Aboriginals and John Howard's electioneering

The announcement by the federal government to take over Aboriginal settlements rife with child abuse and impose draconian measures on them has been swallowed by the Main Stream Media as a Good Thing ™. None of them are applying any commonsense tests to the announced legislation. Do we want to stop the abuse of children? Of course. But is this the way to go about it? I seriously doubt it. For a very good summary of the major issues with this plan, you would do well to read this piece at Club Troppo.

But there is no sign of any of those careful, considered elements in the “plan” John Howard announced today. Like Howard’s $10 billion water “plan”, it appears to have been hastily cobbled together on the back of an envelope aiming solely at electoral advantage by playing to the “Howard battlers” and wedging the ALP. It appears to be little more than a cynical, desperate, Textor focus group-driven grab for redneck votes, by targetting the poorest , most vulnerable Australians. Sadly it may well work, judging by the supine response of Kevin Rudd and other Labor leaders to date.

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What effect will banning alcohol from all remote remote Aboriginal communities have? I can tell you immediately, from 24 years living in the NT. All the drinkers would immediately move into town in Darwin, Alice Springs, Katherine and Tennant Creek, where there is no way they could be stopped from drinking without restriction. The electoral effects of this urban social chaos would certainly be fatal for Dave Tollner, the incumbent CLP federal member for the Darwin-based marginal seat of Solomon. At least some Liberal advisers (notably Territory born and bred senior Howard adviser and policeman’s son Mark Textor) would be well aware of the practical effects of such a policy, which is why you can guarantee it won’t actually be introduced before the election and will be quietly shelved thereafter whoever wins.

Informed researchers in this area know that Howard's electioneering approach is flawed.

The author of three reports on child sexual abuse in Indigenous communities says the Government's new plan to tackle the problem will lead to increased violence and suicide.

Professor Judy Atkinson from Southern Cross University says she was stunned to hear of plans to freeze welfare payments and ban pornography and alcohol from Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory.

She says the Government has not thought through the consequences of its strategy to only target Indigenous communities.

"Some of the things that I know will happen in response to this- we will have an increase of violence, we will have an increase of suicide and suicide attempts," she said.

"There will be greater feelings of despair and we can't do it ourselves in our communities."

Where exactly are they going to get these magical doctors to do all the checks of the community? There is a shortage of doctors Australia wide. And what about the bureaucratic nightmare of trying to adminster all these checks in remote communities. It would be hard enough in a major city, let alone many settlements flung all over the Territory.

Howard is using this issue to gain votes by painting all indigenous Australians with the same brush. In the the same way that all boat people throw their children overboard and they're all terrorists trying to get into Australia and "jump the queue", any Aboriginies that care for their kids are going to be swept up in this indiscriminate net. "But if they are looking after their kids, they have nothing to worry about", you may say. How would you feel if you had to continually take your child to some doctor all the time, just to justify that you've been a good parent? As a new father, I would be highly offended.

And why did the Howard government wait 11 years to decide that this was an National Emergency? It's not like alcohol abuse in Indigenous communities is something new.

If they are going to go with all the itmes they are promising, then they should impose it on the whole of Australia. A 6 month alcohol ban would be a Good Thing ™. The road toll would certainly fall considerably, as would alcohol fuelled violence. For example from this study:

FINDINGS: Multiple regression analyses revealed a significant relationship between overall alcohol sales in an area and its incidence of assault for both Sydney and country NSW. There were few effects of outlet or alcohol type for Sydney, but the effect of alcohol sales from hotels and off-licences accounted for most of the alcohol-assault relationship for country NSW.

and the Western Australia "Enough is Enough" campaign.

Research has conclusively shown that hazardous and harmful alcohol use in Australia results in high economic and social costs to the community.

* Between 1991/92 and 2000/01, Western Australia was the only state to indicate an overall increase in adult per capita alcohol consumption.²
* In 2000/01 WA adults (every person over 15 years-of-age) consumed an average of 11.12 litres of alcohol, second only to the Northern Terriority.²
* Non-metropolitan areas of Australia have higher relative rates of hospitalisation for injuries and disease caused by risky and high-risk drinking, than metropolitan areas.¹
* In 2001, alcohol was responsible for a total of 8,196 hospital admissions and 43, 238 bed days. The total cost of this hospitalisation was over $30 million dollars.³
* Police report that up to 80 per cent of their work, including drink driving, property crime, assaults and domestic violence, is alcohol and drug-related.²
* The number of alcohol-related assaults in Western Australia increased by 52 per cent over the 7 years from 1991/92 to 1997/98.³
* Along with economic costs, the personal impact that excessive alcohol use has within the community is also significant. For example, the number of alcohol-related assaults markedly increased by 52.1% between 1990/91 to 1998/99, from 7,684, to 11,688.4

If you watch A Current Affair or Today Tonight, then it would seem that there is an epidemic of sexual predators, violence, pornography etc. Well that's the impression the shows give, anyway and they wouldn't exaggerate now, would they? All the issues that Howard is worried about, so let's apply these laws equally to all Australians. If the argument is that not even one sexual abuse should be tolerated (which no-one is disagreeing with) then place the same restrictions on the rest of Australia. Sure some law abiding people will be inconvenienced, but it's for the children, people. And no minority is too small to be a vote winner, no matter how ridiculous the proposal.

But don't take my rambling rant for it. Go read Ken Parish's essay.