We need a seismic shift in attitude

The Prime Minister can only offer so much in terms of resources and expertise - because as the old saying goes: “… you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink”.

Indigenous people generally, especially those who continue to blame others for their high level of disadvantage, need to adopt a seismic shift in attitude and begin to help themselves.

At a briefing session on April 13 in Queensland’s Parliamentary chamber for State delegates chosen to attend Australia 2020 Summit I was provided with a booklet that identified Queensland’s current standing within Australia and the world on a number of fronts. During that session the facilitator made an innocuous remark that still resonates with me.

The flippant mention of the fact that Australians could be on par with Japan as the oldest race of people in the world - if it wasn’t for the Indigenous statistics that lowered our standing and placed us in fourth position behind Switzerland and Iceland. I turned to my Indigenous colleague sitting next to me, Neil Willmett (former medical student and now successful businessman) and said “pity about that”.

Neil smirked and as I looked at other Indigenous colleagues; Dr Mark Wenitong (president of the National Indigenous Association of Doctors), Dr Mick Adams (President of the National Indigenous Community Controlled Health Services), Professor Cindy Shannon and Dr Jackie Huggins from the University of Queensland, I could tell the observation of our statistical inconvenience had a barb to it.

I hope before the year 2020 comes around that the efforts of a proactive government headed by Kevin Rudd, with the help of Indigenous people, can address Indigenous disadvantage.