Qld: Bill of Rights would promote responsibility: Pearson

AAP General News (Australia)
08-25-2000
Qld: Bill of Rights would promote responsibility: Pearson

By Barbara Adam

WEIPA, Qld, Aug 25 AAP - An Aboriginal Bill of Rights would challenge indigenous people
to take responsibility for their social and economic problems, prominent Aboriginal leader
Noel Pearson said today.

Mr Pearson said indigenous people could not take their rightful place in Australian
society until the federal government formally set out the basic human rights of Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander people.

"Land rights and fundamental human rights have to be recognised but the flip side to
that is responsibility," he said outside an indigenous business investment summit in the
remote Cape York township of Weipa.

"We've got to take responsibility for solving our social problems and we've got to
take charge of developing our economies."

Mr Pearson was today one of about 100 business, government and indigenous delegates
attending a Queensland Government summit, held with the aim of breaking the cycle of welfare
dependency in Cape York Aboriginal communities.

"What we're trying to do here today is match up the other side of the coin and that
is we've got to take responsibility," he said.

Mr Pearson also warned that talk of reconciliation had to be backed up with a significant
investment from the government.

"We're prepared to take responsibility but there's a reciprocity that's got to be matched
by the government, the rhetoric has actually got to be reflected in an investment."

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KEYWORD: STOLEN PEARSON

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