Competent indigenous leadership crucial to change

Some supporters of Aboriginal Australia have expressed regret that little was said about Aboriginal affairs during the election campaign. This omission may have been for the best. It is hard to imagine that a divisive election campaign is the most desirable time to consider the complex issues surrounding indigenous advancement and reconciliation.

It would also be a mistake for supporters of reconciliation to use the re-election of John Howard as an excuse to keep whingeing about what's not possible rather than doing something worthwhile and meaningful within the context of a government reaffirmed by the electorate.

The good news is that there is a surprising amount of common ground about the way forward. Even that often-critical analyst, the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, in its most recent social justice report concludes there are a number of initiatives moving us in the right direction.

The report drew attention to recent developments in implementing the Council of Australian Governments' (COAG) commitments to reconciliation, particularly the release last year of the first report on overcoming indigenous disadvantage and COAG's ten whole-of-government community trials.

That might sound like gobbledegook to people living outside Canberra. After all, it's much easier to think of these issues in terms of law and order, stopping substance abuse and ending welfare dependency: all worthy but none of them offering complete or long-term answers.

The truth is that successive federal and state governments, no matter what their political persuasion, have struggled to find answers. So the fact governments across Australia have agreed and made common commitments suggests there is a way forward.

The Prime Minister spoke of the essence of this new approach in an interview on the ABC's Lateline programme during the election campaign when he said, “…When you listen to the remarks of people like Noel Pearson and you hear their solutions in areas such as the Cape, you begin to understand that if communities are given the power to run their own affairs and to impose their own internal disciplines you will, over time, see an enormous improvement. We ought to be listening a lot more to those who believe that self-responsibility and personal empowerment in Aboriginal communities and the end of the welfare mentality are essential before we bring about a profound change for the better." 

This new, broadly accepted direction in indigenous affairs is based on two fundamentals: better co-ordination in the work of governments; and, most importantly, engaging and empowering indigenous communities to run their own affairs and find their own solutions.

Proposed arrangements after the demise of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) include the establishment of a network of Indigenous Co-ordination Centres (ICCs) in regional and remote locations around the country.

In practice, this means bringing together the multiplicity of agencies whose interaction with communities has been confusing and frustrating.

But it's the other side of the post-ATSIC equation that says the most about the new thinking in indigenous affairs.

The plan is that ICCs will negotiate, plan and implement essential programmes in such areas as health, housing, education and family violence with networks of elected and representative indigenous organisations.

Initially, that role will be played by ATSIC’s regional bodies (due to be abolished in mid-2005). After that, the ICCs will work in partnership with whatever representative structures local indigenous people decide to put in place within their regions.

This is radical stuff, and where this attempt differs from past failures is that there are a whole lot of important drivers of change, including a commitment from the highest levels of the bureaucracy.

The approach is imbued with recognition that indigenous people themselves, and their direct engagement in finding solutions, are the vital ingredients of positive change.

The road to hell in this area is definitely paved with good intentions. We must be honest and open about the reality that attempts will fail if competent, legitimate indigenous structures are not equipped to fulfil their end of the deal.

Those of us who are working to engage constructively with the governments in these uncertain times are urging leaders, both publicly and privately, to allow sufficient time for effective indigenous governance structures to be developed regionally and nationally.

Until now national representative structures have been imposed by governments. The National Aboriginal Conference, Aboriginal Development Commission and ATSIC were not indigenous creations.

What is possible now is something quite different as models of representative leadership are being discussed across Australia by indigenous peoples themselves, with support from Reconciliation Australia and the Australian Indigenous Leadership Centre.

This is an historic process and needs time.

The federal government must be prepared to support consultative processes in the hope that truly representative voices will emerge, designed by the indigenous people of Australia and therefore able to provide leadership to desperately needy regional communities and in the defining national debate about our shared future.