Gnads wrote on Dec 6
th, 2023 at 7:14am:
[quote author=Frank link=1692348093/107#107 date=1694562634]MORE than 100 Queenslanders of Sri Lankan descent have received millions of dollars in concessional loans by falsely claiming they were Aboriginal.
Aborigines in Bundaberg and Hervey Bay have complained that scores of descendants of the Appo family were not entitled to the concessions they had received over the past 30 years.
Family members have obtained Abstudy grants, home loans at 2 to 8 percent, business establishment loans, legal assistance and preferences for university positions and jobs.
Federal Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Herron yesterday said he would look into the issue as a matter of urgency.
``I will be seeking advice from ATSIC, and if the allegations merit an independent inquiry the Director of the Office of Evaluation and Audit will be tasked with a full investigation,'' Senator Herron said.
Some members of the Appo family have made state and national indigenous sporting teams despite not having any Aboriginal heritage. They operate cultural schools for tourists, and some members paint Aboriginal art and sell it commercially.
The issue was brought to the fore on July 21 in the Townsville Magistrates Court, when Allen Keith Appo, 66, of Bundaberg, was charged with possession of undersized and female mud crabs.
Appo claimed in his defence that the Fisheries Act did not apply to him because he was Aboriginal, and therefore he could fish without restriction.
However Department of Primary Industries legal officers researched Appo's genealogy and presented generations of birth, death and marriage certificates showing his heritage was purely Sri Lankan.
Magistrate John Brennan found Appo was not Aboriginal, and fined him $2300 including costs.
Appo was represented by Townsville Aboriginal Legal Aid, who also funded his appeal to the District Court on November 3.
Judge Robert Pack dismissed the appeal, and held that the magistrate was correct in finding that Appo was not Aboriginal.
In Bundaberg on Thursday, Appo said he would appeal to the High Court so long as he could get Aboriginal Legal Aid to fund him. He lives on a valuable 3ha riverside property with a mango and lime orchard.
``Because the Fisheries Department has vast resources, they included one of my cousins to give evidence against me,'' Mr Appo said.
``She said I have no Aboriginal in me. That is only hearsay evidence. I have documented evidence which I presented -- certificates by local people who swear I have Aboriginal blood.
``If this decision holds, my children and their children will be affected because they will not be eligible for Aboriginal programmes.''
In January 1995, artist Kelvin Appo, of Bundaberg, was also caught by fisheries inspectors with undersized and female crabs. He was charged and also used the defence of Aboriginality, but was found guilty because birth certificates showed he did not have Aboriginal blood.
He was fined $2700. Despite that conviction, he has continued to vote in ATSIC elections and has claimed Abstudy grants for his children and sold Aboriginal art.
``I got a housing loan from ATSIC 16 years ago,'' he said.
``It was $57,000 at 2.5 percent and it is now 8 percent.
``Before you get a housing loan from ATSIC you have to have the proper documents stating you are an Aboriginal descendant.
``I had four or five of those to get the house. They actually queried me at the ATSIC elections when I went to vote.
``I have got two brothers and a sister, and my wife and I have five children. All of us and my children went through school on Abstudy.''
When interviewed by The Courier-Mail on Thursday, Mr Appo had five paintings for sale at a public display in Bundaberg, asking between $500 and $700 each.
One Aboriginal member of the family, Julie Appo, and her uncle, Merv Johnson, said it was destructive to local Aboriginal people to see jobs and programme concessions designed specifically for indigenous people going to others who were not entitled to claim them.
``Some of these people hold university positions teaching indigenous culture, and another couple go around schools and teach dance and culture -- yet they have no Aboriginal blood at all,'' she said.
``Employment opportunities offered specifically for ATSI people have been snapped up by these members of the Appo family who are Sinhalese. That deprives a genuine Aboriginal person of getting a job, position, a wage -- and thereby providing something for his children to aspire to.
``This battle has been going on for 30 years, and it is just not right that the ATSIC budget is squandered on people who are neither Aboriginal nor Torres Strait Islander.''
Mr Johnson said Appo family members had voted in ATSIC elections when local people knew they were not eligible.
``These programmes are designed to assist ATSI people, to improve our situation,'' Julie Appo said.
``There are a limited number of these opportunities available, and as a group we are missing out.''
i know a few of the appo boys.
they used to ride my racehorse
top blokes
they sure did look aboriginal
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