SYDNEY - Australian Prime Minister John Howard yesterday rejected a suggestion that four federal parliamentary seats should be allocated to indigenous MPs, along the lines of Maori representation in New Zealand.
Democrat Senator Aden Ridgeway has called for two seats to be set aside in the Senate and two in the Lower House, a proposal backed by other Aboriginal leaders.
Howard said he supported continuing with a system in which people were chosen on merit rather than any other specific basis.
"Aden made it there on his own merit. The late Neville Bonner, whom we honoured last night, made it there on his own merit," he told journalists in Canberra.
"I'm sure that in the time ahead, others will make it there on their own merit."
Howard announced on Wednesday that the Government would commit $A400,000 ($505,000) to an indigenous post-graduate political science scholarship fund in memory of Bonner, an Aboriginal senator.
He believed large numbers of Aborigines and Torres Straits Islanders would rather see themselves enter Parliament as part of the wider community, than through special seats.
Asked if political parties should try to pre-select more indigenous candidates, Howard said he believed parties should ensure they represented the cross-section of society, but his own Liberal Party did not favour quotas.
"We don't favour quotas for women," he said. "That hasn't prevented us choosing a large number of women on merit."
Howard has dismissed a call from some quarters for negotiations over a treaty with indigenous people. He has also consistently resisted pressure for an official apology on behalf of the nation for past injustices to Aborigines.
Ridgeway, the only indigenous MP in the present Parliament, told the Australian newspaper that four seats should be set aside as a temporary measure "in order not to alter the balance."
"There would not be a need for the type of intervention that would currently be required once an indigenous person could get the sort of support others would," he said.
A spokeswoman for Ridgeway, whose party holds the balance of power in the Senate, said: "Aden has support from the Democrats in that they regard it as an issue that is important to discuss."
-NZPA
Howard rejects `Maori' seats scheme
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