Swapping Indigenous welfare for wealth creation: let’s give it a go

Anthony Albanese in Brisbane on Friday. Picture, John Gass

This is now Anthony Albanese’s story – a grand effort to usher the most disadvantaged Indigenous Australians into the mainstream economy.

Politically and morally, the Prime Minister cannot leave Indigenous affairs alone now. The failure of the voice referendum was a gut punch to so many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians who believed it would end a long exclusion. He took them there. It follows that he should offer an alternative.

There has never been an economic development agenda like this in Indigenous affairs. It is optimistic and plots the end of welfare as the norm.

The Prime Minister has been listening to Yawaru leader Peter Yu, who pioneered a home ownership scheme for his people in the town of Broome with an innovative combination of native title land, shared equity and low interest loans. It has transformed the lives of single parents and low-income couples who did not dare believe they could afford property in the resort town.

Yu believes that after decades of heavy government support and intervention in remote communities, there should be a generation of Indigenous tradies and small business owners to run those places. There isn’t. Routinely, non-Aboriginal contractors are paid a premium to drive or fly in to do maintenance and repairs.

Yu says the sustainability of remote communities depends on switching government spending from welfare to wealth creation. It is an idea he has researched with the newly formed First Nations Economic Empowerment Alliance. He took it to Albanese with a clear message: the future of Aboriginal communities depends on switching government spending from welfare to wealth creation.

The alliance – which includes the First Nations Clean Energy Network, the National Native Title Council, Indigenous Land and Sea Corporation, Indigenous Business Australia and First Australians Capital – has listened to Indigenous communities across Australia about what they want for their futures. It found many communities were looking towards enterprise already and some had embarked on projects as a way to create jobs. But they need help and private investment.

Albanese is signalling that he is ready to make government a conduit. He sees a historic opportunity with the emerging clean energy economy for Indigenous empowerment. It is a futuristic policy move with the potential to be hugely consequential.