Senator Liddle is right; her people do not all think the same

South Australian Liberal senator Kerrynne Liddle, the new opposition Indigenous Australians spokeswoman, has had it with hearing that Indigenous Australians all think the same, depend on government services, and focus on ideology rather than solutions to practical problems. She has a point. There is much that is patronising, at best, in the way people on the public payroll present Indigenous Australians as dependent on the state, incapable of making their own way. Being Aboriginal or a Torres Strait Islander is not just a statement of identity in public service parlance, it is a category of socio-economic disadvantage that puts all Indigenous Australians in a box.

Not so. As Senator Liddle said this week, Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders do not all have the same life circumstances, aspirations and opinions. Senator Liddle is an Arrernte woman from Central Australia, with careers in business and politics, and her achievements demonstrate that the idea all Indigenous Australians are the same is nonsensical. Two-thirds of Indigenous-owned companies are just getting on with business, not bothering with programs to help win government contracts. And people in remote communities ask for practical help rather than raising abstract issues. “They did not say to me ‘can you fix colonisation?’; they did not say to me ‘can you please fix Closing the Gap?’; they did not say to me ‘can we please talk about treaty?” she said.

In her new job, Senator Liddle intends to focus on practical problems. She mentioned federally funded child protection and frontline services provided by Aboriginal-controlled organisations that were not delivering. She will have plenty to occupy her. The Australian regularly reports on publicly funded organisations in which managements squabble over the spoils of office, feud with rivals groups and use issues of identity to advance their own interests. None of which protects people who remain in poverty because housing assistance and community cohesion have failed. Senator Liddle says her approach will be localised. Quite right; in helping communities, all politics is local. Indigenous Australians work in all industries and professions. We need to ensure ever more young people join them; treating them as individuals rather than as members of one big group will help.