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

There is a vast gap between average Indigenous and non-Indigenous living standards, and the gap is not narrowing. It didn't narrow last year or the year before that or the year before that either, and, unless something changes, it won't narrow next year. There are a number of reasons for this. Most of them relate to poor outcomes in rural and remote Aboriginal communities. This is where the government continues to treat Aborigines like exhibits in a museum. It's where Aborigines go to school the least, where employment is rare, where you see the most hospitalisation from assaults and substance abuse, and where we see the most appalling family violence, child abuse and neglect—including babies with syphilis, for example.

To their credit, many Aborigines are voting with their feet and getting out of these hellholes—may there be many more!—but the government holds back this exodus with programs like the Community Development Program. This is a Work for the Dole scheme specific to remote areas, where 83 per cent of participants are Aborigines. It's a poor cousin to the general Work for the Dole scheme. Under the general scheme, long-term unemployed Australians must do community service for 15 to 25 hours a week for half a year. In the other half of the year, they're required to look for a real job, take a job that is offered, and are penalised if they move to an area with high unemployment.

Under the Community Development Program, long-term unemployed are required to do up to 25 hours a week of community service all year, so there is no requirement—and indeed, little opportunity—to look for a real job. Instead, there is continuing support to stay in dysfunctional communities where there are next to no real jobs. It's worth noting that a job propped up by a government procurement program isn't a real job. Under the Community Development Program, decisions about what community service needs to be done are devolved to self-appointed Aboriginal leaders, and the community service can entail tasks like mowing the lawns of these same Aboriginal leaders. It's neither a real job nor preparation for a real job.

The Closing the Gap reports have reaffirmed the squalor of rural and remote Aboriginal communities, but the government's response is to always redouble already failing efforts, including the mantra of local empowerment. As it stands, local empowerment is a big part of the problem. For example, the local Aboriginal leaders who get to act like bosses under the Community Development Program have no expertise or qualifications in preparing people for real employment, no track record in improving the lot of Aboriginal communities and in many cases were not chosen by those they lord over. What's more, as the program boosts their status and power, they have a strong incentive to keep it going and preserve their fiefdoms. At the heart the current approach to closing the gap reflects 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.

Governments enable child abuse 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. This is destructive racism. 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. Dysfunctional behaviour is propped up by having Indigenous sentencing courts. These give Aboriginal offenders more options for how their sentence will be determined, but they haven't reduced the high rates of Aboriginal reoffending. 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. So it's disappointing that the Prime Minister in his Closing the Gap contribution chose to claim that government procurement policies that favour Aboriginal businesses are a great success. Such government favouritism and cronyism distorts the instincts of budding entrepreneurs, treats Aboriginal businesses as charity cases and is racist. More to the point, giving a handout to Aboriginal businesspeople, who are generally in urban areas, educated, working and looking after themselves, isn't going to help the Aboriginal people in rural and regional areas who are poorly educated, unemployed and in poor health. It is the disadvantage of this group of Aborigines that is at the heart of the gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people. Governments encourage dysfunctional attitudes not just in their sentencing and their affirmative action policies but also 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 onto injustices that weren't done to you is paralysing and shouldn't be encouraged.

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 property in their own names, learn to read and write in English, gain a decent education, are encouraged to move to where the jobs are, get real jobs instead of pretend jobs, and their kids are removed from abuse and neglect. As thousands of Aborigines would attest, the essence of their culture is not at risk by joining the mainstream. 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. The more of them who join mainstream Australia, the better off we all are.