Commentary around Indigenous policy has gone quiet after the failure of the Voice campaign, but the problems facing First Nations communities haven’t changed. In fact, on many makers, life has gotten harder for those living in remote areas. ?
In his latest paper, “Where To Now: The road ahead for Indigenous policy,”
Nyunggai Warren Mundine highlights?the latest Closing the Gap data showing that?school attendance is low, crime rates are high, and social instability is rife in regional centers like Alice Springs.?
“The gap between educated, city-dwelling Indigenous people and those in remote communities is widening,” he says.?
We need practical solutions to support Indigenous people, particularly in far flung communities across Australia. Indigenous people have had their fill of “ineffective talk-fests.” Mundine identified four key areas for reform.?
- Economic Participation: Collective ownership of resources has never worked, and it very much doesn’t serve Indigenous Australians. Land is collectively owned by centralised Indigenous bodies, which stifles private property ownership and economic activity. Royalties and other payments by mining companies, governments and others are also held collectively by organisations or in land trusts.?Indigenous people cannot own their own home and are dependent on centralised, community-controlled organisations for housing, income and other daily needs, and so live in abject poverty.? Further, according to 2021 Census data, only 55.7% of Indigenous people are employed compared to 77.7% in the overall population. However, the gap in employment level disappears with higher levels of education.?
- Education: We need get Indigenous young people in school. School attendance has been consistently lower among Indigenous children compared to the national average and it’s falling.?Between 2015 and 2023 attendance dropped?from 83.7% to 77.4% for Indigenous children. State and territory governments are responsible for education. The Northern Territory, in particular, is?failing and obfuscating responsibility to the federal government.?
- Safe Communities: In Alice Springs, instead of going to school kids have hit the streets leading to a severe youth crime crisis and the unprecedented enforcement of a 6pm curfew. It’s not working, nor is locking up children. Indigenous children need alternatives to crime, safe places to go, education and training opportunities and more constructive ways to spend their time and energy, particularly when their home life is also dysfunctional.?
- Accountability: The justice and welfare systems need reform to ensure responsible governance. Accountability is only achieved?by holding to account the organisations and individuals responsible for policies and programs. This means transparency, targets which?direct all activity towards single, consistent goals that do not require an army of bureaucrats to administer.?
Ultimately, there would be improvements in all the stated outcomes on incarceration, out-of-home care and family violence if the?paper’s recommendations in on land reform, school attendance and safe communities were adopted.?
Capitalism and free market economies have brought to prosperity to the majority of Australia and yet we are leaving Indigenous Australians behind. The current system robs them of opportunities through paternalistic and bureaucratic policies with a little?virtue signaling sprinkled in to avoid responsibility. ?
Nyunggai Warren Mundine AO
AO is Director of the Indigenous Forum at the Centre for Independent Studies. You can read the full paper, "Where to now? The Road Ahead for Indigenous Policy"
on our website.
