Dear Editor,
I write to express my unequivocal support for a YES vote at the upcoming referendum on establishing a Voice for First Nations people in our constitution.
My direct interest goes back to the early 1970s when I joined the staff of the new Law School at the University of New South Wales as its administrative officer. Professor Hal Wootten was Dean of the Faculty at the time; as a senior barrister before being invited by the University to head the new law school. Hal had been heavily involved in the establishment of the Redfern Legal Centre drawing on the financial and professional assistance of like-minded lawyers, including Jim Spiegelman, who went on to be appointed as Chief Justice in New South Wales. I played a small part in the work of the committee that supported the front-line activities of the Centre under the able administration of Auntie Alana Doolan.
I was also closely involved in assisting the administration of a special admissions program Hal Wootten had persuaded the University to introduce. This scheme allowed admission to the law school to First Nations men and women who were intelligent and motivated to succeed, but by virtue of their background did not have the formal qualifications for admission, or the means, to what was otherwise a highly contested admission. The scheme’s success is a matter of history with hundreds of successful young and not-so-young First Nations people qualified and admitted to practice, many of whom went on to careers in more senior roles withing the Law profession.
In the 1990s Hal Wootten was deputy chair of the Enquiry into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, a report substantially and shamefully ignored by governments of all persuasions.
Manning Valley
Later after moving to the wonderful Manning Valley, I was privileged to work with Taree Mayor Mick Tuck in facilitating a workshop at the Manning Entertainment Centre bringing together First Nations people, local business folk and councillors to put together a plan to better deal with the issues the Council then faced with some parts of the First Nations community in the Manning.
All this has shown me very clearly that while there are pathways through life for some First Nations people to do well and indeed thrive, much needs to be done in addressing the systemic wrongs that adversely affect so many of our First Nations people.
During my business career in the Manning and in Sydney I have seen there is a real and substantive difference between “consultation” that means “tell them what we have in mind and get their reaction” and “consultation” that means “ask them what they want to achieve and suggest how we get there.”
It is abundantly clear that much of what we have done, or tried to do, to make a sincere difference for our First Nations people has not worked.
Only change driven by genuine grass roots participation has any chance of success in addressing the imbalance in opportunity for Indigenous Australians. There is an overabundance of evidence to show that top-down intervention simply does not work … think Mal Brough’s Northern Territory Intervention by the armed service during the Howard years. There is similarly an overabundance of evidence that shows that change brought about by genuine community level involvement does work. Though individual examples of such success rarely get the publicity that wholesale interventionist programs get.
So, I am most definitely in favour of the YES campaign and sincerely hope most of my fellow Australians will feel the same and vote accordingly.
Do I think that a YES vote will show an immediate difference and “fix” all the issues all Australians face in properly addressing the “closing the gap” program of the federal government? Of course not! I am motivated by the old saying “if you keep on doing what you’ve always done, you’ll continue to get the same results.”
Do I think that all the issues in the Closing the Gap program will be addressed equally well? Of course not!
But I do know that well intentioned people in public administration and public life have tried the top down approach and have by and large failed.
Noel Pearson is right. If we give our First Nations brothers and sisters the responsibility for designing programs at local, regional, state, and national level, then the responsibility for both successes and failures will rest squarely on the quality of those discussions and consultations at those levels.
Peter Wildblood
Rainbow Flat