Academic condemns Aboriginal bureaucrats
26.05.2008

TACKLING indigenous disadvantage was being hindered because tens of thousands of people employed in the ``Aboriginal industry'' were simply collecting their salary and serving out time instead of tackling the hard issues, according to a leading Aboriginal academic.
Queenslander Stephen Hagan made the claim in his weekend Rob Riley memorial lecture in Perth, during which he questioned whether remote communities should continue to exist or should be shut down.
Mr Hagan, a lecturer at Toowoomba's Southern Cross University, said domestic violence in communities, which had led to increasing killings of Aboriginal women in remote parts of central Australia, required ``a seismic shift in attitude''.
``We all need to pool our collective thoughts on how we can best tackle this insidious problem afflicting our communities that has obviously been allowed to fester unchallenged by people in positions of responsibility for far too long,'' he said.
``This skinny latte ideology suggests that many public figures, indigenous and non-indigenous, working in the indigenous industry have taken a lighter option to heavy lifting when tackling indigenous disadvantage -- safe in the knowledge that results in their field are not aspirational outcomes that governments expect to see.
``So instead of being proactive in the task at hand, many sadly are simply going through the process of ensuring their adherence to their duty statement is not brought into question, while accumulating their superannuation entitlements through the passage of time.
``Many simply wait their turn for a comfortable middle-management job to present itself, without a worry in the world about the plight of the most marginalised in society.''
``A bit like drinking a skinny latte, thinking you're addressing a weight issue -- the more you drink it, the more you believe it.
``Those who fall into this category know who they are because they must number in the tens of thousands -- as the problems at the grassroots level continue to escalate unabated.''
Mr Hagan put to the audience that a possible answer to solving the problems of child abuse and domestic violence in rural and remote communities was to ``shut them down''.
But he warned that most Australians would probably support the view adopted by senator Chris Evans in June 2006 that shutting down remote indigenous communities would only relocate the problems of violence and abuse.
``Could it possibly be that indigenous Australians are a product of their inability to adapt, restructure and re-educate?'' he asked.
Mr Hagan said he often marvelled at the way mainstream Australians openly assisted waves of immigrants from overseas ``with empathetic outstretched hands''.
``Yet they (mainstream Australians) steadfastly brush us aside when we seek commensurate assistance for basic services,'' he said.
``However, I do believe many of our mob are doing themselves a disservice by routinely singing the `poor bugger me' tune, while apportioning blame to non-indigenous people for their insufferably slow progress in gaining social and economic parity.''