This article first appeared in The Australian, 20 June 2003

Aboriginal Separatism Has Failed---So Let's Stop Funding It

Hon. Gary Johns

The interim report of the review of ATSIC, released this week, owes its life to the two political bullies who run ATSIC, Geoff Clark and Ray Robinson. They should be thanked for putting some backbone into those who know what has to be done in Aboriginal affairs but have been too afraid to say. The report is a start, but it mostly misses the point. It is not the political architecture, its not the programs, it is their purpose.

The whole business of separate representation for Aboriginal people arises because some people think it is a good idea to keep Aborigines separate from other Australians and to pay their leaders to keep it that way. You want a solution? Stop paying them! Lois O'Donohue said to me early in her stint as ATSIC chair that the main goal of the new commissioners was to convert their part-time jobs to full-time. By all means have an advisory board of Aboriginal people, defray their costs, but do not pay people to lobby government.

Aboriginal society is awash with politics, the politics of preferment. It is characteristic of a dependent people. All the land in Australia will not make Aborigines any less dependent. What makes Aborigines dependent is the lack of skills to make a living in the modern economy. There is no other economy in Australia. Trying to make viable communities of one and two hundred people in the middle of nowhere will not work. Give the children the option in these communities to get out.

I spoke to a teacher in an Aboriginal community in northwest Cape York recently. She told me that she keeps the children in on Friday night after school, not because they have been naughty, but for their protection. Violence is rife in such communities. She said the children 'parent their parents' because the parents are simply incapable of disciplining their children. The state has a responsibility to step in and enforce the social contract; children must attend school, preferably a boarding school separate from the communities. Almost every Aboriginal leader, almost every successful Aborigine has a western education. The key to the future of Aboriginal people lies with a western education.

I recently asked an Aboriginal leader in Brisbane what his aspirations were for his children. He replied that he wanted them to be proud of their Aboriginal identity. I asked if there was anything else he wished for them, the reply, 'no'. What about happiness, fulfilment, a job, a partner, children, an income? His obsession with his political struggle for a so-called Aboriginal identity was about to infect the next generation; they would be raised with a single, probably destructive, aspiration.

The High Court in Yorta Yorta has effectively put the native back into native title, stopping it from becoming a rent-seekers paradise. The Federal Court in Cubillo and Gunner has effectively stopped the march of compensation for the so-called stolen generations. ATSIC must be reduced to advisory board status, the Land Fund monies must be released for programs that enhance the skills of Aborigines, not their chances for becoming landlords.

The answer to Aboriginal prayers does not lie in the cults of land or culture. More services to tiny and remote settlements and the preservation of indigenous language and custom will not stop the hurt. All policy should be neutral on the question of identity. If a policy would not be applied to white children, it should not be applied to black children in similar circumstances. Compulsory attendance at school means compulsory. The incentives for Aboriginal leaders to blame whites and live off their largesse must stop. This includes phasing out the monopoly in service delivery in Aboriginal-controlled legal and health and other services. These must compete in an open market with other service providers. No funding for ATSIC, no avoiding the responsibilities to educate children to read and write English, no funds to not work. On the other hand, generous funds for skills and relocation. No bias against miners and agriculturists who can be the only source of wealth in remote Australia.

If Aborigines want greater influence over the decisions that affect their lives then they have to get out from under government. Get out from under their leaders. They have to take the programs that are available to enable them to make their own way. There is a lot of life outside government and politics and the trap of collective identity.