Friday, 23 November, 2007

ABC NT Local News

An Independent candidate for Lingiari says statehood for the Northern Territory will be a top priority if he wins in tomorrow's poll.

Maurie Japarte Ryan is a member of the statehood steering committee.

He says the Commonwealth wouldn't have been able to impose a nuclear waste site or the intervention on the Northern Territory if it was a state.

"We are second rate citizens in this country. We don't count. I mean, how much resources come out of this country that Howard and Rudd talk about, billions of dollars, you know? None of it comes up here but see, if we become a state, we have equal status as everybody else and the right to negotiate for the future of our children whether you're black or white."

Mr Ryan also says he would lobby against the Northern Territory Government's process of local government reform. He says the process is moving too quickly.

"We want it to remain like it is because what they're doing in these shires are grouping people that have been mortal enemies some of them."

Mr Ryan sits on the Territory Government's Local Government Advisory Board for the North.