CANBERRA – Australia’s federal government has said it will set up a new national representative body for Aborigines to help close the gap between black and white Australians.
A proposal for the new body was unveiled in Canberra yesterday. It would be independent of the government and would serve as a less powerful version of a national Aboriginal organisation that between 1990 and 2005 administered billions of dollars in funds for indigenous programmes and whose leaders were elected by Aboriginal constituents.
The previous conservative government abolished that organisation in 2005 amid allegations of corruption and mismanagement.
The new body will advise the government on Aboriginal issues but will not set policy or distribute funds.
Meanwhile, a senior United Nations official yesterday condemned Australia’s controversial intervention into remote Aboriginal communities, describing the measures as discriminatory and finding entrenched racism in Australia.
The UN special rapporteur on indigenous people, James Anaya, made the findings after a 12-day visit to Australia, where he visited indigenous communities and held talks with the Australian government.
Australia’s former conservative government sent police and troops to remote Aboriginal communities in June 2007 and made special bans on alcohol and pornography, to stamp out widespread child sex abuse fuelled by chronic alcoholism.
“These measures overtly discriminate against Aboriginal peoples, infringe their right of self-determination and stigmatise already stigmatised communities,” Mr Anaya said.
However, he did congratulate the prime minister, Kevin Rudd, for his 2008 parliamentary apology to Aborigines for historical injustices.
He added though that it was clear the entrenched racism of the past remained and the ongoing intervention into communities in the Northern Territory continued to discriminate against Aborigines.
Mr Rudd has made indigenous affairs a priority of his government and promised to end the 17-year gap in life expectancy between Aborigines and other Australians.
He has said he will continue the controversial intervention, which has widespread support across Australia but has been strongly criticised by some Aboriginal groups.
Mr Anaya’s comments will increase the pressure on Mr Rudd to review parts of the intervention, particularly measures that quarantine welfare payments to make sure a proportion of the payments is spent on food, clothing and healthcare.
An independent review last year found the intervention affected 45,500 Aboriginal men, women and children in more than 500 Northern Territory communities, and progress on healthcare and security were undermined by a lack of full community support.
Indigenous affairs minister Jenny Macklin said the government was determined to restore laws to outlaw racial discrimination in the Northern Territory and welcomed Mr Anaya’s visit.
“I think what’s important is that we recognise we have a huge task in front of us to close the gap, to close the life expectancy gap, the employment gap, the gap in education,” she said. “We know how big the task is and we certainly intend to keep getting on with it.”
Australia’s 460,000 Aborigines make up about 2 per cent of the population. They suffer higher rates of unemployment, substance abuse and domestic violence than other Australians. – (PA/Reuters)