The major parties' Aboriginal policy is a contest between romantics and realists. The split is not strictly along party lines. The Federal Coalition's "practical reconciliation" is not sustainable, and waiting years to abolish ATSIC was timid. Nevertheless, it does not suffer the romantic myopia of Federal Labor, which has announced a further $360 million spending on programs in the "social justice" mould that have failed in the past. Fortunately, some Labor administrations, notably NT and Queensland are beginning to talk a new language in Aboriginal policy: incentive and disincentive. They are joining the realist camp.
The newest recruit to the realist camp is Senator Amanda Vanstone, the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs. She has said what has needed to be said for a long time. "It is far more effective for people to change behaviour than for governments to invest in patching up problems". She has announced that unconditional welfare will be abolished. Residents of remote communities will no longer be exempt from the mutual obligation requirement, and the Community Development Employment Program will enforce "no work, no pay".
As important as changing incentives to change behaviour, is having the honesty to admit that only a handful of remote communities have a life beyond welfare. Vanstone says, "we must sit down with communities and tell it like it is. How can they think about their future if we're too afraid to present the facts to them?"
The facts are that since 1981, the Aboriginal population in remote areas has grown by more than 20 per cent. There are about 1200 discrete Aboriginal communities with a total population of over 100,000. Almost 900 communities contain fewer than 50 persons. The romantics think this is wonderful; an Aboriginal nation arises! The reality is a disaster for the inhabitants.
The Commonwealth and others invest $20m in a Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre to dream up ways of generating income in remote areas, but in Katherine NT, mangoes are picked by migrant labour because the local Aborigines do not make themselves available. The local school at Kowanyama in Cape York cannot get a local to clean the school. The school bus at Oenpelli NT circulates three times every morning to pick up the stragglers who are not ready for school.
The public phone at Punmu in WA is broken constantly. Telstra has a contractual obligation to remote customers, so within 2 days it flies two techs hundreds of kilometres to fix the phone. The next time someone has a fight, the phone is smashed and Telstra responds. Governments are spending thousands to float Aboriginal businesses, but thirty years ago the bakery, the market garden and the repair shop each existed without such help.
The reason for each of these failures is because the incentives are wrong. As the Labor Minister for Central Australia Peter Toyne has said, "Taking away the safety net ... would be an enormous step for this country to take". There are simple incentives like the one at Wadeye NT, where the policy is "no school, no pool". The children who do not attend school do not have use of the pool. Those who do are noticeably healthier, and they pay to use! And there are essential disincentives, like Family payments should be paid conditionally on the parents insisting on the child attending school.
Both political parties are experimenting with the regional delivery of services; both confuse ends with means by assuming that better delivery of services is the solution. A person dependent on free services for their existence will not become less dependent with more service.
Above all, Aboriginal children in remote areas must attend residential regional colleges, like Spinifex College at Mt Isa. As one student said, "I needed to get away from Normanton and here I have houseparents that have encouraged me and looked after me as a person. They are interested in what I do. It wouldn't have happened if I had stayed in Normanton". And another, "There's too much about stereotypical stuff in schools which builds barriers like just because I'm black the best person to help me needs to be black, too. This is not true. They just need to know me".
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