Asserting sovereignty title over the Gomeroi owned lands

The media statement:

Inverell, northeast NSW, 1 June 2012

The Gomeroi ancestral owners of the Moree region have asserted ancient sovereign title over the Gomeroi owned lands within and around the Moree town's precinct, effective as of today.

The Gomeroi residents of the houses located on the areas known as 'Top Camp' and 'The Old Mission' have been advised by their respective Gomeroi clan groups to no longer pay rent for their occupation of these houses and the Gomeroi nation now rejects any foreign ownership of our real estate and assets in the Gomeroi nation.

This move is appropriate because why should we be paying to live on our own land? This is confirmed when we consider the Aboriginal traitors and collaborators who worked with the Wran NSW Labor government to defraud the Aboriginal people of NSW, by corruptly suggesting that the NSW Land Rights Act of NSW 1983 as amended was compensation for dispossession.

This is so far from the truth. The Sovereign Union National Unity Government will be addressing this at its forthcoming national assembly in Moree on 28-29 July 2012.

I have been advised that the Gomeroi people of Moree, who live in 'Top Camp' and 'The Old Mission', will defend their position to the utmost.

Mr Alf Priestly, the elected representative said, 'Enough is enough.' Alf Priestly said that the NSW Aboriginal Land Council has arbitrarily imposed a change of status upon Aboriginal communities, without their prior and informed consent, when they signed a head lease agreement with Commonwealth and state governments to transfer administration of all NSW Aboriginal Land Council houses to foreign rental agencies. This was done to meet Minister Jenny Macklin's criterion of leasing Aboriginal properties to foreign agencies, in order for renovations and additions to be made to those houses with government appropriated funds.

I have been advised that the residents will assume total responsibility for the upkeep and maintenance of their own houses and the community over the years has acquired the necessary skills to make this possible.

Nowhere in the world, except here, are they able to do this. The fact that the NSWALC system have little to no capacity to conduct major renovations or to provide new housing for Aboriginal people on Local Aboriginal Land Council lands is a sad indictment against the NSW Aboriginal Land Council .

To sign head lease arrangements with government without informing the NSWALC constituency is an act of absolute irresponsibility of the highest order, not to mention their contempt for their membership without first having state wide and regional discussions in order to gain consent for the head lease arrangement. This contemptuous act clearly demonstrates the tyrannical dictatorship that is so prevalent on Aboriginal affairs throughout this country.