Article by Alan Austin, first published on Independent Australia, 12 May 2025; republished under Creative Commons
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Countless medical researchers, sociologists, social workers and others have explained how dispossession of the original inhabitants and loss of culture have led to these negative outcomes.
The suite of responses to disadvantage must therefore start with advancing the place of Indigenous culture in Australian life, along with self-determination.
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Labor’s winning margin virtually guarantees it two terms of significant reform, with more beyond that highly likely. Alan Austin reports.
PROFESSIONAL ANALYSTS and political bloggers are referring to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s election victory with clichés like ‘unprecedented mandate’, ‘stonking majority’, ‘you only get one Dutton in your lifetime’, ‘legacy’ and ‘imprint on the nation’.
In contrast, the epithets applied to the Coalition include ‘wipeout’, ‘existential crisis’, ‘parliamentary wing of Sky News’ and ‘impotent rump’.
As both the ecstasy and the agony continue, the Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has tossed onto the table two documents both sides must address.
Last Wednesday’s National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Measures Survey reveals the grim reality of Indigenous sickness nationwide.
Bad and getting worse
This research into biomarkers of chronic disease and nutrition from 2022 to 2024 found:
- almost one in six Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults (15.5%) had diabetes, up from one in ten (9.6%) in the previous survey a decade ago;
- this was worse in remote areas where more than one in five (21.7%) had diabetes;
- one in four Indigenous adults (25.7%) had abnormally high cholesterol levels; and
- more than one in four (26.6%) were vitamin D deficient.
Indigenous imprisonment
The ABS has also confirmed that Indigenous people incarcerated surged in the year to December 2024, hitting an appalling all-time high 15,901. This is 35.9% of all prisoners, despite First Australians comprising 3.8% of the population.
That is 10% higher than December 2023, the worst annual increment on record.
These ABS reports and other indicators of dysfunction suggest that the positive impacts of the process of healing, which began with the Uluru Statement from the Heart in 2017, were reversed as soon as the Coalition undermined the Voice Referendum in early 2023.
Quarterly incarceration numbers actually declined eight times in the lead-up to that Referendum, but have surged every quarter since.
The fundamental challenge
It has been understood for decades that adverse outcomes in Indigenous health, education, joblessness, poverty, crime and life expectancy are symptoms of a much deeper malaise.
Countless medical researchers, sociologists, social workers and others have explained how dispossession of the original inhabitants and loss of culture have led to these negative outcomes.
The suite of responses to disadvantage must therefore start with advancing the place of Indigenous culture in Australian life, along with self-determination.
We know what is required
Who said this?
It is sometimes thought that the bulk of the problems arising in connection with Aboriginals will disappear provided money is made available on a large scale. This approach does not sufficiently recognise that many of the problems are psychological and social ...
To attain our goal, patience, persistence and understanding are essential. What we are doing will not mean that Aboriginals, as citizens, will lose their identity, their pride of race and their culture.
That was Liberal Prime Minister Harold Holt 58 years ago, in 1967.
His parliamentary opponent, Gough Whitlam, agreed and went further:
“We believe Aboriginal communities and individuals must themselves decide the pace and nature of their future development ... At the local and at the national level, emphasis must shift towards Aboriginal control and responsibility.”
Whitlam’s successor as PM, Malcolm Fraser, who fought bitterly with Whitlam on many issues, was completely in accord on this:
“We need to recognise that many current problems are a consequence of past government action or inaction ... We should use whatever powers of advocacy, whatever powers of persuasion we have to advance justice for Australia’s Indigenous population.”
Historic initiatives all undermined
History shows that when both sides of politics have supported Indigenous leaders together, accomplishments have been impressive.
These include:
- the 1967 referendum which gave Indigenous Australians full citizenship, backed by Holt and Whitlam;
- the 1976 Land Rights Act (Northern Territory), which secured freehold title to Indigenous lands, fixed by Fraser and Whitlam;
- replacing the Aboriginal Affairs Department in 1990 with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC), enacted by Bob Hawke and John Hewson;
- the Native Title Act 1993 formulated by Paul Keating and Hewson to implement the High Court’s Mabo ruling, which ended the legal fiction that Captain Cook had “discovered” an unoccupied land;
- the formal apology to the Stolen Generations delivered by Kevin Rudd in 2008 with Liberal Leader Brendan Nelson’s support; and
- the Statement from the Heart to the people of Australia from delegates to the First Nations National Constitutional Convention, which led to the 2023 Referendum on the Voice to Parliament. This was backed in 2017 by Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten.
All of these gave hope to Indigenous people that they could hold an honoured place in the nation, take control of their destiny and eventually address the multiple symptoms of disadvantage.
Tragically, these were all dismantled by malicious Coalition governments, notably those of John Howard, Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison. The Uluru Statement process was destroyed by the craven Coalition in Opposition led by Peter Dutton.
Was Dutton’s treachery in wrecking the Voice one major reason voters rejected him so resoundingly? We cannot prove this, but would like to think so.
Ways forward
Captain Australia, the all-conquering Albo, is receiving loads of free advice on what to do with his extraordinary power and authority. He seems to be noting these politely and charting his own course, so we shan’t augment it.
We can trust, however, that when the next Indigenous council presents a framework for a process to heal a broken nation, Labor will support it.
We shall see if a chastened Opposition does so also. We live in hope.
Picture credit: democracy sausages, Moggill, Qld, 2017 (Wikipedia/Kerry Raymond; CC BY 4.0)
