‘Worst to come,’ says Burney

By Kerri Carr

The Howard Government's proposed Aboriginal welfare reforms represent social engineering, NSW's first Aboriginal MP Linda Burney told Federation Council on November 20.

Ms Burney said "an enormously heavy rock developed in my stomach" after reading about the reforms and she felt like the rock was still there.

"Last Thursday week [November 11] what was announced in the media were a raft of reforms around Aboriginal welfare but you could have sworn for those of us who were around before '67 that we'd gone to sleep and we woke up last Thursday week," Ms Burney said.

"They are being dressed up as mutual obligation but the only way to describe these changes is social engineering and micro-managing Aboriginal individuals and families."

"They go something like this," Ms Burney said.

"If you want to receive welfare or family payments, which is a citizenship right, then you will be required to take your children for mandatory six-month health checks.

"Secondly, if you want to have your power, electricity and house repaired, then you must have children who are clean and attend school regularly. There is nothing wrong with clean kids who go to school regularly but tying that to decent housing is immoral.

"There will be an introduction of what has been called smart cards which will store information and have a limit to how much we can buy if it is a welfare payment.

"If the kids want to use the community swimming pool, they will have to have attended school and it goes on and on and on," Ms Burney said.

Ms Burney said the measures are "racially discriminatory".

She said they contravene the Federal Racial Discrimination Act, take away basic citizenship rights, and are not consistent with three international treaties, at least, to which Australia is a signatory, that is Article 6 on the International Covenant of Economic Social and Cultural Rights; Article 5 on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination; and the Covenant on the Rights of the Child.

"They are totally inconsistent with the principle of self-determination and Australia will now be the only first-world nation with a colonial past and an indigenous population that does not have underpinning it, in terms of policy and direction, the principle of self-determination."

"We thought we had seen the worst of it but, clearly, the worst is yet to come," Ms Burney said.

Ms Burney was a teacher at Lethbridge Park Public School from 1979 to 1981. From 1981 to 1983 she was involved in the writing of the Aboriginal Education Policy for the NSW Department of Education. From 1983 to 1987 Linda was an Executive Officer for the NSW Aboriginal Education Consultative Group as well as President. In 1998 to 1999 Linda was the Deputy Director-General for the NSW Department of Aboriginal Affairs.

For further information

December 2004 contents