David Leyonhjelm (NSW, Liberal Democratic Party) Share this | Hansard source

When I was a kid in primary school, I shared classrooms with kids from Aboriginal families. By the time I got to high school, those kids were no longer there. Not one of them went on to high school with me and my peers. That was over 50 years ago, but little has changed since. Too many Aboriginal kids see no reason to go to school, and neither do their families. Too many suffer from diseases that the rest of us regard as a thing of the past. Too many live in households where their diet comprises chips and soft drink. And too many never become productive members of society when they grow up.

Considerable blame for this lies with our governments. With the support of people who ought to know better, governments maintain policies that foster dysfunctional Aboriginal communities, attitudes and behaviours. In doing so, they are holding back improvements in Aboriginal living standards. The gap is not narrowing. At its heart is a preference for fawning and hand wringing rather than pragmatism, for sounding good rather than doing good, for empty symbolism rather than practical change and for truthiness rather than truth.

The gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous living standards is largely explained by the poor outcomes in rural and remote Aboriginal communities. This is where Aborigines go to school the least, where employment is rare and where we see the most hospitalisation from assaults and substance abuse. And it is where we see the most appalling family violence, child abuse and neglect.

To their credit, many Aborigines are voting with their feet and getting out of these hell holes. May there be many more. But the government holds back this exodus with programs like the Community Development Program. This gives Aborigines more money, with fewer conditions compared to the dole, so long as they stay in these dysfunctional communities. Under the Community Development Program, Aborigines are supposed to do some community service during the week. Decisions about what this involves are devolved to self-appointed Aboriginal leaders and can entail tasks like mowing the yard of these same Aboriginal leaders. It is neither a job nor preparation for a real job.

The Closing the gap report re-affirmed the squalor of rural and remote Aboriginal communities. But the government's response is to redouble already failing efforts, repeating the mantra of local empowerment. As it stands, local empowerment is a big part of the problem. The local Aboriginal leaders who act like bosses under the Community Development Program have no expertise or qualifications in preparing people for real employment, have no track record in improving the lot of Aboriginal communities and, in many instances, were not chosen by those they lord over. What is more, as the program boosts their status and power they have a strong incentive to keep it going and preserve their fiefdoms.

The Closing the gap report makes little effort to scrutinise policies affecting Aborigines. For a semblance of scrutiny you have to go back to 2010, when the accountants in the Department of Finance wrote their Strategic Review of Indigenous Expenditure. This was only made public thanks to freedom of information laws. It uncovered poor governance and leadership in rural and remote Aboriginal communities and called for government intervention to help Aborigines leave unsustainable and dysfunctional communities.

But this message fell on deaf ears. The government continues to treat Aborigines in rural and remote areas like museum exhibits, with policies that perpetuate violence, child abuse and neglect. Governments regularly use language that casts Aboriginal offenders as victims. The Prime Minister said:

When young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men see jail as a rite of passage, we have failed to give them a place in society, in our community, and an alternative pathway where they can thrive.

I accept that support is sometimes needed to remain within the law. But people can rise above their upbringing and anyone can reject violent behaviour. It is irresponsible for the Prime Minister to wave away the notion of personal responsibility. Governments prop up dysfunctional behaviour by having Indigenous sentencing courts. These give Aboriginal offenders more options for sentencing, but they have not reduced the high rates of Aboriginal re-offending.

Governments enable child abuse and neglect through their Aboriginal child placement principles. These require child protection departments to consult with Aboriginal organisations prior to the removal of any Aboriginal child, to arrange alternative care with extended family or another local Aboriginal family if possible and to ensure that the child maintains a connection to Aboriginal culture. This results in delays and uncertainty regarding the removal of children at risk, does not necessarily mean the child is any better off and discourages people from reporting abuse and neglect. The idea that a kid is better off growing up illiterate and unhealthy in an Aboriginal household, rather than literate and healthy in a non-Indigenous household, is destructive racism. Irrespective of whether the stolen generation was a result of racism or paternalism, we should not pretend that it is okay to allow kids, Indigenous or not, to remain in situations of neglect and abuse.

Finally, our governments are holding back Aboriginal living standards by propping up dysfunctional attitudes. Governments maintain affirmative action programs, including targets for government employment of Aborigines in the public service and government procurement from designated Aboriginal businesses. These programs extend to anyone who is accepted by Aboriginal elders as being Aboriginal, even fair-skinned people who have had more opportunities than many of their fellow Australians.

Affirmative action programs encourage Aborigines to get ahead through special pleading and they encourage non-Indigenous Australians to view Aborigines as charity cases. Governments tell Aborigines fairy tales, which encourages them to consider themselves special. They say our nation is as old as humanity itself, as if the out-of-Africa thesis were debunked. They say Aborigines were undoubtedly the first Australians, as if they know exactly what happened 40,000 years ago. These comments are not true, but they are 'truthy', in that the speaker desperately wants them to be true. Encouraging Aboriginal exceptionalism with truthiness is a mistake because it risks making Aborigines think the rules for getting ahead that apply to everyone else do not apply to them.

Governments also encourage dysfunctional attitudes by lamenting the injustices done to Aborigines, while failing to note that this refers to previous generations. Many non-Indigenous Australians have ancestors who suffered terrible injustices too. Hanging on to injustices that were not done to you is paralysing and should not be encouraged. Finally, governments routinely tell Aborigines that they are defined by a strong connection to country and culture, so those who do not feel a strong connection to country and culture feel they are not really Aboriginal.

Aboriginal living standards are not improving as they should. We honour Aboriginal culture and want to see it preserved, but we should not expect Aboriginal Australians to endure third-world living, health and education standards in the process. Their culture is not at risk when they own freehold property, when they learn to read and write in English, when they gain a decent education, when they are encouraged to move to where the jobs are, when they get real jobs instead of pretend jobs and when their kids are removed from abuse and neglect.

When refugees come to Australia we expect them to join mainstream Australia. Indeed, we go to great lengths to help them achieve that. The gap would close a lot quicker if we took the same approach to our Indigenous people.