Social Justice Report 2003: Speech by Senator Aden Ridgeway.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice
Launch of Social Justice and Native Title Reports 2003.
Speech by Senator Aden Ridgeway.
Museum of Sydney, 12 March 2004
Acknowledge traditional owners
Acknowledge VIPS
Thank you for inviting me here to speak at the Sydney launch of two reports from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner; the 2003 Native Title Report and the 2003 Social Justice Report.
These are the final reports from the outgoing Social Justice Commissioner, Dr Bill Jonas, and I would like to take this opportunity to bring to your attention the outstanding work of Dr Jonas in the past five years and to wish him well in his future.
These reports detail the lack of advancement for Indigenous Australians in the past year - though Dr Jonas does draw on his experience over the past five years.
It is the 259-page Social Justice report that I will focus on today. While this report offers glimmers of hope - especially regarding some parts of the COAG trials - it is fundamentally a litany of underachievement on the part of the Federal Government, and of uncertainty for Indigenous peoples.
The weight of evidence
The report now adds weight to findings of the Senate Reconciliation Inquiry, the Productivity Commission's report into Indigenous Disadvantage and the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research report into practical reconciliation - that life is getting worse for Indigenous people in Australia.
It describes the Government's commitment to reconciliation as "malleable" - I describe it as "shifty."
The Government created the policy of so-called practical reconciliation in order to focus on improving health, housing and education for Indigenous peoples.
But as they still have not developed any way of measuring results or action plans for achieving them, none of this can be verified. The report highlights this lack of accountability framework as needing urgent attention if there is to be any measurement of progress.
We have also seen yesterday, the announcement of a legal challenge against the Australian Government by the ATSIC Board to the creation of ATSIS.
With all due respect to Bill Jonas and his staff, one doesn't need to read a report to see a clearer indicator of the state of the relationship between the Government and Indigenous Australians
I do not necessarily agree that this course of action is the best one or will necessarily be a successful one. Litigation hasn't been particularly well suited to advancing the cause of Indigenous peoples in Australia in the recent past, and it generally does not produce any clear winners.
However, it is the Government's policy chickens coming home to roost.
This deterioration in the lives of Indigenous Australians detailed in this report has been overseen by John Howard and his Government in the past 7 years.
As recent as Question Time yesterday the Minister was continuing to blame ATSIC for the lack of action and advancement in Indigenous affairs when ATSIC do not have total control over 85% of the Indigenous budget.
I do not say that ATSIC are blameless here - but when reports such as this one being released here today detail - not just years of failed policy, but also inaction on a number of fronts, responsibility must be sheeted home.
The Social Justice report also outlined the dependency that results from this type of service delivery and that the Government has not attempted to change this model at all by engaging Indigenous people and their organisations in service delivery.
Reconciliation Bill
As the only Indigenous member of the Federal Parliament the responsibility I feel is often invigorating ....and at other times, absolutely overwhelming.
A recent case in point which highlights the latter, and which was the reintroduction of my Private Members Bill on Reconciliation in November last year.
- The Reconciliation Bill was never meant to be t the solution alone, but was introduced to complement actions by the people of Australia,
- to complement the decade of work by the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation,
- and to complement the COAG process and provides a legislative way forward for the Government
What we saw on that afternoon was a cynical display of filibustering by the Government as they rolled out speaker after speaker after speaker angrily defending the Governments record in Indigenous Affairs.
However, the then new Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Senator Amanda Vanstone, did not speak, and did not offer her opinion in any way.
In fact, she was not even in the chamber for the debate. Using this tactic, the Government was then able to avoid a vote on the Bill. These are not the actions of a Government committed to Indigenous people.
Conclusion
I commend Bill Jonas and his staff on this year's Native Title and Social Justice Reports.
The Democrats have called on the Government to give Dr Jonas the courtesy of responding to his report, as they have not responded to the three previous reports.
The position of Social Justice Commissioner was created in 1992 with bipartisan support as a direct response to the findings of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and the HREOC National Inquiry into Racist Violence.
The Royal Commission and National Inquiry both highlighted the necessity for an ongoing independent monitoring mechanism for the human rights situation of Australian Indigenous peoples.
At the time, the government explained that the position was created to provide 'an annual state of the nation report' and provide 'a national and independent perspective on the extent of the disadvantage and the action that needs to be taken'
It is times like this when the need for these important functions is greater than ever, and the Democrats will reject any attempt by the Attorney-General to assimilate the positions of the HREOC specialist Commissioners - such as Dr Jonas - into generalist positions.