Reconciliation and Social Justice Library
Reconciliation and Social Justice Library
· The role of the Department is to be phased out (although the extent to which communities are being prepared for this appears to be uneven).
· Community councils are required to prepare by-laws for their communities (which have effect when approved by the Governor in Council).
· Community councils would seem to have control over whether or not an Aboriginal court is established for their area.
· Community councils are said to have greater control over the content of by-laws. The existing by-laws have been the subject of trenchant criticism over their disregard for basic human rights. [183]
· The jurisdiction of the Aboriginal court has been extended to cover offences by non-Aboriginal residents (provided the non-Aborigine is not resident as a requirement of his employment). [184]
But these changes may be formal rather than real, especially given the history of the courts on reserves. Moreover the question of local control over the courts cannot be divorced from the basic issue of the control exercised by the Department of Community Services under the Community Service (Aborigines) Act 1984 . Formally, at least, that Act took some steps towards establishing Aboriginal reserves as local government areas under Queensland law. But the relationship between the powers of Aboriginal councils in trust areas, and the powers of ordinary local government councils in those areas, is confused. [185] Insufficient attention was given to this relationship, and to the appropriate range of local government powers for Aboriginal councils. Until these problems are resolved, the trust areas cannot be regarded as having a proper system of local government.