52
.4
PRIME MINISTER
TRANSCRIPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER, THE HON P J KEATING MP
PRESS CONFERENCE, CANBERRA
13 MARCH 1992
E OE PROOF COPY
PM: Ladies and gentlemen, I just thought that I'd give you
a few preliminary comments and then you can address
questions to me. I thought I'd begin by just asking
Australians to reflect upon how the families of Lloyd
Boney and David Gundy must feel this morning at seeing
these depictions. And I ask them to reflect on what
all Aboriginal people must feel at this disgrace, at
this treatment of them. And I ask Australians how can
we hope to have pride in ourselves when we debase our
values in this way? Because these people in doing what
they have done, have in fact been disloyal to the whole
concept of Australia and the way non-Aboriginal
Australians should relate to Aboriginal Australians.
And I ask to let this incident be a turning point, a
turning point in the way we view this country, and that
is a turning point in us vowing to eliminate racism
from every corner of Australian life.
J: Prime Minister, what do you say further to Australians
who like one of the police officers involved in this
incident, describe it as ' a bit of harmless fun'?
PM: Well, I think it is the most disgraceful taunt I have
seen. The notion of someone mocked up as an Aboriginal
with a rope around their neck is just about the most
disgraceful taunt of a race of people as I can imagine.
J: Doesn't it, though, reflect a more pervasive attitude
within the community, it's not simply two police
officers doing this, this is actually an attitude which
is quite widespread in Australia isn't it, this
attitude to Aboriginals?
PM: There may be, that could well be true, but it has never
in my memory manifested itself quite in this way. But
I think, as I said, we should make this a turning
point. We should decide that we should expunge racism
of every corner of this country to decide that the
notion of Australia, the notion of this country, what
Australia is about is not about this kind of behaviour,
it is not about this kind of racism and to do this is
actually being disloyal to Australia.
J: Prime Minister, is there any suggestion that these men,
whom you've described as a disgrace to Australia, a
national disgrace, have done anything other than with
bad taste? Is there any suggestion they have assaulted
an Aboriginal, responsible for the death of an
Aboriginal, assaulted anybody else, committed any
criminal behaviour?
PM: Well, they have held, I believe, at a critical time in
the history of relations between non-Aboriginal
Australians and Aboriginals they've held Aboriginals up
to ridicule and contempt.
J: Prime Minister, you've been talking a lot about
identity recently. Do you think this is one problem we
have with our own identity, that we often don't like
what we see in ourselves?
PM: Well, I think many Australian have not come to terms
with Australia, not come to terms with the place. And
part of coming to terms with it is a genuine
reconciliation between Aboriginal-Australians and non-
Aboriginal Australians. And that's very much what the
process of reconciliation is about to try and remove
these attitudes to let non-Aboriginal Australians know
that we can't live in this way and can't behave in this
way.
J: Prime Minister, Michael Tate this morning said that
this video would make Australia a laughing stock
whenever we tried representing other countries with
human, or other people that are suffering human rights
abuses, and that the regimes responsible for those
abuses would simply toss this video back in our face.
Can you see it damaging our reputation?
PM: Well, it is certainly not going to help us. And even
though I think most Australians are very conscientious
about this problem and Governments have sought to do
much about it, the issue is as much up here as it is in
the government expenditure or the programs. It is an
attitudinal problem, it is an attitudinal problem,
let's hope this incident will shape the attitudes of
Australians about it.
J: In the statement that you released on this issue, you
said that it was incumbent effectively on white
Australians to close the gap in living standards and to
change attitudes. How does that sit with your
Cabinet's decision to slash quite a considerable amount
of the amount of money that Robert Tickner, the
Aboriginal Affairs Minister, was seeking for
Aborigines?
PM: Well, we've only announced part of that package and
that is the law and justice component of the response
to the Aboriginal Deaths in Custody Royal Commission.
But I think it is very important that all levels of
Government concentrate on this and one of the things
which I will be doing is also talking to the States
about their role in this, their response to the
recommendations of the Royal Commission, their response
to the ongoing problems of living standards of
Aboriginals and in part the, if you like second part,
of what will be presented by the Government in relation
to the response to the Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and
ongoing underlying causes of the problem will be that
which is concluded between the Commonwealth and the
States. We don't want simply minimalist efforts on the
part of the States in response to this problem. And
for the Commonwealth to take the view that it's going
to accept simply a minimalist effort on the part of the
States, both attitudinally and in programs, is I think
not doing the problem of justice. So that's why the
Government will be engaging the States as well as
looking itself more comprehensively at whatever package
we finally announce.
J: So we can expect the full $ 500 million plus
PM: You can expect a statement of substance from the
Government at the time the Government wishes to deliver
it.
J: Mr Keating, won't this damage Australia's international
reputation?
PM: Well that's what you just asked me.
J: Mr Keating, will this engagement of the States be after
the 31 March statement?
PM: It will be between now and then and probably beyond
then, because this is a problem of some complexity in
terms of particularly programs and other issues, other,
if you like, causal links to this problem. So we will
be responding the first instance to the law and justice
elements to the recommendations.
J: Mr Keating won't you require on national response,
though, from the Federal Government, because we have
got problems like this in New South Wales and also
similar problems going on in Western Australia? State
Governments don't see capable of dealing with it?
PM: This is a very long running Royal Commission, its
recommendations are very comprehensive, I think they've
been taken up seriously by the States, and I spoke to
Robert Tickner this morning and he's spoken to the New
South Wales Police Minister and Police Commissioner and
they have indicated they will be responding seriously
to the recommendations of the Royal Commission.
J: Mr Keating, what sort of things do you expect the
States to do to show the bonafides that they are
responding in more than a minimalist way?
PM: The whole living standards, sort of attitudinal issues
involved here are complex, and there is no way I can
just reel off in a second or in a minute of in
minutes responses which I think the States should make.
But we will be talking to the States about it. But
again, there is a heavy responsibility here on the
Commonwealth This will probably the Commonwealth's,
certainly I think last opportunity in this decade, to
do something really substantial about this problem and
we are determined to think about it and get it as right
as we can get it.
J: Do you believe that the electorate, the fact that it
may present, the enormous amount of money that
successive Governments have spent on Aboriginal Affairs
and seemingly to no effect?
PM: I don't believe it is to no effect, but certainly we
haven't dealt with the problem adequately. It is as
much about attitude as it is about money, as I think
this incident demonstrates. But again program helps,
good program design helps and obviously comprehension
of Aboriginal problems helps and trying to bring that
coincidence of a delineational problem and program
delivery is obviously going to help. I don't think
Australians share the view that too much has been spent
here. When the referendum came in 1967, I think it
was, then non-Aboriginal Australians made their
position quite clear about the welfare of Aboriginals
and where they saw constitutional responsibility as
being. And I think governments in the past, and
certainly this Government, this Government has very
strongly increased funding to Aboriginal programs over
the period and I don't believe that non-Aboriginal
Australians should or can take the view that the money
that has been spent has been spent unwisely or in any
way in terms of its volume and size, in a way which is
inconsistent with the problem.
J: Mr Keating, Charles Perkins agrees that we have an
attitudinal problem with Aborigines and he says the
only way we can start to solve that is to look at a
treaty. Do you think these sorts of events add any
weight to that argument?
PM: Look, I think the Reconciliation Council process is
going to be terribly important here. To actually get
down to some of these attitudinal issues, to discuss
them, to find ways of dealing with them, to think about
bringing living standards of Aboriginal people up and
their opportunities, it is closing that gap between
living standards and opportunities which will do more
than anything else to relieve this problem. And that's
something which can be a function of the Government
through ATSIC, it can be a function of the States, it
can be a function of the Reconciliation Council. These
are the things I think we've got to work on.
J: So you still don't think a final document would make an
PM: Well, with the attitudes which are bound in evidence
today, I think that is correct. And that's why I think
the role of the Reconciliation Council is going to be
important and I want to see some material change in
living conditions, bringing up the opportunities in
living standards for Aboriginals and because I believe
that will do more than anything else to relieve the
notion of the burden of this problem.
J: Isn't there a danger in spending more money,
particularly in the time of high unemployment that all
you'll achieve in fact is to bring greater resentment
within the white community, as indeed happened to a
certain extent say in the United States with the
greater spending on the black community there, and the
polarisation between black and white?
PM: I think look, I'm simply relying on my memory, but I
think the programs amount to about $ 5000 per head of
the Aboriginal population of Australia, something of
that variety. I mean I just don't accept the analysis
that that's spent thrift, extravagant, and to be
resented by a non-Aboriginal Australians. I just don't
think it is true. But as I say, the problem is as much
up here as it is in the programs and the living
standards and we have to, I think, come to terms with
it and deal with it before we will ever understand what
Australia is and can be.
ENDS