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PrintIndigenous Australia in the spotlight
With a federal election looming, Oxfam Australia's Public Policy Director James Ensor interviewed Federal Minister for Indigenous Affairs Mal Brough and Shadow Minister for Indigenous Affairs and Reconciliation Jenny Macklin about the key issues facing Indigenous Australians.
Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough gets a didgeridoo lesson from Kenbi dancer Simon Moreen. Photo: Clive Hyde/Newspix.
James Ensor: What do you consider to be the key policy issues facing Indigenous Australia over the next decade?
Jenny Macklin: The real question, I think, is in addressing the policy challenge of reducing that gap in life expectancy. There’s no one answer. It really does require us to look at a wide range of policy solutions — in employment, making sure that children...start their lives as healthy as possible...that they really have the sort of educational opportunities that are going to enable them to live a life where they have a strong sense of self-worth and are able to get a good job.
I think there is no doubt that there are also issues within the health system. There are serious health shortages, as is well-known, of health professionals in areas where we have concentrations of Indigenous people, the use of the medical benefits and pharmaceutical benefits [by Indigenous people] are so much lower. So we know that there are important changes that need to be made in health, but I think it’s very important that we look at employment and education as critical to lifting people out of poverty.
Mal Brough: I think you’ve got to distinguish between remote Australia and mainstream Australia. The majority of Indigenous Australians live in the cities and the major regional centres. The number one issue for those people is to ensure that they have equal access to services so that the services that are there for everyone do not inadvertently exclude Indigenous Australians.
As far as remote Australia, [there are] two things: give people the opportunity to choose where they live; and number two is to provide economic opportunities, real economic opportunities.
Where people are currently located, there are no jobs. That’s not done through creation of jobs; it’s done through a change to the way in which those communities operate. And the number one issue, as articulated by the Cape York Land Council...is about land tenure. They see only minor changes being made to their health, education and employment outcomes until they can have the opportunities that the rest of us enjoy; and that is to have business start to flourish, home ownership and pride of place.
“The school system and parents have let these children and young adults down and we need a whole range of initiatives to make sure that that doesn't happen for the next generation.”
What do you think are some of the key drivers for improved economic development, livelihoods and jobs in Indigenous communities?
Mal Brough: If you Google any country Australian town with say 2,000 or 1,000 people in it, there will be somewhere between 50 and 30 businesses. If you Google the same towns, but on Indigenous communal land, there will be one or two businesses in them, and they’ll be owned by the local council. And that is a fundamental difference; which means that children don’t see their parents getting jobs, they therefore don’t see the point in going into school, they don’t see them bettering themselves in any way as a result of their endeavours and it sends an extremely negative message to those communities.
Communal ownership and protection of sacred sites and homelands is paramount; but, in towns, which have both traditional-owner people and historical people living on them, where the traditional owners receive no form of compensation and have no decision-making capacity over who lives on their land and under what conditions, is inappropriate. And where Indigenous people tell the government that they want to change the way that operates in their towns, then we are prepared to work with them, to help facilitate that change.
“My model is to work with a community, have intensive intervention and deal with both the reform issues around land tenure, home ownership, governance, as well as... the health, education and employment functions simultaneously.”
Shadow Minister for Indigenous Affairs and Reconciliation Jenny Macklin with some of the local people from Groote Eylandt, a large island off the east coast of Arnhem Land in the Gulf of Carpentaria. Photo courtesy of Jenny Macklin
Jenny Macklin: Education, education, education. Employers are not taking on more Aboriginal people...the number one reason they are not taking on more is because of the very, very low levels of literacy and numeracy. The school system and parents have let these children and young adults down and we need a whole range of initiatives to make sure that that doesn’t happen for the next generation — we have intensive effort for little children so that they’re ready to go to school. When they get to school, if they’re already behind we have intensive English language support for them that continues through their schooling...
For the young people and the adults who unfortunately have missed out on the basic literacy and numeracy that would enable them to get a job, we need to work with business, to make sure that they can provide the sort of literacy and numeracy that will enable these people to get a job. In many cases it’s also going to require serious efforts of mentoring these young people and young adults to get them work ready.
There’s been estimated to be a $2.3 billion shortfall in housing stock in Indigenous communities which is likely to widen. How would a Labor government address this crisis?
Jenny Macklin: [Aboriginal people] live in our major cities, in country towns and in other more rural and very remote parts of Australia. What we need then...[are] policies that actually are going to see an increase in the availability of housing in each and every one of those locations.
Secondly, we need to look at the full suite of policy solutions. One is home ownership. About 30% of Aboriginal people already own their own homes on the usual freehold title, just like you and I. What I’m keen to do is look at all of those options to expand the stake that Aboriginal people could have in their own homes — rent-to-buy-schemes, shared equity schemes, sweat equity schemes. The second policy option has to be expanding public housing, because it’s just not going to be the case that everybody can afford to buy their own home.
What sorts of approaches would the Coalition bring to investment in health and housing for Indigenous Australians, to bring them up to standards commensurate with other Australians?
Mal Brough: You don’t always need to have a medical answer to a health problem. And I’d point to the Cape where, through the Family Income Management Scheme where people are being taught how to manage their finances, we are seeing a reduction in abuse, we’re seeing a reduction in alcohol-related problems and diseases, we’re seeing a reduction in gambling, we’re seeing an improvement in school attendance and, hence, an improvement in health outcomes.
So it’s important that we don’t just see one issue there in a silo. None of these things are silos. They have multi-faceted problems which require a multi-faceted approach; it has to be worked with the community.
My model is to work with a community, have intensive intervention and deal with both the reform issues around land tenure, home ownership, governance, as well as dealing with the health, education and employment functions simultaneously.