Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has sensationally claimed that ‘no one is disadvantaged because they are Indigenous’ – as she lists how has benefited from colonisation.
Sharing her views in an opinion piece for The n, the controversial Liberal Senator argued it was inevitable that the country would be colonised and it was only a question of ‘by whom and when’.
The Shadow Minister for Indigenous Affairs said British settlement afforded a common law legal system, democracy, freedom and prosperity – things that were not previously known to Indigenous people.
Ms Price admitted n history is ‘not perfect’ and there are ‘shameful chapters’ but claimed the country is now a ‘modern success story’.
‘Crimes were committed, violence and injustice perpetrated by bad actors, but I don’t think it should be controversial to say that both black and white were making the best of things by the standards of the times,’ she wrote.
‘This is demonstrated by the fact that, out of these decades of disruption, something resembling a nation emerged.
‘So much so that when duty called our first Anzacs to serve in the Great War, more than a thousand Indigenous ns signed up to fight. Many of these heroes went above and beyond.’
Ms Price also claimed Indigenous prosperity was being held back by a victimhood culture – which she argued was creating division.
She said Indigenous culture prior to British settlement was marked by violent conflicts and if we continue along a ‘separatist road’ negative parts of Indigenous culture will be left alone to ‘grow and fester’ – such as arranged marriage, violent cultural payback and attributing tragedies to ‘sorcery’.
She said the ‘progressive left’ put too much focus on the ‘less than savoury’ aspects of Indigenous history, rather than celebrating the events that led to the nation’s ‘great prosperity, security and success’.
She said it is not commonly acknowledged that British rulers ordered settlers to maintain friendly relations with the native people – although the instructions were often ignored.
She also noted that Europeans and Aboriginals were viewed equally before the law, and settlers who killed Indigenous people were sentenced to death – citing the Myall Creek massacre, where seven white men were found guilty and hanged.
She also claimed that many descendants of the Stolen Generations’ now enjoy greater prosperity and success than those generations who were simply neglected and left to live in poverty and squalor’ and argued the best way forward for the nation was for everyone to view themselves as modern ns.
‘The simple fact is that no one is disadvantaged just because they are Indigenous. But those who are disadvantaged will remain so if we don’t learn the lessons of our past and move forward together,’ she wrote.
‘Last year, in my address to the National Press Club – at the height of the voice referendum debate – I made more than a few headlines when I highlighted positive impacts of colonisation on Indigenous ns, instead of merely regurgitating the standard deficit narrative peddled by those seeking to maintain the victim mentality.
‘I stand by that view, because when you take an honest, even-handed position on our nation’s history, it’s obviously true.’
The claims come as research shows that Indigenous ns continue to suffer from inequality compared to non-Indigenous ns across a number of welfare factors, including life expectancy, children’s mortality, education and employment.
The Closing the Gap policy, launched in 2008, seeks to reduce the welfare differences between the two cultural groups, by increasing education, education, health, security, housing, and life expectancy for First Nations people.
According to data released in March, only five out of 19 targets identified in the Close the Gap framework for Indigenous ns are on track to meet the 2031 deadline.
In the report, which only provided updates for eight of the socio-economic targets, it was revealed four targets are not on track – including the number of children represented in out-of-home care and adults in the prison system.
Two targets – healthy birth weight and increasing the legal access to land and sea for cultural and economic purposes are on track, while there was no change in data for the remaining three targets that are on track.
Speaking about the results, Indigenous ns Minister Linda Burney said she was ‘marginally encouraged’ that there were now five targets on track compared to just four last year.
‘Babies are being born at a healthy birth weight is something that I think has enormous flow-on effects,’ she said.
‘We can talk about targets and numbers, but at the end of the day, they’re real people: our brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, and cousins.’