Canberra fought Brisbane over mission

JOH Bjelke-Petersen's attempt to seize Aboriginal land at Aurukun and on Mornington Island in far north Queensland to clear the way for a bauxite mine sparked one of the Fraser government's most bruising political battles in 1978.

JOH Bjelke-Petersen's attempt to seize Aboriginal land at Aurukun and on Mornington Island in far north Queensland to clear the way for a bauxite mine sparked one of the Fraser government's most bruising political battles in 1978.

The war between Canberra and Bjelke-Petersen over the future of the Aboriginal mission land saw federal cabinet canvass radical options, including its own takeover.

The missions had been managed for years by the Uniting Church but following the conclusion of an agreement to mine bauxite at Aurukun in December 1975, the Queensland National Party-run Coalition government moved to seize control.

Cabinet documents released by the National Archives of Australia show the Fraser government was deeply concerned about the takeover and canvassed many radical options to intervene to protect Aborigines.

The documents reveal that the Fraser government tried to exploit internal rifts within the Queensland government to win an outcome that gave Aborigines self-determination.

Bjelke-Petersen and the Aboriginal affairs minister, Charles Porter, strongly supported the takeover, but local government minister Russ Hinze wanted to compromise.

Commonwealth and Queensland ministers agreed on March 29 that the two communities could be jointly managed by Queensland and the Uniting Church, but statements by Bjelke-Petersen that evening were seen as breaching the agreement.

Cabinet proceeded immediately with legislation to free indigenous people from Queensland's discriminatory legal restrictions. The state counter-attacked on April 3 by revoking the reserves and terminating Uniting Church management.

The commonwealth decided this meant that communities had lost any legal right to their traditional lands.

The two governments reached another agreement on April 11 that was considered to have secured self-management for the two communities.

But the Fraser government thought the legislation weak because it did not guarantee traditional rights to land and gave Queensland too much control.

Further conflict erupted when Queensland established local councils for the communities, effectively run by state government bureaucrats.

A compromise was finally reached when Queensland agreed to allow Hinze's local government department and not the state Department of Aboriginal and Islander Advancement to fund the councils.

Fraser government Aboriginal Affairs minister Fred Chaney said Hinze was the only reasonable player on the Queensland side of the dispute.

"In my experience of dealing with Russ Hinze, he was rational, fair and decent," he said. "Dealing with Bjelke-Petersen, with minister Porter, and with (bureaucrat) Paddy Killoran was another matter. I wouldn't apply those adjectives to them.

"Joh kept welshing on the deal, if you like, and showing his visceral desire to keep the thumb on ... (Hinze) was a deal-doer. He may have had his deficiencies but I think he was a very pragmatic person (and) I give him personally great credit."