Tony Abbott a 'disgrace', says Federal Opposition after comments that living in remote Indigenous communities was a 'lifestyle choice'

Updated

The Federal Opposition is demanding the Prime Minister apologise after he suggested it is a lifestyle choice to live in remote Indigenous communities.

Tony Abbott has backed the West Australian Government's plans to close nearly half of the state's 274 remote communities and said it was not unreasonable if the cost of providing services such as schools, outweighed the benefits.

"What we can't do is endlessly subsidise lifestyle choices if those lifestyle choices are not conducive to the kind of full participation in Australian society that everyone should have," he said.

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.

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. West Australian Labor frontbencher - and Indigenous MP - Ben Wyatt

"Here he is saying that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be evicted from the lands on which they've lived for millennia," 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'."

'You have to be on your country to look after it'

The chairman of WA's Kimberley community of Djarindjin, Brian Lee, said it was a cultural obligation to live on traditional country and it could not be a "lifestyle choice".

"We are obliged to look after our country and that's why a lot of us are out here on country," he said.

"Unless you live out here, you really can't make any judgement on that.

I would ask him where that fits within the Government's policy on closing the gap? Hugh Gallagher, Kalgoorlie-Boulder CCI

"For our people, it's an obligation to your ancestors to look after your country and you have to be on your country to look after it.

"You can't do that from the city or towns that are hundreds of kilometres away from where you live."

West Australian Greens senator 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 Minister's bizarre idea of a 'lifestyle choice'," she said.

"I urge the Prime Minister to apologise and retract his unthoughtful comments which downplay cultures that have stood the test of time. We should be working with communities rather than smashing through them".

The Aboriginal Health Council of WA's chairwoman, Michelle Nelson-Cox, said she was bitterly disappointed by Mr Abbott's comments.

"Lifestyle choices do not equate to cultural obligations. The fact that the Prime Minister made these assumptions is a poor state of affairs from his perspective," she said.

"Aboriginal people sustaining their connection to land is the closest emotional connection that they have."

The Kalgoorlie-Boulder Chamber of Commerce and Industry's Hugh Gallagher said the Prime Minister should be concerned about the profound impact it would have on Aboriginal culture and the business community.

"I would ask him where that fits within the Government's policy on closing the gap?" Mr Gallagher said.

"Because it is just so important that regional culture is retained and sadly it begins to shrink when it's in capital cities."

Communities not yet told if they will close

Laverton Shire president Patrick Hill said there was too much uncertainty at the moment and people were extremely worried.

He said he had not been told if the three Aboriginal communities surrounding his shire would be closed or where those people would be housed within the small northern Goldfields town.

"The biggest thing we're concerned about is closing down these communities and moving the residents into the regional centres like Laverton, Leonora or Kalgoorlie-Boulder without housing," Mr Hill said.

"Where do these people get moved to after the communities close and what happens to them? What resources are going to be provided to them to move?

"We don't want them all camping out underneath the trees around the town, they are going to need housing and that's our concern.

"We don't want people moved out of the areas that they've come from."





Topics: indigenous-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander, government-and-politics, perth-6000, kalgoorlie-6430, esperance-6450, laverton-6440, broome-6725, karratha-6714, wa

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