Australian taxpayers are tired of “spending billions of dollars” without good results for Indigenous Australians, lead “No” campaigner against The Voice, Warren Mundine, said on Oct. 23.
Mr. Mundine told 2GB radio that public funding was not resulting in “Aboriginal people living longer lives, getting educated, and in jobs and housing.”
He expressed concern for inadequate opportunities from single land ownership limitations under the 1992 Mabo decision.
The court case paved the way for the Native Title Act (1993), which led to recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities having collective land rights claims.
“We know one of the main things that help people get out of poverty, move into the middle class, and build a future for their kids and grandkids is homeownership, and in these communities ... they aren’t allowed to own their own house on their land,” he said.
“Because it’s the collective inalienable title. So that has to be looked at ... because people can’t invest in these communities to set up businesses and get people jobs.”
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About 4,138,356 square kilometres of national and 91,111 square kilometres of sea country were subject to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s rights or interests in 2022.
Mr. Mundine added large Indigenous-linked trust accounts in Western Australia (WA), and the Nothern Territory (NT) contained several billion dollars, yet connected communities were living in “poverty.”
“The only people that seem to be doing alright are the top executive levels of these trusts,” he said.
Further, he said it was “bizarre” that proceeds from community-owned land had to be diverted through these trust accounts.
“Why would I work hard to set up a market garden, and everyone who didn’t work got the same thing,” he said.
He called on NSW Premier Chris Minns to “get his act together” and “sort out” Native Title land rights before promising to take a ‘Treaty” with Indigenous peoples to the next election.
Nationally, about 81.4 percent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people lived in appropriately sized housing in 2021, an increase from 78.9 percent in 2016. While this is an improvement, more is needed to meet the national target of 88 percent, according to the Productivity Commission’s Closing the Gap Report in July 2023.
Mr. Mundine’s comments come after 60 percent of Australian voters rejected the “Indigenous Voice to Parliament” on Oct. 14.
The Voice referendum was a proposed amendment to the Australian Constitution to establish a constitutionally enshrined Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander advisory body into Parliament.
During the referendum campaign, Mr. Mundine said Australians wanted to recognise Indigenous Australians in the Constitution but did not see The Voice as a “practical way forward.”
Education the Key
Mr. Mundine called on the federal government to fully support Indigenous education programs “giving real results” like the Australian Indigenous Education Foundation, which provides scholarship funding for Indigenous students to complete Year 12 or tertiary studies.“Education is the key to opening the door,” he said.
“We should focus on healing the community and bringing people back together for an ”outcome-driven approach.”
Meanwhile, Labor Indigenous Minister Linda Burney said, “We need to keep listening to Indigenous Australians about what works and what can make practical differences for the next generation because we all want what’s best for our children,”
“We all want our children and grandchildren to have a better future,” Ms. Burney said.
“But the government is committed more than ever, with the determination that is fierce to particularly the disadvantage being experienced by our people, and the closing that gap targets,” she said.
She said priorities would be community issues like education.
It comes as early development outcomes declined with just 34.3 percent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children found to be on track in five Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) domains, a decrease from 35.2 percent in 2018 and far from the 55 percent national target.
Further, 47 percent of people aged 25–34 completed a tertiary qualification in 2021, an improvement from 42.3 percent in 2016 but not enough for the national target of 70 percent.
About 40 percent of adults have minimal English literacy, which can rise to 70 percent in remote and marginalised communities, such as those in the NT, where rates of adult imprisonment, children in out-of-home care, and suicide increased.
The Gap is Between the Most Marginalised
Liberal senator and No advocate, Jacinta Price, argued the Gap exists between marginalised communites, rather than between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australia.
She said, specifically, the gap was prominent between those whose “first language isn’t English, who live in remote communities—and the rest of Australia, including middle-class Aboriginal Australia doing well.”
“We need to focus our efforts on where our marginalised exist, and we need to listen to their voices,” she said. “Going forward, we need to prioritise where our most marginalised are.”
