Qld: Summit results in multimillion dollar reconciliation

AAP General News (Australia)
08-27-2000
Qld: Summit results in multimillion dollar reconciliation

By Barbara Adam, State Political Correspondent

WEIPA, Qld, Aug 27 AAP - A two-day business summit in Cape York has resulted in more
than $4 million worth of "practical reconciliation" to help Aboriginal communities become
economically self-sufficient.

At the Queensland government-sponsored weekend summit, mining giant Comalco announced
it would sign over to the local Aboriginal community a $4 million cattle property outside
Weipa to be used as a training and education centre.

Two charitable foundations also pledged $150,000 towards a proposed Indigenous Business
Institute, to be based in Cairns.

Queensland Premier Peter Beattie today hailed the summit an enormous success and called
for it to be used as a national model for "practical reconciliation".

About 100 business, government and indigenous leaders gathered in the remote Cape York
mining township of Weipa to form new business partnerships to break the cycle of welfare
dependency in Aboriginal communities.

Prominent Aboriginal leader Noel Pearson said Aboriginal communities had to become
economically self-sustaining, rather than relying on "passive welfare".

"We've really been bogged down by welfare lately," Mr Pearson said outside the summit.

"In the last 10, 20 years some of our vision to develop an economic base has really
been dulled by our dependency."

Delegates to the summit said the recent national reconciliation debate had primed Australia
for the indigenous business summit.

High profile banker Malcolm Turnbull said he believed more businesses were prepared
to enter into joint-venture arrangement with Aboriginal people, rather than the exploitative
arrangement sought in the past.

"I think the atmosphere has changed enormously," Mr Turnbull said outside the summit.

"But at the end of the day, self-help is what it's all about.

Transport Minister and the Cape's local MP, Steve Bredhauer, said "practical reconciliation"

in the Cape York Peninsular finally had momentum and an agenda following the two-day Weipa
summit.

"The summit achieved a much more than we had hoped for," he said.

Other promises made at the summit included:

* a five-year $100,000 program of art scholarships for Cape York Aboriginal communities,
announced by Queensland Rail;

* a deal between local Aboriginal groups and the Cairns Regional Economic Development
Corporation to include Cape York art, seeds and cultural products on an established Internet
shopping webpage;

* a $100,000 aquaculture feasibility study in Cape York, announced by the Department
of State Development.

* a joint-venture export program promised by former National Party Premier-turned businessman
Mike Ahern;

* a hospitality training program promised by the Cairns-based international tourist
attraction Tjapakai.

AAP bja/geb/cd

KEYWORD: SUMMIT (CARRIED EARLIER)

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