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'Mal'administration

By Graham Ring - posted Thursday, 24 August 2006


Mal Brough approached his appointment to the Indigenous Affairs portfolio with all the zeal of a wild-west lawman intent on “cleaning up the town”.

He began shooting from the hip on day one, and now it appears that he has more than one bullet lodged firmly in his foot.

The stewardship of Indigenous Affairs has passed from a minister who seemed to have only a passing interest in Aboriginal issues, to one who generates ideas like a Catherine-wheel.

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For readers unfamiliar with fireworks, the Catherine-wheel rotates as it burns, shooting out sparks in all directions, and producing merriment, consternation and the occasional bushfire.

Brough is the minister who had the Indigenous violence summit without inviting Indigenous leaders.

The same one who is currently monstering Mutitjulu, instead of sitting down with the leaders of this troubled community to help them sort things out.

He’s the bloke intent on nobbling the big Northern Territory land councils.

The minister is looking increasingly accident-prone as he lurches between ill-considered utterances and half-baked ideas for economic miracles.

Witness the million dollar mistake: in late June, Brough made the incredible claim that a million dollars in cash from the sale of illicit substances had been found in just one remote community.

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It wasn’t true, of course, and the minister eventually retreated from this excited outburst, saying that he had “failed to check his facts”.

But it beggars belief that someone who has now visited quite a number of these communities could imagine that there might be a million dollars in cash lying around. Where would it be kept? In a biscuit tin in the town clerk’s office? Secreted away in the exhaust pipe of a rusting car-body?

It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that the minister really has no feel for this stuff.

The minister may also do well to re-examine his strategy of indulging in pally chats with shock-jocks and alleged opinion makers.

In mid-May, Brough had a public heart-to-heart with Lawsy on Big John’s morning radio show. The minister switched to hypothetical mode so that he could smear Indigenous Australia with a level of impunity. “... if you’ve got children being raped all over the place, if the community isn’t game to talk about it, and there’s more than one operating in a community, you can split hairs and call it whatever you like ...”

Brough succeeded only in undermining Indigenous communities.

This sort of loose talk might play well among the rednecks who have fixed views about Black Australia, but it deprives the minister of the credibility he needs to negotiate effectively with Indigenous leaders.

Recently, Professor Mick Dodson spoke at a luncheon in Melbourne convened with the worthy aim of getting reconciliation in this country back on track.

Dodson expressed a lack of confidence in Brough, and said that only the Prime Minister could drive the necessary changes.

“I can talk to the boss about the cock-up with one of his staff,” Dodson observed, before going on to give Brough a bake for his misrepresentation of customary law.

In late July, Jana - some people in this country only need one name - showed footage of Brough sitting in the dust at Wadeye, tackling some first-order issues with the locals.

“I want you to clean up the rubbish,” he told them, jaw set in the manner of an ex-army captain who expects orders to be followed rather than questioned.

On May 16, Brough appeared on the Lateline program, making unsubstantiated claims about “pedophile rings” operating in remote communities.

As Northern Territory Chief Minister Clare Martin was quick to point out, if the minister has evidence of serious criminal activity he should place it in the hands of the police.

The Brough office is currently involved in a protracted game of “no-speaks” with the National Indigenous Times newspaper.

If you don’t want to chat with the next door neighbour, that’s your own affair.

But Ministers of the Crown, who oversee the expenditure of hundreds of millions of dollars of public money, have a duty to be accountable. The Minister for Indigenous Affairs needs to have a working relationship with the highest-circulating Indigenous-specific newspaper in the country.

Let’s be clear. Some remote communities have serious problems which must be addressed with a great deal of thought, careful planning, and thorough consultation with Aboriginal people.

Hyperbole has no place here.

Indigenous Australia needs generals to help plan its long term future, not captains to organise emu parades.

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First published in the National Indigenous Times on August 10, 2006, Issue 111.



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About the Author

Graham Ring is an award-winning writer and a fortnightly National Indigenous Times columnist. He is based in Alice Springs.

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