Addressing inequality
When President John F Kennedy belatedly brought the full weight of his office to bear on the problem of racial equality in the US, he delivered an eloquent, and at times extemporaneous, televised nationwide address from behind his desk in the Oval Office.
JFK explained in his speech on 11 June 1963 that a black baby born in America had 鈥渁bout one-half as much chance of completing high school as a white baby born on the same day, one-third as much chance of completing college, one-third as much chance of becoming a professional man, [and] twice as much chance of becoming unemployed鈥. Life expectancy for a black child was seven years shorter, and the likelihood was that, after a lifetime of work, he or she would earn only half as much.
A similar speech from an Australian prime minister, highlighting the stark differences between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians, could give voice to an even more disheartening collection of statistics.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians born between 1996 and 2001 had a life expectancy of 59 for males and 65 for females. That鈥檚 around 17 years lower than the average life expectances for all male and female Australians born between 1998 and 2000.
Between 1999 and 2003, what鈥檚 called the age-standardised death rate for the indigenous population was 2.8 times greater than that of the non-indigenous population.
The unemployment rate for Aborigines is three times higher. Their chances of being incarcerated are 13 times higher.
The gang rape of a ten-year-old girl in northern Queensland, and the fact that her self-confessed rapists were allowed by the judge to walk free, has shone a spotlight once more on the prevalence of child sex abuse in indigenous communities.
The in the Northern Territory, Little Children Are Sacred, which was published in June, this year, called the problem 鈥渁n issue of urgent national significance鈥. After discovering evidence of child sex abuse in each of the 45 communities they visited, the authors blamed the problem on 鈥渢he cumulative effects of poor health, alcohol, drug abuse, gambling, pornography, unemployment, poor education and housing and general disempowerment [which] lead inexorably to family and other violence and then on to sexual abuse of men and women and, finally, of children".
Depressingly, they also predicted it would take 15 years 鈥 or the equivalent of an Aboriginal generation 鈥 to make inroads into the problem.
Announcing a national emergency, the then Prime Minister John Howard ordered a federal intervention in the Northern Territory aimed at protecting these vulnerable young people. It included a prohibition on alcohol and pornography in Aboriginal areas and a bigger police presence.
At the time, Labor supported the intervention, but with reservations. This weekend, Jenny Macklin, the newly-installed indigenous affairs minister, will discuss the future of the intervention with Aboriginal leaders in Darwin.
This week she also which will culminate in a formal national apology to the Stolen Generations for past injustices 鈥 although the new government has not yet said when it will come.
When the moment for an apology does arrive, perhaps Kevin Rudd should think about emulating John F Kennedy by elucidating this most complex of questions on national television. Re-reading JFK鈥檚 speech now, one paragraph in particular leaps from the page: 鈥淭hose who do nothing are inviting shame as well as violence. Those who act boldly are recognizing right as well as reality.鈥
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I'm sure you are aware of it Nick, but such a speech has already been made by an Australian PM, on December 10 1992 in Redfern Park by Paul Keating. Unfortunately, whatever it began was stopped dead in its tracks by the election of John Howard in 1996 and his subsequent revisionism of our country's historical transgressions, known poetically as the "Culture Wars".
This is a very complex issue. I agree with your premise, an address to the nation formally highlighting the current issues in Australian Aboriginal communities would do no harm, and may act as good starting point in the reconciliation process. However, the path to social equality between indigineous and non-indigineous people needs to be steered by the aboriginal people themselves. Kevin Rudd will not inspire the Aboriginal people to climb out of this ditch by putting his face on the TV screen.
The Aboriginal people of Australia need a inspirational figure. Drawing from your analogies of the United States in the 1960's, they need a Martin Luther King-type figure. A figure who's rhetoric not only reflects their disappointment in a system that has failed them, but also their hopes and dreams. ATSIC was unable to do this and as a result, got hijacked and consequently dismantled.
It has been in the realm of sport that the Aboriginal people have have shone. Lionel Rose paved the way, Evonne Goolagong, Mal Meninga, Nicky Winmar, Cathy Freeman, and Anthony Mundine followed. These are the people Aboriginal kids do look up to (I lived near Wiluna, WA for 3 years, kids know their sportstars). A sporting hero of the Aboriginal people, with the right rhetoric and willpower, could provide the Aboriginal people with the inspirational leader it so desperately requires.
Both Lance and Peter are spot on. Howard and his disgraceful 'we don't want a black armband view of history' view was a disgrace, as if the past was some sugar-coated Hollywood movie with a happy ending.
Keating at least had a vision - sadly, too much for a lot of Australians. Howard had none, to our detriment.
That Redfern speech is a knockout and worth reading.
(sorry Peter, I don't see Anthony Mundine as much of a role model)
I find it quite horrific and embarrassing that the public outcry for action is still only found in pockets within Australia.
You cannot blame John Howard for forgetting about Aboriginals during his tenure, he did nothing to help but the public attention seemed to focus on "their" problems and not on the need for radical reform and conciliation.
I'm glad to see Paul Keating's recognition coming to the fore here, but we will also find if we look, the same sentiments coming from indigineous Australians themselves, and not just of indigineous sporting heroes.
I felt Howard blighted the Aboriginal community almost out of spite for Keating. Much as I have respect for Kennedy and his brief Presidency, people should get acquainted with that historic speech of Paul Keating:
While living and teaching in Essex from 2002 to 2006 I was always ashamed of what Australia had become under John Howard. Our great nation with its ethos of a fair go for all suffered under his government's policies. I believe that Aboriginal Australians display their skills so well in Australian Rules football, particularly the national competition. May I recommend a person to assist the new Australian Government to achieve the goal of assimilating aboriginals into the main stream society, Michael Long. Perhaps he could be assisted by the Australian Football League,and Essendon Football club to achieve something we would all be proud of.
If the aborginal peoples don't have a "Martin Luther King" figure, it is the moral responsibility of the other Australians to help them.
Of course people need to help themselves. That chinese proverb about give a man a fish and feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime is very true.
But when people are activley excluded from society - as the aborigines are - it is for the leaders of the elite society to put it right by passing laws and providing the funding and generally treating them as proper human beings.
It is not an excuse to suggest that you should just wait for a leader to emerge from within the aborgine people. The reason they have no such leader is because they are treated like animals and it is a disgrace.
They don't have a leader to fight for them because the people who may have been those leaders are treated like scum and barred from participating in society.
And they shouldn't need to have a leader like that because Australia has an advanced, developed education system and the Austrlian people are well aware that their society treats the aborgines in a most repulsive manner.
The judge who ruled on that gang rape case should be removed from her post and if she is not the Australian people have a moral obligation to force her out. A judge who makes a ruling like this has no sense of reason.
Australia needs to start treating the aborgines as normal people. The aborginal people were the first Australians. They deserve far better than this. And I hope journalists like Nick Bryant (and Nick is a superb journalist) will use their positions to focus more on the plight of the aborgines - the world's forgotten people.
It saddens me to see the implied racism in many of the comments here. There seems to be an impression that the current plight of Australian Aboriginals is entirely due to "white" Australian racism. This is to tar "white" Australians equally, something that I find objectionable. Should I accuse all Britons of being racist because of the actions of some football hooligans?
While discrimination against Aboriginals has certainly played a role it is not the sole cause of the problems currently faced by Aboriginal Australians. I am inclined to agree with Noel Pearson that "sit down money" (also known as unemployment benefit) and a lack of opportunity (caused by location) are the principle causes of the current sorry mess. I am also inclined to support his proposed solutions, mostly because they have a track history of actually working.
As to why nobody has made a real attempt to intervene to assist before now - Australia was scarred by the last attempt to do this, which resulted in the "Stolen Generation". A tragic part of our history, and one that scared successive governments from ever getting closely involved again.
Also, regarding the "black armband" view of history. While this was certainly controversial, there is no denying that the official history of Australia in 1996 was biased to an embarassing degree.
Any person who wants to truly understand this should read Keith Windschuttle's book, as well as the official rebuttal (Whitewash) and the rebuttal to the rebuttal (Wash-out). I have read all three and I am in no doubt that the "black armband" view was a total distortion of the truth. Conversely I am also sure that the "white armband" view of Australian history (which Windschuttle does not represent) is equally flawed.
Given this, a new history of Australia must be agreed upon. And this time there should be no personal bias and no political interference in it - it should be a history based on the facts and it should reflect the truth as it happened.
I think Australia has already been this route. Both in having a PM, Paul Keating, who acknowledged Aboriginal disadvantage in 1992 and apologised for historical injustice in the Redfern Speech. Also, more significantly, in the strength of Aboriginal leadership since the modern Aboriginal rights movement began in 1958 with FCAATSI. Plus
the ongoing publicity given to Aboriginal issues over the 40 years since the 1967 referendum
The apology is a specific issue - about the removal of mixed race Aboriginal children during the assimilation era Whilst it is long overdue, the problems in the remote communities, according to Noel Pearson and others, date more from the 1970s. A mixture of unconditional welfare, alcohol and a culture which obligates people to share with kin.
I don't think this is simply about acknowledgement
The most upsetting aspect of John Howard鈥檚 rejection of the 鈥渂lack armband鈥 view of history were three-fold. Firstly, he never admitted to our indigenous population that the atrocities they were forced to endure were, and still are, horrific and degrading. I wonder how he would feel if Japan re-wrote their history and disavowed any responsibility or occurrence of their 鈥渁lleged horrors鈥 during WWII. Second, that our ancestor鈥檚 actions should be forgiven outright as being seen either, as a character of the time, or made with the best of intentions. Thirdly, his government inferred that events that have been documented and proven in court never happened. We are supposed to learn from the past, and become better for it. By not admitting our ancestor鈥檚 mistakes, we cannot move on, and neither can our indigenous counterparts. It鈥檚 not the solution, it鈥檚 the start.