Even in the area of human rights, where we can point to internationally accepted rights and non-negotiable standards, the process of ensuring that those rights are guaranteed and the process of determining how they are to be exercised, requires negotiation. As soon as you move beyond a general statements of rights to the ways in which rights are exercised, the map loses its clear definition and the boundaries have to be negotiated. In this report I have attempted to do more than identify the problems, the rights and the policy directions. I have attempted to open the ground for negotiation. I do not provide black and white answers, because to do so would be to pre-empt the outcomes of negotiations which must occur at a local level.
Local negotiations are unlikely to occur witout a strong, well organised, national Indigenous voice.
But its main objective should be to use its weight to force the other bastards to come to the negotiating table. It is not hard to understand why many of us are tempted to close the door.