areas and issues may facilitate visitors willing to help in some way. Unfortunately, access prohibition currently prevents the rest of us from putting a shoulder to the wheels of help, respect and assistance. The interior of Australia has many visitors and people on a journey. Not all of these people are ‘grey nomads’. I’m not. Let’s enable visitors to bring more income and more support to these remote areas. Let us abolish the current controlled access permit system, immediately.

The current arrangement of closed access also prohibits my family and me from enjoying the land, the scenery, the topographical features, the flora and fauna, and the environmental aspects that relate to an appreciation and understanding of any region. If able, I would gladly visit remoter aboriginal lands, and be prepared spend time and energy and money to develop a sense of understanding of a particular region. I can’t see how preventing my access benefits those local residents. Current public concerns about abuse, violence, poverty and health in aboriginal lands underline the disadvantages of permit controlled access.

One of the ‘rights’ as a local citizen I wish to utilise is the ability to travel where I choose on our road systems. I’m not talking about desire to trespass onto freehold land. I don’t want or need access to freehold areas belonging to others. But I would like to appreciate not only the people and their issues, but also the local environment, all of which is denied by the currently permit access system operating in aboriginal lands.

One solution may be to follow the South Australian example of enabling access in remote regions. There, Public Access Routes have been created to provide transport corridors. Let’s do the same in the Aboriginal lands.

Legislation and regulation should enable all of us to appreciate all of Australia – there is demonstrably no good that comes from the current restrictive permit access policy. It is time for a change.

Member - Jeff H (QLD) replied:

Dunno about this one .In1967, 4 of us strayed onto a nearby 'reserve', and were promptly hunted off; fair enough. Back in the same area (Qld SEish) last year, and the road sides are littered with dead billycans.

Drive S. into Halls Creek, and glance right.
. Enjoy what you see?

Stray into Haasts Bluff, and tell me how YOU can sort it out.

Try driving straight E. from MT. Surprise to Kennedy, and write up your diary as to why 'whiteys' denied travel across their land.
Please people, tread gently: just because you and I are the Perfect Guests......JH.

NicI replied:

One rule for all sounds like a reasonable idea until you start looking at the details and history, which, being the root cause, cannot be brushed aside by saying “I was born here’. When a Stone Age group of tribes is forcibly invaded by Steam Age colonisers with guns, poison, murder, rape, and a convenient ‘superior’ religion on their side – guess who suffers and is suffering still ? And what are we still doing ? Selling grog to a culture who obviously can’t handle it; supplying work on stations (good), then taking it away and replacing it with nothing (very very bad); refusing equal health dollars and access (try a life expectancy of about 50 and infant mortality at 10 times white – how’d you like that ?); little or no education, no jobs or prospects. But we supply TV and grog money, then castigate them for not immediately living like the (white) people they see there.

It was their country – we killed them for it, stole it, call it our own, make money from it and haven’t even begun to pay for any of it yet. It probably would have been kinder to finish the job and kill them all, instead of only about 2/3 of them.

If access to these lands is opened the likely results are that we’ll supply them with more grog, more petrol to sniff (totally avoidable with Opal), and further destruction of the pitiful remains of their way of life. The tourist jobs and money which would ensue would be taken by whiteys, and the current land owners would become even visible as a national/international embarrassment and shame than they undeniably already are. Let’s play at being explorers in places where we’ve eradicated them, and at least leave the others to their land, land we only decide now that we want.

Note that there are also plenty of poor bugger whites around – no job or prospects, poor education, sad deprived and abused background, alcohol and other drug problems, violence, and dysfunctional families. Not much gets done for then either, easier to blame them for their failings.

Empathy, empathy, empathy.

V8Diesel replied:

Well the current system is hardly what I'd call a roaring success.