Goss cuts Aboriginal control
By Mick White
BRISBANE — Les Malezer, the former head of the Goss government's Aboriginal Affairs Department, has resigned in protest at its restructuring. On March 16, he warned that the new Office of Aboriginal and Islander Affairs (OAIS) excluded Aboriginal advisers from policy making. It represents the political burial of Aboriginal affairs in Queensland, he said.
Malezer criticised OAIS, which was launched on March 18, for its inadequate management structure and said that policy relating to Aboriginal and Islander peoples had been taken over by the Premier's Department, strengthening white control of black affairs. OAIS has been gutted of such fundamental responsibilities as land, social and cultural heritage programs.
"Never in the history of the Australian nation have Aboriginal people been so removed from the decision makers, or have the decision makers been so remote from the people ... Even in the notorious years of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander reserves, the managers were in daily contact with the people they were supposed to serve, and at the same time these managers had some measure of autonomy from the parliamentary 'savages'", Malezer said.
The new structure will be run by a white manager reporting to a white department head responsible to a white minister. There will be no mechanism for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to be involved in decision making.
"In Queensland the problems are obvious", said Malezer. "Firstly the politicians, administrators and systems are fundamentally and unbendingly racist. Secondly, government moneys are being poured into bureaucracies and programs which are inappropriate and ineffective because of the lack of indigenous involvement".