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Coalition plans bigger role for Aborigines

By KERRY TAYLOR

18 October 2001 - Aboriginal communities would be given a greater say in how government services were delivered to them under a re-elected Coalition government.

Reducing welfare dependency and backing the Howard Government's "practical reconciliation" agenda through tackling the life expectancy gap between black and white Australia were the key elements of the Coalition's indigenous Australians policy launched yesterday.

"Our first Australians remain by far the most disadvantaged group in Australian society," Aboriginal Affairs Minister Philip Ruddock said at the launch in Adelaide.

The Coalition's third-term agenda for indigenous affairs would not include negotiations on a treaty or an official apology.

Reforms would be made to the Northern Territory Land Rights Act and a national audit of programs and services addressing domestic violence would occur.

Indigenous Australians would also be encouraged to work with governments on how services could be best delivered to remote communities, Mr Ruddock said.

Mr Ruddock announced no major new initiatives during the launch. The policy had to be seen in the context of existing programs, he said.

The policy was criticised by Labor's Aboriginal affairs spokesman, Bob McMullan, for not allocating any new money or initiatives for indigenous Australians.

Democrats senator Aden Ridgeway, the Federal Parliament's only Aboriginal member warned that young Aborigines were on a permanent pathway to jail under current government policies.

Reconciliation had taken a back seat from the political agenda because of the war on terrorism, but both major parties were compelled to spell out their credentials on Aboriginal affairs, Senator Ridgeway said.

"There's a lack of leadership being shown in terms of making sure there continues to be a way of advocating for reconciliation rather than allowing it to slip off the table and become a question of the lowest common denominator," he said.

"The government's done nothing more than continue the process of practical reconciliation and the Beazley opposition wanting to be government are committing themselves to more talks and nothing else."

Source: The Age

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