How dare this man talk of poverty and dignity in the same breath?

By ray jackson, president, indigenous social justice association

(My response to an article in The Australian by Gary Johns http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/left-and-right-converging-o... in which he suggests “INCOME control deserves a broader trial, despite risks”.)

arghhhhh! more bleatings from that rightwing zealot gary johns, once in the keating ministry but has now become a born-again political fundamentalist. he is president of that cabal known as the bennelong society after their supreme leader's electoral seat. we find it insulting that one of our people is used for a conservative think-tank that advised the howard government on aboriginal issues for assimilation and land grabs.

he is also with the institute for public affairs. another conservative body.

gary, not surprisingly, has always been a great fan of the infamous northern territory emergency response, but especially the welfare or basics card.

he supports that time-honoured tactic of empowering people by making them reliant on the government's political whimsy of the day. first task is to micromanage the individuals, families and communities so as to save them from themselves and their wasteful vices.

i agree that there are destructive families among our mobs but we must recognise that there are more of the other kind. families struggling to create an atmosphere of home on a welfare budget. homes where a parent or parents will go without to make sure their kids are safe and fed and schooled. just like the majority of white families.

drugs, alcohol, gambling or pornography are not just the purview of the atsi families. the sickness is spread throughout society and as we number circa 500 000 there are no prizes in identifying where the majority of destructive families reside. in gary's world.

his report makes several leaps of logic, as most of his ilk do. his first broadside of 'fact' states, and i quote, More than 90 per cent of income-managed funds allocated to BasicsCard, used by Centrelink clients to make purchases, were allocated to food (73 per cent), clothing (16 per cent) and fuel (5 per cent). wonderful statistics as long as the fuel was not used for sniffing purposes.

what gary fails to inform us, or any body else for that matter, is the percentage spent by the centrelink recipients prior to the basics card. what do we make a comparison with? were the pre-card purchases higher or lower? maybe it was higher, maybe lower. we just do not know so the statistics offered by gary must remain absolutely meaningless. not much of a fact, gary.

gary's sympathy to those incarcerated or those released who are finding things to be tough is well known. it's all their fault. build more gaols and go for longer sentences.

the use of tax-payers money to build more gaols is not seen as a dead waste of resources but helping an ex-inmate to rehabilitate is seen as quite wasteful.

gary then questions the doubled-edged success that can be achieved by the use of the basics card as a social control. he claims that the card is great for the kids who now get fed, clothed and sent to school but because of the government management strategy those involved will now become like lapdogs and become totally reliant on their benefactor, the government.

i quote,
And there is a longer-term risk that some clients may become dependent on the system and not take personal responsibility because their money is being managed for them. It is also true that the BasicsCard used by clients may be misused to purchase drugs or alcohol. These are slippages in the system, but before income management, grog, smokes and gambling made up a big part of some recipients' spending.
i do not understand his concern that some clients may misuse their card, describing such a process as 'slippage'. the card was introduced to circumvent such use. he states that some families spent their welfare on their addictions. as do all addicts regardless of race. if it is recognised that only 'some families' were/are affected by their addictions, why then is the scheme compulsory for all centrelink clients? this practice is shamefully applied to all and is therefore discriminatory to those not affected by such addictions.

the issue of behaviour change is then questioned by gary who analyses the differing views of the left and the right. the left of course is seen to be only interested in rights without responsibilities ( the noel pearson argument) whilst they also advocate for 'the dignity of poverty.'

i see no such dignity. what i see is the indignity of forced poverty upon people, black, white or brindle, who because of generational poverty, of economic circumstances (the working poor) that do not allow them as a family unit to rise above their poverty ghettos, of a social poverty that sometimes is government induced by unemployment, homelessness and chronic ill health.

how dare this man talk of poverty and dignity in the same breath. i well consider myself to be 'of the left' and i have never idealised poverty. this is the same stupid sick utterance as 'the noble savage' that was once the lingua franca for the dying pillow times. mouthed by academics and those of the religious kind at the beginning of the last century.

coming from gary it becomes pornographic to the extreme.

gary then introduces his knock-out blow to prove how socially unfit aborigines really are to share this land that they discovered! we are so unfit to remain within our ancient history and culture, a history and culture that is seen to be only fit for savages and why will they not allow us to save them?

ms. amy wax is a professor of law at pennsylvania university. she also has honours in the neurological sciences. her cv is impressive in what she has already achieved. as she is being quoted by gary she would be of the right and her statements as quoted by gary give support to that surmise on my behalf.

ms. wax wrote a book after studying the socio-economic status of african-americans and found that, as a race, they are very much found to be wanting. that such a result was found is, of course, the fault of the african-americans involved. blame the victims for their perceived low status. such an outcome is classic gary johns territory.

it seems logical to gary that to reinforce his poor opinion of aborigines then an american study, by a white professor, on another black race makes sense and proves his point beyond doubt.

ms wax found and i quote, "low educational attainment, poor socialisation and work habits, criminality, paternal abandonment and non-marital childbearing" are far more common among African-Americans than among other American groups.

ditto our blackfellas, says gary.

ms. wax continues, "The government cannot make people watch less television, talk to their children or read more books. It cannot ordain domestic order, harmony, tranquillity, stability or other conditions conducive to academic success and the development of sound character. Nor can it determine how families structure their interactions and routines or how family resources - including time and money - are expended. Large-scale programs are especially ineffective in changing attitudes and values toward learning, work and marriage."

i must admit to being somewhat stunned by these revelations from ms. wax. all the social sins apparently are visited upon these black americans because they are too tired, lazy or stupid to have saved themselves. so to our black mob, says gary.

if blacks cannot or will not become whiter by their own efforts then governments must intervene (interfere?) to do the job on their behalf. so say ms. wax and gary.

the quoting by gary of the report by ms. wax only highlights the confusion that is a day to day product of the thinking of the right.

african-americans were originally brought to america as slaves without any rights at all, human or otherwise. we on the other hand had been here for at least 60 000 years. the pure unescapable fact is that we owned the place. the fact that we too were made the slaves of the invasion history of this country seems somehow to be a moot point.

african-americans faced the most vicious and criminal acts of racism over hundreds of years. so to did our mobs. we fought and we survived, as did they. slowly, too bloody slowly, changes were made. no longer is the kkk acceptable, except in hard right communities mainly in the american south. for our mobs the 'hunts' also discontinued.

but the blind fundamentalist hatred of racism still sickens society in both our countries. we maybe slowed but we are not defeated. both races had their civil rights battles that are still ongoing to this day.

not only do our two peoples stand tall and proud but we have had our victories. america now has an african-american president and they are in every strata of american society. aborigines also are taking our rightful places as doctors, nurses, barristers, entrepreneurs but yet to find a prime minister or premier.

i believe that it is our innate tenacity and patience that has allowed our two races to survive and grow despite all the hate-crimes and racism that has been our lot. we are here and we aint going nowhere.

i cannot speak on behalf of ms wax but gary has expounded his saviour theory and that is to continue to intervene and inform aboriginal children just how wrong and useless our parents are, how useless our communities are and how useless our history and culture are.

this will fail as it is a message that has been told to us for the last 222 years and its iteration only makes us stronger.

gary and his ilk will never really understand what they are doing. their belief is in a system of social engineering that has not worked and will never work.

we must have empowerment, not assimilationist slavery.