Greens should shut up and listen to Indigenous people

When elders from the communities of Kununurra, Wyndham and Ceduna travelled to Canberra last week with a video revealing the appalling violence on their streets, they delivered a strong message. Those streets are war zones of drug- and alcohol-fuelled assaults and child abuse — and they want it to stop.

The video (see at bottom of page), facilitated by WA mining Andrew Forrest, proves the desperate need for the ‘cashless debit card’ that quarantines 80% of welfare recipients’ payment to limit access to alcohol, drugs and gambling.

These elders are crying out for the lives of the children being assaulted and sexually abused. In one of these communities alone, 187 children are victims of sexual abuse with 36 men facing 300 charges, and a further 124 are suspects.

I know all too well the deep frustrations these Australian citizens feel as they are desperate to save their people from the crisis being played out day after day in their communities. They have long fought for our political leaders to recognize the need to take the tough — sometimes very unpopular, but necessary — steps to make meaningful change that will save the lives of Aboriginal children, women and men. So why do why do large numbers of our media and our political leaders (including some Indigenous ones) fail to respond to such clear evidence of assault, child abuse and violence at the hands of our own people, but are prepared to call for a Royal Commission when the perpetrator is a white person in uniform or when institutionalized racism is perceived to be at play?

A TV report on the horrendous treatment of juvenile inmates in Don Dale swiftly sparked a Royal Commission. Yet footage of an Aboriginal man stomping on an Aboriginal woman and various other vicious acts of violence — which, in my view, are far more shocking than that of the Don Dale footage — draws criticism by the Greens that the video was simply ‘propaganda’ for the cashless welfare card. This is not propaganda; it is proof.

We hear regularly that we should be listening to Aboriginal people on the ground to understand the complexities of the problems and to encourage us to find solutions for our horrific circumstances. Well here is a video created by Aboriginal leaders in conjunction with the wider community, including the police and a Mayor, pleading for the implementation of a practical measure to help curb the purchase of alcohol and drugs so the lives of the most marginalized Australians maybe improved. No, it is not a magic bullet, but it is a start towards improving the lives of Australian citizens in crisis.

Andrew Forrest has been criticised for telling the world that he has been approached by minors willing to sell sex. A fourteen year old I know, who roams Alice Springs streets at night, regularly witnesses children selling themselves to ‘old’ Aboriginal men for alcohol and cigarettes. We pass such information onto the police who already know it is happening, yet the Minister responsible for these children tells us that she has seen no evidence of it. Just as there was a conspiracy of silence to deny the reality of frontier violence, now there seems to be a conspiracy of silence on the Left to deny what is happening openly in our streets.

The evidence of deep crisis has never been so blatant. This trauma is inflicted on our people by substance abuse and violence fuelled by a taxpayer-funded disposable income. However if a rich white man throws his support behind a group of frustrated and desperate Indigenous leaders living with this trauma, their plea is simply dismissed as perverse by the politically correct without offering any effective alternative solutions.

The Greens call Andrew Forrest paternalistic however Rachel Siewert has the audacity to tell us Indigenous people how we should think, what our problems are and what we should be doing about it. Siewert and her party chose not to meet the elders who came all the way to Canberra from their remote communities to communicate the real problems.

The Greens reaction is nothing more than the racism of low expectations and ego-centric virtue-signaling of those toeing the line of an ideology which is further compounding the crisis. If the video shocked you…good. It should; and what should follow is an appropriate response that recognizes the human right of Aboriginal women, children and men to live in safety; free of drug- and alcohol-driven violence and sexual abuse.

Sacrificing whole generations to violence and abuse does not help the fight against racism. It reinforces it.

Jacinta Nampijimpa Price is an Alice Springs councillor and a research associate at The Centre for Independent Studies.