Broken and Abused: Indigenous Affairs in Australia

Indigenous Australians are in the news again (When are they not?). It’s being reported that the Indigenous population, that is, the population of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people has reached 1 million people representing 3.8% of Australia’s population. Is it a time to celebrate? I don’t know. It’s a bit of a funny thing to celebrate, isn’t it? It doesn’t seem like there’s much other positive news about Indigenous Australians at the moment, but I’ll get to that soon.

According to this report by the ABS released yesterday, Estimates and Projections Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, the Indigenous population actually reached 1 million people back in 2022. I guess it took them a couple of years to collate the data. Either way, the 1,000,000 celebration is a bit overdue.

But as I said, it’s not all good news. Reports on the new-look ABC show that “First Nations women are the fastest-growing group of people being sent to prison”. I find it interesting how they always frame it that it’s like we’re sending them to prison unreasonably. We’ve intentionally set out to send more and more Indigenous women to prison. Perhaps they need to rephrase their heading to be more honest: “First Nations women are committing more crime and therefore being sent to prison more often”. They obviously would never let me write for our ABC.

In the article they state: “On any given night, four out of 10 women behind bars are Indigenous women, despite making up only 2.5 per cent of the adult female population”, which is approximately 16 times what one would expect. But as I said, they frame it in a way where they describe many of these inmates as victims: “Many women on the inside are wrongly locked away”. And of course, we can’t forget about systemic issues which are forcing them to commit crime: “A lot of the women are in here because of poverty and because of systemic oppression and unresolved intergenerational trauma, grief and pain.” Oh yes, all my friends who grew up in poverty are all in prison now. No, not really. They’re carpenters and sales staff at Harvey Norman. But perhaps I’m being flippant.

Of course, “Despite several governments’ committing to reduce the number of First Nations people being sent to prison, the numbers seem to be going the wrong way.” I think that just proves a point. Whatever the Government are doing regarding Indigenous affairs is simply not working. All those billions of dollars being thrown at these issues has simply not worked, and perhaps has even exacerbated the problem. I wish somebody would throw $4 billion my way to help me get a house, but no, I’m not the right ethnicity.

Here’s an article on the two-tiered justice system on the Guardian: “Victorian woman’s bail revoked after lying about Aboriginal heritage”. Basically, this lady Haley Terei was released from custody after telling the Victorian supreme court she was an Aboriginal woman from the Yorta Yorta nation. The Justice noted her Aboriginality was one factor that made her more vulnerable and at a higher risk of harm in custody. But let’s think about this from a different angle. Forget about the lady lying. Isn’t this highlighting the ridiculousness of our justice system where people who identify as Aboriginal are more likely to be released on bail than those that do not? This is not fair or equitable. This is the opposite. This is essentially treating Aboriginal people less harshly than the rest of us. And to what end? Well, despite being treated with kid gloves, their incarceration rate is still increasing! It clearly doesn’t help to let people get away with stuff. And the fact that this lady thought it wise to pretend to be Aboriginal, means that obviously criminals know that Aboriginal people are given the kid-glove treatment in our justice system. Why else would she lie about it?

And here’s another example of Aboriginality being used to try to game the system. Former national president of the Rebels motorcycle gang, Dean Martin, was arrested recently and is set to be deported to New Zealand. But Senator Lidia Thorpe says the government has made a huge mistake, claiming he can’t be deported because he’s Indigenous.

The University of Divinity have decided to shutter its School of Indigenous Studies. The University of Divinity’s council has reviewed its 2024-26 budget projections and decided its School of Indigenous Studies is “not financially sustainable in the current higher education environment.” I wonder how many other universities are also considering this move?

Clearly, whatever the government have done regarding Indigenous affairs is a complete flop. In my opinion, Indigenous affairs is at its lowest point in recent memory. The Government have done nothing to close the so-called gap, only widen it really. So here’s a bit of good news, Minister for Indigenous Australians, Linda Burney, is calling it quits and is set to retire.

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