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.

There were the makings of a much more damaging scandal some twenty years earlier. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC), which had been established (with high hopes) by act of parliament in 1989, was abolished in 2004. While it was the Howard government that abolished ATSIC, citing it as a failed "experiment in separate representation", Labor substantially avoided receiving collateral damage. This was both because it supported the legislation and because Gerry Hand, a previous Labor minister, had publicly clashed with several ATSIC figures. Effectively, ATSIC was scrapped because of issues with corruption and governance. There had been media allegations of criminal acts and fraud by some senior ATSIC officials, as well as some convictions.

A prerequisite to solving any economic or social problem is policy realism, and failure to face up to realities within Indigenous communities is at the heart of failure to close the gap.

To start with, in Australia there is no policy area more subject to public censorship or political correctness than Aboriginal affairs. The unspoken aim has been to promote "progressive" policies and opinions by supressing information that might cause public opinion to deviate from the official narrative.

The clearest example is how the "progressive" media, especially the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), deal with Aboriginal affairs and acts as a mouthpiece for the policies of the Aboriginal industry. The ABC has increasingly become a bastion of politically correct language and opinions, while SBS has moved in the same direction since incorporating National Indigenous Television (NITV). Other prominent "progressive" media outlets include the Channel 9/Herald group, The Guardian Australia, and Channel 10.

Unspoken censorship among politicians, the Aboriginal industry, and the "progressive" media takes many forms.

The public is told what language is appropriate and what is not. The word "Aborigine" is out and was replaced initially by "Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People" and "Indigenous". In recent years the term "First Nations People" has been pushed despite evidence that our ancient peoples qualified more as clans than nations.

The ABC promotes an image of Aboriginal peoples, as though they sometimes still play the same role as 200 or more years ago. Sydney for example is referred to as Gadigal Country, and the "ABC pays respects to Gadigal people ……the Traditional Custodians of the land where the ABC's Sydney headquarters are located. This practice is a formal recognition of the enduring connection of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to Country, land, and culture."

The problem is that in virtually all but remote parts of Australia, the original Aboriginal clans have long ceased being significant custodians of the land, and their languages and many of their traditions have largely died out. In modern Australia, the main custodians of the land in non-remote areas are farmers and government authorities, while smoking ceremonies and the like have been introduced officially to many areas, where such traditions had either died out or had never been practiced.

ABC Canberra News from 2019 has been generally signed off "Yarra, Goodnight" in Ngunnawal language, as part of an Acknowledgement of Country. This initiative, which also less frequently included the greeting "Yuma" (hello), was a partnership with the United Ngunnawal Elders Council to recognise the Traditional Owners of the Canberra region. The problem is that the Ngunnawal language has been extinct for a long time, and the Ngambri people's claim to also be traditional owners is ignored. Both clans in any case, are now greatly outnumbered in the ACT by those of Indigenous descent originating elsewhere. Historical records record the last "full-blooded" Ngunnawal person, Nellie Hamilton, dying in 1897.

Promotion by the "progressive" media of an out-of-date image of Aboriginal people misleads the public. These media, as well as much of our political class, are also responsible for promoting misleading history, while alternative narratives and viewpoints rarely rate a mention.

The reality is that, while British colonial authorities routinely treated native people badly, exaggeration of historic wrongs has played a major role promoting a victim mentality and overstating the culpability of early settlers and administrators. In addition, first-hand historical accounts of early Aboriginal life and culture are now rarely referred to. Instead, they have been replaced by an ideological narrative of genocide and inter-generational trauma based on poorly evidenced "history".

The balance of evidence supports the view that the so-called "Stolen Generations" were not stolen but instead were either given up to authorities or removed for child welfare reasons. Similarly, stories of so-called "frontier wars" have been exaggerated and lack robust evidence in many cases.

In my view the false/exaggerated narrative concerning the so-called "Stolen Generations" has caused untold damage to endangered Indigenous children because it has made it much more difficult for authorities to intervene. The false narrative also contributed to payments of up to $85,000 as "compensation" to those claiming to be members of the "stolen generations" with little proof being required. Mere removal from family or having been institutionalised has been equated with being "stolen".

Another example of misleading narrative is that of the Wave Hill walkout and the related equal pay case for Aboriginal stockmen.

The Gurindji Strike, also known as the Wave Hill walk-off, began on the 23rd of August 1966, when 200 Gurindji stockmen, domestic workers, and their families, walked off Wave Hill. The walk off has since been celebrated by "progressives" as a victory for wage justice and anti-discrimination. The "progressive" narrative states that "It was a pivotal protest by Aboriginal workers against racism – and for Award wages, for Land Rights and for self-determination…Aboriginal workers at the station received one-third of the wages of non-Indigenous workers". The Commonwealth Arbitration Commission ended up granting equal pay and extending the pastoral award to include Aboriginal workers. The Commission accepted the likelihood that some "disemployment" might occur.

Employers had argued against equal pay. "The employers agreed that some 20 to 25 per cent of the Aboriginal stockmen could perform their duties at the standard expected of normal (that is, white) employees, and that they should come under the award in the usual way. Emphasising that they were opposed to any discrimination on racial grounds, the employers wished to argue that the remaining 75 to 80 per cent were unable to provide normal work value because of their stage of cultural or educational development. Preferably, they should not be brought under the award at all, but if they were, they should have special lower-paid classifications that recognised their lower work value".

After the equal pay decision, Aboriginal employment on cattle stations declined dramatically. This happened not only in the Northern Territory but also in states where the award precedent was followed. Most of the small number of Aboriginal stockmen now employed on white-owned stations are employed as individuals. Nearly all the old camps have disappeared.

Aboriginal leader, Noel Pearson, is said to have nominated three factors that contributed decisively to the Indigenous "descent into hell." The equal pay decision was the first. (Social security income and the right to enter pubs and drink alcohol were the other two.) Together, they helped entrench the notion that Aborigines should be regarded as and should accept the role of "victims."

There has also been a general policy by government, the "progressive" media and others to "talk-up" Aboriginal achievements and to avoid mentioning matters that are unflattering. While this may amount to good public relations, again it is not conducive to policy realism. Bruce Pascoe's work claiming that Aboriginal people practiced sophisticated farming practices was in that vein, but his research (and indeed his own claimed Aboriginality) has been strongly challenged.

The are many taboo subjects in Aboriginal affairs, which mostly involve covering up matters that do not fit the official narrative. Subjects that the Aboriginal Industry has not liked to talk about (mainly pertinent to remote areas) have included sexual abuse of minors, family violence, inter-tribe clan conflicts, cultural practices such as initiation (said to involve scarification, circumcision, or subincision), polygamy, promised marriages of young girls to older men, and sky-high levels of illegitimacy. Despite taboos on these matters, they have come into the open to varying degrees in recent decades.

I don't claim great familiarity with remote settlements, but I know people who have worked in such communities for several years or have travelled extensively through them.

The consistent description provided by people with first-hand knowledge is that most remote communities come across as depressing places. There is not much employment, and even those that want to work are subject to pressures from other members of the community. Housing is very crowded, hugely expensive to construct (almost entirely by outsiders), and the standard and condition of the housing stock is said to be beyond comprehension. Basic items like food and fuel are expensive. In many communities, truancy, petty crime and domestic violence are big issues, while security (electric fences, steel shutters etc) is very noticeable. Dry communities are generally considered better functioning than those permitting alcohol.

Poor parenting seems to be the biggest issue in remote areas but tends not to be referred in those terms. Neglected children, that are poorly supervised, don't go to school and get involved in crime at an early age, guarantee that problems become intergenerational. The late Kumanjayi Walker, who died following an altercation with police, was an example.

The response of "progressive" governments to high Indigenous youth crime has been to increase the age of criminal responsibility, relax bail laws, and attempt to reduce imprisonment levels. The newly installed conservative governments in the NT and Queensland have tended to do the opposite.

An example of reaction to crime is the Don Dale Prison riots of 2014, where inmate Dylan Voller (then 17) was infamously pictured restrained and wearing a spit-hood, consequent to his role in the riots.

In response, the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory was established in 2016 by the Turnbull government. The findings of the $54 million inquiry, which focussed more on the human rights of inmates rather than on the riots themselves, recommendedclosing the Don Dale centre, raising the age of criminal responsibility, and significant restrictions on the use of force, strip-searching and isolation, and banning the use of tear gas, spit hoods, and restraint chairs. Commissioners Margaret White and Mick Gooda said their recommendations would save nearly $336 million over the next decade, if implemented.

In 2017, following the Royal Commission, Dylan Voller receivedbetween $50,000 and $60,000 in compensation for treatment he received behind bars, and subsequently continued his life of crime. In 2019, the then 21-year-old Voller plead guilty to staging a bomb hoax at the Commonwealth Games. On 1 February 2020 Voller was sentenced to 10-months prison for an incident in Western Australia, in which he jumped on railway tracks, exposed his penis and assaulted a transit guard. In 2020 Voller also had a warrant issued for his arrest by the Deniliquin Local Court in NSW in relation to an armed robbery that occurred at Moama, NSW in May 2019.

The police shooting ofKumanjayi Walker in 2019 also underlines deep divisions between conservatives and "progressives" on law enforcement in Northern Australia. During the investigation there were questions about the strength of the case against Constable Rolfe and allegationsthat senior police withheld evidence favourable to Rolfe. Rank and file police appeared to back Rolfe, while officialdom at the time alleged that the case had racist overtones and sought to respond to concerns from Aboriginal groups. Following a not-guilty verdict in the murder trial, a coroner's inquest controversially went ahead at a cost of almost $8 million. Rolfe made a formal complaint to the NT Judicial Commission accusing the coroner of bias. Part of his complaint relates to the coroner delivering her findings in Yuendumu in front of a banner belonging to an activist group that had previously called for Mr Rolfe to be speared.

Except for the odd mine, cattle stations, and the occasional tourist lodge, remote communities generally have no viable economy apart from Indigenous affairs. In 2021 the Productivity Commission noted for example: "The Torres Strait economy is overwhelmingly reliant on public sector employment and transfer payments." The Torres Strait and remote national parks are also said to be home to large Indigenous ranger programmes, which function more as job creation schemes than for the environment.

At the other end geographically and socially are the urban areas of South-Eastern Australia, where the Aboriginal population is rapidly integrating into the general community and economy, and (despite being overly concentrated in lower income groups) social progress has been much better. In these areas the issues are quite different. A high proportion of those recorded as Aboriginal may have only a trace of Indigenous ancestry, while according to one high profile Aboriginal spokesman there are tens of thousands of "white imposters".

The issue of inter-marriage and assimilation into the general community is a matter that Aboriginal activists and the Aboriginal Industry are loath to discuss. The issue comes into greatest prominence when one looks at rates of out-marriage in states/territories like Tasmania, Victoria, the ACT, and all major urban areas excepting Darwin. According to the 2021 Census the proportion of couple families with one or more Indigenous partners where only one partner was Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander, was 89.3 per cent for Tasmania, 93.8 per cent for Victoria and 94.3 per cent for the ACT. Such high out-marriage rates mean that those of Indigenous descent in such areas are becoming increasingly indistinguishable from other Australians. Despite this, their children continue to overwhelmingly identify as Aboriginal.

The Indigenous community is heavily dependent on government payments and transfers. In the annual GST distribution, the NT, for example, receives the highest per capita share of any state or territory – $5.15 back for every dollar raised – in recognition of its vast area and the poor health of many Indigenous residents. In this context, Indigenous opposition to mines or oil/gas developments (sometimes manipulated by green groups) comes across as disingenuous or mere rent seeking. Similar suspicions relate to calls for Treaty or retributions.

Overall, there is a lot of misinformation about Aboriginal disadvantage. Out of a total recorded Indigenous population of 981,000 in the 2021 Census, the real chronic disadvantage is concentrated among fewer than 150,000, overwhelmingly in remote areas. In remote areas, a solution must involve preventing the neglect of the younger generation. This may not be easy as past "interventions" proved unpopular amongst affected communities. Another issue is that many remote areas may be unable to support much economic activity due to their very remoteness.

In non-remote areas little government intervention may be needed in the long term, as those of Indigenous descent seem to be rapidly integrating into the general community and economy. That said, anything close to economic equality in non-remote areas will not occur for generations.