Parliamentary sources speak about Aboriginal Australia - I have published this in the hope "that it is not too late"

Gerry Georgatos
As the government’s chances of re-election appear in tatters, some of their parliamentarians and Cabinet ministers believe that not all hope is lost, and some, as if in living up to the notion that politics is a calling, believe that in the year they have left in government that much can be achieved for the people of Australia, including Aboriginal peoples, according to two parliamentarians who spoke in confidence to The National Indigenous Times.

The government has been hanging by a thread, albeit a strong thread at times, with the Greens and the ALP holding the balance of power in the Senate, and although much of the public debate is consumed by the dirty slugfests, the war of words and which has got personal far too often between the ALP and the Coalition, some of the ALP’s parliamentarians have taken pride in some of their achievements.

“Gerry, everything we’ve achieved has all been lost in this sickening squabble for power between our Cabinet and the Coalition’s agenda to topple government – we have done some really good things that we just don’t get the chance to discuss in the public domain and in turn if we had the chance at good public discourse then we’d improve upon what we’ve achieved,” said an ALP parliamentarian.

“There is so much we can still achieve but increasingly we’re not being given the oxygen to do so, instead we go tit for tat with each other on personal attacks and defamation rather than do our jobs, and who loses? The battler, Indigenous Australians, everyone.”

The other source, who is from within the Cabinet, paid tribute to the deputy leader and treasurer, Wayne Swan. “Despite all his dogma and party loyalty, many do not know that Wayne (Swan) is the real social reformer, and to a few on the inside he is seen as the one that opened us up to the squabbles with the country’s rich, the bankers and the miners. It was not Kevin (Rudd) who thought up the mining tax, it was Wayne. At all times, Wayne pushes that we need to move harder and faster in redistributing the wealth of this nation to those that need it most – he is after a Labor legacy, and especially as he sees the writing on the wall that we may not be re-elected. We’ve been very unlucky with the hung parliament and some of the choices we have had to make with the Greens grandstanding over everything we do, with the Independents having more say than they’re entitled to, and with the Thomson and Slipper affairs just eroding everything for instance that Wayne Swan wants us to be about,” said the source.

What about Aboriginal peoples? Australia rates number two in the world, after Norway, in the United Nations Development Program (UNDEP) human index for social wealth and development however significant numbers of Aboriginal peoples languish in inter-generational poverty, acute and abject poverty, multiple traumas and in the words of Amnesty International – “in third world conditions”.

The Cabinet source said to The National Indigenous Times, “Unfortunately, they (Aboriginal peoples) are not high on the Cabinet agenda, and that’s because we’ve got ourselves in tight binds along the way. We’ve misunderstood The Intervention (NT), Stronger Futures, we haven’t allocated funds to the communities we should have and we haven’t entrusted (Aboriginal) peoples to manage their affairs. We have failed to prioritise them in any budgets since 2007.”

“Not all of us think like this, some are adamant we are doing all we can however they have not spent the time on the issues and are really no more knowledgeable on the issues than what they hear or read in the news media and hear in passing from colleagues.”

“Some of us have made the mistake that either The Apology was enough or that The Apology was great PR however funding programs and communities (for Aboriginal peoples) has little PR value.”

“Funnily, and ironically, it is Wayne (Swan) who has referred to the need to do more for Aboriginal communities in the NT and in remote areas and that we should be directing more funds but we don’t finish up doing this because in the end they (Aboriginal peoples) are not part of any major voting base. It’s not that they don’t matter, it’s that we often get too preoccupied with the hope we get re-elected even if when we know we will not be re-elected. We always work in ways focused on re-election.”

“I remember one comment from one of my Cabinet colleauges – a stupid comment and I don’t think he really meant it – however once Indigenous people are educated, and usually thanks to things Labor governments do for them, they finish up as Liberals, either voting for them or getting elected as a Liberal and calling themselves ‘conservatives’ – now I think Warren (Mundine) would be pretty pissed off to hear such language from a party he has devoted himself to!”

“Wayne (Swan) I think is one of those who believes the Intervention is wrong, and one who believes that Stronger Futures is the Intervention all over again, and he and a few others talk and act like if we are to lose the next election that we should go out in style, with the moral compass intact, a message for those to follow in where to direct their energies. I agree with Wayne that we should go out on a reform code and in so doing, in the event (Tony) Abbott and company are elected, they will have to then deal with the reforms and the issues highlighted.”

“However, don’t expect that all of a sudden we will go all the way with what is in our hearts and in the year left to us in government end the Intervention and pour in the dollars that we should into (Aboriginal) communities and into the other wrongs we can right, in the end we will go with our schooled instincts to claw votes in the hope, that just maybe, we will be re-elected.”

“Right now too many in the party and indeed in the Cabinet are focused on who should lead the party - we are a party divided rather than focused on what we should be about. Joel Fitzgibbon doesn't think it should be Julia and he's always feeling for the numbers, and Chris Bowen would like to see Kevin or someone else.”

“To some of us it is an embarrassment that we have done nothing, and actually gone backwards, since Kevin’s Apology. It hurts us all,” lamented the source.

However it hurts Aboriginal peoples most, and affects the consciousness of all Australians and the hopes of ‘reconciliation’.

During the last five months The National Indigenous Times has asked the Office of the Prime Minister for a feature length interview with Prime Minister Julia Gillard, and that this would be a positive gesture to the newspaper’s readership – with a significant Aboriginal readership many of whom are not reached by other news media. The Prime Minister has granted most mainstream news media interviews however we have been told again and again “not at this time” as she is fully committed. We asked again today.

LINKS:

http://indymedia.org.au/2012/03/02/warren-mundines-brave-face-but-gutted...
Former ALP president and Bandjalung man, Warren Mundine is putting on a brave face after being denied the opportunity to become the first Aboriginal federal Labor politician

http://indymedia.org.au/2012/03/06/we-are-lucky-bob-carr-was-not-appoint...
Given some of the comments by Mr Carr on his personal blog relating to Indigenous issues many Indigenous leaders would be saying they are grateful Julia Gillard did not want him to fill the Indigenous Affairs portfolio

http://indymedia.org.au/2012/04/22/source-spills-beans-on-government-pmo...
A source close to the Office of the Prime Minister said that the scandal "was in the works, would soon surface, and just like the Lobby restaurant incident that went on for a little while having pearshaped on the government

http://www.6pr.com.au/blogs/6pr-perth-blog/why-should-we-believe-you/201...
The Prime Minister spoke with Paul Murray who asked 'Why should voters have confidence in the budget's promises?"

http://www.nit.com.au/opinion/525-georgatos-my-personal-look-at-the-tent...
Gerry Georgatos is our journalist, from Western Australia, and he was in Canberra with the rest of our team reporting on Aboriginal Tent Embassy

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/mobile/article.aspx?id=8411829&_sp=2045&noid=...
A federal government source has contradicted Prime Minister Julia Gillard's statement that a former staffer acted alone when he passed on information to a third party that led to a security scare at an Australia Day event, an indigenous newspaper says.

http://www.nit.com.au/news/622-more-leaks-hit-pms-office-with-new-claims...
The Prime Minister's office has been hit by another leak from another separate source close to the Prime Minister's Office who has claimed there was a meeting of key members of the Prime Minister's Office "to work out how best to handle matters" after the events that took place at the Lobby Restaurant in Canberra

http://www.theage.com.au/national/pms-staffer-did-not-act-alone-report-2...
"The federal government source said Mr Hodges did not act alone, that others in his office were aware of what was planned and the intention behind the call, and those who were aware may have included the Prime Minister herself,"

http://www.sbs.com.au/yourlanguage/aboriginal/highlight/page/id/204717/t...
Prime Minister Knew Of Plans To Discredit Tony Abbott on Australia Day

http://www.sbs.com.au/yourlanguage/aboriginal/highlight/page/id/204013/t...
Australia Day Protest - did the Prime Minister know?

http://indymedia.org.au/2012/02/28/lobbygate-the-prime-minister-would-ha...
The Office of the Prime Minister continues to deny any involvement in sparking the Lobby restaurant incident - and their official spokesperson claims that Tony Hodges went rogue and acted alone

http://newmatilda.com/2012/01/31/national-riot-mismanagement-squad
As the media continues to distort the tent embassy protest, the behaviour of Gillard's office is under scrutiny. It's another media debacle for the embattled PM, writes Ben Eltham