The Voice referendum is behind us with a resounding and sensible No, but the issue of Indigenous equality, disadvantage and recognition has a long way to go in public debate.
My guess is that all but a small percentage of non-Indigenous Australians would want the best for our Indigenous brothers and sisters.
But how to get there is the challenge.
Improving the life of the Indigenous community without the Voice must start today.
The first thing government needs to do is, in consultation with the Indigenous community, identify their needs in today’s environment.
Concurrent with this initiative we need to review what we currently do and determine how effective the multitude of programs are in delivering the desired outcomes.
We also need to look at where the $38B in funding has gone; how much of it gets to those for whom it is intended, how much is eaten-up in the growing bureaucracies and how much, if any, is finding its way into the wallets of those who supposedly oversee these programs.
Only then will we be able to restart a meaningful program.
The other critical factor is that we must convince the Indigenous population that ‘help’ programs give both the government and the Indigenous people responsibilities; both must be accountable.
Whatever we do must show a return on investment and be measurable against clearly defined objectives.
We cannot and must not continue throwing good taxpayer money after bad.
As Senator Jacinta Price rightfully points out, we must lift the quality of life of the Indigenous population to a point where we no longer need special (welfare) arrangements; they are no different to any other member of our society.
Senator Price and her leader, Peter Dutton, are right in seeking a Royal Commission into Indigenous child abuse and the current programs aimed at improving the life of the Indigenous population.
It’s the only way we get the authority to look forensically into what has become an Indigenous industry, ensure there are no ‘sacred cows’ and give us the start point we need to go forward in a meaningful and planned way.
Unfortunately Anthony Albanese is resisting this move; why is anyone’s guess.
It just might be he doesn’t want the truth to become public knowledge while he looks for excuses not to fully recognise the No decision of the majority of Australians at the referendum.
Email, Oct 22
John George, Terrigal
These views are highly representative of the ill informed No voters. Get educated on the background history of the Fisrt Nation people, not just the information of the No support campaign and the highly questionable main stream commercial news and social media coverage. The Yes campaign was claimed to be divisive. It remains the fact that race and skin colour plays a huge part in decisions making around the world. Think what it’s like for a person or group to not be considered worthy to be recognised and listened to, in the book of rules that control and govern a place where they have a 65,000 thousand year connection. A convict of the first English settlers could expect support from the colonial government after serving their sentence. Land grants and opportunities were offered. No such luck for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait inhabitants. They were considered to be Godless and disorganised, not capable of fitting in with the new inhabitants. The law makers efforts to the engagement with First Nations people , was to appoint people to deal with “The Aboriginal Problem.”
There was a general expectation that they would die out as a race. In fact, great efforts were made by the colonial governments to speed up their extinction.
Consider being not valued a a human being, having traditions,laws,language outlawed and families torn apart. Men and women both, lost purpose in their day to day lives.The Aboriginal and Torres Strait people were and are still greatly disadvantaged from the effects of colonisation despite the nonsense spread by No campaigners. Efforts to promote a Royal Commission and another audit of funding, are purely motivated by the proponents to gain political support and re-election. Our countries history is not the selective version that we are still being subjected too. I hope that when we think about the daily problems facing all our communities that we can reflect on how it must feel to be told “No” we don’t recognise you and shut-up, we’re not listening to you. 235 years after the First Fleet, for too many of us, attitudes haven’t changed very much.
Learn the truth, in fact demand it. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait people are not “The Problem.”