The shocking footage emerging from Alice Springs is a testament to the repeated failures of indigenous policy over many decades. Despite good intentions, and billions of dollars in funding, all sides of politics have failed to stem the dysfunction of some remote indigenous communities.
That does not mean we should not be trying harder to fix the problems and provide some relief to the terrified residents of Alice Springs. People are not helped, however when the Indigenous Affairs Minister, Linda Burney, ridiculously claims that the situation in Alice would not have deteriorated if the Aboriginal Voice to Parliament had been established earlier.
A recent poll found that just 13 per cent of Australians could explain what the Voice meant so first I should explain what this proposal is about.
Later this year the Australian people will be asked whether they would support a change to our constitution that would require the establishment of a new body called the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice. The Voice may make representations to Parliament and the Government on matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.
The details of this Voice remain otherwise light on. Even the Prime Minister cannot explain whether the Voice will be elected, will members be paid, how many staff will they have or even how many members of the Voice there will be. There is no guarantee for example that a member of the Voice will come from Alice Springs.
Ironically though, the National Parliament already has two Aboriginal Members of Parliament from Alice Springs. Labor’s Member for Lingiari was warning about rising crime levels in November last year, and called the NT Labor Government’s policy response at the time a “band aid”. And the Coalition’s Senator Jacinta Price warned last year that the removal of alcohol restrictions was a recipe to increase domestic violence and sexual abuse.
If Linda Burney could not listen to the Indigenous voices in our National Parliament that we have now what hope do we have that she will listen to a new extra-Parliamentary body called the Voice?
More likely the culprit here is the Voice itself. The new government has been distracted in its first year over its Voice proposal. This is the reason it has been blindsided by the complete breakdown of law and order in Alice Springs.
The way things are going the Voice will simply become another talkfest in a space that is filled with bodies that provide well paid, comfortable jobs for public servants but that do little for the lives of Aboriginal people on the ground.
I do not pretend to have all of the answers for Alice Springs. But I am confident that dividing our country by race, and establishing a race based body in our Constitution, is not the way to build harmony and progress.
What is needed is to recognise that we are all Australians. That each of us has the dignity of a human soul and we all deserve to be able to live safely and free from the terror of crime. That attitude is enough to make governments focus on reducing crime everywhere in Australia.
There is an underlying paternalism implied in the Voice proposal. Notice the Voice (a clumsy description for a corporate organisation) is singular. There is the patronising assumption that Aboriginal people speak with one voice. Whereas in my experience Aboriginal people are just like the rest of us. They have diverse opinions and views.
It is about time we start respecting all Australians as individuals. We should drop the obsession of dividing us all into groups based on race, sex and gender and protect each individual’s inherent right to a life free from violence.
