Why Liberals have the key to Closing the Gap

Australians are a generous people. We have a strong sense of social justice and desire to help those who are doing it tough. We are conscious of how lucky we are, and give generously to charitable causes around the world.

Young Australians, perhaps more than any generation before, are fully aware of the poverty and disadvantage experienced both in Australia and overseas and aspire to make meaningful change for the better. This is what we care about.

Unfortunately, the Liberal party have allowed themselves to be defined, rightly or wrongly, as a party of (at best) callous indifference towards, and (at worst) inhumane treatment of vulnerable people. We have allowed the Greens to claim the territory of social justice, even while they advocate policies that would destroy our economy and drive more people into unemployment and poverty.

We Liberals have a compelling alternative to offer, and properly communicating this alternative with the electorate will be key to winning back the hearts and minds of modern Australians. We understand that the dignity of work, and the ability to provide for one’s self and one’s family is crucially important to human flourishing. We understand that welfare dependency is a deeply crippling condition that locks people in poverty. We understand that government programs administered by bureaucrats with secure budgets rarely deliver effective results. We understand that free markets and entrepreneurship, when properly incentivised and nurtured, can find new solutions to intractable social problems. We understand all of this, and it’s time that we advocated Liberal answers to the social justice problems Australians care about.

We call ourselves the lucky country, and with good reason. Our cities are the world’s most liveable. We pride ourselves on our world class education and health care. We sing proudly of wealth for toil, and a land rich with nature’s gifts. We are prosperous. The hard, unchangeable truth though, is that our prosperity came at an immense cost to the aboriginal people of Australia.

Closing the Gap

We cannot change the past, and all the statue-toppling, virtue signalling and national self-flagellation advocated by some won’t make things right. But we also cannot put the past behind us, because we still have unfinished business. This unfinished business is the overwhelming disadvantage experienced by Aboriginal Australians today. The gap in life expectancy, employment, education and incarceration rates is a direct result of the dispossession and marginalisation of indigenous people in the past. We did not perpetrate these historical acts, but as direct beneficiaries of them, we have a moral duty to rectify the negative effects that they still cause.

It is a national disgrace that entire communities are living in conditions comparable to the poorest countries of Africa. Places where 20 or more people crowd into a three bedroom house. Places rife with alcoholism, violence and sexual abuse. This ought to be considered nothing less than a national emergency, with every possible effort made to urgently address it. And yet, the same old policies have led to the same lack of progress.

It is high time that the Liberals took the lead on this issue, and advocated for real solutions based on our principles and values. The distinctively Liberal principles I have looked to in this article are free markets, individual enterprise and the rule of law.

Free Markets

There is no shortage of money spent on Closing the Gap. An estimated $100,000 per person is spent on indigenous Australians in remote areas. The problem is that all of this money is not buying better outcomes.

In a normally functioning free market economy, service providers that don’t deliver value to their customers go out of business, and those that do deliver value grow their market share. Competition between service providers drives innovation and a focus on providing ever more customer value.

When governments fund services on behalf of recipients, the fundamental mutual-interest link between customer and service provider is broken. The service provider is incentivised to win government grants, rather than provide the best service. In some cases, there is no competition and therefore no incentive to improve service levels at all.

A clear example of this phenomenon is majority-indigenous primary schools. Improving primary schooling is fundamentally important to closing the gap. If students can’t read and write, they are set up to fail, and the flow-on effects are immense. If students struggle in school, they are more likely to drop out. If they drop out, they are more likely to occupy themselves with drugs, alcohol and underage sex resulting in teen pregnancies. Children born to teenage parents are more likely to suffer from diabetes and kidney problems. It is a classic example of how education, health and employment are inextricably linked in indigenous communities.

Tragically, low expectations, ineffective teaching methodologies and weak school leadership in some schools mean that student outcomes are often very poor. Stories abound of teachers telling researchers things like “they’ll never amount to much, so we just sing songs”. This racism of low expectations is perpetuating the cycle of disadvantage and must be stopped.

On the flip side, there are some high achieving schools that defy the odds and achieve outstanding results. Often these schools are led by passionate, courageous principals that go above and beyond to set a culture of high expectations for both students and parents.

It’s clear that a policy of free market ‘survival of the fittest’ should apply here. Schools that achieve outstanding results should be given more resources to expand their market share. For example, by rewarding high performing principals and giving them authority over more schools in their area.

Another simple free market solution is to pay high performing principals a lot more, just like high performing CEOs. This in turn will incentivise existing principals to lift their game, and encourage more talented individuals to pursue this as a career path. Of course, principals are not CEOs, and it’s not all about the money, but higher pay is key to raising the profile of this crucially important role.

Policy Idea 1: Empower and incentivise high performing principals

The same principle relating to primary schools could apply to all manner of government funded programs. The formula is simple: work out which ones are getting the best results, and give them more resources/market share, work out which ones aren’t, and stop wasting money on them.

This starts with a comprehensive and independent evaluation of all programs. It means linking every dollar spent to quantifiable goals. Financial innovations such as social impact bonds (where governments pay for an outcome rather than a service) are one of many ways of achieving this.

To give one example, smoking is known to have a much worse effect on indigenous people than non-indigenous, due to various multiplicative health factors.  It has been shown to reduce life expectancy by as much as 10 years. Smoking reduction could therefore be a worthwhile and suitably quantifiable goal, with funding for programs tied to a measurable reduction in smoking. Programs that achieve greater reduction per dollar spent would be given more funding to expand. Programs that were not effective would have their funding reduced or removed.

Policy Idea 2: Reform funding of indigenous programs, so that funding is tied to outcomes rather than service delivery

Individual Enterprise

As Liberals, we have an innate sense of the importance of empowering individuals to improve their own situation, and empowering communities to solve their own problems. Conversely, we know how debilitating welfare dependency can be for individuals, and how government programs imposed on communities rarely provide a lasting solution.

Too often, we have reached for the stick rather than the carrot in dealing with welfare dependency. We must realise that only intrinsic, not extrinsic motivation is the key to breaking free of it. This intrinsic motivation comes from the pride and dignity of decent job, a sense of ownership and agency over one’s own situation, and a genuine hope for the future.

Entrepreneurship is an inherently human trait, but it must be nurtured. Warren Mundine has written extensively on the opportunities available for indigenous entrepreneurs in remote communities. Many services like hairdressing, that could be provided by locals, are outsourced at great expense. There is huge untapped demand for authentic indigenous tourism experiences. By supporting would-be entrepreneurs to identify these opportunities and start new businesses, we can create strong economies and a viable alternative to welfare dependency and state paternalism.

Policy Idea 3: An entrepreneurship program for remote indigenous communities

One major area of opportunity that warrants further discussion is the issue of housing in remote indigenous communities. Inadequate housing, like poor quality primary schooling, is a core issue that has major flow-on effects. Overcrowding leads to scabies which in turn causes rheumatic fever, and greatly increased risk of heart disease. Overcrowding makes it nearly impossible for children to do homework.

Unfortunately, the ‘hand-out’ approach, that is simply building new public housing, has not worked. Not only are these houses extremely expensive to build (upwards of $1 million each), but in many cases new houses are built and fall into disrepair within a few years.

There is a simple principle at work here: when people have a sense of ownership, and of having worked for something, they value it and care for it. It is obviously not feasible for residents of remote communities to simply buy a house, but new funding mechanisms should be explored that make home ownership attainable for those willing to work. Additionally, similar to Thatcher’s housing policy of 1980, public housing tenants should be given the right to buy their homes at an affordable price.

Policy Idea 4: Promote indigenous home ownership in remote communities

Construction of new houses is a massive economic opportunity for local communities. Where possible, all measures should be taken to ensure local people are involved in the design and construction of new housing. This may require extensive investment in training and skills, and may delay the delivery of new housing, but it will boost a sense of pride and ownership in the houses, as well as deliver employment opportunities and all of the associated benefits.

Rule of Law

There has been much spoken about the over-representation of indigenous people in the criminal justice system, so it may be difficult to believe that a major problem facing indigenous communities is not too much ‘rule of law’, but rather a lack of it.

The harsh reality is, that domestic violence is rampant in many communities and often goes unreported. Family loyalty and fear of reprisal means that child abuse and paedophilia are often covered up.

There are some who perpetuate a lie that these issues are somehow a natural product of aboriginal culture and law, which must be respected. Marcia Langton, a highly respected advocate for indigenous people, makes the compelling point that “If these practices were traditional laws, there would be no Aboriginal society in existence today. If we look at the Indigenous homicide rates, assault and hospitalization rates, incarceration rates, rates of removal of Aboriginal children, we see a rapidly disintegrating society”.

This is a difficult area for politicians, because the solution involves calling out aboriginal men, and to do so opens one up to accusations of racism. This calls for courageous leadership, and that means standing up for the vulnerable regardless of the personal consequences.

Policy Idea 5: Support grassroots programs for calling out and preventing family violence

It is also crucial that positive relationships between police and indigenous communities are formed. Often crimes go unreported because there is an ‘us and them’ mentality. Recruiting more indigenous people into the police force, and creating opportunities for positive interactions with police, for example ‘police in schools’ are the kinds of measures needed to break down the ‘us and them’ mentality.

There is also a need to actively stamp out the racism that is all too prevalent in the police and judicial systems, and ensure that when victims do go to police, they are taken seriously and given effective support and protection.

Policy Idea 6: Create positive relationships between police and indigenous communities

Policy Idea 7: Better support for indigenous victims of domestic violence

A note on symbolism

There has been much criticism of symbolism and virtue signalling by the right side of politics, because we have a deeply held belief that actions and results are more important than words. This criticism is fair, especially when it is symbolism without real action, but we must also understand that indigenous disadvantage has both physical and psychological causes. This has been described by some as ‘a wound in the spirit of our nation’. Intergenerational trauma and the loss of language and culture affect aboriginal people to this day. It is just as wrong to tell Aboriginal people to ‘get over’ their history, as it is to tell Australians to ‘get over’ Gallipoli or tell Jews to ‘get over’ the holocaust. Until the wound is healed, our efforts to close the gap will be in vain.

Indigenous people have long been powerless, marginalised and not listened to. It is only through actively listening, celebrating and including indigenous culture and acknowledging the pain and suffering caused by colonisation that we can begin to heal the wound in the spirit of our nation.

Symbolism absolutely has a role to play here. When we say an acknowledgement of country, we don’t magically improve the circumstances of indigenous people, but we do affirm their status, their history and their culture.

Changing the date of Australia Day is another opportunity to show that we are prepared, as a nation, to listen, and to acknowledge the continuing impacts of colonisation on indigenous people. I can think of no better date for Australia Day than May 27th, the day of the 1967 referendum when Australians voted for indigenous people to be considered part of the Australian population. This date is one we can all celebrate, as representing the completion of the Australian national project first begun in 1901, the day when all Australians were considered equal before the law.

We can and should call out hypocritical virtue signalling, and those who use symbolism as an alternative to practical action, but we must also acknowledge that symbolism has a part to play in healing the spiritual causes of indigenous disadvantage.