Fighting Words

Chalk

Uluru When is the pandering to our indigenous people going to stop. Vast tracks of Australia are already inaccessible to most of the population because aboriginals claim the sites are sacred to them. And now we as a nation are banned from climbing Uluru because of its spiritual significance. I understand and appreciate that the Aborigines were once the custodians of our land and were once the victims of British imperialism and smallpox, but times have changed. Australia is now a country of immigrants, and we should all have equal rights as one nation to come and go as we please in this wide brown land of ours. We got rid of the White Australia Policy because it was manifestly wrong to exclude people of different race and cultural backgrounds from immigrating to Australia. So, why should our indigenous people have the authority to say where we can go in our own country? If a decision is to be made about accessibility then it should be made by an elected government and popular vote, and not by some minority tribal council. Jens Ward, Wardswords