Most Australians were brought up believing that Crown Land is public land – shared for present enjoyment and preserved for future generations.

Some of it was roped off as ‘untouchable’ and everyone accepted this because it was fair and equal.

This mentally of shared public assets for the whole nation has been lost on various Indigenous groups, including those who have raided (or are presently attempting to raid) New South Wales’ Crown Land. They are taking it for themselves – fellow citizens and future generations be damned. It is a selfish act, which goes a long way to explaining the fury of non-Indigenous Australians who spent their lives respecting these areas only to watch them treated with cynicism.

The Aboriginal Land Rights Act of 1983 was implemented under Labor’s Neville Wran government. Mourned by those who sought financial gain from public land as a ‘champion of Aboriginal land rights’, Wran’s real achievement has been the butchering of the state’s natural assets along race lines with tens of thousands of land claims taking place.

Citizens may feel as if they are watching a racial collective in the process of acquiring public land to build the beginnings of an ethnostate – billions of dollars worth, at last count – upon which treaties can be negotiated if the Voice to Parliament falls into place. Nothing says ‘you don’t have a right to the land you were born on’ like watching racial groups snatch it away from public view to make a profit.

This particular 1983 Act is not a caretaker function. The land ceases to be public and becomes the private property of Aboriginal groups.

Would any other citizen or corporation be allowed to do this? Of course not. It is one of the growing racial privileges handed out by governments to polish their virtue badges at election time while creating a vast chasm (dare we call it a gap?) of inequality among Australian citizens.

There is no onus on the protection of this land once it has entered private control. Aboriginal groups can develop it, sell it, licence it, or find some other creative way to exploit what was formally a shared national treasure.

For far too long Australians have ignored this behaviour, but with land claims being lodged on every scrap of the state, it needs to be addressed, stopped, and the land returned to public hands where it can be protected.

Everyone is dispossessed. Aboriginal Australians are in no way special in that regard and yet it is used as the justification for this law. Nobody else can run around carving off blocks of land based on ancient history. It is nonsensical.

‘Some LALCs will sell the land to improve their bank balance. That’s their prerogative,’ said the NSWALC Deputy Chair.

2GB host Ben Fordham stumbled over this sentiment during a recent radio interview when he sensibly asked what the cultural significance was on the ludicrous claim made on a reserve near Balmoral Beach.

‘Aboriginal land claims are not based on cultural significance, that’s not the actual factor. It’s about, is it able to be claimed? Is it in the name of the Crown?’

It was a comment that Fordham accurately queried as a ‘land grab’.

‘The Aboriginal Land Rights Act was set up as recompense for all lands that have been removed from us,’ said the guest.

‘So, if there’s an opportunity there to get your hands on it, you may as well?’ Fordham clarified, seemingly quite shocked.

‘That’s exactly it. The land councils are here to try and acquire what land we can get back within our boundaries to really form the asset base that will pay for … to sustain our councils.’

If you feel sick you should. This is not a fair contract between citizens.

For those who have been suspicious of Native Title, it was difficult not to laugh and hold up a giant, ‘I told you so’ sign after a $100 million Native Title claim was slapped on Balmoral Beach.

It came as a shock to the affluent area, who no doubt thought that enduring endless ‘Welcome to Country’ ceremonies, voting ‘Yes’, and putting little ‘this is so-and-so land’ signs up everywhere would exclude them from the corporate side of Indigenous activism.

They were wrong.

Mosman Council opposed Sydney’s Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council and their 2009 bid for the 4,000sq/m Lawry Plunkett Reserve.

‘We are amazed this is even subject to a claim,’ Councillor Bendal said.

The land has been used by the public for over 100 years and is nestled between homes, but that isn’t going to save it.

The notion of race-based lockouts and acquisitions of previously public land is repulsive. There is no excuse for it in the civilised world and certainly the concept would never be applied the other way. Can you imagine a site of colonial heritage locking out just Aboriginal people because their presence would offend the spirits? It would never happen, and it should not be happening here.

We live in hope that one day these pieces of land claimed under Native Title will be returned to all Australians, but right now we are in the middle of an assault on Crown Land.

It has been revealed that there are currently over 3,000 Native Title claims in the Sydney area, and 40,000 for New South Wales. That’s 40,000 claims to take away collective public ownership and instead place Australian land into the hands of a network of race-based groups.

The island of Australia is getting smaller every day if you happen to be born with the wrong skin colour.

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Flat White is written and edited by Alexandra Marshall.

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