Throwing money at housing won’t fix remote area woes

In a typical political kneejerk response to a difficult situation, the Labor government thinks the announcement of building houses for Aboriginal families will fix obvious social problems (“On the house: PM’s big build to close voice gap”, 12/3).

Throwing money at the situation sounds impressive, but unless the government listens to people who know what the real social issues are, like senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, and works with Aboriginal people to seriously address them, nothing will change.

The underlying social problems are so deeply entrenched that rectifying them won’t happen overnight, perhaps not even over one generation. Tackling them seriously has to start now.

Noelle Oke, Albury, NSW

The government will spend $4bn on housing for remote communities and, as a side effect, create some building and maintenance jobs for community members. That’s great. Not so great is the idea that these jobs will essentially be funded by our taxes.

These communities are economically unsustainable. After all, that’s why those areas were left alone for so long. Supporting people to stay “on country”, irrespective of economics, just maintains the gap.

I’m Indigenous and my family was subject to a natural experiment about whether it was better to stay on country or not. My grandmother was sent off mission as an orphan to be a servant. Her immediate relatives were “allowed” to stay. Two generations later, not only are there a couple of doctors in our family but economically, healthwise and spiritually we’re doing just fine.

Those who stayed back on the mission – not so great. Unemployment, shorter average lifespans and all the concomitant ills.

It’s clear that giving young people in remote communities every chance to get an education and a career is the only way to close the gap. (Maybe also better roads, so they aren’t so remote.)

Yearning for the old ways (usually selectively) and a past that will never return won’t close any gap.

Ken McNamara, Wollongong, NSW

Anthony Albanese finds another $4bn, to follow the endless billions that have failed to solve Indigenous housing problems in remote communities. Will the planning and design of such housing have the input of those who will actually live in these new homes?

Normally, housing has been planned and designed to fit neatly into suburban communities. Little or no consideration is given to local needs of fluctuating occupancy, climate and the idiosyncrasies of those who will live in the houses.

Perhaps houses designed by Indigenous locals might be unacceptable to progressive governments and too hard to explain on the UN cocktail circuit as to why they are accommodated in unusual ways?

Bruce Collison, Banks, ACT

Peter Garrett has identified some of the reasons for the failure of the referendum of the voice (“Good oil on what went wrong: the PM’s referendum mistakes”, 9-10/3).

We were aware of most of his reasons, but ultimately, while most people have an opinion about Aboriginal people, they don’t know any.

There are two worlds in Australia, the white and the black. In some of the remote regions, life is especially harsh for the Aboriginal people, but most whites can’t get past their prejudices and racist attitudes. It’s not surprising that only five of the 19 gaps in services have been achieved.

The Prime Minister would have won some brownie points if the millions he spent on the voice had been spent on the gaps instead.

Margaret Elder, Moss Vale, NSW

It is good to see Peter Garrett acknowledge errors in the voice campaign, but to lay the blame at the feet of Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and the “nasty underbelly” of some attitudes in Australia around racism is an error in itself.

As Garrett himself acknowledges, the timing was wrong in that “the ground hadn’t been laid as to why or what the voice would actually do, or how it would work”.

We must not forget that the vote was an emphatic No, with no state in favour.

One should not need the benefit of hindsight to know that the voice was doomed to failure at the outset.

David Muir, Indooroopilly, Qld