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

The disadvantage suffered by Aboriginal Australians and the dysfunction in some of their communities continues to be Australia's greatest policy failure, and yet, according to the latest figures from the Productivity Commission, this failure is not caused by a lack of funding. Total expenditure in 2012-13 on services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders was more than $30 billion, or $43,449 per person. This is roughly equivalent to the average wage in Japan, Italy and South Korea. This spending is on top of the general government spending that is supposed to benefit all Australians, and yet the annual Closing the gap report tells us every year that the gap is barely closing.

Nearly everyone agrees that education is the key, so this bill authorising higher education grants to Aboriginal people should be an issue of the utmost importance. And here I am, the only person who wants to talk about why our education policies are failing to address Aboriginal disadvantage. Everyone else in this place considers the Higher Education Support Legislation Amendment (2016 Measures No. 1) Bill to be non-controversial and that throwing even more money at the problem is somehow a solution, despite past experience. If I can borrow an Americanism: go figure!

To understand Aboriginal disadvantage it helps to understand Aboriginal communities. According to the 2011 census, 550,000 Indigenous Australians, or 65 per cent, were employed and living lives much like other Australians; 22 per cent were welfare dependent and living in urban and regional areas; and 13 per cent, or 70,000, were welfare dependent and living on Aboriginal land where education and work opportunities are often limited. Many of these people in the third category are amongst the most disadvantaged in Australia and live in Third World conditions.

This third group needs a policy response that differs from that provided to the first and second groups of Aborigines, and yet our Indigenous education policy treats them as all the same. Someone from a comfortable, middle class family on the North Shore of Sydney who identifies as Aboriginal will scoop up the grants and the scholarships and fill in the quotas when it is time to get a job. They will continue to be middle class and their lives will not change significantly, except perhaps for an ever expanding sense of entitlement. However, the people living in remote areas who cannot read will not apply for university places or leave their dysfunctional communities, particularly given our policies to keep them there, and that is why the gap is not closing.

Ironically, this demonstrates why schemes to help people should be based on need and not race. If all university grants were based on need, they would better serve Aboriginal people who really need the grants. What is more, it would help prevent a disgraceful situation where a refugee from Africa who comes from the most impoverished background and suffers from racism can be beaten to a university place by someone from a middle class background who identifies as Aboriginal and suffers nothing but sunburn. I lived in South Africa for a time during the apartheid era and I know what racism looks like. I abhor it in all its forms. I am proud to represent the Liberal Democrats, who believe that all poor people should have access to a good education, but race should have nothing to do with it. I am proud to take a stand against racism today.