Antinuclear

Tony Abbott completely out of touch with understanding of Aboriginal culture

Tony Abbott has backed the West Australian Government’s plans to close nearly half of the state’s 274 remote communities………

Mr Abbott said if people choose to live in areas where there are no schools or jobs, there is a limit to what they can expect the state to provide.

“If people choose to live miles away from where there’s a school, if people choose not to access the school of the air, if people choose to live where there’s no jobs, obviously it’s very, very difficult to close the gap,” he said.

The WA Government flagged the closure of up to 150 of the state’s remote Aboriginal communities after the Federal Government, which funded about two-thirds of the state’s remote Indigenous settlements, announced in September it was transitioning that responsibility to the states over the next two years.

Abbott a disgrace: Neumann

Labor’s Indigenous Affairs spokesman Shayne Neumann said Mr Abbott’s comments were highly offensive and threatened to undo the progress that has been made towards reconciliation.

“Here he is saying that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be evicted from the lands on which they’ve lived for millenia,” he said.

“He really is a disgrace and he really should apologise unreservedly for these comments. “Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have had more than 200 years of dispossession, dislocation and disadvantage and the Prime Minister wants to perpetuate this.”

Mr Neumann said the Prime Minister was denying that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have a connection to their land and accused him of having a “pre-Mabo” mentality on land rights.

West Australian Labor frontbencher – and Indigenous MP – Ben Wyatt said the Prime Minister’s comments showed an “extraordinarily ill-informed view” of Aboriginal cultural heritage.

“Today’s comments by Prime Minister Abbott seek to devalue and demean the one asset that Aboriginal people still own on their own terms, their heritage and culture,” Mr Wyatt said in a statement.

“Mr Abbott has sought to portray the ancient cultural practices of Aboriginal Australians as nothing more than a sea change move, the equivalent of painting landscapes on one’s veranda.

“Any organisation with a Reconciliation Action Plan will hopefully appreciate the simplistic and disrespectful comments from the Prime Minister and understand the strategy he is pursuing to de-legitimise the cultural practices of Aboriginal Australians’.”

West Australian Greens Sentor Rachel Siewert joined the chorus of criticism, releasing a statement describing Mr Abbott’s comments as “unbelievably racist and completely out of touch”.

“The cultures that exist within these communities are thousands of years old and stretch far beyond the Prime Ministers bizarre idea of a ‘lifestyle choice’,” she said……..http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/2015-03-10/tony-abbott-a-disgrace-says-federal-opposition-after-comments-that-living-in-remote-indigenous-commu/1423593

March 11, 2015 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | aboriginal issues, AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL