 Indigenous 'need more help'
Dr Ken Henry, who, as Treasury secretary, is one of Australia's two most senior economic officials, told a conference in Melbourne last night that a history of policy failure had led to numerous problems, in particular for Aboriginal communities. "Indigenous disadvantage is a bit of a double blow on the periphery," Dr Henry told The Australian newspaper's Economic and Social Outlook Conference. "It captures our attention only fleetingly usually when presented to us as salacious." In this time of economic boom, he said, the Government should be doing more to help indigenous communities. "There's a temptation to think that we can indulge ourselves in consuming the breads of this economic boom," he said, but Australia must act now on these problems, because the economy was set to slow. "The drought is another reason for being cautious about the longevity of these (economic) times: we can expect to see slow trend growth in real GDP," he said. Removing the burden of red tape on Aboriginal communities, Dr Henry said, should be a national reform policy.
|