indigenous
Vote green if you like, but only Labor can fix the problem
I thought I’d open a new thread to outline my views on Kim’s post at LP that got me so hot under the collar.
Voting green bothers me less (far less) than the defeatism of ‘The Rudd Labor Party deserves to lose this election’ and the following line ‘If it hadn’t been for WorkChoices, buddy, you couldn’t even count on a preference from me now.’
And the thing i find most stupid of all is the quote she’s got such a huge problem with:
“Meanwhile, Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd says a Labor Government would create a bi-partisan ‘war cabinet’ to deal with the national emergency in indigenous communities.”
Er… so what’s the problem? I think that’s a fantastic idea. I mean really, the thing with this issue is that it’s too big to let political point-scoring determine your actions. The last thing that anybody needs is one party using indigenous people as a wedge…
Oh, wait, we’ve got that already.
But Rudd’s plan is different. Running a war cabinet, bringing the opposition to the table and simply saying ‘we’re going to fix this together, damn the credit and the critics, let’s work something out’ also leaves open the opportunity to go out and listen to ideas coming from the grassroots, and you can take them on board and implement them without fear of the ‘other side’ kicking you for it. It means they’re actually free to act. To do something!
And with a Labor Government, the whole idea wouldn’t be tied up in silly ‘we’ll take your land so you look after your kids’ games either.
It was a Labor Government that created the Royal Commission into Black Deaths in Custody. It was the Labor party that first took seriously the issue of reconciliation and moved the wheels of government to address it. It was a Labor politician who poured sand into Charles Lingiari’s hand and it was the Labor Party who passed the original Native Title Act.
Labor actually did these things. They didn’t ask from the sidelines and complain when rebuffed, they did them. You can only ever do these things from government. That’s why it’s important to make sure Labor gets elected this year.
Howard announces sweeping changes to indigenous policy
“But what matters more, the constitutional niceties or the care and protection of young children?
“We believe the latter is overwhelmingly more important.”
Howard and Brough appear to have overleaped the Pearson bandwagon and jumped straight to 1950s Australia.
Widespread bans on alcohol and X-rated pornography would be enforced, and all indigenous children under the age of 16 in the territory would be medically examined, Mr Howard said.
Mr Howard said the reforms would include scrapping the permit system for common areas and road corridors on Aboriginal lands, and marshalling work-for-the-dole participants to clean up Aboriginal communities.
Possession of X-rated pornography would be banned, and all publicly-funded computers searched for evidence of stored pornography, he said.
Mr Howard said law and order would be a central focus of the dramatic measures.
I think I should make it clear that I am not opposed to many of Noel Pearson’s proposed initiatives, and I find his “quest for a radical centre” quite a useful, if intellectually and emotionally challenging agenda. This is not to say that I agree with everything he says, or in fact believe that his views are broadly representative of indigenous views. Rather, I appreciate that his approach is genuinely based in a desire to empower indigenous communities to rectify their own problems, and also the realisation that current approaches are not working.
But these are not Pearson’s suggestions made flesh. This is not, by the sound of it, a colloborative, tailored, locally-administered programme fuelled by community consultation. Rather it is a top down, prohibitive and punitive regime designed to take over communities and lives. The media material is here.