Alan Eggleston (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I welcome the federal government’s response to the Little children are sacred report. I think it is a sad reflection that the kinds of problems referred to in this report exist in modern day Australia. But exist they do, and it is better that the existence of these problems be acknowledged and action taken to overcome them in a decisive and very public way rather than for these issues to remain concealed and unaddressed any longer.

It has to be conceded that quite often these problems are long term, deep-seated and culturally based and that it has been difficult to take the initiative needed to address these issues because of misguided concern about not offending Indigenous cultural mores. However, I believe that Indigenous culture has been used to throw a cloak over these problems and that, in this day and age, it is time for this cloak to be removed and for the Indigenous people of Australia as a whole to be brought into the world of contemporary Australia.

Our society does not condone the abuse of children in any way whatsoever, and the children of Indigenous Australians, as much as any other child in our community, have every right to live normal, happy lives and to grow up with the expectation of participating in the benefits of living in this great country. Some people have criticised the government’s recent action in the Northern Territory as having only a short-term focus. This is simply not true. The government’s strategy has three components: firstly, a stabilisation phase, which is occurring at the present time; secondly, the normalisation of services and infrastructure; and, thirdly, longer term support based on the norms and choices that apply to all the people of Australia.

The federal government has appointed a task force to address the issues which have been raised in the Northern Territory. This task force is led, as has been said, by Dr Sue Gordon, who is a very distinguished Indigenous lady who was formerly a magistrate in Western Australia. I must say that I have a great deal of respect for Sue Gordon, who, as it happens, I knew when she lived in Port Hedland, as I did at that time. I am sure that under her leadership and guidance the task force will operate to the highest standards and will achieve the goals which have been set for it. Still, I think we have to look at the issues involved in what is occurring in the Northern Territory in a very broad perspective and not expect too much too soon, because these issues are very deep-seated and reflect the adverse conditions of life which have existed in some Indigenous communities over a very long period of time.

Having lived in the Pilbara region of Western Australia for some 22 years, it seems to me that these problems of abuse largely occur because Indigenous people feel isolated from mainstream Australia and feel a sense of hopelessness and alienation because they do not see a place for themselves in the world of modern Australia. In the case of Aborigines living in regional towns, who are often from the generation who came into the towns after equal pay awards were made on stations, the problem they face is not having sufficient education in terms of literacy and job skill education to enable them to find work in mainstream Australian communities. Similar factors apply to Indigenous people living in remote and isolated communities, engendering in them, in many cases, a sense of alienation and hopelessness about their lives and their place in the world of modern Australia.

Indigenous people living in isolated communities know that the world they see on television and in their nearest town is not the world of their communities. As I said, I believe this leads to a sense of hopelessness which, in turn, is manifested in excessive drinking and various social problems, including abuse of children. I give an example of the kind of anger this sense of alienation breeds: about eight years ago, the people from the Balgo community out on the Northern Territory border in Western Australia came into the town of Halls Creek en masse and, after sitting in a park for some hours but not drinking, the men walked down to the main street of Halls Creek and trashed offices and shops along the street, beginning with the police station and then the Shell roadhouse and so on. Balgo is notorious, of course, because of the high incidence of glue sniffing, alcoholism and youth suicides which occur there. It is probably one of the worst communities that any Australian could possibly imagine as a place to live in. As I said, these Indigenous people who live in these sorts of communities have a sense of alienation because there is nothing for them to do with their lives in the East Kimberley. That in turn leads to excessive drinking and to various forms of abuse, and that is the core problem we need to address as citizens of Australia.

I believe that one of our most important long-term goals must be to provide Indigenous people with not only basic education in terms of literacy and numeracy but also job skill education so that they do have the ability to engage in useful work, the dignity of being in charge of their lives and a sense of fulfilment. It has long been my view that education, particularly job skill education, is the key to the door of the world for the Indigenous people of Australia.

One positive initiative that has been undertaken by the Minerals Council of Australia is their Indigenous employment program. This program provides Indigenous people with the opportunity to acquire skills enabling them to work in the mining industry. And, of course, these skills are transferable to other areas. The Argyle Diamond Mine south of Kununurra is particularly worthy of mention because over 20 per cent of the workforce is Indigenous. I would like to congratulate the Argyle Diamond Mine and its parent company Rio Tinto on their Indigenous training and employment program because they are setting a high standard in practise for others to follow and not just talk about.

Obviously, however, not all Indigenous people can work in mines, but there are many other alternatives that can be considered. These include working in shops and offices in towns and, more importantly as far as Indigenous people in remote areas are concerned, in tourism ventures as guides in national parks or in Indigenous arts and craft centres. These considerations should apply not only to Indigenous people in remote areas but also to Indigenous people living within our towns and cities. For example, about eight years ago when I was driving through the Kimberley a member of my staff noted that there were very few Indigenous people working in the stores or roadhouses along the way. My staff member had worked on a functional literacy program for African-Americans in Los Angeles and, after leaving my office and going to the Red Cross, set up a program called First Steps, which trained Aboriginal teenagers in metropolitan Perth high schools to prepare themselves for after-school jobs. The Red Cross ran that program and it had great success in giving Indigenous teenagers in Perth the confidence to believe that they could successfully work in mainstream situations. Unfortunately, the Red Cross did not continue with the First Step program, but it was a very successful initiative and one that I would have thought the federal government could consider taking over and applying around this country.

I would add that these jobs were not subsidised in any way and the focus of the training given to the young people was all about presenting themselves well at interviews, turning up on time for work and being neatly dressed. The failures that occurred turned out to be largely due to the kinds of social problems that the government’s Northern Territory strategy is setting out to address. For example, teenagers who had sleepless nights because they were frightened of drunken relatives did not turn up for work in the morning because they had no clean clothes or breakfast and accordingly felt what Aborigines describe as ‘shame’. These have been the secret problems faced by Aboriginal kids and underlie not only erratic work performances but also school truancy.

Having said that, in the context of this debate it is very important that Indigenous people not be demonised in general by the actions of a few. There are many Indigenous families within our cities, towns and remote communities who live as ordinary members of their societies in normal, happy family relationships. I think it is also important to understand that Indigenous people in general have similar aspirations to the wider Australian community.

Not long after I went to the Pilbara—quite a long time ago now, I must say; in the seventies—I was invited to an Aboriginal bush meeting. Such meetings were held about once every three months on the banks of a river where about 300 or 400 people would gather over three days to discuss issues of interest to them. The first bush meeting I was invited to was held on the banks of the Coongan River near Marble Bar, and I was a little surprised when I first arrived to see the chief Aborigine of the Pilbara, whose name I cannot mention since he is now deceased, sitting at the head table wearing a big white stetson on his head over his mane of white hair and at tables on either side of him sat his advisers and lawyers from Perth and Canberra.

I rapidly came to understand that these people were not naive about our society and their aspirations were much the same as all Australians in wanting better housing, health services and education. Most importantly, I discovered that they regarded grog as the biggest problem their societies faced. In fact many of the Aboriginal communities in the north of WA are dry and those who break the rules and bring alcohol into their communities are often punished severely. As I said, I believe it is important to understand that our Indigenous people, as a group, are not alcoholic child abusers and that, more than anything else, the minority who do fit into this category need a sense of purpose and meaning in their lives and to feel included in mainstream Australian society.

In conclusion, I congratulate the government on its initiative. I believe the road ahead will be a long one but at least a beginning has been made. I believe the bold initiative the government is taking in seeking to tackle the problems identified by the Little children are sacred report and in addressing the factors that underlie those problems will transform the place of our Indigenous people in this society and will make an enormous difference thereby.