Dick Adams (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The media this last weekend picked up on the terrible things that are occurring under our consciousness in Australia, following a few people speaking out—at last, in despair—on how to deal with a dysfunctional situation in outback Australia. I have watched again the debate and the trauma that lies behind it for Indigenous people. All the rhetoric and all the spin appearing in the media over the years hide a series of wrongs that we all have the responsibility for fixing. It is good that the issues of rape and violence are being discussed as horrendous problems racking our Aboriginal communities. It is bad that this has been going on for so long and that it has not been seen as important by decision makers. It is also bad that it is seen as only an Aboriginal issue. It is not. It occurs across all of our communities in Australia and it occurs across the world as a whole. Peoples across the globe are facing this now. It shows cultures in collision. There are examples being set by one set of people and another set of people that should know better. It even shows cultures disintegrating into anarchy.

It is easy to blame white occupation of Australia and one group of people being exploited by another, but that is far too simplistic. We have to look at ourselves as a country. We should be living together, helping each other and treated equally. Despite all the argument to the contrary, people are not treated equally in Australia. If you are a white, Caucasian, educated male from an affluent background, you will be advantaged in current society across the world. Just look at the places of power and influence and see who has risen beyond the ceiling these people set—not many. It was quite sickening to me to see Prime Minister Howard and President Bush being so intimate and self-congratulatory, when one knows that both their countries are in turmoil because of the inequities that stem from their policies and their actions.

We have a situation in Australia where we have complete and utter breakdown. It is something that we see every day on the news, and not just in Australia. We see it in Europe; we see it in Africa, particularly in the poorer nations; and we see it in Asia, once again where there is a struggle to earn that daily bowl of rice. It is endemic where poverty reigns and where the basics of decent living have been removed.

We can blame alcohol and drugs, but they are merely the sop to the symptoms. We have here a loss of self-esteem, dignity and the pride of the collective. We have a system based on possessions, property and ownership; others have a system based on communal land, spiritualism and tribal pride. Neither is mutually exclusive. But remove the basis of people’s values and you have anarchy, violence and despair, as they strive to realise some sort of control of their shattered lives.

I was disgusted the other day to learn that the Chairman of Macquarie Bank earns $21 million a year, yet one of their ‘investments’ may have been cutting financial corners that might have been responsible for the death of one miner and the incarceration of two others for a fortnight. People will say that these are unrelated, but it shows the values by which some people are prepared to live. Taking risks with people’s lives and employability is not something that should be tolerated.

We are taking risks all the time with the lives of our Indigenous people by not dealing with them as a people. We cannot ignore it anymore. We can talk about it again in seminars and talkfests, which may help set a direction but, firstly, we must deal with the issues that have caused this breakdown: no work; no access to good health care; education that is not necessarily suitable for the work and life many of us strive for; no housing, or housing so crowded that the tensions that build up reach boiling point and strip people of their values and their dignity. Put any of us in this situation and see what happens.

It is shocking to see that while Australia is running a huge surplus in the national budget—the forecast for 2006-07, according to the Treasurer, is $10.8 billion—poverty is grinding more and more into the ground. The federal government has taken to blaming the states for being miserly. But the billions left over from our taxes and profits made from the minerals boom makes this situation a sad indictment of our times. These funds have to be committed to dealing with the inequities in our society. We cannot afford to let this go on much longer, otherwise people will become so disaffected that they may well become dangerous to us and to themselves. We have seen what happens to disaffected young people, particularly when they are influenced by unscrupulous leaders of cults or fundamentalist religions. Do we really want this to occur in Australia?

Parliament has a responsibility to alleviate the base causes that produce the desperate and obnoxious behaviour currently being displayed in Aboriginal communities. We need to deal with the cause, not the symptoms, and we need to deal with it now. Maybe then we will have relief in another 10 years. These things cannot be rectified overnight, as there are some very damaged people out there. But the cause must be stated, and the alleviation undertaken as a priority.

There are many ideas on how to address the gap between all the different ‘cultures’ in Australia. Often it can be addressed through something we all have in common—a love of sport. In fact our Indigenous people have a great talent for all sorts of sport. It is one area in which young Aboriginals can be better than most and in which they can give themselves self-esteem and dignity. Why can’t we use those positive attributes to help realise a better lifestyle for all? There are already role models. The later ones include Cathy Freeman, some of our AFL stars and, of course, Rugby League and Rugby Union stars. The first Australian cricket team to play in England were all Aboriginal—not that there is much recognition of that these days.

On one committee trip to the Northern Rivers area some time ago, I noted a group up there had started working with young people—particularly those who had had a troublesome background—to develop a rugby team. Over a few years it had become very successful. Not only did the team prove to be one of the top teams but the players showed much more interest in their schooling and went on to colleges. It proved that they could take a proud place in their community. We have lost a lot of this in our outback areas. Yet sport has shown that the expertise of Indigenous people is very much equal to that of other Australians. There are also a lot of performers and artists who can provide great role models for young people, if given the opportunity, the place to work and the encouragement.

If this government wants to prove its credentials, then it could start by committing some of the surplus to solving these pressing and disturbing problems. The country cannot afford not to start working on solutions to this despair. We need to make conditions in all the basics better: better diet, better housing, better health, more appropriate education and training and training beyond school. We need to have greater understanding of what it is like to be isolated and left to try and cope with the minimal resources of many of these small communities. We also need to recognise the leaders, the elders within these communities, and help them fight against some of the huge hurdles they face that incite violence and antisocial behaviour and give them the powers they need to help their communities help themselves.

It is not just money but belief and trust that we must deliver. Throwing money at these problems without assistance in some of these cases only makes things worse, as often there is not the perceived need to account for money in the way bureaucrats do, as chattels mean nothing in some of these areas. It is up to all of us, at all levels of government and in our communities, to try not to lock the problem up. (Time expired)