this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2025
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27
Why Keating’s greatest speeches still matter after the Voice failed (independentaustralia.net)
submitted 11 months ago by HalfEarthMedic@slrpnk.net to c/australia@aussie.zone
15 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

The Redfern Park speech contained some words which should be engraved on the footpaths outside the homes of every Australian who voted “No” in the Voice Referendum of 2023.

If it isn't reasonable to say that if we can build a prosperous and remarkable harmonious multicultural society in Australia, surely we can find just solutions to the problems which beset the First Australians, the people to whom the most injustice has been done.

...the starting point might be to recognise that the problem starts with us, the non-Aboriginal Australians.

It begins, I think, with an act of recognition. Recognition that it was we who did the dispossessing. We took the traditional lands and smashed the traditional way of life.

We brought the diseases and the alcohol. We committed the murders. We took the children from their mothers. We practised discrimination and exclusion.

It was our ignorance and our prejudice. And our failure to imagine these things could be done to us.

With some noble exceptions, we failed to make the most basic human response and enter into their hearts and minds. We failed to ask, how would I feel if this were done to me?

As a consequence, we failed to see that what we were doing degraded us all.

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[–] Eyekaytee@aussie.zone -5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

If it isn’t reasonable to say that if we can build a prosperous and remarkable harmonious multicultural society in Australia, surely we can find just solutions to the problems which beset the First Australians, the people to whom the most injustice has been done.

What?

There's no obligation for us to hold hands with them anymore than any other Australian

In fact if there's 2 people, 1 indigenous and 1 from north korea, and the north korean wants to work hard and learn and study and grow and the other doesn't, then I'm putting my money on the north korean

it seems like many people haven't learnt a thing from the no vote

[–] HalfEarthMedic@slrpnk.net 8 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I think there's a subtlety to this argument that you're missing.

The prosperity of all non-indigenous Australians is built on what was taken from the indigenous population with brutal force.

The single most important reason that there is such a large gap in quality of life between the indigenous and non-indigenous population is that for more than a century it was government policy to repress and deny opportunity to the indigenous population.

It is not unreasonable to think that we, as a population that has built a prosperous society on the ruins of theirs, that we could give them a hand to regain some benefit of our prosperity.

We hear a lot from conservative cranks that indigenous individuals should take responsibility for their actions, most progressives actually agree on that. I would argue that as a settler society we should take responsibility for our collective past actions.

[–] Eyekaytee@aussie.zone -3 points 11 months ago (2 children)

The prosperity of all non-indigenous Australians is built on

hard work, good culture, stable government, stable modern society, low corruption, democracy, luck with international markets needing our commodities, speaking English, alignment of values with other western nations

we could give them a hand to regain some benefit of our prosperity

It's been 50 years since the end of the stolen generation, it's been 3 decades since that Keating speech of giving them a hand

In 2023–24, the Indigenous-specific bodies will employ 2,714 full-time-equivalent public servants.

Estimated 2023–24 total Australian Government expenditure on all Indigenous-specific programs is $5.3 billion

https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_departments/Parliamentary_Library/Research/Quick_Guides/2023-24/AustralianGovernmentIndigenous-specificbodiesandbudgets

I would argue that as a settler society we should take responsibility for our collective past actions.

A lot of people think we've done more than enough to help them and quite frankly it's starting to look like dependence

[–] Taleya@aussie.zone 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

When comments like yours think they have validity, then it shows we still have a long way to go. You and fucking Danby.

[–] HalfEarthMedic@slrpnk.net 2 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Thanks for the response.

I have to assume that you're quite young since you seem to think that 30 or 50 years is enough time to erase the kind of trauma anglo-Australians put indigenous Australians through, this is living memory for many of us.

There really is no denying that coming from parents who have suffered trauma and economic disadvantage leaves the children at severe disadvantage themselves, ie the sins perpetrated on the grandparents of today's young adults are a key reason for their disadvantage.

This kind of reasoning is often taken as 'excusing' bad behaviour, it shouldn't be but it is explanation and we do bear some responsibility to alleviate that disadvantage while still holding people responsible for individual actions.

The final key point is that systemic racism remains rife. You would have to be willfully blind to not see that indigenous people are treated differently at the Centrelink office, the emergency department triage desk, at a job interview.

You correctly point out some big numbers involved in current support for indigenous focussed programmes, I suspect that much of this is providing services that they find difficult to access through the mainstream due to systemic racism which is kind of a bare minimum, regardless we have a long way to go.

The past isn't gone, it isn't even past. I hope you can appreciate that there is a but more subtlety to this issue than you seem to give it credit for.

[–] Ilandar@lemmy.today 3 points 11 months ago

You correctly point out some big numbers involved in current support for indigenous focussed programmes

Spending without proper consultation of Indigenous stakeholders is wasted money, and it's not Indigenous Australians upon whom it reflects poorly. Every time right wingers bring up the spending it's a massive own goal.on their part.

[–] Eyekaytee@aussie.zone 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I hope you can appreciate that there is a but more subtlety to this issue than you seem to give it credit for.

The reason I (and most people who aren't green haired devils in melbourne) don't give it much credence is because any subtle effect of being Indigenous is overruled by other brown/black/asian people who are also impacted by the same issues and often coming from worse situations improving their lives drastically simply by working hard, studying hard, and doing their best to integrate.

You live in Australia, not Africa, playing the victim card only works for so long, people get tired of hearing about it.

Hence the no vote:

You can't blame whitey when literally every demographic is represented in that 60% no vote and there wasn't even a no campaign, all the pink haired melbourne devils like /u/Taleya's running around screaming if you don't vote yes you're racist!!!! somehow didn't seem to impact the majority of the electorate that again, includes whites, blacks, browns, asians, and everything in between.

[–] HalfEarthMedic@slrpnk.net 2 points 11 months ago

I can't help but feel you haven't read the article posted or my comments. You're not addressing any of the points raised and instead just seem to have a bee in bonnet about the referendum which is at best tangentially related.

I do understand the fatigue of this being an ongoing issue but that doesn't really change the situation.