The mainly agricultural and sparsely populated seat is one of Australia’s most economically disadvantaged, coming 136th of 150 federal seats in median household income. Its unemployment rate of 8.5% is in the highest third of Australia (data from 2001 census). Gwydir is the second largest electoral division in the state of New South Wales and the eighth largest in Australia (map at  http://www.aec.gov.au/_content/who/profiles/profileMaps/NSW/Gwydir.pdf).

Michael and his German wife run an extensive Merino breeding and sheep grazing business for his family in the area of Lightning Ridge and Goodooga.

“Outback towns are dying because the coalition government of John Howard and John Anderson has failed the people of the bush,” Michael says.

“The bush is dying, the towns are dying all because the big end of town have the monopolies and corporate funding to assist established politicians maintain the status quo and retain their seats in parliament.”

Citing a “mass exodus of people from Gwyder” he puts it down to “the major decline in the rural economies but in particular the disappearance of appropriate community services for the people of the bush.”

Michael is especially concerned about mismanagement of scarce water, which “is indicative of the government not really understanding the bush and how it all works. We will never again see the big floods that are absolutely essential for our lands. The swamps and other low-lying lands require major overland flood events in order to restore the balance in nature. The bush is used to dry spells. If they are artificially induced and extended beyond the known years then our native flora and fauna will be destroyed beyond redemption.”

Michael emphasises that White and Black have to get along in the bush. “We in the bush - Indigenous and non-indigenous alike - must take responsibility for our future because we are all sitting in the same
sinking ship together.”

His message is resonating with rural Whites. “Farmers are already contacting me and want to talk. White land investors in the western part of the Hunter region are talking to me about the coming coal mining and that they just bought land there to escape the cities. Now they are faced with being bought out by the coal interests. Small farmers are being forced out of this area. The racehorse breeding industry will be severely threatened with the run-off into the river system of the coal dust, etc. Out this way the rivers are not running and irrigators are being given ownership of water at the expense of the small farmers and town water. It won’t be long before towns have to buy the water from the big end of town.”

Michael Anderson’s Aboriginal name is Nyoongar-Ghurradjong-Murri Ghillar. Born in Brewarrina, Michael was raised in his traditional homelands within the region and enjoyed an education that was simultaneously Aboriginal and Western.

He went on to study law and worked for the Office of Public Prosecutions and Clerk of the Peace as an Instructing Officer in the District Court’s Criminal Law Division. He also taught Aboriginal studies, political science and society and health at New England and Newcastle Universities for six years.

Michael/Ghillar is one of the ceremonial leaders of his 3,000-strong Euahlayi clan and was recently elected facilitator of the 15,000 Gumilaroi people who also live in Queensland.

In the 1970s, Michael was one of the half dozen activists who set up the original tent embassy outside the old Parliament House in Canberra. He came to the attention of Labor Prime Minister Gough Whitlam after donning ceremonial dress and gate-crashing a meeting between Whitlam and visiting Chinese officials. The PM then took the Aboriginal activist with him on several overseas trips.

Since then, Michael has maintained an active role in human rights advocacy, domestically and internationally. Various Aboriginal groups across the country continue to ask his advice on a range of matters, notably when modern development endangers Indigenous heritage.

In the past five years Michael has been active in inter-governmental discussions within the United Nations in Geneva on the elaboration of a draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples of the world. He continues to be heavily involved in Indigenous land rights matters and is working on dealing with the low socio-economic status of his people.

Contact Michael: 0427 211 828
Email:  ngurampaa@bigpond.com
Post: 10 Adam Street, Goodooga, NSW 2831.

More information and digital photographs are available on request from Greens media organisers Hans van Leeuwen, 0061- 0425 310 562,  hans@nsw.greens.org.au and Paul Sheridan  sherroontheroad@hotmail.com.