Welcome to Country election debate exploits Indigenous peoples

How apt that Indigenous peoples only came to feature in the election campaign courtesy of the actions of neo-Nazis demeaning Welcomes to Country at dawn services — and the ensuing efforts of politicians to try to exploit white resentment without too visibly aligning themselves with the ideological heirs of the people Anzacs died fighting in World War II.

Otherwise, chances were, we might have gone an entire campaign without our First Peoples rating a mention.

To be fair, Labor Minister Malarndirri McCarthy has released a number of Indigenous-related policies that attracted little media attention over recent weeks: more money for Indigenous rangers, an extra plane for Careflight in the Northern Territory, $80 million for climate resilience in the Torres Strait, more jobs under the Remote Jobs and Economic Development program, Indigenous mental health services and an essential care services-focused TAFE in the Territory.

The policy offering from the Coalition has been somewhat lighter: it copied Labor’s Careflight announcement the following day, and offered a $100 million boarding school fund for Indigenous students. Unlike McCarthy, who has attended a number of press events unveiling policies, her Coalition counterpart Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has barely been seen, except for one event where she upstaged Dutton and delivered her best Trump impersonation.

Dutton’s primary Indigenous affairs policies appear to be a royal commission into sexual abuse in Indigenous communities, and a crackdown on crime in Alice Springs, announced in January. A vague commitment to hold another Indigenous referendum was advanced and then quickly abandoned by Dutton at the start of the campaign.

David Speers sought to address the lack of focus on Indigenous issues in the leaders debate he hosted: after noting neither man had visited a remote community during the campaign, he questioned Dutton and Prime Minister Albanese during the ABC debate on our inability and reluctance to genuinely close the gap in life outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. Albanese reeled off some programs his government was providing; Dutton talked of how “there is a lot of concern about the way in which programs are delivered within communities” before talking about “some amazing stories” about school attendance.

Mark Riley also raised the aftermath of the failed Voice referendum during Seven’s leaders debate, but only after a discussion of Welcome to Country ceremonies.

Like crime in Alice Springs, or the apparent plague of sexual abuse in Indigenous communities, or the “concern about the way” Indigenous programs are delivered, the Welcome to Country “issue” is about what a problem Indigenous peoples are for non-Indigenous Australians, with the latter being forced to endure the ordeal of a brief statement pointing out that Indigenous peoples were already here before us but, despite colonisation, dispossession and attempted genocide, they’re still willing to welcome us to their community. Forget allowing Indigenous peoples a “Voice” to advise on policies being made that affect them — white Australians can’t even stomach being reminded that they exist at all.

And while Labor has a better policy record on Indigenous issues, and more Indigenous MPs and senators, it’s clear that the outcome of the Voice referendum has imposed a chilling — or perhaps freezing — effect on Anthony Albanese’s willingness to talk about Indigenous issues, for fear both of departing from his laser-like focus on cost of living in the campaign, and of reminding voters that he used up much of his political capital fighting a losing battle against white resentment in the Voice campaign.

In contrast, Dutton is happy to discuss Indigenous peoples, as long as they can be problematised or used as cannon fodder in culture wars. That’s why, after initially concentrating on criticising neo-Nazis, he moved to criticising Welcomes to Country (along with his doubling down on his allegedly “joking” references to “hate media”, it seems Dutton has decided to end his campaign on a culture war note).

But the broader Coalition policy on Closing the Gap remains unclear. The bipartisan status quo until the Voice campaign on Indigenous policy was that the federal government — first the Morrison government, then the Albanese government — was committed to a long-term project of transforming the design, delivery and evaluation of Indigenous policy into a process of genuine partnership with Indigenous communities, which required capacity building both within white bureaucracies and within communities — everywhere from more Indigenous health workers to more able and effective peak bodies to collaborate with government, and a culturally different public service able to work in partnership rather than in command-and-control mode.

This is, as I’ve written elsewhere, very much a work in slow progress as far as the bureaucracy is concerned. But everyone knew the goals and strategies intended to achieve them and that both sides of politics and both the Commonwealth and the states and territories were pursuing them.

Since the Voice campaign, however, there’s no evidence that a Dutton government would continue the Morrison government’s initiative in making Closing the Gap a partnership. Instead, Price delivered an incendiary commitment to return Indigenous policymaking to the days of assimilation. As far as we can tell, this is the Coalition’s formal position on Indigenous policymaking, because Dutton has never corrected the record or stated his own views, beyond his weird flirtation with another referendum for recognition, albeit a “take it or leave ” one purely on white terms.

Assimilation and erasure are the ultimate forms of the white solipsism that drive the resentment of Welcomes to Country and other forms of recognition of our history before invasion. It’s also the ultimate way of dealing with the persistent “problem” of the existence of Indigenous peoples, whom a substantial proportion of the electorate would rather just go away.

Have you been disappointed by the lack of focus on Indigenous issues during the campaign?

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