Justice is needed, you can help! I posted the link to the news story about this some months ago - what we thought was a win for the pastoralist is now being challenged. I urge everyone to support this issue - who know, your place might be next. An excerpt from Rowan Ramsey Federal MP for Grey in SA. Many of you would know three pastoral properties and parts of two others have come under compulsory acquisition by the Defence department to extend the Cultana Training Base south of Port Augusta. Following eight years of uncertainty and stress to the families concerned, most of the bad news has been dealt with even though I expect the finalisation of compensation to drag on. The families have been treated appallingly. However the issues surrounding Corunna Station, near Iron Knob continue. Defence require only 20% of Corunna station and the owners, the French family want to keep the other 80%, however in a bid to obtain native title clearance the Commonwealth attempted to take the remainder of their property to give to a third party, in this case the Barngala people. To their great credit the French family stood up for themselves and took their case to the Federal Court in March which ruled the Commonwealth action was illegal. The Frenchs were relieved that after eight years of uncertainty and stress, they would be left in peace to work their property as they had done for generations. We all cheered loudly! Their story was on the front page of the Advertiser and South Australians would have thought justice had been done. Now we learn the Commonwealth is to take the family back to court and appeal the decision and I am disgusted at the action. This single family is now pitted against the biggest and wealthiest entity in the country, the Commonwealth. The musical chairs and confusion within the Labor Cabinet has made the identity of the Minister a moving target. I have previously met with Senator David Feeney who was the Minister in charge of this area, then on a number of occasions with Gary Gray and following yet another Labor front bench reshuffle, twice with the latest Minister, Mark Dreyfus and made the case for the Frenchs to be left alone in the strongest possible terms. The appeal by the Commonwealth is an act of bastardry and is more about department officials covering their backsides than anything else. It is an appalling precedent for our legal system, that the Commonwealth can confiscate your land, not to use for the national purpose, but to give to a third party as a bribe. The Minister has appointed the Commonwealth’s highest law officer to prosecute a single farming family and the Frenchs will now have to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars to fight their case. Every Australian who has a sense of justice should be outraged. Never underestimate the value of people power I urge you to email or write to Attorney General Mark Dreyfus. Email to the address below to express your views. Send your letter to- [email protected] Attorney General Mark Dreyfus Parliament House Canberra ACT 2600
Posted on: Mon, 22 Jul 2013 07:29:28 +0000
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