by Neville Kennard, preaching and practising capitalist

The Aborigine Welfare Industry comprises the many organisations, state and federal government departments, government ministers, aboriginal schools, aboriginal health departments … the list can go and on, all sucking on the tax-payers teat and making the aboriginal people in Australia increasingly worse off.

The state of health, of well-being, of self-respect of many aborigines is tragic. They suffer from gross unemployment.

Aborigines who escape the Aboriginal Welfare Industry fare well in the white-fella’s society. This would seem to indicate that despite certain “communitarian” customs in their tribal and traditional culture, they can adapt very easily to western ways.

The political-correctness of “aboriginality”, of language, of customs and black-fella culture ensures the Original Australians remain an underclass in the land they occupied for thousands of years.

Property Rights, the sine qua non of prosperity, is denied to aborigines in their tribal lands; they have “Land Rights” (whatever that means) but have no Property Rights. They own some land collectively (the Tragedy of the Commons) but individually they can’t own the land or the houses or buildings they may put on the land individually. They can’t sell or lease or buy or make contracts on the property as is normal and taken for granted in white-fella society. This is tragic for the personal responsibility of the aboriginal people who live on the land put aside communally for them.

It may be nostalgic and romantic to insulate the “noble savage” (a politically incorrect, patronising and unacceptable expression) from the “invaders”, but it seems to be the mind-set of the Aboriginal Welfare Industry. Or are the administrators of the Aboriginal Welfare Industry putting their own convenience and well-being before that of their “clients”?

Our aboriginal fellow-citizens in their own lands have shorter life-expectancy, worse health, lower standards of living than their white, brown, yellow brothers who practice western ways, capitalism and personal responsibility. “Genocide by Welfare” may seem a harsh and politically incorrect expression to some, but whenever I use it, it gets recognition and attention. Surprisingly, it gets no rejection.

As with all things government does, the unintended consequences of its well-intentioned idealism and largesse has gone horribly wrong. Schooling, nutrition, health, work, integration. It is time for a major and radical re-think to save the tragedy continuing for generations to come.

There are kind, generous, compassionate people wanting to support our aboriginal brothers, but they seem to be hamstrung by really dumb political policies and regulations. Can we get government out of the way and allow things to get better, as they would do without the Aboriginal Welfare Industry?

Further reading

Helen Hughes, Mark Hughes and Sara Hudson, Private Housing on Indigenous Lands (Sydney: CIS, 2010).