Angst over absence of action in Aboriginal affairs

The Howard Government in its 11 years in office reversed the first four, and steadfastly refused the apology. The Intervention laws passed in August 2007 overrode the Racial Discrimination Act. This allowed Aborigines to be treated in a pre-1967 discriminatory manner. Hard-won rights to control traditional lands were revoked. The Native Title Act 1993 which gave effect to the Mabo ruling was amended in 1998 to reverse that effect. ATSIC was abolished in 2004. So hopes for the Rudd government were indeed high.

Among Labor supporters responses to the glacial pace of reform were divided. Many openly expressed their scorn at the lack of effort and achievement. Others calmly soothed, “Wait for Kevin’s second term”.

The latter were certainly dismayed at the continuation of the Howard policy agenda. But they argued that a first-term government must establish its credentials with the voters, the majority of whom care little about Indigenous issues.

They anticipated strong indications in the 2010 election campaign that Rudd’s second term would fulfill his 2008 promise of “new solutions to enduring problems where old approaches have failed”.

Oh, how differently the world now appears. There will be no Rudd second term. The election campaign was completed with scarcely a mention of Indigenous matters. Neither future PM - Julia Gillard nor Tony Abbott - has made any commitment offering hope to Indigenous Australians.

None of the four all-powerful independent members of the lower house has listed reform in this area among their demands. The Greens, while having a strong platform on paper, have raised with the leaders of the major parties only the symbolic matter of recognising Aborigines in the Constitution.

The one gleam of hope from the recent poll is the election of the first Indigenous member of the House of Representatives. The success of Liberal Ken Wyatt in Hasluck, Western Australia, has been highlighted around the world, though usually in reports which emphasise Australia’s racist history.

Le Nouvel Observateur reported the hate mail Wyatt received through the campaign. It added that “his mother belonged to the stolen generation, those tens of thousands of indigenous children snatched from their families, according to the law of the land, to be raised as Australian ‘whites’.”

Will Mr Wyatt make a difference? Will the 43rd Parliament, led by Julia Gillard or Tony Abbott, surprise the world by fulfilling the promises of the previous one in 2008? Many hope so, in Australia and across the world. But it seems a fragile hope.