The blacks and greys of the showroom walls strongly contrasted his bright red tracksuit pants and blue 'Johnnie Walker t-shirt. He tried out various driving positions in $50,000 cars that he couldn't possibly afford, among stares of distaste from the other customers.
He was secure in the fact that no one will dare damage the cultural correctness of the place by suggesting he leave.It is probably not a coincidence that as soon as he walked out, the store attendant started vacuuming the carpet around the cars.That perfectly summarizes the state of John Howard's policy on Indigenous Australians. Not quite sure what to do with them, but just wish as hell that they weren't around. His recent announcement that the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) is to be abolished is just the icing on the cake in a long history of indigenous political and cultural abuse.
The question on everybody's lips is does Mr. Howard have a legitimate reason for getting rid of one of the only forms of political outreach available to Indigenous Australians, or is it a completely unjustified, racist decision? Either way, the results will not be easily reversible.ATSIC- Australia's great hopeATSIC, established in 1989, was originally formed because mainstream service providers had neglected Australia's indigenous population shamefully. Considering that Indigenous Australians had been labeled as 'fauna' in the national census not forty years ago, it was a big step in the positive direction for Indigenous Australians.Whilst the majority of Australians where in favor of aboriginal political representation, it is evident that Mr Howard did not support it from the very beginning.
"I've never been very comfortable with ATSIC," he said, after announcing the governments decision to scrap it. "I do believe that (ATSIC) has become too preoccupied with what loosely may be called symbolic issues and too little concerned with delivering real outcomes for Indigenous people."Mr. Howard says that the "experiment" in separate, elected representation for Indigenous people has been a failure, despite a 2003 comprehensive external government review stating otherwise. The review admits that ATSIC is in urgent need of structural changes, however the changes that the review panel recommends are ones that gives greater control to indigenous people at a regional level, not its total abolishment.ATSIC will not be replaced with any other indigenous body, rather, Mr.
Howard proposes to appoint a group of 'distinguished' indigenous people to advise the government "...on a purely advisory basis".ASTIC's regional councils will be abolished, and all indigenous services will be mainstreamed by the end of June 2005, leaving a system that gives little or no power to Indigenous Australians much like in the assimilation era before the establishment of ATSIC.
Why revisit the negative past?But why has the government chosen to turn back the clock twenty years, when it is clear that mainstreaming has not worked in the past? 65 years ago an act was passed that sought to 'assimilate' Indigenous Australians by offering citizenship to people who denied their aboriginality. This was to encourage the absorption of Indigenous Australians, both racially and culturally, into mainstream white society. Unfortunately for the government, Indigenous Australians did not just 'die off' as predicted and further problems arose with the chosen method of aboriginal governance. What was realised when ATSIC was introduced was that the indigenous people of Australia are different from mainstream society. They have different beliefs, backgrounds, identities, and a different way of life, and therefore should not be lumped in with the rest of Australia, but rather, should have their own separate, governing body.However, the body that eventuated out of this realization (ATSIC) has been constantly attacked and stripped back of both its funding and its responsibilities since its establishment.
ATSIC has been blamed for every problem concerning Indigenous Australians since the very first day of its establishment, regardless of whether or not it has any funding or responsibility for the particular issue.Acting ATSIC chair Lionel Quartermaine, and other Indegenous leaders have often pointed out that the most important areas of Indigenous health and education are controlled by the government."The low education rates for young Indigenous Australians, the low life expectancy for Aboriginal people, the existence of Third World diseases in remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, are the result of successive federal governments that have offered no solutions, not ATSIC." Says Mr. Quartermaine.
ATSIC leaders Ray Robinson and Geoff Clark pointed out in a statement last year that during its short 13 years of existence, ATSIC contributed more to Indigenous people and communities than any government, federal, state or territory in 200 years of colonial rule.In fact, the review of ATSIC found that the health levels among Indigenous Australians dropped dramatically when ATSIC was forced to hand over its control of indigenous health to the federal government in the mid-1990s.However, despite all its good points, ATSIC is not operating as well, or as efficiently as was intended. Many political figures think that the abolishment of ATSIC will be a positive change for Indigenous Australians and that ATSIC lacked vision and strategy. In the 2002-03 budget ATSIC has put $10 million into 'cultural promotion' but only $4.
8 million directly to the issue of domestic violence. About $27 million was spent by ATSIC last financial year on consultancies, including a staggering $4.1 million on ATSIC's fleet of leased cars. All this while fifteen year-old aboriginal kids steal car radios to support their parent's drug habit.This kind of ill-spending has got to stop, and maybe the governments plan will do just that.Yothu Yindi foundation deputy chair Mandawuy Yunupingu says the Federal Government needs to make a real effort to consult properly with Indigenous groups to ensure Aboriginal people have more control over funding decisions in the new proposed advisory structure after ATSIC's abolishment.
"It's a good situation and a structure that will make Aboriginal people be more accountable to the way in which their money is going to be spent," he said. This will mean that the tax-payer money will be allocated to indigenous communities on a basis of need, rather than be used to pay for a wealthy politician's rental car.Government Minister Gary Hardgrave told Parliament the changes will mean improved services for Indigenous people, with no loss of funding for indigenous communities. "I note that there is a general acknowledgement on both sides that the change is necessary," he said. "I think we all realise and recognise that the crisis in ATSIC is now so serious that it can not continue.
But although it is true that ATSIC is in dire need of reform, why has the government chosen to revert to a system that has been proven not to work? It is a blatant denial of indigenous people's rights for self-determination, as mainstream programs do not adequately meet the needs of Indigenous people, and therefore relying on them compounds Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander disadvantage.Howard is a racistIt is therefore the view of many Indigenous and non-Indigenous political figures, that Mr. Howard's decision to abolish ATSIC is a racist one. He has not only been unsupportive of ATSIC from the very beginning, he has attacked Indigenous Australians on practical and ideological levels. Under Howard's government, funding has been cut from Indigenous organizations, programs and projects, and the native title has been torn into little pieces.
Mr. Howard has refused to apologize for the stolen generations, ridiculing the need for a treaty and blaming Aboriginal people for the poverty and drug use in so many communities. Not to mention his treatment of asylum seekers, and his comments on Thomas Hickey's death.Jenny Monro, a senior aboriginal community leader in the Redfern area says:"All Aboriginal people in this country know he is one of the most racist prime ministers that Australia has ever elected.
"When Mr. Howard was elected in 1996, one of the first thing he did was cut ATSIC's funding by 30-50%, and since then has taken every opportunity to discredit and take away its power, including assuming control over funding of Indigenous programs in 2003.Information Minister Jonathan Moyo said Howard, along with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, "have stood out as racists who want to divide the world on racial lines" and protect white interests in Commonwealth countries, the state Sunday Mail, a government mouthpiece, reported.To top it all off, the bill to abolish ATSIC was introduced on the first day of Reconciliation week.If the government is choosing to abolish ATSIC because it is no longer effective, or if it's just John Howard's personal agenda, the Indigenous community of Australia hopes that the people in charge know what they are doing.Will Aaron Mudge one day be driving his own new Mercedes that he is paying off with the money that he earned from his full time job, which he got after finishing his university degree? Only time will tell.
