‘It is literally heartbreaking’: Dutton on ‘absolute squalor’ of Aboriginal community
Liberal leader Peter Dutton has described Indigenous Australians in Alice Springs as living in “absolute squalor” after being confronted over “racist” remarks.
Liberal leader Peter Dutton has described First Nations people in Alice Springs as living in “absolute squalor” in a new episode of the ABC’s Kitchen Cabinet where he is confronted by host Annabel Crabb over “racist” remarks.
The former Queensland cop has gone into extraordinary detail about his complicated personal life on the program, including his first marriage as a teenager.
But it’s his comments around race and the Voice that are set to spark controversy, with the Liberal leader telling journalist Annabel Crabb that one of the biggest things that blows him away most about Indigenous culture is “the squalor” of some communities.
“Well, it depends on where you go. If you go to East Arnhem Land, kids at school 90 per cent of the time they’ve got an attendance rate equivalent to what we would see in a capital city.’’ Mr Dutton says.
“There’s employment programs and a building company that has been established, this up in Yunupingu land and there’s a functioning society.
“It’s quite remarkable that you hop on the plane and then go to Alice Springs and people living in town camps or in absolute squalor. The health system’s not functioning. The law-and-order system is not functioning. And there’s a complete breakdown.
“And it is literally heartbreaking.
Host Annabel Crabb then suggests this is “interesting because I was asking you about First Nations Indigenous culture and you’ve gone straight to law and order”.
“But, you ask what sort of strikes you most when you go into that community. It is the squalor,’’ Mr Dutton confirms.
“And the culture, the arts, dance, the storytelling, all of that is remarkable when you go into a community. But in some communities, it masks an underbelly, which is something that none of us in the part of Australia that we live we would tolerate.”
Following Mr Dutton’s concession that he now regrets not voting for the national apology because he hadn’t kind of appreciated what the symbolism of the moment meant to First Nations people, he is then asked, “Do you think that you’re at risk of kind of making the same mistake again with the Voice which is facing a referendum pretty soon?”.
“I don’t think I am,’’ he says.
“This is inserting a new chapter into the Constitution. It’s a nation’s rule book. And I think if you’re going to do that, the onus is on the proposer to have the detail available. And people in our country should have the ability to air their views without being shouted down.”
“The bigger issue for me is that I’m arguing that the form of words that the government has put forward are well and truly open to significant interpretation by the High Court and I think a Voice in legislation so that you could show and demonstrate how it would work. I think a Voice in legislation would allow you to dial up or down by amendment to that legislation.”
“And I believe in the principle of, of wanting to hear from Indigenous Australians, particularly at the coalface. I’m strongly in favour of hearing that voice and acting on it. And the question, when you speak to a lot of Indigenous people in communities is not that not about their voice being heard or not, it’s whether it’s acted upon. And I think that’s failing in the system at the moment.”
In the episode also defended his claims that Melburnians were too scared to go to dinner because of “African gangs” and admitting he regrets suggesting the Fraser government made a mistake by resettling Lebanese refugees.
“We could write a shopping list two pages long about remarks that you’ve made or pronouncements that have been very black and white and have been controversial a lot of them around race, immigration, that sort of stuff,’’ host Annabel Crabb suggests in the program.
“When you think of, for example, the time that you were talking about people being afraid to go out for dinner because there were African gangs. But did you ever think of, you know like what maybe an African Australian mum would think worrying that her like teenage boy would be kind of viewed as a thug as a result?
Mr Dutton said he made the comment after speaking to friends in Melbourne because there were “incidents where people had cars stolen or people going into restaurants and, you know, creating havoc”.
“And the incidents in Victoria at the time were related to kids, predominantly from a particular community,’’ he said.
“So it wasn’t meant as a slight or as a slight against Victoria. You know, Dan Andrews … He exploited that for all it was worth. And it didn’t come from a place of hatred or it came from a place of seeing people suffering at the hands of crime. And that’s
what motivated me. So could it have been said more sensitively. Yes, of course. And do you learn from your mistakes or you’re a fool not to.”
Conversation then turns to Mr Dutton’s controversial remarks about the Lebanese community in Australia which he admits he regrets.
“And I guess I think of the other example that comes to mind is the one Malcolm Fraser having made a bit of an error letting in Lebanese Muslim migrants in the seventies where I remember what you were talking about at the time you’re talking about an overrepresentation of those particular cohort in terrorist accused. But the takeout for lots of other people were like, oh, this guy thinks that Lebanese people should go home,’’ Crabb said.
“Yeah, well, again, at the time it was in the context of an attempted attack on an A-380 to bring down an A380. There were a number of terrorist attacks that were thwarted in our country and there was an overrepresentation. And you can sort of tiptoe around it and pretend that it’s not an issue,’’ Mr Dutton replied.
But journalist Crabb then suggests there’s no getting around the fact that it was a “racist remark.”
“I think if you’re saying as a general thing that we made an error bringing, you know, an entire cohort or allowing an entire cohort of immigrants of a certain race and religion. I can’t see how there’s any way of looking at that, apart from that it’s a racist remark,’’ she said.
“You know they’re comments that I shouldn’t have made,’’ Mr Dutton replies.
“I’ve apologised for that. But again, when you’re in the thrust of it and in the thick of it, we were dealing with people who had been radicalised and many of them shared a background and that’s sort of the factual reality of what we were dealing with.”
Annabel Crabb’s Kitchen Cabinet airs tonight on the ABC at 8pm or on iview.
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