White township workers defended
18.11.2008
Sarah Elks, Stuart Rintoul, Additional reporting: Sean Parnell
EMPLOYERS and unions have defended the quality of staff in indigenous communities after they were branded as ``white trash'' who would not be employed elsewhere, or too busy trying to save Aboriginal people to do their jobs.
Indigenous educator Chris Sarra sparked a heated debate when he questioned why Aborigines were being blamed for community dysfunction, yet the standard of government services and staff seemed beyond reproach.
Dr Sarra said the remote communities had become the place to ``tuck our white trash away'', although he later retreated from his choice of words.
Former national Labor president and indigenous leader Warren Mundine went further, saying some staff were not only unemployable outside the communities but distracted by their own desire ``to protect Aboriginal people''.
Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said yesterday she was disappointed by the criticism, and believed the range of staff in indigenous communities was no different from anywhere else in the nation.
``I've visited many Aboriginal communities -- they're not easy places for people to live often, and many of the staff who go out there are young teachers, young police officers and their families, and I think they're doing the communities a great service,'' Ms Bligh said.
``The young people I have metworking in these communities are doing, by and large, a very goodjob.''
Although willing to concede many workers in indigenous communities were young and inexperienced, the Premier said that did not mean they were uncommitted. She said governments would always consider incentives and support to attract more experienced workers to remote areas.
Australian Education Union president Angelo Gavrielatos said chronic underfunding of schools was to blame, and governments should create an environment that was attractive to teachers.
``There are many communities across Australia, in the Northern Territory for example, where students are denied access to a teacher and a school -- basic access to education,'' Mr Gavrielatos said.
``There are communities where there are no schools, there are communities where there are no teachers, and there are other communities where there are teachers and a school, but no desks and chairs for a student to sit at.
``We don't operate in a vacuum, we operate in a context, and in some cases that context is one where our schools are chronically underfunded.'' Asked if it were true that the nation's best teachers were not attracted to remote Aboriginal communities, Mr Gavrielatos said: ``I think what's true is that in periods of teacher shortage, the schools first affected and most acutely affected are in our most difficult-to-staff areas.''
Griffith University academic Boni Robertson said that although she understood the frustration of Mr Mundine and Dr Sarra at the slow progress in improving the outcomes in indigenous communities and the constant criticism of Aborigines, she believed it was wrong to generalise and personalise the debate.
``Let's not fall into the same sort of trap of character assassination that has been used against us for generations. Let's just be more vocal and more rigorous in terms of demanding the kind of education for our children that we know they deserve,'' Professor Robertson said.
