Australian Politics
‘Second way to close the gap’: Jacinta Nampijinpa Price outlines her post-voice vision
Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has laid out her vision for an “advancement movement” in Indigenous affairs, in which welfare-dependent Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people do the jobs in their communities currently done by fly-in, fly-out workers, and “meet the standards other Australians are expected to meet”.
The opposition Indigenous affairs spokeswoman also calls for an end to an implied acceptance of cultural payback, arranged marriage, apportioning tragedies and mishaps to sorcery and other practices that are “anathema to modern culture”. As her home base of Alice Springs enters its second curfew this year to curb youth violence, and the nation struggles to find a new policy path after the failure of the voice to parliament referendum, Senator Nampijinpa Price has declared there is a “second way” to close the gap.
“We know where the gap is – it is 20 per cent of the 3 per cent,” the Northern Territory senator writes in an essay on history commissioned for The Australian’s 60th Anniversary Collector’s Edition magazine, published on Saturday.
“It’s remote Indigenous Australians, many of whom do not have English as a first language. We already know that we can either fix or exacerbate that by school attendance.
“There should be no fly-in, fly-out workers in communities with Indigenous Australians on welfare.”
The Australian Senator details her essay on history.
Senator Price – a Warlpiri-Celtic woman from Alice Springs – has set out her arguments for an “advancement movement” and her hope for “real reconciliation and integration”, as she works on the Indigenous affairs policy she and Peter Dutton will take to the next election.
She describes the advancement movement as “a second way”.
“We can continue along the separatist road that sees Indigenous Australians as irrevocably damaged by settlement and wants to keep Aboriginal culture stuck in time like a museum piece,” Senator Nampijinpa Price writes.
“Traditional culture is romanticised by those who do not live it, while reinvention of culture has become an industry in the name of reconciliation for the purpose of political influence.
“This (separatist) way forward leaves negative parts of Indigenous culture alone to grow and fester. Things like violent cultural payback, arranged marriage and apportioning tragedies and mishaps to sorcery, all of which are anathema to modern culture.
“This is a view that lowers standards for Indigenous Australians … This has been the strategy of decades of government agencies and academic activists, and yet they fail to draw the obvious connection between this approach and the failure to make much ground on Closing the Gap.”
Senator Nampijinpa Price has never supported a truth-telling commission as proposed by the Greens in parliament last week. Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney on Tuesday said the government would look at the nature of the proposal.
Sources have told The Australian that Labor will block any judicial model that would in any way replicate the Truth and Reconciliation hearings in South Africa. Instead, it has been consulting communities that prefer truth-telling projects potentially overseen by a central body. The Albanese government has left this work to states.
“My personal view is that it needs to be more of a community-led initiative that brings people together,” Ms Burney told ABC on Tuesday.
Senator Nampijinpa Price expresses her concern about truth-telling because, as she tells The Australian in a video interview to be published with her essay, it has been “driven by this notion that somehow modern non-Indigenous Australians have to compensate for what occurred to Aboriginal people in our country’s history”.
But she said Australia needed to understand the atrocities that occurred at and after colonisation, which included the murders of many of her Warlpiri family in the last sanctioned massacre at Coniston in 1928. “Seventy-five years after that we had a commemorative ceremony and invited those descendants of those who killed our family … (we told them) ‘we don’t blame you for what happened in our country’s history’.
“We recognised those were hard times but we are now together as Australians moving forward, and I think that is one of the greatest acts of reconciliation I’ve ever been part of.”
Senator Nampijinpa Price said guilt politics was like racism because “it denies the truth and it doesn’t help anybody progress”.
“We need a second way: the advancement movement. Under this movement, we are all Australians. We can learn and cherish our Indigenous culture while still meeting the same standards that every other Australian is expected to meet,” she writes in her essay.
“Our culture will be respected like never before when Indigenous Australians are making it thrive under their own steam and not as part of a welfare industry. That culture will become part of our national tapestry, rather than a separate story to be fought over.”
Senator Nampijinpa Price was the Coalition’s most potent weapon during the debate that culminated in a failed referendum for an Indigenous voice in October 2023. Her decision to join right-wing activist group Advance in February 23 was a landmark for the No campaign.
She said the nation needed a nuanced understanding of its own history, including what is great about the nation that emerged from it. She said few younger Australians were taught that King George instructed Governor Arthur Phillip to “live in amity and kindness” with Aboriginal people and to punish crimes against them. “Of course, the British settlers did not always live up to King George’s instructions, but that doesn’t change the fact the instructions were given,” she writes.
“Even … when barbaric crimes were committed against Aboriginal Australians, the civilising rule of law often played out. The infamous Myall Creek massacre in 1838 marks a dark and bloody moment in our history, when 28 Indigenous Australians were murdered by British settlers. But the activists have done a good job of playing down what happened after the massacre.
“Contemporary sources indicate that while there were pockets of excuse-making for the perpetrators, there was also clearly an abiding desire of the colony as a whole to do the right thing. The attorney-general, John Plunkett, prosecuted the perpetrators and then – when they were acquitted on a technicality – he prosecuted them again. Seven white men were thus found guilty and hanged.”
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La Trobe Not Planning to Rename University Following ‘Aboriginal Dispossession’ Demands
More than 50 staff and students are calling for a name change at La Trobe University due to the “dispossession of Aboriginal peoples” in colonisation.
The group wrote to Yoorrook Justice Commission proposing the university be renamed due to Charles La Trobe’s role in Victoria’s colonisation.
“Charles La Trobe played an integral role in the dispossession of the Aboriginal peoples of south-Eastern Australia from their lands,” the group argued.
Born in 1801 in London, La Trobe became the first lieutenant governor of the colony of Victoria when it separated from New South Wales in 1851.
A La Trobe University spokesperson told The Epoch Times it has “no current plans to change its name” although it is aware of the petition.
“Although the university has no current plans to change its name, we are always willing to hear feedback from our community, and particularly from First Nations students, staff, and communities that surround our campuses in Melbourne’s north and regional Victoria,” the spokesperson said.
“La Trobe University is aware of a petition to the Yoorrook Justic Commission calling for the university to change its name from ‘La Trobe’ because of Charles La Trobe’s role in the colonisation of Aboriginal lands.”
The group arguing for the change said, “it must be acknowledged that La Trobe was the chief government official in Victoria during a period of genocidal violence.”
They noted the Indigenous population of Victoria declined by 80 percent between 1836 and 1853.
The spokesperson said the university recognises Australia’s colonial history and its ongoing impacts, including the history of the institution’s namesake.
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Concerns Raised Over Extent of Land Transfer Powers Under Aboriginal Land Act
An outback pub manager is calling for action as he fears 95 percent of land in his hometown could be handed to an Aboriginal corporation.
Toobeah business owner Michael Offerdahl says he only found out about the plans from Goondiwindi Regional Council meeting minutes in January, with the Bigambul Native Title Aboriginal Corporation (BNTAC) revealing its master plan for a section of on its website.
The group says it plans to use 210 hectares of the 220-hectare Toobeah Reserve to carry out land management, eco-tourism, and land regeneration.
But Mr. Offerdahl claims no members of the Bigambul people currently lived in the town and didn’t understand why they were being granted “inalienable freehold” over the land.
“None of the people of that tribe live in this town,” he told The Epoch Times.
He said the Indigenous people behind the claim had only been in the region since the 1920s, well after other Indigenous tribes and after the town had been established.
The publican said the origin of the name Toobeah was from the native Gamilaroi word, dhuba-y, meaning “to point,” which Mr. Offerdahl says demonstrates the lack of history the Bigambul people have in the area.
The business owner said he held concerns the move could significantly alter the trajectory of the township and future commercial opportunities, warning more clarity was needed otherwise it could have ramifications across the state.
“If you let them win and this is what they want to do, then this is going to happen all over Queensland.”
15 Towns Under Aboriginal Land Act Applications
One Nation’s Mirani MP Steven Andrew raised the issue in state parliament on May 1, where he questioned the proposed land transfer under the Aboriginal Land Act (ALA) of Queensland.
He asked what steps had been taken to ensure the Toobeah community was included in the decision-making process, what impact the transfer would have on townspeople’s property rights, and its ability to access its treated water and sewerage system.
Another key questions was how many towns were under pending ALA applications.
The Department of Resources responded that the ALA did not require broad community consultation, but that it did hold a community forum in Toobeah on March 4.
Information from Goondiwindi Regional Council also revealed the department would ensure town water and bore facilities remained accessible.
An area of land adjoining the Toobeah township would be used for the community, including for open space, future town expansion, and travelling stock requirements.
The council response said the land subject to the expression of interest was designated as a reserve for camping purposes associated with the stock route network and that would continue over the retained land.
Two lots of land in the community, including rodeo facilities, would remain available for recreational use.
Mr. Andrew’s question of which townships had expressions of interest went unanswered, with only the confirmation that there were 15 sites under consideration.
The Epoch Times understands two of the other areas of interest are Eurong and Happy Valley on Fraser Island.
Indigenous groups have lodged expressions of interest for inalienable freehold handover of those parts of the island.
Land transfers made under the ALA are separate to Native Title.
So far, more than 6 million hectares of state land has been granted to Indigenous Australians in some form.
How the Aboriginal Land Acts Differ From Native Title
The ALAs and Native Title both represent Indigenous claims to land, yet both differ in law and function.
Native Title is a recognition of the rights and interests of Indigenous people in land and waters, according to traditional laws and customs.
For example, the rights to look after sacred sites, camp, hunt and fish and hold ceremonies in areas Indigenous people have a proven connection to. Yet the rights can vary depending on the specific case.
Native Title law was found to exist by the High Court of Australia in the landmark Mabo case in 1992, which overturned the prevailing legal property concept of “terra nullius”—that Australia belonged to no one prior to European settlement.
In contrast, the ALA is an actual grant of land.
The concept originated in 1976 as Commonwealth legislation that provided Indigenous people in the Northern Territory the right to be granted land if they could prove historical and cultural ownership.
Legislated as the Aboriginal Land Act in Queensland in 1991, the law recognises the concept of inalienable freehold title, which means land is handed to Indigenous people indefinitely.
Rights under the act can include ownership, control and management of land, development, lease negotiation and economic activity.
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Women wanted for cybersecurity course, no men allowed
Only women and gender-diverse candidates will be invited to participate in the latest cybersecurity course from one of Australia's largest security providers as part of an effort to address inequality in the sector.
CyberCX launched its first full-time, women-only training course on Monday, offering 40 paid roles that will begin in November.
The announcement comes after research from Per Capita revealed women made up just 21 per cent of Australia's cybersecurity workforce, and a study from Engineers Australia showed only 13 per cent of qualified engineers were female.
The low rates of participation have persisted despite widespread predictions of skills shortages in Australia's technology workforce.
CyberCX Academy director Rosemary Driscoll said the six-month, full-time training course was designed to address the industry's gender imbalance and used feedback from other all-women training courses.
"Australia needs a more diverse cyber security workforce to meet demands of industry and government now and into the future," she said.
"Everyone has a role to play here, from the government to our tertiary institutions and the private sector."
The full-time course comes after Per Capita research found Australia was likely to suffer a skills shortage of up to 30,000 cybersecurity workers by 2026, and women represented just 21 per cent of professionals in the field.
Engineers Australia's report into Women in Engineering also found women made up just 16 per cent of engineering graduates and 13 per cent of the workforce.
Its recommendations to improve gender diversity included addressing a non-inclusive culture, providing greater opportunities for female engineers in workplaces, and offering mentoring programs.
The CyberCX entry-level cybersecurity course will be open to women studying cybersecurity or looking to change careers, and will feature 10 weeks of practice and 12 weeks of on-the-job experience.
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/8688492/women-wanted-for-cybersecurity-course-no-men-allowed/
************************************Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM -- daily)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
https://immigwatch.blogspot.com (IMMIGRATION WATCH)
https://awesternheart.blogspot.com (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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Evelyn Rae, a conservative Australian political commentator
Margo Robbie -- a beautiful australian
My son Joe at ANU
One of the happiest pictures ever -- Cleo Smith, aged 4
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