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probably confusing component, the implications of which could not clearly be
foreseen and which could lead to uncertainty and possible challenge in relation to
land titles elsewhere in Australia which are at present unquestioned and secure.
(1972, p. 6)
Furthermore,
…the decision to grant leases to Aborigines on reserve lands, apply only to
Commonwealth territories. The Government has informed the States of these
decisions. The States, of course, keep under review the question of measures for the
advancement of Aborigines within their own fields of responsibility. (McMahon,
1972, p. 10)
This statement by Prime Minister McMahon was met with cynicism by some members of the
community, as demonstrated for example in the editorial in The Australian which noted the
following of the land rights decisions by the McMahon government:
If the decision should fall seriously short of the Aboriginals’ deepest desires,
January 26 is only reinforced as the day of defeat in their calendar, and the
announcement would take its place for them as another part of the white man’s
voluminous gasbagging for the edification of white men on this anniversary day…
(Editorial: A price on our guilt, 1972, n.p.)
Regarding the decision to limit land rights, the editorial goes on to read:
He means the question of precedent could bother some pastoralists, including
overseas groups who have been leased enormous areas without a qualm…The
alternative set of fringe proposals outlined in Mr McMahon’s statements are not very
remarkable when considered as the fruit and culmination of the massive expression
of public opinion in the 1967 referendum. (Editorial: A price on our guilt, 1972,
n.p.)
The exclusion of non-Northern Territory Indigenous Australians, directly resulted in the Tent
Embassy on the front lawn of Parliament House in Canberra being established, with the
argument that Australian Indigenous peoples needed representation in this form as they were
being treated as foreigners in their own country as a consequence of land rights claims not
being recognised.
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