Social Justice Report 2003: Speech by Senator Aden Ridgeway.
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.