A profile of neglect
p. 38 · Read in the full issue
THE DESCENDANTS of Pacific Islanders transported to Australia late last century as indentured labourers may soon replace Aborigines as the poorest group in the country according to a background report prepared for the Human Rights Commission.
The report entitled ‘A Profile of Neglect’ was based on the first ever census of the descendants of indentured labourers and came about mainly as a result of the tireless lobbying efforts of the newly invigorated community or ganisation, the Australian South Sea Island United Council (ASSIUC). ‘A Profile of Neglect’ found South Sea Islanders (as they are called to distinguish them from more recent Pacific Island migrants) have an unem ployment rate of 28.5% two and a half times the national average. The
report found South Sea Islanders earn substantially less, die younger and experience discrimination because of their colour.
The report concluded, ‘it is possible that now or within the next couple of years South Sea Islanders will replace Aborigines as the poorest community in Australia.’
With the plight of Aborigines often compared with that of the poorest third world nations it is an unenviable position.
According to the South Sea Islanders the cause of their predicament lies in the fact that, as a black minority, they have experienced the same discrimination as Aborigines. The recent slide, they say, has been brought on by the fact that they are now being excluded from many of the government benefits intended for Aborigines, and from jobs in govern ment and government-funded organisations which are identified as having Aboriginality as an advantage.
An example of the sort of impact the withdrawal of benefits is likely to have can be seen with Abstudy. According to ‘A Profile of Neglect’ two third’s of today’s 19-year-old South Sea Islanders received money through Abstudy while completing their education. Since the advent of Abstudy in the mid-seventies only 55% of Islanders have stopped their education for economic reasons as compared with over 80% a generation earlier.
As educational has been one of the few routes out of poverty for Islanders the future does not bode well.
The new strict enforcement of the rules relating to Aboriginal benefits has sparked calls from the South Sea Islander community for recognition as a disadvantaged black minority.
That recognition they say would take into account the conditions of their arrival in Australia, the contribution slave labour made to the nation and their subsequent exclusion from the full rights enjoyed by other citizens.
It was the South Sea Islanders campaign for recognition which led then Prime Minister Bob Hawke to request the Human Rights commission study.
Because of the dearth of information on Islanders this
independent assessment is essential to establish the bona Tides of the Islanders claims.
And its statistical evidence has done that.
Despite the strong case estab lished by ‘A Profile of Neglect’
Islanders have been critical of the report.
The Sydney branch of ASSIUC, in particular, has complained that no submissions from South Sea Islander organisations were allowed in the data collection for the report and insufficient emphasis has been placed on the fact that Australia did have a slave trade and on the institutionalised nature of the racism which has caused South Sea Islanders current disadvantage.
How asks an ASSIUC document sent to the Prime Minister, Paul Keating ‘will governments recognise Australian-born South Sea Islander history if it is not presented, comprehensively and sensitively’.
That document, which has been endorsed by the progressive think tank the Evatt Foundation, includes a host of recommendations including the suggestion that the federal government fund a South Sea Islander Working Group to deal with issues raised by the Human Rights Commission report and that South Sea Islander history be taught in schools.
It also asks that money be provided for a publicity campaign which would help heal the rift between Islanders and Aborigines caused by disputes over entitlements to benefits.
For Islanders the main priority is to get some action before the upcoming federal election which is likely to see Paul Keating’s Labour government defeated by John Hewson’s Liberal/National Party Coalition.
In the past the Liberal/National Party Coalition has had a poor record on indigenous issues.
Many Islanders fear that if concessions are not extracted before the election they may be out in the cold until another Labour government is elected.
The Human Rights Commission Report, and its still confidential recommendations, have been delivered to Canberra.
For the Islanders the biggest problem is that many of the changes they are seeking, in particular the range of special benefits which would once again put them on a par with Aborigines, require legislation.
While that legislation will not be possible before the election Canberra could go ahead with measures to strengthen links between the widely dispersed community and to give Islanders more recognition.