Australia looks to new paternalism for Aborigines

CANBERRA - The Australian government called yesterday for a return to paternalism to help Aborigines overcome appallingly poor health, angering indigenous leaders who said the move undermined their rights.

Launching a report which found Aborigines were 100 years behind the rest of Australia in terms of health and life expectancy, Health Minister Tony Abbott said it was time for the government to take back control of indigenous communities.

"A form of paternalism -- paternalism based on competence rather than race -- is really unavoidable if these places are to be well run," Abbott said.

"Because it was wrong to treat aboriginal people like wayward children it isn't necessarily right to expect aboriginal people to thrive through endless management committee meetings."

Australia's 460,000 Aborigines, around 2.3 per cent of the population, are dying at almost three times the rate of other Australians and have a life expectancy 17 years lower than the rest of the population.

Many live in remote, self-governing communities, where there is little access to good housing, health or education services. Aborigines also suffer higher rates of alcohol and substance abuse, unemployment and imprisonment than other Australians.

In central Australia, homicide is the leading cause of premature death for aboriginal women, who are also 45 times more likely to suffer domestic violence than white women.

Aboriginal social justice commissioner Tom Calma said Abbott's plan to stop Aborigines having control of their own communities signalled a return to the days of white Christian missionaries.

"We've suffered in indigenous society because of paternalism for too many years. One of the problems of paternalism is that it doesn't allow individuals to learn to develop responsibility," Calma told Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio.

He said the government should do more to train aboriginal people to manage their own affairs.

Abbott, who once trained to be a Catholic priest, said the government had poured money into improving aboriginal health, but blamed social conditions in some remote communities for ongoing problems with alcohol, violence and sexual abuse.

He said one in four Aborigines reported physical threats or violence within the past year, while aboriginal life expectancy in 2006 was the same as life expectancy for other Australians 100 years ago.

Abbott said the government wanted the right to send administrators to take over and manage communities, saying self-determination for many aborigines was rhetoric which had allowed officials to evade their responsibilities.

- REUTERS