home | news l

ndigenous affairs demands action, not more words

Andrew Fraser

26 April 2004 - John Kennedy would have made a great Minister for Aboriginal Affairs. The Hawthorn premiership coach's signature line comes from his three- quarter time address in the 1976 Victorian Fooball League grand final, when he got the unfashionable Hawks up from behind.

"Don't think, just do," he exhorted his charges. "At least that way you can come of the ground and say you did something for the good of the side."

The signature line of indigenous politics has always been that there has not been enough consultation. But we could talk forever, and often it seems that we have- when we should have been doing.

Peter Baume, still perhaps the most respected minister for Aboriginal or indigenous affairs the country has had, could have introduced a treaty when it was first floated by and before the Fraser Government in 1980.

Prime Minister Bob Hawke could have simply said "No" to the bullying of Western Australian Premier Brian Burke.

Burke, later jailed for travel rorts and for theft of political donations, said that Hawke's long-promised national land-rights platform would have to be abandoned to save his state government. Hawke submitted.

Prime Minister Paul Keating could have done more than simply receive the Mabo judgment. He could have done something with it.

He could have framed a Bill that made the geography accord with the finally proclaimed common sense of the judgment.

It was a good time to strike. He could have done more than just put land rights back on the agenda. He could have put them on the statute books, with the thumping endorsement of six of seven High Court judges, and a public climate malleable to such big change.

Yes, it would have taken some guts, less than a year away from the 1993 election. But, when implemented, and when suburban families realised (as most surely knew in their hearts) that their backyards would not be subject to land claims, any racist fuss would surely have melted away - especially with the Placido Domingo of Australian politics, the man who did the hard things that were right, at the helm.

Couldn't Keating have hit the racist fearmongers head-on, talked sense and won the day?

At the bottom line, given that almost everyone from within and without his Government thought he was going to lose the 1993 election anyhow, why not just go for it?

That would have really made for a victory for "the true believers". But too much circuitous consultation was again the order of the day.

At least for eight years of the Howard Government no-one has had their hopes raised that Aboriginal disadvantage - and reconciliation - would be seriously addressed.

We knew where we stood. But one white man in a powerful position knew where we should be. And did what he could about it.

Governor-General Sir William Deane spoke out from his high office, displeased with the broad direction of his ministers and Prime Minister, and the perceptions that they were allowing to develop in the community (most grotesquely formed in the rise of One Nation).

There will always remain questions about whether such vice- regal speeches are appropriate. Deane was elected by no-one and was going, very publicly, against the Government elected by the Australian people, the Government that contained his constitutional advisers.

But that breach of form can be forgiven in the face of substance, and the overwhelming need for someone in a position of power to try to make something happen.

Yes, just words, you might say. But given his high, and precarious, position, Deane was really doing something. He was shaping attitudes, the biggest hurdle to reconciliation.

His is one arm of the battle: leadership. Brave speeches like his, and, to be fair, Keating's Redfern address, mobilise thought and create the climate. But we need the other arm - action.

And we can't wait for everything to be perfect. All leaders, black and white, are never going to agree on all points.

That is why Hawke should have stuck to his guns against Burke, and Keating should have seized on the landmark High Court decision.

At least that way they could have come out of the Parliament and said they'd done something for the good of the side, rather than admit that more could have and should have been attempted.

There has been little on offer in indigenous affairs in this election year. Land rights, so crucial to Aboriginal people, seem dead politically.

"Practical reconciliation" has become something of a catchcry, particularly from the Coalition side. And all agree that disadvantage is to be abhorred, and that the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission needs to be replaced.

Deane has seen it all before, and is again agitating not just for positive change, but to ensure that positive changes in attitude over the past decade are not lost. Giving the Jessie Street Memorial Lecture, he said, "We have reached a sort of blind alley and it is no longer enough to talk about walking onwards.

"Rather we must start to work together [his emphasis] to actually build new pathways and bridges. While this may surprise some, I am hopeful about where we are placed now for making real progress if we possess the necessary will and determination.

"My own hopefulness is largely based on the remarkable change in the attitude of most Australians in recent decades and the genuine desire for reconciliation which presently exists at all levels of our community."

He acknowledged that responsibility for public funds had to be pursued and that indigenous leaders had to be held to account. He cautioned against "practical reconciliation", saying it was not justifiable if used to suggest that effective Aboriginal representation, leadership and participation at all levels are not essential for the success of programs addressing Aboriginal disadvantage.

"The overall search for true Aboriginal reconciliation not only remains unfulfilled," he said. "It has lost much of its impetus at the national political level where we are in real danger of losing the goodwill built up.

"If through goodwill and compromise ... a broad consensus can be reached, the time will have come when we can set out with confidence on the final stage of our national journey.

"For my part, I have no doubt that the outcome of that journey, that quest for national decency and harmony and real equality, will be a defining test of our worth, both as individuals and as a nation, in the years ahead."

So, Sir William Deane speaks out. Again.

But who can do?

Andrew Fraser is The Canberra Times parliamentary bureau chief.

Source: The Canberra Times

Further information: social justice issues page - includes news index and external links