The PM has now 'fulfilled' his election promise of spending one week in an Indigenous community. However, this promise to repair the relationship between conservatives and the First Peoples of this country could have ulterior motives. Congratulations! He's chosen Yirrkala, perhaps one of the best remote communities in Australia. The town where the world-famous band, Yothu Yindi originate from. Yirrkala is also located on the picturesque coastline of East Arnhem Land with crystal clear water and an abundance of Burramundi.
Many citizens assumed when Abbott promised to spend a week in an Indigenous community that he'd be doing 'hands-on' work; building homes, digging ditches. The classic things that politicians love to be photographed doing! Instead, he's not even making the trip seem like hard work. Photos posted by the PM online show him having afternoon tea, no kids in sight! So what is this type of politicing? The type that Tony Abbott can get away with!
While Tony Abbott chose to visit Yirrkala, perhaps because the elders support Constitutional Recognition, a movement that the PM's adopted as his brainchild. His visit is functioning to hide all controversies surrounding the NT Intervention, and issues with health and education. He could have visited extremely disadvantaged communities such as Queensland's Palm Island and Aurukun. Palm Island as an example, has the police brought over daily after the local police station was burnt during a protest over the death in custody of Cameron Doomadgee.
Or perhaps the PM could have visited communities in Central Australia, where the statistic that Indigenous citizens have a life expectantcy 20 years younger than non-Indigenous citizens, is obvious! The NT Intervention, opposed by many elders and the NT government has not changed this dramatic fact about the discrepency between the Aboriginal community and wider society.
Abbott, while you might be proud that you're visiting an Indigenous community, everyone else wonders why you didn't go to one where you could help?