Northern Territory LNP Senator Jacinta Price has called for a probe into government spending on Indigenous affairs.
“We’re going to do what we haven’t done yet. We’re going to find out where the billions of dollars are being spent,” Senator Price said at a “No” campaign forum in Perth on Sept. 2.
“We are going to say right who else is accountable for this, we know that governments have, you know, made mistakes in the past, absolutely. On both sides, we’ve got to do things better.”
Dissecting The Evidence
The effectiveness of public expenditure on Indigenous affairs is not a recent concern, with the last official independently conducted report on the issue published in 2010.The Strategic Review of Indigenous Expenditure (pdf), commissioned by Kevin Rudd’s Labor government found that spending $3.5 billion each year on Indigenous programs has yielded poor returns.
“The history of Commonwealth policy for Indigenous Australians over the past 40 years is largely a story of good intentions, flawed policies, unrealistic assumptions, poor implementation, unintended consequences, and dashed hopes,” the report reads.
It also outlined that the proliferation of Indigenous initiatives and organisations comes at the expense of genuine improvement in livelihoods. It recommended a concentration of funding into a smaller number of programs.
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“There are too many programs sometimes with poorly articulated objectives and an excess of red tape,” it said.
“There is a strong case to reduce the number of Indigenous-specific programs operating across the Commonwealth. A smaller number of programs, with more clearly defined objectives, would have benefits both in clarity and flexibility.”
About 13 years later not a tremendous amount has changed.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander males currently have a life expectancy of 73.6 years, a marginal increase from the 71.4 reported in 2010.
Indigenous Australians still experience significantly higher rates of mental health issues than non-Indigenous Australians. As of September 2019, they also accounted for 28 percent of the total adult prisoner population whilst only making up 3.3 percent of the national population.
The Official Stance
The Albanese Labor government’s proposed “Indigenous Voice to Parliament” aims to solve this issue, with a core tenet of the “Yes” campaign being a promise to ensure the taxpayer’s dime is put to good use.On Oct. 14, Australians will go to the polls to vote on an amendment to the Constitution to change the preamble to recognise Indigenous people and to set up an advisory body to Parliament to make “representations” on issues deemed relevant to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.
The Labor government and its campaigners have often referenced the need for more intimate collaboration between public servants and Indigenous communities to solve problems on the ground.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers recently outlined his government’s justification, saying The Voice will act as a mechanism to ensure better-targeted policy prescriptions are implemented.
“The Voice is about recognition and listening and will mean that the billions of dollars that governments invest in programs are better able to deliver outcomes that improve lives,” Treasurer Chalmers wrote in an opinion piece.
“By listening to First Nations Communities, the Voice will help ensure money gets to the communities where it will have the most impact and deliver the best outcomes in areas like Indigenous health, education, employment, and housing.”
The No campaign, however, is sceptical over whether the body will have any real tangible effect on outcomes for vulnerable Indigenous communities.
There has been little evidence to suggest additional layers of bureaucracy are a solution to resolving the disparities between some Indigenous communities and the rest of the population.
Most notably, former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam established the National Aboriginal Consultative Committee (NACC) in 1973 with the principle aim of directly representing the needs of Indigenous communities through close collaboration with the Department of Aboriginal Affairs.
The committee was dismantled in 1985 after a report commissioned by the then-Minister for Aboriginal Affairs Clyde Holding exposed a degree of financial mismanagement due to inexperienced staff.
There are also numerous existing bodies with the primary aim of catering to the commercial and community needs of Indigenous Australians, most notably the Coalition of Peaks and Indigenous Advisory Committee (IAC).
Indigenous academic and prominent No advocate Anthony Dillon believes the solution to breaking the cycle in Indigenous Australia is far more clear-cut.
“When we look at the Indigenous architects of The Voice, they’re high achievers. They have achieved because they’ve got an education, they’ve made the most of opportunities given to them and they’ve done it all without The Voice,” Mr. Dillon told ADH TV.
“They should be using their voices to say ‘Hey, to those disadvantaged Aboriginal Australians, what you’ve got to do is what I’ve done. Get into the job market and get an education.’”
