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First Nations organisations have called for a fair discussion of cutting government spending in the wake of comments from the opposition’s efficiency spokesperson.
Campaigning in Perth over the weekend, Senator Jacinta Price, the Coalition’s shadow minister for both Indigenous Affairs and government efficiency, was asked about the areas in which the opposition intended to cut expenditure.
Price responded by listing matters exclusively related to Indigenous Affairs.
“We’re not providing funds for ridiculous grants, like colonising breastfeeding, like treating oral care as a form of colonisation in this country,” Price said, referring to a $1 million government grant to improve Indigenous breastfeeding rates.
Responding to questions about school curriculum, she also criticised Welcome to Country initiatives as “ideologically driven”.
Karl Briscoe, CEO of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Practitioner and Health Worker Association, said a more nuanced discussion on spending must take place.
“A reset like this shouldn’t mean just … shifting the blame,” he told NITV.
“It should be really deepening the current commitment, and look at what has been working through community control [and] co-design.”
Price has repeatedly called for an audit on the spending in Indigenous Affairs, saying money granted to Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations could be better allocated.
Mr Briscoe, a Kuku Yalanji man, said the Productivity Commission’s latest report into Indigenous expenditure painted a different picture.
“[The 2017 report] shows $27.4 billion of the $33 billion for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians actually goes to mainstream organisations,” he said.
“We welcome a conversation, but it must be rounded in fairness and honesty.”
Dr Clinton Schultz, an academic and advocate for Indigenous mental health, agreed that any conversation around audits, while welcome, could not focus solely on Indigenous Affairs.
“It almost suggests to the public that there’s rampant misspending within the indigenous affairs portfolio,” he told NITV.
“Given the need of disparity and … social, emotional wellbeing disturbance experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in this country due to colonisation, we actually know that there isn’t enough spending, there isn’t enough support.”
Dr Schultz, a Gamilaroi man who leads Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander strategy at the Black Dog Institute,
He criticised Price’s comments on Welcome to Country practices in schools.
“I don’t think it’s beneficial at all,” he said.
“Education systems can always look at how can we do better. Hopefully what giving people more of an opportunity to understand Australia’s history will actually do is allow Australians to all move together in a more productive and positive direction forward.
“We’ve historically had in Australia … either a masking of the truth or a complete lack of actually allowing the public to understand certain things that have happened in this country that have led to many of the circumstances that face us as First Nations peoples today.”
Not coming up Trumps
Meanwhile the opposition sought to distance itself from comments Senator Price made at Saturday’s Perth event which seemed to take their cue from US President Donald Trump.
Price said she wanted to “make Australia great again”, a close parallel to Trump’s ‘Make American Great Again’ rallying cry which has become synonymous with his political movement.
Nationals Leader David Littleproud called it a “slip of the tongue”.
Earlier this year the Coalition seemed to take heart from Trump’s election, with opposition leader Peter Dutton declaring the president a “big thinker”, “shrewd’ and “reasonable”.
Price’s elevation as minister for government efficiency also seemed to take its cue from billionaire Elon Musk’s appointment to a similar position.
But with Australian voters increasingly viewing Trump’s actions as dangerous and destabilising, it was an awkward choice of words for the senator, as her party has attempted to distance itself from the president.
Price said the media was “obsessed with Donald Trump.”
“We’re not. We’re obsessed with ensuring that we can improve the circumstances for Australians,” she said.
