Economy
An Indigenous seventh state: a radical idea from a constitutional conservative
I took Michael Mansell onto the streets of western Sydney this week. I wanted to test public support for his ideas about giving Indigenous people a political voice in Australia.
Most people recognised him as “that Aboriginal bloke from Tasmania”.
For many people Mansell remains fixed in their minds as a black radical voice. He is the activist who, in the 1980s, headed off to Colonel Gaddafi’s Libya to win support for the Aboriginal cause.
But Mansell is a disarming presence. He has the demeanour of an old-school gentleman, capped off with a shock of grey hair and a debonair moustache.
He is unfailingly polite and patient with people who — often out of ignorance — can ask impertinent if not rude questions about Indigenous people.
It comes, I suppose, from having been told throughout his life that he did not exist …
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Mansell’s call for an Indigenous “seventh state” would on face-value appear the most provocative.
He says it is founded on the idea that “every people has a right to live within its own territory in external freedom and liberty”.
Again, he grounds his argument in the constitution.
The founding fathers certainly anticipated the creation of new states. The constitution provides the Federal Parliament with the power to establish new states out of territory belonging to existing states.
Mansell says Indigenous people hold large tracts of land within central Australia.
Why, he argues should they not have responsibility for administering their affairs and, like other states, drawing on Commonwealth revenue? …