Is Anyone Talking About Indigenous Affairs?

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in Democratic Renewal, Thinking Points

Whatever happens in this election, there is little likelihood of any benefit for those Indigenous Australians who do not meet the Gillard formula of hardworking, compliant income earners, writes Eva Cox

Lowitja O’Donoghue asked the PM on Q and A this week about the silence on giving Indigenous people a fair go and was politely rebuffed with a comment about education initiatives.

The low priority of Indigenous issues this campaign was further emphasised by a comment from Tony Abbott at a Redfern meeting yesterday – he stated there had been political agreement on the issue for years! Together with other welfare dependent Australians, Indigenous Australians will get bipartisan rough treatment, whoever wins.

The one positive announcement has been a commitment by both parties to a referendum on recognising the first Australians in the Constitution. The ALP will set up a consultation process and expert group, the Coalition has committed on a time line, the next election. However, there is no detail about whether this will just be words in the preamble or a clause that can be used to assert rights.

There are, however, some policy proposals that will unduly affect Indigenous people. The ALP has mentioned Indigenous school retention as a factor in their proposal for excluding school avoiders from sporting participation. The logic of this proposal is hard to find as participation in sports may be the only hook that would give these children a rationale for returning to education. Excluding them is more likely to encourage more disordered and unlawful involvements rather than encouraging them to return to schools that have failed to engage them.

Where is the funding to increase Indigenous trained teachers? Where is the funding for training so schools can meet the cultural and social needs of Indigenous communities? Where is the commitment to promoting the value of Indigenous knowledge and its contribution to Australia?

Clampdowns on the unemployed and pressure to move to where jobs are available will also be problematic for those in rural and isolated areas. The loss of CDEP jobs in many such communities has raised the unemployment levels. Being pressed to move creates more problems as if the job fails, they lose 12 weeks payment, if they leave, which will discourage those trying to shift into a new place and new occupation.

The extension of income management to the whole of the NT and the prospect of it becoming national in 2011 (Coalition) or 2012 (ALP) is another serious problem for ‘working age’ welfare recipients. It’s not just the unemployed in this case but also sole parents and many refugees on special benefits that are targeted. This extension is despite a singular lack of evidence that the Income Management has benefited the 73 communities it has already operated in for some time and the expensive administration ($80 per week per person). The potential ill effects on social well being make this risky, particularly in Indigenous communities where lack of self confidence and respect are major problems.


More Than Luck is a collection of ideas for citizens who want real change edited by Mark Davis and CPD Executive Director Miriam Lyons. A to-do list for politicians looking to base public policies on the kind of future Australians really want, More Than Luck shows what’s needed to share this country’s good luck amongst all Australians – now and in the future. Click here to find out more. Like what you’ve read? Donate to help make good ideas matter.

Author

About Eva Cox

Eva Cox Eva Cox AO is a contributing author to CPD’s recent publication More Than Luck: Ideas Australia needs now. Eva’s chapter Strengthening our social fabric argues that we need to rethink our tax and income policy practices to make our society more civil. Eva was until recently Program Director, Social Inquiry at the University of Technology Sydney, and is now practicing being an unattached change agent while reviving her consultancy, Distaff Associates. She is the national Chair of the Women’s Electoral Lobby – an organisation in which she was a founding member in 1972. A strong feminist and advocate for women’s issues, she delivered the 1995 ABC Boyer Lectures on A Truly Civil Society which she is still trying to achive (available through ABC Books). She has researched and published on many policy and other social issues recently including: child care, sole parents and welfare payments, superannuation, social capital, community well being, asylum seekers, corporate social responsibility, research and evalution. A frequent media commentator, she sees herself as a problem solver rather than a specialist. Her current research interests include devising a more civil society, teaching community research skillls, policy formulation, indigenous child-care and domestic violence, the Welfare to Work program, and a wide range of gender issues, including parental leave.

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  • Shelley Archer

    This idea that the indigenous issue is not a leading policy platform for either party should come as no suprise to anyone out there.

    The indigenous population is about, what, 3% of the whole population of Australia and looking after them or making their issues a priority won’t win either party the election.

    It was made very clear to myself and others when I was an MP that the indigenous, on the whole, already voted ALP and therefore was at the bottom of the pile in terms of how we make their lives better.

    Was this annoying, you bet, but those who worked with me continue to fight for a better deal, sometimes they have a win but on the whole the Indigenous will always be the losers because they don’t have a big voice and lobby group in Canberra that MP’s will listen to.

    Unlike the lobby groups for other industires the indigenous have no weapon to threaten the major parties with and therefore the parties will continue to ignore the indigenous peoples plight!