The Stolen Generations

6 JULY 2000 HE transnational human rights industry appears to be setting up Australia as the next international white pariah, the South Africa of the new century. As we approach the Sydney Olympic Games in September, with the possibility of Aboriginal demonstrations before the world’s cameras, many Australians are becoming increasingly nervous about this. Others find it terribly exciting. Last month the conservative government of Prime Minister John Howard was chastised by the United Nations’ Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. At issue was mandatory sentencing in northern Australia, where judges must send offenders to prison for certain offences. According to the Committee, this system ‘appeared to target offences that were committed disproportionately by indigenous Australians, leading to a racially divisive impact on their rate of incarceration.’ In other words, blacks commit more crime, so they go to gaol more than whites. And this is racist. Racism is an extraordinarily potent issue in Australian politics these days. Although only about 2 per cent of people are Aborigines, issues involving them have become one of the main points of difference between the two major political parties. The latest explosion occurred earlier this month over a phenomenon known colloquially as ‘the stolen generations’, which is now the predominant racial issue in the country. In the first 60 or so years of the twentieth century, some mainly partT MICHAEL DUFFY The Stolen Generations