The following article is abridged from a speech by Susan Austin, Socialist Alliance Hobart branch convener, to a 250-strong Indigenous rights rally on June 27 organised by the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre.
We still remember the Tampa incident in 2001, when Prime Minister John Howard stirred up racism and fear using a boatload of desperate refugees, saying he decides who comes into this country. This time Aboriginal people are the victims of his pathetic political game.
There are real problems in the communities, but will a military and police occupation solve it? Of course not. Reports indicate that women have run to the sand hills with their kids for fear of having them taken away. The history of kids being stolen from families is too recent to be forgotten.
Will taking away the communities' collective ownership of their land solve it? Of course not. Howard's plan shifts control away from Aboriginal land councils to the federal government, something that will take native title backwards 40 years.
Will taking away people's welfare payments solve the problems? Of course not. It will lead to more poverty and disempowerment. It is hard enough to make ends meet with the little amounts the government coughs up. Imagine trying to live on 50% of it. Imagine having to argue with a white bureaucracy about what is and isn't essential on your shopping list.
Will banning alcohol and pornography help? Of course not. What sort of apartheid system are they setting up where it's fine for a white person to have a beer or a wine with a meal, but it's illegal for an Aboriginal person to do the same?
What's being done about unemployment and discrimination? Nothing. Instead, there is a punitive approach to investigating and convicting as many Aboriginal people as possible.
Just one day before Howard announced his NT takeover, a white police officer, Chris Hurley, walked free from a Townsville court after a non-Indigenous jury decided he was not guilty of assault and manslaughter. This is despite the fact that Hurley admitted that he caused the death of Mulrunji Doomadgee in 2004 in the Palm Island watch-house, and despite the coroner finding evidence that Mulrunji's injuries were due to more than just a "complicated fall".
If the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody had been adhered to, Mulrunji, who was arrested for the trivial offences of public drunkenness and swearing, wouldn't have been jailed at all. Hardly any of its recommendations have been implemented. Since it concluded in 1991, more than 200 Aboriginal people have died in custody.
Will compulsory health checks of children help? Forcing
parents to hand over their kids to be inspected for signs of abuse by people they don't know is not going to help. What concrete health services are being proposed?
Howard recently dismissed the appeal by Oxfam and the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation for spending on Aboriginal health to be increased by a measly $450 million a year.
We are living in a country where the original inhabitants have a life expectancy 17 years less than non-Indigenous Australians; infant mortality is three times higher. These are Third World health statistics and the government hasn't shown the slightest concern.
A properly funded program of positive discrimination for Indigenous people in education and training, and a real Indigenous job creation campaign could have started to solve the problems years ago. Real land rights, a government apology and Aboriginal community control are also fundamental.
[Susan Austin is the Socialist Alliance's candidate for Denison in the federal election.]