Editorial The Weekend Australian 03/11/01

In his 1998 victory speech, John Howard spruiked reconciliation by the centenary of Federation. Yet he hasn't said sorry, and his campaign opener three weeks ago didn't mention it. Kim Beazley said sorry. but he too failed to offer any ideas to bring hope to Aborigines.

The federal Government must say, on behalf of all Australians, we are sorry that children were removed and sorry indigenous Australians suffered. But an apology alone is useless. Both parties must change tack so Aborigines can tackle the substance abuse, social decay, lack of education, poor health and deaths in custody that are endemic, despite all the handouts and symbolic posturing of well-meaning whites.

Eight days ago, Cape York Land Council leader Noel Pearson said an apology would be meaningless, to be rejected ``whether it came from Labor or a re-elected Coalition''. It might come from Peter Costello, but it won't from John Howard. As Mr Pearson said last year: ``If we are going to predicate our advancement as a people upon attitudinal changes in the wider community, we are assigning ourselves to a bleak future.

'' Many Aborigines think Mr Howard's policy delivers money but treats Aborigines as simply poor people whose needs can be met by mainstream services. Coalition policy treats substance abuse as ``a symptom of disadvantage'', even though Mr Pearson says it is ``a condition in its own right''. And even Mr Howard refuses to fix ATSIC.

Many Aboriginal leaders hope Labor can do better by co-operating with ALP premiers. This beats one problem, but does nothing to tackle what Mr Pearson calls ``the present lack of insight and ideas among the Australian progressivist and liberalist middle class''.

Mr Beazley baulks at new ideas lest he offend the professional Aboriginal industry. His policy pays scant attention to Mr Pearson's key concern: substance abuse. Labor mirrors one government program but beyond that there's just another summit. The only hint of reform comes in changes to the Community Development Employment Projects -- ``sitdown money''.

Labor and the Coalition must listen more. ``I sometimes wonder whether the last 30 years have taught Aboriginal communities that the way to tackle a problem is not to go out and do something about it ... but to have a series of conferences and workshops,'' Black Deaths in Custody royal commissioner Hal Wootten said yesterday. He asked whether people who had been wrecking organisations for years should be given the boot. Should we empower individuals, and perhaps families, rather than communities? And how many great programs are being ignored ``while large sums are being put into talkfests about a nebulous treaty''? The main parties must see, as Mr Pearson does, that handouts ``will have little or no impact on the substance abuse epidemics''. He, Mr Wootten and others float zero tolerance to reverse the trend that has turned the culture of sharing food into one of sharing grog.

Tough policies risk shifting some addicts into the margins, away from support networks. But when combined with policies that foster Aboriginal initiative, they offer some hope for the women and children who are victims of violence and neglect in an environment of passive welfare. ``It was easy when we could just blame everything on past bad behaviour and bad policies on the part of whites,'' Mr Wootten says. ``I think we have to get over those inhibitions.'' Unless the parties get some new ideas and see that people have to find the strength in themselves to change their lives, Aborigines will be condemned to further misery.