Political Corrections

with Margo Kingston

What happens now that the ATSIC board has backed the word of its chairman, Geoff Clark, against the word of four women - three Aboriginal and one white - that he raped them?

Let's be clear on this. Geoff Clark has refused to detail why the allegations are false. For example, we don't know whether he knew these women or had ever met them. We don't know whether or not he had sex with all or any of them, and if so, his version of what happened.

In other words, he has refused point blank to take their allegations seriously enough to address them. Who is oppressing who here, Geoff?

Instead, we have from Clark two defences.

First, that he is a victim of a conspiracy by whites and blacks to destroy him. He gives no detail of this conspiracy.

His second defence is that he has been picked on by the Fairfax press because he is a radical Aboriginal voice.

"The fact (is) that my only crime is that I am an Aboriginal and I have had the audacity to question the legitimacy of this country, to question the treatment of Aboriginal people... and I have called for a treaty.''

Whether the women speak the truth or not, it is difficult to doubt their courage in being prepared to be named, and to detail their alleged experiences.

There is also little doubt that they are - in the absence of the Fairfax story - powerless voices.

And whether the Fairfax papers should have published the stories or not, it is utter nonsense to accuse them of racial motives. Just ask John Howard whether he thinks The Herald supports the cause of Aborigines or not - during the Wik debate senior Liberals called The Herald the Aboriginal Morning Herald, and several Aboriginal leaders have told me our relentless campaign for native title rights was an important factor in their favour during the long debate.

There is no doubt that the fracturing of Aboriginal culture since colonisation has seen Aboriginal men assault women as a matter of routine. The reason the previous Labor government funded a separate Aboriginal women's legal service was that the general Aboriginal legal service would not take on their cases if they were assaulted by black men.

There is no doubt that present-day Aboriginal culture is deeply misogynist, and that the burden of being Aboriginal and a woman is, in many cases, to double the tragedy of their circumstances.

Mr Clark has not sued Fairfax for defamation. If he chooses not to do so, the story will end, unless someone or some group is prepared to fund the women to take their own case for defamation against him.

The deputy chairman of ATSIC, Ray Robinson, said on Tuesday that ATSIC "will support him in whatever legal course of action he should pursue in seeking remedy against the newspaper''.

Given ATSIC's previous performance in such matters, this could mean that it funds a defamation case launched by Clark, who refuses to comment on whether or not he will sue.

Mr Clark said after the ATSIC board backed him: "I think this represents a turning point in the history of Aboriginal relationships in this country. I believe that now Aboriginal people know and feel in their hearts that they need to unite.''

How chilling.

Is Geoff Clark saying that women better realise it's black against white, and the injustices black people suffer at the hands of each other should be put aside in the greater cause?

And isn't he coming very close to the stand Aboriginal magistrate Pat O'Shane took in choosing to effectively call the women liars on the basis only of the media report she and Clark so condemned?

For Mr Clark to say this story has healed division in the Aboriginal community is shocking in its silencing of the voices of many Aboriginal women who want justice within the Aboriginal community as well as from the white world.

As the supposed leader of Aboriginal Australia - male and female - his public comments have betrayed the just cause of powerless female Aboriginal people, and left a nasty taste in the mouths of many white Australians who are deeply committed to the Aboriginal cause.

The least he owed to the cause of Aboriginal unity was to address the allegations of the women concerned. And the least he owed to the Australian people was not to indulge in ludicrous reverse racism.

PS: I have not addressed in this piece the very real concerns I have over the publication of the allegations. I discuss them on my webpage in Monday's entry.

Email: mkingston@mail.fairfax.com.au