Qld: Business leaders called on to invest in reconciliation

AAP General News (Australia)
08-30-2000
Qld: Business leaders called on to invest in reconciliation

By Barbara Adam, State Political Correspondent

BRISBANE, Aug 30 AAP - Business leaders across Australia have been challenged to demonstrate
their commitment to reconciliation by investing in partnerships with remote Cape York
Aboriginal communities.

Issuing the challenge will be former Governor-General Sir Ninian Stephen and high-profile
banker Malcolm Turnbull and other delegates to last weekend's two-day indigenous business
summit in the remote Cape York mining township of Weipa.

Sir Ninian and Mr Turnbull were among 100 business, government and indigenous leaders
to attend the summit, designed to stimulate the economies of Aboriginal communities which
currently survive on welfare payments.

Pledges by business leaders at the summit include a $4 million, 1,000 square kilometre
working cattle property just outside Weipa, to be used as an education and training centre,
$150,000 towards a proposed Indigenous Business Institute and promises of joint ventures
in tourism, hospitality, live cattle exports and art.

Summit facilitators and Cape York Land Council chairman Richie Ah Mat said today the
summit had achieved more positive, tangible results than he'd hoped, with business leaders,
many of whom had had limited contact with indigenous people, demonstrating enormous goodwill
towards practical reconciliation.

"I think it (the summit) was a step forward in the right direction as far as the partnership
concept goes," he told AAP.

"I believe Sir Ninian Stephen and other high profile business community leaders who
attended the summit, they must have some definite thoughts about solutions and results
in Cape York."

The summit was part of the Cape York Partnership Plan proposed by prominent Aboriginal
leader Noel Pearson and endorsed by the Queensland government, which focuses on breaking
the cycle of welfare dependency in Cape York communities by creating self-sustaining regional
economies.

But Mr Ah Mat warned the partnership plan needed to be given some time to work before
it could be used as a model.

Next Monday summit delegates from Sydney and Melbourne will hold a telephone hookup
with some of the Cape York indigenous leaders to report on progress made towards generating
more support for Cape York business partnerships.

Mr Ah Mat said the conference call would be the real test of the summit's success,
to see if momentum of the partnership plan would continue.

Premier Peter Beattie said the summit was a turning point in Australian indigenous
affairs and an example of practical reconciliation that should be followed by the rest
of Australia.

"I've been impressed with the commitment of the corporate citizens," he said.

"This is a whole new era, this is a new deal to end welfare dependency and I think
that is a great thing for Queensland."

AAP bja/sc/arb

KEYWORD: SUMMIT (CARRIED EARLIER)

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