We call on Governments to:

1.1       Learn to respectfully listen.

1.2       Recognise the right of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples to negotiate agreements with governments. We stress negotiation as distinct from consulting with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples about the implementation of policy and programs which have already been developed and decided on.

1.3       Ensure that appropriate protocols, as determined by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, are followed in all negotiations and interactions.

1.4       Recognise that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples have the right to negotiate in their own languages.  To ensure that Governments, and their agencies, learn local languages and understand the nuances of the different Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages and the importance of accurate translations. Governments can learn from Churches who have also come to recognise the importance of learning Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages.

1.5       Rectify the lack of negotiation with regard to the NTER, to date, by urgently facilitating a "negotiation forum" to address government policies and programs. Aboriginal Peoples will control and set the agenda of this forum, the purpose of which is to:

1.5a     Bring Aboriginal People together from across the NT.

1.5b     Allow a diversity of people to be heard, including those who are connected on the ground and are community voices as well as those who are representing organisations.

1.5c     Develop a position on an appropriate policy response to the issues facing Aboriginal communities in the NT.

1.5d     Agree to appropriate protocols.

1.5e     Agree to an appropriate methodology that recognises and affirms the diversity of Aboriginal ways of meeting, making decisions and developing processes.

1.5f      Ensure that Governments are negotiating with spokespeople who are elected and endorsed by the communities they are representing and are true community voices and the voices of the Traditional owners.

1.6       Acknowledge that compulsory income quarantining is discriminatory and to recognise that if the policy is as beneficial as is claimed then it must be applied to all those on welfare, irrespective of race.

1.7       Explore more positive ways of managing income such as providing education programs on income management and budgeting. Education is a far more effective and less discriminatory tool and we ask the Federal Government to identify models of best practice from the many successful programs that have been developed to achieve this end. To implement these programs there will be a need to use Aboriginal teachers and to pay appropriately for language training. Further development of this policy agenda should come from additional funding and not from the already committed budget.

1.8       Learn from success. Look at what is already working, learn from mistakes and develop models that build on proven successful strategies. The Churches can provide a good model of how to work together. We are all different and have different cultures and ways of worship; still we can all work together.

1.9       Be accountable for the words that Government uses. For example, when the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs makes statements such as "as human beings we all deserve to be treated with dignity and respect" the Government must be held accountable for those words and can not at the same time implement discriminatory policy.

1.10     Immediately reinstate all the suspended provisions of the Racial Discrimination Act (1975).

1.11     Ensure that the principles of the United Nation's Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples are enshrined in Australian Law.

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