Trial by Ordeal

In Joy Williams v The Minister, Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1983 & Anor [1999] NSWSC 843 the Supreme Court of NSW rejected the existence of any duty between the State and Joy Williams notwithstanding that she spent the first 18 years of her life as a State ward pursuant to the Aborigines Protection Act 1909 (NSW).

The quoted words are from the Commonwealth submission to the Senate Inquiry into the Stolen Generation.

Some funds were made available for rehabilitation. See Herron Senator John , Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs Commonwealth Response to Bringing them Home: Report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families (unpublished 13-page statement, 16 December 1997).

A 56-page document available from the web page of the Senate Committee Inquiry into the Stolen Generation, see <http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/submissions/lc_stolen.htm>.

The Commonwealth submission to the Senate Inquiry relies heavily on the work of Brunton Ron in ‘Betraying the Victims: The “Stolen Generations” Report’, in an Institute of Public Affairs Backgrounder, Vol 10/1, 1998. It also cites extensively from the autobiography of a Northern Territory patrol officer, Macleod Colin : Patrol in the Dreamtime, Mandarin, Kew, Victoria, 1997.

Manne has written a number of columns on the topic for the Fairfax press. For example, see ‘The Stolen Agenda’, Age, 10 April 2000. See also, Wootten Hal ‘Ron Brunton and Bringing Them Home’, (1998) 4 Indigenous Law Bulletin 12, April.

Issued pursuant to s.55ZF of the Judiciary Act 1903 (Cth), see <http://law.gov.au/olsc/legalservices/legalservices.html>.

This information comes from Eddie Mabo's counsel, McIntyre Greg The Queensland government subsequently reversed that decision, see Mabo v Queensland (No 1) (1988) 166 CLR 186.

The Commonwealth subsequently reversed that decision, see The Commonwealth v Verwayen (1990) 170 CLR 394.

The Australian Law Reform Commission, Report No 31, The Recognition of Aboriginal Customary Laws, AGPS, 1986, 2 Volumes, Chapters 22–26.

See Criminal Justice Commission Aboriginal Witnesses in Queensland's Criminal Courts. CJC, Brisbane, 1996, and cases discussed in that Report.

Mildren, Hon Justice Dean, ‘Redressing the Imbalance Against Aboriginals in the Criminal Justice System’, (1997) 21 Crim. LJ 7; Criminal Justice Commission, Aboriginal Witnesses in Queensland's Criminal Courts, CJC, Brisbane, 1996, p.4 ff.