Non-Indigenous: $25 | Indigenous: FREE!

One of my children was sent home a notice from primary school that riled me up a little bit. It read: “Hearing screening will be provided to Indigenous students in Prep to Year 3 at our school. There is a small fee of $25 for our non-Indigenous children.” I’m getting a bit tired of all this. Not only is this not fair, it’s essentially racist, is it not? Is it not providing advantage to one group of students at the expense of the other students? Quite literally an expense! All based off what? One’s bloodline? A simple test could be performed by switching the roles. “Hearing screening will be provided to non-Indigenous students. There is a small fee of $25 for our Indigenous children.” People would be outraged! And they should be. It’s morally wrong, is it not? Then the opposite is morally wrong.

It doesn’t even make logical sense. It’s essentially grouping all Indigenous folk into one basket and declaring that they can’t afford the hearing check. Whereas non-Indigenous families are assumed they can afford it. I think we all rationally know that at least some Indigenous families are not poor, and at least some non-Indigenous families are struggling to make ends meet. But yet they still have to fork out the $25, whereas a well-off Indigenous family get it for free? It doesn’t make any logical sense.

Of course, I understand why the Government are doing it. They want to show they’re helping Indigenous people. But the proof is in the pudding – They’re not helping! All the stats show that despite all this money that’s been pumped into Indigenous welfare, it simply hasn’t helped. Just look at any of the statistics: High levels of unemployment, extremely poor health outcomes, far shorter life expectancy, and high levels of incarceration. And I think we all rationally know why. When you give people stuff for free constantly, when you treat them like they can’t look after themselves, then a certain proportion of those people are simply not going to do anything in their life to better themselves. It’s a disincentive to work or contribute to society. As long as you fit into the prescribed ethnic category, you get free stuff!

An analogy would be a spoilt teenager. If your teenager spends all day in their bedroom playing computer games, and you continue to buy them new computer equipment, new iPhones, you give them all their favourite foods whenever they want, we all instinctively know what the result would be – an entitled brat.

Now I’m not trying to be mean to our Indigenous brothers and sisters. Obviously some Indigenous people go on to be very successful and don’t feel hard done by by society. I just want everybody in Australia to be able to live their fullest life. But by dividing us up into two groups based entirely on our ancestry, with one group receiving more benefits no matter what they do, well that group will become entitled: “believing oneself to be inherently deserving of privileges or special treatment”. It will create, and has created, a sense of victimhood. We’re giving you all this stuff because you have been wronged in some way. Even if you haven’t been wronged, just because you are of a certain bloodline, we’ll treat you like you’ve been wronged. And all it’s doing is creating generations of perpetual victimhood. And when you think you’re a victim, what do you do? You constantly look for somebody to blame, and you don’t try to better yourself because you think that the system is rigged, and the world is against you.

Look, I’m not saying we should never help people. Of course we should! If a person has a severe disability for example, well a moral society will help that person to the best of their ability. But that surely shouldn’t be dependent on one’s ethnicity, should it? Whether you’re Indigenous or non-Indigenous, it shouldn’t matter, it should be based on your need. If you’re able-bodied and don’t have a job, we’ll help you look for one. If you’re old and can no longer work like you used to, we’ll give you a pension. But just because you fit into one ethnic category should never be a reason to give you more than others who don’t fit into that category.

So I think the solution is simple: Do away with all this Indigenous-only support. I think it’s a disservice to Indigenous people. It makes them feel like they can’t look after themselves, and constantly need the Government’s assistance. It’s quite disparaging really. What would be much better, would be to help people based off their need, not their ancestry. People who can contribute towards society should be encouraged to. Treating all Australians equally will go a long way to fixing Indigenous relations. This current system of constant handouts has failed.

MUSIC
Allégro by Emmit Fenn