A long time coming
9/10/08; The Australian; Letters; http://blogs.theaustralian.news.com.au/letters/index.php/ theaustralian/comments/a_long_time_coming/
Both the Rudd Government’s announcement (”Time’s up for Aboriginal work-for-dole”, 7/10) and your editorial (”Indigenous people need right to work”, 7/10), concerning the abolition of the Community Development Employment Projects scheme in all but remote areas, implicitly assume that the proposed employment and training regime will be for the betterment of indigenous people.
The reality is that, in remote areas at least, the abolition of CDEP will only be effective to the extent that there is something workable to replace it. CDEP pays for many essential services in indigenous communities and regional towns across the continent and I’m not optimistic about the likelihood of real jobs being created to replace those done under CDEP. A more likely outcome will be unemployed indigenous people receiving unemployment benefits rather than CDEP money.
The inevitable bureaucratic requirements which will go with training will undoubtedly meet barriers ranging from illiteracy to language barriers to lack of transport, not to mention plain lack of employability in some cases. Leaving aside the question of the capacity of the commonwealth and the states to deliver enough training programs, the notion that training will lead to employment in many regional areas is a pipedream.
Programs intended to eliminate indigenous disadvantage have been a long time coming, and we are not going to turn the corner until indigenous people are truly given the same basic rights of Australian citizenship as other Australians — such as community safety and access to decent shelter, power, water, education and health. The present situation comes from a long period of neglect, and addressing indigenous disadvantage requires a multi-disciplinary, bi-partisan, intergovernmental approach over decades.
Let’s make a start, but let’s also see governments truly held accountable for the delivery of those basic rights of citizenship as well as expecting indigenous people to meet the obligations being placed on them by both governments and by their own people. Tony Milln; Kyneton, Vic.
See: Time’s up for Aboriginal work-for-dole scheme; Patricia Karvelas & Padraic Murphy; 7/10/08; http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24457897-601,00.html;
Indigenous people need right to work; 7/10/08; http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24456876-16741,00.html
Tags: Aboriginal, Australia, Reconciliation