Billions of misspent dollars have failed to ease indigenous problems

While I have never crossed paths with Indigenous Affairs Minister Ken Wyatt, I am definitely an admirer. He is possessed of a soft voice which produces wisdom and kindness in equal measure.

When I was first elected by caucus to the ministry in 1987, I told Bob Hawke I would take any job except for Aboriginal Affairs. I knew from past experience and observation that I would not make a difference. You would need a PhD in advanced mathematics to calculate how much money has been thrown at the Aboriginal “problem”. Given the miserable results so far achieved, many billions of dollars have been wasted.

From the absurdity of totally fictitious “secret women’s business” holding up the building of a bridge in South Australia to the seemingly endless discoveries of hitherto unknown and unrecognised sacred sites, Australians are growing even more sceptical about government choices in funding. It is so easy to sign up to a program which promises to do so much good in the towns and outstations of Western Australia, the NT and Queensland.

What is difficult is getting that money out to where it is needed — such as the places where open sewer drains provide appalling health risks day after day.

In this respect the tyranny of distance is real indeed.

The rest of the world judges us harshly on the way our indigenous people are treated. It is difficult to know, however, which is the correct step to take. If sufficient respect is not given to those who want to live a more traditional lifestyle, then a whole culture would be lost. As it is, we live with the scandal of a marginalised people living on society’s fringes. They still have worse health and education outcomes and they die years earlier than caucasians.

White men’s scourges are still being laid upon them. Influenza wiped out thousands of Aboriginal people who, because of their isolation, had no immune system to fight for them.

The image of drunken Aboriginal fringe dwellers is not a pretty one but it is strikingly real in too many parts of this country.

Noel Pearson is an inspiring figure. I am not sure that he is driven with ambition but if a greater role can be found for him, in which he is happy to serve, then I would invest considerable money and power with him.

There is so much division within Aboriginal Australia that I can’t see how Pearson’s plan for a Voice to parliament would work but I will have to examine his plans more closely.

There was a time when the fact that an Aboriginal boy or girl was graduating from university was a big deal. Progress must be continuing to be made because it is no longer a matter of significance. At grassroots level though, education remains a problem because absenteeism is still way too common, even if not as rife as it once was.

Violence against women and children is still a huge problem in Aboriginal communities.

When you try to have a community meeting and no men turn up because, according to their women, they are too drunk and the women have to bring their children with them because of the risk of sexual abuse at home, you know you have a problem.

When I witnessed this I stayed silent because I did not wish to be painted as a racist. In a life replete with some whopping errors, my ­silence was gutless.

Anyone who experiences the “night cart” in Katherine gets to know not only how horrendous ­violence against women can be in Aboriginal communities, they get to see how common it is too.

I saw women with their eyes barely clinging to their sockets, blood and bruising everywhere, being picked up on dole cheque evenings and dropped off to a temporarily safe environment. The sad fact that the same women would be back again and again in that dreadful condition is truly heartbreaking.

The only way these women will ever get some respite from this shocking treatment is to remove alcohol from their communities.

On another front, I have to take my hat off for modern day Great Britain and its extraordinary racial mix. Indians, Pakistanis, North ­Africans and people from the ­Caribbean are all seeking to set up new lives there and yet tales of race riots are few and far between.

While politicians from the Netherlands decry the fact that Holland will one day be predominantly black if there is no halt to immigration, the Brits seem to take it all in their stride.

I didn’t notice any immigration debate on a grand scale going on during the British election. Cities such as Birmingham now have declining white demographies but this was not a factor in the election.

I was not surprised by Jeremy Corbyn’s defeat. There are many lifelong Labour voters who could not stand the idea of a Corbyn-led Labour Party.

The left takeover of the Labour Party has had its reward — defeat by the Tories. Corbyn should be banished to the backbench for all time. He is little more than an unreconstructed Stalinist.

Sadly, he has dragged a great party down with him. It is a lesson for our Labor Party. If you dally with a dill as leader you will be treated with contempt by the mob which always works you out.