A breach has opened in Aboriginal ranks with indigenous
spokeswoman, Lowitja O'Donoghue, rejecting the Federal Government's
influential welfare adviser and indigenous leader, Noel Pearson, as
the "new messiah".
Dr O'Donoghue, who in a report last year called for christian
relief organisation World Vision to manage the socially devastated
land of her own people, the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara
(APY), in SA's remote north, clashed with Mr Pearson at the recent
Reconciliation Australian Conference in Canberra in May.
She accused Mr Pearson, whose tough love policies aimed at
breaking the cycle of welfare dependency in Aboriginal communities
have won enthusiastic support from the Federal Government, of not
being a team player and failing to listen to other Aborigines.
"He is being listened to by The Age and by The
Australian, two newspapers who think he is our new messiah,"
Dr O'Donoghue said this week.
"He is not. I say that in the very strongest terms."
Dr O'Donoghue opposes Mr Pearson's popular new brand of
indigenous policy that calls for an end to unconditional welfare
payments and the removal of Centrelink benefits from parents who
spend the money on alcohol and gambling instead of family life.
A former head of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Commission for six years, she said Mr Pearson's policies would only
cause more suffering for people in communities that were
dysfunctional.
"People are starving now," she said. "You don't put kids in
another situation where parents haven't got welfare payments."
She also opposed other interventionist programs favoured by Mr
Pearson who is team leader of the joint partnership between
indigenous leaders and the Queensland Government, Cape York
Partnerships. They include the "no pool, no school" policy
introduced in the APY lands by the South Australian and Federal
Government, and the use of breakfast runs to feed indigenous
children before school.
Mr Pearson was unable to be contacted by The Age
yesterday.