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BLACK CURRENT: Tallying up a promising debt
ISSUE 190 - 12 Nov 2009
ISSUE 190, November 12, 2009: AMY MCQUIRE* looks up the ALP's bill as news of another unfulfilled promise hits the airwaves.
If a promise is a debt, than the Rudd government is far behind on its repayments.
When the Global Financial Crisis hit, most people looked at the government through the prism of cold, hard cash.
As some people exulted in their $900 stimulus payments, the question remained - would the Rudd government's initiative help us lift ourselves out of the sticky financial mire?
It's a good question to ponder, but one that should not overshadow another huge bill that the ALP has racked up - that in cold, hard promises.
I acknowledge that Labor did Australia a great service by finally kicking John Howard out of government.
But in 2008, even after a national apology to the Stolen Generations (the first promise fulfilled by Kevin Rudd) we were not ready to let them off that easily.
After all, Aboriginal Australia had suffered just as much under past Labor government policies. Why would a Rudd government be any different?
Thus, NIT compiled a long list of the promises that Labor had made to Indigenous Australia leading up to the election.
And it was a long list. If you want to read it, it can be found at NIT's downloads section (www.nit.com.au/downloads).
It stretches from funding commitments in education, employment and health (most of which were fulfilled in the first budget, although I can't say whether the funds have been underspent), to long-awaited policy changes, such as the reinstatement of the permit system in the NT (which still has not been reinstated, although there have been attempts to pass laws through the Upper House).
Some of the items on the ALP's bill have been met.
A promise to endorse the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, for example, was fulfilled by the ALP, albeit belatedly and begrudgingly.
And there was promise to establish a National Representative Body, which it would be "held accountable to".
While there have been consultations around the country into a body, and a proposed model delivered by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Tom Calma, the Rudd government has still not said whether it will support the model.
One of the big promises was to conduct a 12-month review into the Northern Territory intervention. The ALP did do this, although it did not really take on board the recommendations of the review.
It is obvious that all of the ALP's promises came with a catch. And that's not counting the items that are still left on its bill.
One of them was a promise to change the date of Australia Day to one that was more inclusive, buried in a promise to fulfil the recommendations of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation's report in 2000.
These recommendations also contained a promise for a treaty between black and white Australia, which the ALP had also promised by stating it would negotiate a "lasting settlement" with Aboriginal people.
After receiving plenty of heat over the Australia Day promise, with the debate spectacularly ignited by Australian of the Year Mick Dodson on accepting his title, Kevin Rudd was quick to back down. Subsequently, this year the ALP took a red pen to its National Platform and slashed this promise.
In fact, it re-drafted many of its mother statements on Indigenous Australia, which took up a lot of the 2007 National Platform.
Another big promise has been the ALP's commitment to strengthening Aboriginal legal aid funding, essential for reducing the high incarceration rate of Indigenous Australians.
The ALP was adamant on this in Opposition, but there is a deep division between their words and actions.
Since taking government, Labor has consistently under-funded Aboriginal legal aid services in its federal budgets. The UN Human Rights Committee rapped Australia on the knuckles over this failed commitment in March this year.
Not that Australia listens to the UN anyway.
As the year comes to an end, and Kevin Rudd prepares to celebrate the second anniversary of election victory, his government has demonstrated once again that it is not serious on delivering its promises.
The latest blight has been the federal government's failure to introduce laws to reinstate the Racial Discrimination Act (RDA) by October.
Although Minister for Indigenous Affairs Jenny Macklin had stated that the income management scheme was likely to remain compulsory under the RDA, and the takeover threat of the Alice Springs town camps was already being pushed through before the RDA was re-instated, many held hope that the Rudd government would do this by October.
The UN had also weighed in on the debate, with the Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) calling on the Rudd government to send them information on its progress on the RDA.
But October came and went.
The only party to try and reinstate the Act were the Greens.
Greens Senator Rachel Siewert condemned the government as she introduced the draft laws.
"After almost two years in power and a review of the NTER which recommended the RDA be re-instated immediately, the Government has not acted," Ms Siewert said.
"This delay in re-instating the basic human rights of the Indigenous people of the Northern Territory is inexcusable and must be rectified.
"There is no doubt that the NTER legislation, in suspending the operation of the RDA, is contrary to Australia's international obligations and is harming our reputation overseas."
It has also substantially harmed the Rudd government's connection with Indigenous people, and once again puts a farcical light on Labor rhetoric that it is "resetting" the relationship.
When someone backs down on repaying a loan or fulfilling a commitment, the common response for anyone would be to quit dealing with that person again, or at least be more cautious.
How can the Rudd government expect any different when it has failed to pay its debt to Indigenous Australians - the debt of their promises?
Unfortunately, Aboriginal people don't have the luxury of cutting off all ties to the ALP, or future governments who are unlikely to pay their dues.
All we can do is keep on tallying the bill, and sending it to them with a big red "Overdue" stamp blaring from the page.
*blackcurrent@nit.com.au
Amy McQuire is acting editor of NIT. She is of Darumbul, South Sea Islander and European heritage.
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