Masons and Foster acted corruptly in Wagonga land deals, ICAC finds

THREE former members of the Wagonga Local Aboriginal Land Council have been found to have corruptly accepted cash payments in exchange for trying to push through dodgy land deals in the NSW south coast town of Narooma.

Ron Mason Snr, his daughter Vanessa Mason and Ken ‘KJ’ Foster were each found by the Independent Commission Against Corruption to have engaged in corrupt conduct over the land deals, which ran from 2005 to 2010.

Black Australia dodges a constitutional bullet

JUST as you can’t negotiate with a terrorist, you can’t negotiate with an Australian Government in the lead-up to a federal election. At least, you can’t if you’re an Aboriginal Australian, because you’re likely to find yourself on the wrong end of a dog whistle. And that’s why the shelving of the plan to reform our constitution to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is welcome news.

Who put the con back in consultation?

NATIONAL: There are at least three reasons why the federal government’s consultations on the Stronger Futures legislation should be condemned. Firstly, the government never really intended to consult in any meaningful way with Aboriginal people. Secondly, when they were shamed into doing it, the consultation process they delivered was a sham. And finally, Aboriginal people never needed to be consulted in the first place – they’d already made their views known on the NT intervention at two federal elections, and in terms that were unmistakeable. CHRIS GRAHAM analyses the farce that was the Australian democratic process on the passage of the Stronger Futures laws.