ABORIGINAL welfare is to be rebuilt from the ground up with the introduction of behavioral “contracts” with black communities in return for healthcare, education, dole money and services, in an attempt to turn around 40 years of failure. Indigenous Affairs Minister Amanda Vanstone said the payment of “sit-down money” would end. The Government proposals include

….the “no school, no pool” system to reward school attendance by stopping children from visiting the community swimming pool if they do not attend classes.

The rewards system includes a DVD player for the community to run movie nights for children who attend school, and a pool of bikes to be ridden by children in the afternoons after they have attended school Predictably Aboriginal leader Pat Dodson angrily condemns the plan thus headlining one of the major problems Australia has with fixing the indigenous problems.

“This is not mutual obligation — nothing like it,” he said. “It’s fascism gone mad. It’s crazy stuff. Two hundred years of enlightenment and this is the best they’ve been able to deliver.

Any plan that even hints of paternalism is labeled fascism. You?re no help Pat. Always critical but never, ever suggesting an alternative plan for debate. I don’t know all the answers but I do know a plan, an idea, always beats just more of the same. Community members can scream fascism all they want but that only amounts to doing nothing and obviously something has to be done. Pat goes on to say

… the plan had all the hallmarks of a government short on ideas. Having rejected the big picture — constitutional change, a treaty, land rights and reconciliation — and having questioned the validity of the stolen generations and minimalised native title, the Howard Government now planned to use welfare payments as a weapon for change.

Dead right, Pat. Constitutional change, treaties, land rights and reconciliation, stolen generations and native title are not answers to real life problems. Cool over coffee in Military Road, Cremorne but meaningless in remote communities. Sober up and get your kids off to school is a good first step to racial pride and a long way ahead of whatever constitutional change your looking for. We have tried grog bans but life isn’t that simple. As I commented in a previous blog, while the locals have the cash they will buy grog. If the town is dry, they will consume it on the outskirts. ATSIC regional commissioner Michael White, who was invited on to the Government’s new indigenous advisory council, questioned why Aboriginal people should be the “only ones forced to do this.”

“It sounds like blackmail to say that if you’re not a good enough mum or dad, you won’t receive any payments and won’t be able to feed your kids.”

You may have a point Michael, but making it doesn’t help your people. Plenty of white families have similar problems but that isn’t your worry. You either accept the plan man, or come up with a better one. You’re there to help the blacks, not to cry – ‘but they do it, why can’t we?’ Smart-card push to ensure payments not wasted headlines another suggested solution. Dole money to be accessed through smart cards that have implanted father chips saying no, you cannot buy grog – try buying food, school clothes for your kids or pay your electricity bill. While accepting Aboriginal communities did have problems with children’s school attendance rates and alcohol abuse, Mr Yeatman and fellow councilors at Yarrabah, south of Cairns, felt the proposed welfare reforms would do little to get people working. Councilor Josephine Murgha said the reforms were yet another example of the Howard Government pushing policies on Aboriginal communities without consulting them. Wrong, The moves were first laid on the table by Aboriginal leaders

Since Mr Quartermaine raised their potential benefit for child protection, Tasmanian ATSIC commissioner Rodney Dillon, Australia’s first indigenous woman MP Carol Martin, child health expert and former Australian of the Year Fiona Stanley, and Cape York lawyer Noel Pearson have backed smart cards as an option worth exploring.

She goes on to say

“We would rather sit down with Yarrabah people and develop strategies and ways to deal with kids who are not attending school,”

Councilor Murgha, the problem has existed for a long time now. ATSIC have had the chair and the chance for years and haven’t improved on the situation. Bad plan too date, let’s try another one.

A lot has been said about eduaction being an answer to indigenous problems and I for one have raised it often. In my recent trip to Arnhem Land I listened to supporters of Black Prince Galarrwuy Yunupingu talk of his plan of identifying young talent and sending them off to southern boarding schools. All well and good, I though, but what of the rest. Not only is there a dearth of schools in indigenous country but without parental support the education that is available isn’t working. Truancy rates are too high and as a result too few kids reach high school age anywhere near the standard of their white counterparts. An atmosphere that doesn’t revere education hardly encourages kids to study at night. So, whereas I support recent talk of sending kids to southern boarding schools I also ask what are we doing about those that are not meeting the standards to enter high school. Education in situ needs to be fixed as well. Noel Pearson raises the subject in a piece entitled Noel Pearson: No danger of another stolen generation. Stolen generations, Jesus, why do we always have to preempt left wing caterwauling. At least we are discussing indigenous education.