Labor divided on Indigenous Affairs
The Gillard Labor Government looks set to let down Aboriginal Australians again with revelations the party is divided on the Stronger Futures Legislation, The Shadow Minister for Indigenous Affairs Senator Nigel Scullion said.
Senator Scullion made the statement after discovering the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) is hosting an event protesting against the Northern Territory intervention as part of the ALP National Conference this weekend.
“The CFMEU is actually opposing Jenny Macklin’s Stronger Futures Policy, the intervention under another name, in that it retains many Coalition initiatives such as alcohol and pornography restrictions, income management, welfare linked to school attendance, and township leasing.
“Given the influence of the union movement, I fear that Labor will again roll over and capitulate by sitting on their hands and watch Aboriginal communities languish just as it has for the past four years.
“The unions want to negate reforms that I thought were bi-partisan and without which would consign our First Australians to a life of poverty and welfare dependency. I truly despair at the thought our First Australians going backwards under this government should the unions get their way.
“Labor’s heart has not been in Northern Territory intervention for the past four years, but just when I thought that maybe things were changing for the better, the unions intervene and it looks like their heart will never be in it.
“Labor is divided on uranium sales, divided on gay marriage, and now divided on Indigenous Affairs.
“Labor bowed to the Greens on onshore processing of asylum seekers, the Carbon Tax and the Mining Tax, with a midnight dodgy deal done to see it pass the House of Representatives.
“The Greens also want to end the intervention so the real Prime Minister, that is Senator Bob Brown, must be grinning like a Cheshire cat at what he is seeing.
“Perhaps the Labor Party should have saved time and money by cancelling their conference and instead attended the Greens national conference held a few months ago.
“This is a dysfunctional and divided government more focused on themselves by doing dirty deals on the speaker’s position and selling their soul to the Greens to cling to power, instead of doing what is right for remote Indigenous Australians,” Senator Scullion said.
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