“It’sthe most insidious and destructive form of racism that allows the mostdistressed and marginalised to destroy themselves and their children in thename of equality and rights.”
Labormust not forget: sober, safe, fed is the priority
The Albanese government has scrapped measures that have had direct benefits on the health and safety of Indigenous women and children.
By EDITORIAL
- From Editorials
July 29, 2022
- 1 MINUTE READ
It is a worrying sign that while the Albanese government talks tough on a voice and recognition for Indigenous Australians, its first concrete steps have been to scrap measures known to have had a direct beneficial impact on the health and safety of women and children. These measures include the cashless welfare card and alcohol bans that have been vital circuit-breakers to a cycle of humbugging and alcohol abuse that often ends in violence.
Senator Jacinta Price gives her maiden speech in the Senate Chamber in Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary RamageWhen viewed alongside the results of the latest Closingthe Gap report that found too little had changed in the poor outcomes beingexperienced by Aboriginal communities, the backsliding on positive measures isdoubly disappointing.
Only four out of 17 targets are on track to meet se goals, with suicide, imprisonment and child protection rates worsening amongAborigines and Torres Strait Islanders in the past year.
Against this is research by the University of Adelaide that the cashless welfare card program was linked to a 23 per cent decrease in gambling and that 45 per cent of people believed the program had improved their lives. Northern Territory Liberal senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price said the cashless welfare card had allowed countless families on welfare to feed their children rather than seeing their money claimed by kinship demands from alcoholics, substance abusers and gamblers in their own family group.
In response to questions in parliament, Anthony Albanese said the decision was made to empower Indigenous communities rather than patronise. That argument has been used to justify the lifting of grog bans that have been in place in the NT for 14 years since the Howard government intervention in response to the Little Children are Sacred report into domestic violence and sexual abuse in remote communities.
Removal of the grog bans is taking place despite pleadings by a coalition of Aboriginal health and justice organisations forthem to be retained. Rather than “racist or negative discrimination”, the group told Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney they were “positive and beneficial special measures in keeping with the High Court’s latest definition”.
Alcohol and cannabis seized by Northern Territory police as it was en route to an indigenous community. Picture: SuppliedThe Albanese government must not forget the reasons welfare management and grog bans have been deemed necessary in the past. A sober and functioning community is the first step towards closing the gap on Aboriginal disadvantage and must take precedence over symbolic gestures that appeal to residents in urban centres with little experience of what life can belike for vulnerable people in remote settlements.
Our newly elected Northern Territory Senator Jacinta Price, has ruffled some lefty, inner-city feathers by telling the truth about the dire state of our dysfunctional Aboriginal communities and how beneficial income management (Basics Card) and the grog ban have been. It is so important that this story gets out, because most of the main stream media appear to have turned a blind eye.
