A BISHOP and the head of a ministry to Aboriginal Catholics have attacked the Federal Government’s “one shoe fits all approach” to solving problems in remote Aboriginal communities, particularly as regards the Northern Territory intervention.
Bishop Christopher Saunders of Broome and executive officer of Sydney archdiocese’s Aboriginal Catholic Ministry Graeme Mundine have also criticised the dismantling of the Community Development Employment Program (CDEP), seeing the decision as contributing to problems in remote indigenous communities.
Bishop Saunders described the decision, made by the Howard Government in 2007, as “a mistake” which had led to the loss of many Aboriginal jobs to white people.
In his “Pastoral Letter for the Feast of St Joseph the Worker 1 May 2011”, written as Australian Catholic Social Justice Council chairman, he noted “the unemployment rate among indigenous workers is eighteen per cent – three times the non-indigenous rate” and that “the situation is worse in remote communities … without subsidised community service jobs that have been available through the CDEP scheme”.
Mr Mundine, former executive secretary of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Ecumenical Commission (NATSIEC), said “just because the CDEP may have failed in a few places didn’t mean it hadn’t worked in the vast majority of others”, adding that “working for the dole was not the only answer and that more full-time jobs for Aboriginal people were needed”.
Bishop Saunders said “idleness (in remote indigenous communities) was the real danger”.
“White service providers in such areas as house maintenance, shops and rubbish runs have increased dramatically since the abolition of the CDEP,” he said.
“Yet there is an urgent need to create more jobs in remote communities if the Government is to meet its 2018 target of halving the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous employment.
“High unemployment undermines living conditions, drains communities of basic services and robs future generations of opportunities the majority of us take for granted.”
The bishop said the Government’s approach to the CDEP was typical.
“Canberra needs to deal with each community on an individual basis instead of a ‘one shoe fits all’ approach,” he said.
“This is not only fairer but far more realistic.
“Remote communities range from family groups of around 20 to 30 to large conglomerates of different clans and often different language groups which could comprise up to 650 indigenous people.
“Obviously these vastly different communities will have vastly different needs.”
Bishop Saunders, who has spent “as much as 20 per cent” of his pastoral time visiting “more than a dozen remote communities” in his diocese so far this year, said some community members had expressed fears the intervention would flow over the Northern Territory border into Western Australia.
“A transition to further welfare and compulsory income management will not address the underlying causes of poverty here or anywhere else,” he said.
“It’s the old approach of bashing the unemployed which is quite extraordinary now coming from a Labor Government.
“Any government which relies on the creation of headlines through victimising the poor is of doubtful moral worth.”
Mr Mundine said a “top down, imposed approach to indigenous affairs would never work”.
“People need to be involved at every level in creating their own futures,” he said.
“The intervention needs to take a holistic approach.
“Education, employment, proper welfare, housing and investment in infrastructure are all vital.
“As well as supporting people’s rights to self-determination, this means creating long-lasting and workable partnerships between all stakeholders centred on the needs hopes and aspirations of the Aboriginal people living in each community.”
Any positive outcomes from the intervention so far had come at a “huge cost”, Mr Mundine said.
“Greater results could have been achieved with a different approach,” he said.
“We need to look at the costs to the communities from these draconian and demoralising policies.
“What about the number of youths who have killed themselves?
“What about the pleading from elders to respect them and their cultures?”
The intervention or NTER (Northern Territory Emergency Response) is a package of changes to welfare provision, law enforcement, land tenure and other measures, introduced by the Federal Government under John Howard in August, 2007, intended to address claims of rampant child sexual abuse and neglect in Northern Territory Aboriginal communities.
The enabling legislation for the intervention expires in June next year.
Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin was recently reported as saying she would like to see the Northern Territory Intervention go further with stronger efforts to get children to school.
Ms Macklin said the intervention has improved the lives of many indigenous women and children in remote Aboriginal communities, but thousands of children were still not enrolled in school or not attending regularly.
She said any expansion of the Northern Territory Intervention would include a stronger focus on education.
Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, who visited Alice Springs recently, called for “a second intervention” to tackle persistent social problems in central Australia.
