Lifestyle backlash

‘IT’S HARD to be literate and numerate without attending school; it’s hard to find work without a basic education; and it’s hard to live well without a job.”

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott used those wise words in his parliament last year and repeated them in its Closing the Gap report on indigenous disadvantage last month.

They ring true of the core challenge facing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, especially those in remote areas.

But, sadly, indigenous Australians face other challenges too: to get some of the nation’s leaders to understand and respect the connection between Aboriginal people, their culture and their land; to get policy-makers to realise Indigenous people must be part of solutions to dysfunction; and to have politicians see that the task becomes all the more difficult when the flames of racial intolerance are fuelled by blatantly ignorant comments.

Abbott lost the confidence of many this week when he said of West Australian government plans to close up to 150 of the state’s 274 remote Aboriginal communities: “What we can’t do is endlessly subsidise lifestyle choices if those lifestyle choices are not conducive to the kind of full participation in Australian society that everyone should have.”

Abbott’s use of the words “lifestyle choices” was at best ham-fisted. The backlash from Aboriginal leaders was understandable. The willingness of rival politicians to buy into the outrage for political advantage was entirely predictable.

The “lifestyle choices” comment could apply just as easily to mainly white people who live on farms in remote locations, yet still demand community services. Idealogical zealots also conveniently ignore the legal requirement for indigenous people to retain an unbroken connection to the land if they want to succeed in native title claims.