Indigenous private property rights ignored again

In May 2010, the Commonwealth government released an Indigenous Economic Development Strategy discussion paper. Ninety-two responses, totaling more than 1,000 pages have been posted online. The discussion paper did not distinguish between the majority (more than 60%) of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders who are working in capital cities and regional towns with other Australians and the welfare dependent minority. Of the latter, 25% live in capital cities and regional towns alongside non-Indigenous welfare recipients. Provided Aborigines are treated equally with other Australians, this year’s budget measures will help get this Indigenous population into jobs.

Only 15% of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders live in remote communities on Indigenous lands. It is this minority – some 75,000 – to whose plight most of the discussion paper is addressed, yet it did not report that there can be no economic development as long as communist economies prevail on Indigenous lands.

The unavailability of secure title to a block of land for a home or a business did not rate a mention. Only three responses to the discussion paper (including CIS) noted the necessity for individual property rights. The Human Rights Commission response, indeed, stated that there is no evidence that secure title is necessary for economic development!

Other responses, also reflecting the discussion paper’s premise that bureaucratic ‘engagement’ is the road to development, proposed the following: an Indigenous Entrepreneurship Academy, an Indigenous Governance Institute, an Indigenous Business Development Agency, an Indigenous Capital Fund, an Indigenous National Trust Fund, Regional Compensation Funds, an Indigenous Cultural Natural Resource Management Organisation, an Indigenous Economic, Social and Cultural Development Agency, Commonwealth guarantees for Indigenous Business, and a National Imagining Gathering.

The NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet added to the platitudes already crowding the draft—that 'improving Indigenous participation in the economy [would] ensure that Indigenous people share in Australia’s economic wealth.’

South Australia, however, claimed an economic development action program is ‘currently implementing the delivery of Aboriginal cultural awareness training to the Industry Clusters of the Aboriginal Employment Industry Network.’ We can hardly wait to see the boom in jobs in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands and Ceduna and Port Augusta camps.

In sum, the Commonwealth Department of Indigenous Affairs and the ‘Aboriginal Industry’ does not appear to be able to connect with reality. Failed education, no home or business on Indigenous lands, and excessive welfare are the barriers to economic development in remote communities. Until these are tackled, there will be no progress.

Emeritus Professor Helen Hughes is a Senior Fellow at The Centre for Independent Studies. Mark Hughes is an independent researcher.