Tony Abbott says engagement with Aboriginal people will be one of the hallmarks of an incoming Coalition government.

Speaking to The Sydney Institute tonight, Abbott said a non-Labor government would be “complacent, even neglectful” if it failed to address “the most intractable difficulty our country has ever faced”.

In the speech and in a media release, Abbott committed himself to:

• Putting forward for consultation, within 12 months of taking office, a draft amendment to the Constitution recognising Aboriginal people and establish a bi-partisan process to assess its chances of success.
• Personally spending a week living and working within a remote Aboriginal community each year.
• Funding four GenerationOne trial sites to train 1,000 indigenous people for guaranteed jobs.
• Working with State and Territory governments to encourage teachers into longer-term postings at remote schools.
• Working with State and Territory governments to ensure that all larger indigenous communities have a permanent police presence.
• Taking the handling of indigenous affairs into the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.

In his speech, Abbott said: “Aboriginal policy is less about setting goals than making a journey; less about doing things for indigenous people than all of us finally accepting that there is so much we can learn from each other. Should the Coalition win the election, Aboriginal people will be at the heart of a new government, in word and in deed.”

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Text of Opposition Leader Tony Abbott’s speech to The Sydney Institute.

Indigenous affairs are, quite rightly, a larger part of our nation’s business than ever before. The apology, for instance, was a milestone in our parliamentary history. “Closing the gap” statements may not quite command the attention of a budget but have become an important part of the parliamentary year. Indigenous affairs have become the focus of almost everyone occasionally and of a small minority constantly but, as yet, have rarely been a consistent priority for government.

This will change should the Coalition win the election. Along with scrapping the carbon tax and the mining tax, stopping the boats and getting the budget back into the black; along with boosting our competitiveness by cutting red tape and slimming the bureaucracy; along with building the infrastructure that a first world economy in the 21st century needs, fostering community controlled public schools and hospitals and turning a passive welfare system into a more active one; and along with giving our foreign policy a Jakarta rather than a Geneva focus, I want a new engagement with Aboriginal people to be one of the hallmarks of an incoming Coalition government – and this will start from day one. [Read more...]