Independent Member of Australian Parliament calls for better indigenous policy

In the hopes of resolving Australia's political gridlock of a hung parliament after the 2010 Australian federal election, Independent member of Parliament (MP) for Kennedy in Northern Queensland Bob Katter has released a list of policy initiatives such as indigenous housing which he considers to be the criteria that will determine who he will side with to form a government.

Katter, who was a former State Minister for Indigenous Affairs in Queensland, suggests that past governments have oppressed indigenous Australians and put issues pertaining to indigenous Australians on the backburner, stating "So what do you want? To just oppress them all until there's none of them left? That's the policy that's out there at the moment".

Specifically, the MP calls for total indigenous control and employment of any Indigenous housing projects and for the government to aim to squash Queensland's wild rivers conservation legislation as he argues it will prohibit Indigenous Australians from using such sites for cultural and employment reasons. He remains confident that a High Court appeal led by Noel Pearson, an indigenous rights lawyer, would result in a positive outcome regarding the wild rivers but he wants a permanent solution to be developed by the Parliament.

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