[Greens-Media] PM Abbott wrong again on European settlement

[Redman, Chris (Sen R. Siewert)]

Media Release

14th November 2014

PM Abbott wrong again on European settlement

The Australian Greens said today that Tony Abbott continues to send mixed messages about European settlement of Australia.

"During today's address to an infrastructure breakfast with UK Prime Minister David Cameron, Tony Abbott has  echoed his comments from earlier this year that Australia was 'unsettled' before the British arrived," Senator Rachel Siewert, Australian Greens spokesperson on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander issues said today.

"The Prime Minister's 'nothing but bush' comments once again ignore the fact that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have been in Australia for many tens of thousands of years, and that British settlement began a process of discrimination and dispossession.

"This is another example of the Prime Minister ignoring the reality of colonisation and the peoples, flourishing culture, languages that were here at the time of European settlement.

"During the Prime Minister's visit to Arnhem Land he was quoted as telling a British newspaper that 'Initially the impact [of British settlement] was all bad - disease, dispossession, discrimination, at times wanton murder'.

"This morning, Mr Abbott described this same event as the beginning of an 'extraordinary partnership'. It's not good enough to have one message while in Arnhem Land and another for the rest of the country.

"The Prime Minister needs to show a genuine commitment to recognition and reconciliation, and that starts with a strong, consistent message about the rich history of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.