Spin, waste, rent seeking, and lack of progress have become defining characteristics of Aboriginal Affairs

Social tensions and inequalities based on racial differences are highly undesirable for any society. In Australia, while there is near universal support for eliminating Aboriginal disadvantage, policies to achieve this aim, as well as the parties responsible for such policies, have come under increasing scrutiny.

Since roughly the 1970s Aboriginal affairs has been run (with little dissension) by largely unchallenged elites. Political correctness and unofficial censorship have become the order of the day, and dissenters risk being labelled "racist". Aboriginal Affairs itself has become a big source of employment for Indigenous people.

Politically, the agenda has been mostly driven by the Labor Party, receiving (until the past few years) bi-partisan support from the Liberal Party (especially its "moderate" wing) on most issues. Successive governments have been backed by large bureaucracies, both Commonwealth and State, and by countless Aboriginal bodies such as land councils and advisory bodies.

Collectively, all these organisations and individuals, and those contracted to them, are often referred to as the "Aboriginal Industry". Senior (deceased) Indigenous "members" included Charles Perkins, Galarrwuy Yunupingu, "Sugar Ray" Robinson, and Lowitja O'Donoghue. I won't name living ones, but prominent ones are easily identified from those appointed to a plethora of bureaucratic, administrative, and advisory positions, generally paying salaries well into six figures. Many receive salaries from multiple sources.

Professorships in Aboriginal studies have also sprouted in our universities, in addition to honours bestowed on Indigenous Australians. Lowitja O'Donoghue AC CBE DSG is reported to have received at least six honorary doctorates from various Australian universities.

The Albanese government recently (posthumously) granted Galarrwuy Yunupiŋgu the nation's highest civilian honour, the Companion of the Order of Australia. In 1978 he had been awarded Australian of the Year, and in 1998 had also been added to the list of 100 "Australian Living National Treasures" selected by the National Trust of Australia. (These are leaders in society "considered to have a great influence over our environment because of the standards and examples they set.") All this is despite numerous allegations of corruption. Members of Mr Yunupingu's extended family have reportedly complained that he had misappropriated millions of dollars a year (mainly mining royalties) as chair of the Gumatj Association. Mr Yunupingu was said to have lived a life of luxury with his four wives, while other members of his clan existed in abject poverty.

Pat Anderson AO, an Indigenous elder noted for her contribution to health policy, says time is up for the select Indigenous Australians, who have been "in the room" with governments for ­decades. "The same people have spoken for mob, both in transparent and non-transparent ways, and have been the designated drivers of various policy agendas for 30, 40 years…. What I see is a failure of imagination and of leadership in the ­Indigenous policy space."

The amount of money devoted to Aboriginal programmes is a contentious matter. A figure of $33.4 billion expenditure was detailed in the Productivity Commission's 2017 Indigenous Expenditure Report. The current day equivalent would be more than $40 billion and would include both indigenous specific expenditures as well as shares of mainstream programmes. The $40 billion plus figure is contentious partly because it is a guesstimate. It is also controversial because the failure to achieve Closing The Gap targets and progress benchmarks suggests that there is not a lot to show for these huge expenditures.

Opposition Senator Jacinta Price in 2023 and 2024 called for an audit of the billions spent on Aboriginal affairs but did not receive a positive response from the government. Dissenting opinions by both Senator Price and Warren Mundine have had political impact because both have credibility as insiders within the Indigenous community.

On July 31 2025 the Productivity Commission released its Closing the Gap 2025 Annual Data Compilation Report. The report confirmed the now familiar pattern of persistent, systemic failure within the Closing the Gap framework, particularly in remote and very remote communities. Only four of the nineteen national targets are currently on track.

If we are to believe the media, the first real challenge to the Aboriginal Industry and its policies occurred in 2023, when the Voice Referendum was opposed and defeated. I would contend that public doubting started much earlier but could not be fully vented until the referendum and the subsequent state/territory elections in the NT and Queensland.

The defeats of Labor governments in the NT (Aug 2024) and subsequently in Queensland (Oct 2024) were strongly influenced by other (substantially) Aboriginal issues, particularly public outrage about the extent of youth crime, the lifting of alcohol bans, and the collapse of law enforcement presence in some areas. The NT election saw the second-worst defeat of a sitting government in the Territory's history. From 14 seats at dissolution, Labor was reduced to only four seats.