The 7th rendition of the Comrade Contrary files is going to take a turn for the serious, particularly after last nights dip into the Marvel comiverse. The subject of this post is the Honorable former Australian high court Chief Justice, Sir Anthony Mason (if you will excuse his long title).
This man is one of my political heroes. For those of you whom are not familiar with him, he handed down the Mabo2 decision in June 1992. This is one of several cases that marked the beginning of a change to reform to include the Native Australians. This case is one of the best known in Australia, it is one of the first cases that is introduced to any legal studies student in the country because it was so big.
For those of you who don't know what happened; a case "led by Eddie Mabo, David Passi and James Rice, all from the Meriam people (from the Murray Islands in the Torres Strait). They commenced proceedings in the High Court in 1982, in response to the Queensland Amendment Act 1982 establishing a system of making land grants on trust for Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders, which the Murray Islanders refused to accept. The Plaintiffs were represented by Ron Castan, Bryan Keon-Cohen and Greg McIntyre.
The action was brought as a test case to determine the legal rights of the Meriam people to land on the islands of Mer (Murray Island), Dauar and Waier in the Torres Strait, which were annexed to the state of Queensland in 1879. Prior to British contact the Meriam people had lived on the islands in a subsistence economy based on cultivation and fishing. Land on the islands was not subject of public or general community ownership, but was regarded as belonging to individuals or groups.
In 1985 the Queensland Government attempted to terminate the proceedings by enacting the Queensland Coast Islands Declaratory Act 1985, which declared that on annexation of the islands in 1879, title to the islands was vested in the state of Queensland "freed from all other rights, interests and claims whatsoever". In Mabo v Queensland (No 1) (1988) the High Court held that this legislation was contrary to the Racial Discrimination Act 1975."
This case debunked the argument that Australia was founded by the English under Terra Nullius, it was a big step forward for the Australian government. The reason now that I am questioning Sir Anthony's place on my list of political heroes is because of an event that happened on November 11th, 1975. This was the dismissal of Labor Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam by Governor General, Sir John Kerr. This was a controversial issue as Kerr had been discussing with the opposition leader, Malcom Fraser, as well as Whitlam had been immensely popular with the public, however his economics was not very fitting for the times and was sending the country bankrupt.
Recently, 'the record was uncovered by the Whitlam biographer Jenny Hocking, whose book Gough Whitlam: His Time will be published next month. Hocking says Kerr's records suggest ''Mason was not merely the third man: he was, in many ways, the man''.' The correct response here is OH MY GOD! This is a massive corruption of powers, not only that but it is massively tainting to the image that people like me have of Mason.
This is upsetting for many reasons but I think the biggest one is, many people know of the Mabo cases yet people don't remember the Judge. People will remember Mason as the "third man in Whitlam's downfall' and not one of the men who helped start the stand against discrimination against Aboriginals.
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