ABSTRACT
Recent Liberal governments continue to deny land rights to Tasmanian Aborigines and in a recent parliamentary speech, Premier Groom denied that Aborigines were subjected to genocide or that they were 'deliberately' exterminated. Writer Robert Hughes reinforced a racially-based cliche when he described Tasmania's history as the 'only true genocide in English colonial history'. Robinson claimed they were superior to white men at this work. When Truganini died in 1876, it became legend that she was the last 'real' or 'full-blood' Tasmanian Aborigine. Many Aborigines refused to leave Cape Barren Island, taking out leases or merely 'sitting' on the land, arguing they had already paid for it after the 1912 Act and would not pay again. A 1988 survey showed that Aborigines were over-represented in police custody at five times the rate of non-Aboriginal people. It is paradoxical that in the island state of Australia, the Aborigines only survived on islands away from the main island.
