Aboriginal jobs `stifled' by legislation
19.10.2009



By: Tony Koch


RESTRUCTURING the lives of Aboriginal people away from welfare dependency was more than just ensuring children attended school, but was dependent on their getting real employment and the ability to own their own homes, Aboriginal leader Noel Pearson said yesterday.
Mr Pearson said that at the halfway mark of a trial on welfare reform in Cape York communities, school attendances were excellent and child protection had reached a new high-water mark, but government was dragging its heels on housing and jobs.
He made the comments at a breakfast meeting in Port Douglas with businessman Peter Holmes a Court, who had just completed a 2500km, week-long road trip around Cape York Aboriginal communities, listening to local views on welfare and the effects of the Queensland government's wild rivers legislation. Mr Holmes a Court is a former chief executive of the Australian Agricultural Company, the nation's largest pastoral enterprise and more recently joined Oscar-winning actor Russell Crowe in buying the financially troubled South Sydney Rabbitohs rugby league club. Mr Holmes a Court issued a sobering message to government, warning that legislation that inhibited the development of economic enterprises stifled any opportunity for indigenous Australians to achieve self-sufficiency.
``The penny dropped for me this week after sitting down and listening to the views of scores of Aboriginal people that they desperately want to get off welfare and have what all Australians aspire to -- jobs, dignified lives, and a future for their children,'' he said.
``Home ownership is a vital aspect in that equation, and industries have to be developed in these remote places to provide jobs.
``The project we saw being developed at Lockhart River community, for instance, where native pongamia trees are cultivated to provide biofuel in the form of diesel fuel is an ideal niche industry for the Cape. I note that former premier Peter Beattie endorsed that same view at the weekend.
``Peter has an understanding of this region and he gets it that biofuel is the greenest way to power this part of the world.
``The aspirations of the communities are so modest and utterly reasonable when it comes to development, while at the other end of the scale the white development projects include the biggest bauxite-producing region in the world.
``It is incongruous that the small projects of the indigenous communities cannot get off the ground, yet huge mining enterprises keep powering through.
``I think that when decisions are being made that deeply affect the lives of people and affect communities, it is incumbent upon our political leaders to really inform themselves of the possible outcomes, and to act with great care.''
Mr Holmes a Court was referring to the wild rivers legislation introduced by the Queensland government, which controls development on thousands of square kilometres of Cape York, most of it held under hard-earned native title, and all of it including land on which Aboriginal communities exist.
Mr Pearson and the Cape York Land Council have mounted a campaign to have the laws overturned, but the Queensland government has not budged.
Mr Holmes a Court described the regulations imposed by the Wild Rivers Act as ``immoral and totally unjust'' and gave a commitment to Aboriginal people to back them in their protests and to support Mr Pearson.
``We are two years into the welfare reform trial -- halfway into the program agreed with the previous Queensland government and endorsed by Prime Minister Rudd and Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin,'' he said.
``When we say welfare reform, we mean a transition for people from welfare to employment and economic development.
``That cannot be achieved when restrictions such as those imposed by the wild rivers legislation are imposed. We don't just mean tweaking a few rules around what people must do to continue receiving welfare payments.
``Putting conditions on welfare payments such as sending children to school is only a small part of the program.
``The guts of the program is about employment and home ownership and enabling enterprises to develop for the productive use of land that people have.
``The scorecard is looking fine on the social responsibility side but we are making absolutely no progress on the employment and economic development side of welfare reform and on housing.
``We have gone back to the public housing model that we have lived under for ... 40 years.''
Mr Pearson said he was brought up at Hopevale Community on Cape York in a house his father and family members built with their own hands from materials they bought with wages earned from real work.
``But since 1970 the government moved in and built welfare housing -- flasher homes for sure with hot water and electricity, but they were neglected and trashed because people did not have that personal ownership.
``Pretty soon our little mission village turned into a ghetto.
``Our welfare reform model is set upon us moving away from the public housing model to home ownership so the families have some skin in the game.''