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Home ownership: A great Aboriginal dream

Glen Brennan

by Glen Brennan

23 Dec 05:45am

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Filed under: Aboriginal, Home Ownership, Indigenous Australians

65 comments

Home ownership is the great Australian dream. A place to call your own and where your heart is. 

Illustration: Eric Lobbecke

My parents are both proudly Aboriginal. As a young bloke, I remember their pride when they bought their first home, a little house on the edge of town.

Growing up I watched them struggle to pay the mortgage, through good and bad times. Extensions, cars, funerals and even my university education were all paid for via refinancing the family home. I’m sure it’s a story that would be familiar to many Australians.

It wasn’t until I got older that I realised mum and dad were in the minority. You see, only 28 per cent of Indigenous Australians own their home, compared to 71 per cent of the wider population.

This should come as no surprise when you join the dots that underpin Indigenous disadvantage. 

Indigenous Australians have never enjoyed the same education and health outcomes as non-Indigenous Australians. Throw in high levels of unemployment, and you don’t have to be David Unaipon (of $50 note fame) to realize that hand to mouth survival, and not house hunting, tops the to-do list.

Why should we care? Well, it’s important given the growing calls from indigenous leaders and Government for more ‘intergenerational wealth creation opportunities’ to help break the cycle of entrenched disadvantage in indigenous Australia. 

The basic premise is that you accumulate wealth over your lifetime, and when you die, this wealth transfers to your kids and increases their asset base.  Each generation ends up a little wealthier than the previous one, and life becomes a little easier – well, that’s the idea anyway.

For most of us the primary vehicle to transfer this wealth is the family home. So if only one in three indigenous Australians own their home, it’s going to be a little hard to give the next generation a leg up. Rather than climb the ladder of opportunity, indigenous Australians are left stranded on the bottom rung. 

There is no moving forward, it is just another lap around the cycle of entrenched disadvantage.

The Federal Government acknowledges there is a problem.

When Kevin Rudd was at the helm he formed a National Policy Commission on Indigenous Housing. The Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Jenny Macklin, has charged her lead agency for indigenous economic development, the much-maligned Indigenous Business Australia (IBA), with providing cheap home loans to indigenous first home buyers.

It’s nothing new. Since 1975 the program (under other names) has lent more than $1.39 billion and helped more than 13,740 families own their own home.

With a starting interest rate of 4 per cent, and a cap at 1 per cent below market interest rates, it’s a good deal for indigenous Australians.

Actually it is so good the queue is now out the door and around the block. At last count, there were 1,323 Indigenous Australians waiting patiently in line, some for up to five years, for an IBA home loan.

While it’s a noble thing for the Government to invest in, it’s potentially a very expensive and an unsustainable model. Just to service the people in the existing queue, IBA is going to need to raise another $500M. This is big money in anyone’s language.

But here’s the thing; indigenous home ownership is an impossible nut to crack if you tackle it as only a lending issue. 

The cold hard reality is that home ownership is the culmination of a good education, good health, a steady job and the willingness to sacrifice to save a deposit and service the mortgage.

It is not that the calls for intergenerational wealth creation and home ownership are wrong. It’s just that they downplay, or completely ignore the complexity of the building blocks that are required to make it happen. It’s like starting at the finish line, or decorating the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, and claiming success.

Now don’t get me wrong, home ownership is a good thing. And the more Indigenous Australians who own their own castle, the better. 

The queue outside IBA proves that plenty want a mortgage. And I’m sure many more get a normal home loan through their bank.

However, home ownership and the resulting intergenerational wealth creation opportunities won’t happen on the scale required to make a real difference if we don’t get the basics right. 

We simply must have better educated, healthier and more employed indigenous Australians.

Fix these and you’ll have intergenerational wealth creation opportunities, and you’ll go a long way to breaking the cycle of Indigenous disadvantage. 

Otherwise, we might as well hold hands with the concerned onlookers and well wishers and sing the Rainbow Connection in our best Kermit voice for all the difference a couple of government home loans will make to the real underlying problems that continue to haunt Indigenous Australia.

I suspect the big wigs in Canberra know this is the case – but you can never be sure.

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65 comments

Show oldest | newest first

    • Judge Holden says:

      05:18am | 23/12/10

      Excellent article Glen. I’d be interested in hearing your policy ideas for improving indigenous education, especially in remote areas.

      Reply

    • acotrel says:

      06:27am | 23/12/10

      I wonder if the aborigines have ever been asked how they really want to live?  The accumulation of wealth is, to my mind, a white man’s idea of living.  Perhaps the aborigines might be happier living in a communal facility, where all members of the group are together?  I’m suggesting we might perhaps think a bit laterally, and find different solutions, even if they are only transitory.

      Reply

    • marley says:

      07:55am | 23/12/10

      Personally, I don’t think “we” are going to find solutions for aborigines;  they’re going to have to find their own, because only they can really know what it is they aspire to.  The best we can do is make sure they have access to modern education so that their choices will be informed ones.  And if they prefer to live communally, surely they don’t need our permission to do so? They just do it.

    • Jim says:

      07:57am | 23/12/10

      You seemed to speak for them all yesterday Alan, you should be an expert! Surely you alone must have asked them what they want…or did you simply use them in your cheap swipe at Howard?

    • Keith Hammersmith says:

      07:17am | 23/12/10

      I personally do not like treating people differently due to their race.  It is difficult to own a home at this time for anyone.  I think it is wrong to give a certain race discounted loans - treating people differently due to their race whether positive or negative is racism.
      To create equality we must start thinking equally, everyone equally gets a fair go, no one is advantaged or disadvantaged due to their race.  The second you start segregating the community by giving some one a leg up due to the color of their skin you are creating more of a problem in my opinion.  We need to bring the world together, this can only be done by treating everyone equally.

      Reply

    • Elizabeth says:

      07:47am | 23/12/10

      Keith I agree by and large with what you say, except for one thing, Aboriginal people aren’t starting on an equal footing. If they were, fair enough. But for such a long time equality has been a pipe dream for Indigenous communities. A lot of good work is happening, but in reality it will take decades.
      Glenn, great article.

    • Geoff - Brisbane says:

      09:19am | 23/12/10

      @ Elizabeth

      Please point out the inequalities, that can be explained due to disadvantage.

    • James1 says:

      10:37am | 23/12/10

      Indeed, Keith and Geoff.  The only cure to disadvantage is hard work and more hard work.  A government program will fix nothing - hard work and personal responsibility will.

    • Bilby says:

      11:34am | 23/12/10

      @Elizabeth - I think Keith’s point is merely that there are many people at the same level of disadvantage. We, as a society, should be helping them all, not categorising so that we help some more than others.

    • Jade says:

      11:48am | 23/12/10

      I totally agree Keith, and nothing will ever change in the world until this happens.

    • StefanR says:

      12:09pm | 23/12/10

      @Bilby I don’t think you quite understand how disadvantaged the Aboriginal population are. The gap in life expectancy is 20-25 years. This alone indicates that we aren’t talking about people who are ‘just as disadvantaged as everyone else’.

      This is the key line from the article: “We simply must have better educated, healthier and more employed indigenous Australians.”

    • Bilby says:

      01:36pm | 23/12/10

      StefanR - Firstly, that gap is an average. It does not take into account the disproportionate number of indigenous people living in remote communities with little access to health or education services. I don’t know what the figures would be if we grouped people of like disadvantage. Is the aborigine living in government housing any more or less disadvantaged than their white neighbour? I don’t think so. The intergenerational issues are the same.

      Frankly I think it is ignorant (not an insult, just a statement of fact) to group all aboriginal people in together. A black fella living in Redfern has completely different problems to one living in Arnhem Land. A black fella from Bourke is far more dispossessed than one from the Kimberlys. That is my objection to these sort of irrational groupings.

    • malohi says:

      07:54am | 23/12/10

      Hello Punch. Long time lurker first time poster.
      Glenn, congratulations, you have successfully nominated a problem and even a vague hypothesis on how to address it (“We simply must have better educated, healthier and more employed indigenous Australians”). However this rhetoric is not new or revolutionary.
      You Glenn, as an intelligent, articulate aboriginal need to propose solutions to this problem instead of, “hey, these are the problems, fix it”.
      Guess what? the government has been trying to fix it for years.
      Need better education? The kids need to be made to go to schools. Need better health? Stop drinking, smoking and eating yourself to death. Need better employment? Move somewhere where there is work and work (somewhat ham-fisted, but no less than your own “solutions”).
      You see the issues you have raised have sub issues, all of which Governments have attempted to address with the best intentions, however, these do not seem to work on a large scale. Because the simple fact is they all boil down to an individual having the drive to do something for themselves at some point.
      Instead of a call to the government to fix these things, I think you will find the intelligent Australian is waiting for a proud indigenous man like yourself to give a call to arms to our indigenous brothers and sisters to help themselves. Do that and you will be surprised with the support you will receive.

      Reply

    • fairsfair says:

      09:26am | 23/12/10

      Thanks for joining Malohi - fantastic comment and I totally agree. I am white and I grew up in a town with a high indigenous population. “Institutions” give Indigenous Australians equal footing (school gave them more), but when it is not backed up in the home, there is just no point. It is sad, but true. I have the utmost respect for any individual who can pull themselves up to be the person that they want to be in life - irrespective of race. The solutions come from within.

      The sub issues that you mention are the key - the key that no amount of money or assistance will help - it is education from the ground up that will get things moving. I am not talking about the times tables. Things that everyone could do with a refresher on - Like respect for yourself. Respect enough to care for your health and your property and your family’s future. 

      Thanks for an article that does not focus on blame and offers an avenue for legitimate discussion. I just hope people see if for what it really is - Not use it as an opportunity to bandy about the same excuses and responses.

    • Fred says:

      11:31am | 23/12/10

      Agreed fairsfair, a lot of the problem does start with the parents. In a shop in Warrawong I saw an aboriginal kid accidentally knock some items off of a shelf. He immediately started to pick them up but was stopped by his mother who said “no, they owe us”. This mother I believe is from the aboriginal housing estate next door to the shops that regularly have camp fires on the wooden lounge room floors and trash the buildings. What chance has that kid got with a victim mentality absorbed mother like that ! Until “they” want to take responsibility for their choices and the consequences of their decisions (or lack there of), THEY condemn themselves and THEIR children to THEIR world of PERCEIVED discrimination.

    • Matt says:

      01:59pm | 23/12/10

      Yep, very good post Malohi. I think rolemodels in the Aboriginal community can do more than any amount of government intervention.

      I think people often look to the government to provide a quick fix to things, and Ministers are happy to oblige (after all, if they said the truth about how little could be done they’d simply be torn to shreds by the opposition). But in reality, their ‘solutions’ are often not more than a bandaid on a gaping wound. IMO, no Government has the ability to do half of what its people expects from them, but they can’t express that truth either for (very real) fear of media and political attack.

      Hell, you can lead a horse to water but you can’t force it to drink. How can a Government get an entire segment of the population to throw away their self-destructive habits, embrace capitalism and start aspiring for wealth, education and homeownership?

    • acotrel says:

      04:40am | 24/12/10

      Malohi, A while back I read Paul Hasluck’s biography.  In his day he was considered to be progressive about indigenous people.  I cannot remember much of the content, but I’ve come away with a strong feeling that his ideas were paternalistic, and a little out of touch with reality. These days we’ve moved on, however the problems of the disadvantaged loom larger than ever.Helping the aborigines to exist with quality of life should be an objective of all Australians.  Much as I hate to admit it, I believe the missions run by religous bodies have probably done more for the aborigines than any other group, even though they have an obvious agenda, which only brings people to a certain level of education!

    • Jim says:

      07:55am | 23/12/10

      Two words - West Dubbo.

      Entire housing estates built and trashed….builders come in, start at one end of the street…by the time they’ve repaired the last house the first is broken again.

      Just because it doesn’t happen in Newtown or Surry Hills doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen at all.

      Reply

    • Mr Mustela says:

      09:07am | 23/12/10

      two words
      union basher

      PS your point is?

    • fairsfair says:

      09:40am | 23/12/10

      I have seen a church smashed up and the pews stripped out for firewood. “So what?” most non-christians would say (I am non-christian), but for the christian population of that town, that would have been devastating. I have been exposed to this type of housing and the five families in one Government home set up. I have also seen a few familes like Glen’s personal circumstance, but they generally move away from the area pretty quickly. There are a lot of family’s out there like Glen’s and I believe it is only those people who can help the communities like West Dubbo. As a white person, I certianly don’t see the point in swanning in and fixing up those houses (and it isn’t just to do with money). You can lead a horse to water and all that. If people refuse to help themselves, what can you do? If they wanted to live in secure and safe homes, they would not take the doors of the hinges and keep warm by lighting a fire on the loungeroom floor.

      A friend of mine visited from Brisbane recently and seeing an Aborigine was a novelty. People in the city have absolutely no idea what goes on out in the townships. I am the same, I am QLD, I can’t begin to imagine what NT is like (excluding those individuals maintaining a traditional lifestyle of course). All I know is, the current set up is not working but I am pleased that people like Glen Brennan exist and hope that our political system doesn’t ruin him.

    • Jim says:

      06:40pm | 23/12/10

      Oh no…shot me down in flames there Badger!!! What will I do??

      Unions deserve to be bashed - nothing but organised crime, thuggery and rorts leading into an equally dishonest Labor gig.

      Fairsfair - West Dubbo is quite a bit worse than Nth Queensland…in the 90’s the state government relocated hundreds of aboriginals from Redfern, Walgett, Brewarrinna, Wellington….trouble is they all hated each other. They gave them a brand spanking new estate worth millions and they trashed it. It was another social experiment (or from a cynical POV - a move to lift the property prices bigtime in inner city Sydney).

      In QLD, the further NW you go the worse it gets.

      The latte sippers like Weasel are in denial that the violence there is more horrific than anything you can imagine…and accuse anyone who actually knows what goes on as being racist.

      Do-gooders like Malcolm Fraser who have never been close to anything up there, really should sneak up to Palm Island or Doomadgee for a night. No escort, no media entourage…just them.

      Oh, and before anyone jumps down my throat calling me racist…I myself am aboriginal! Yes, enough to claim the 4% loan and lots of other perks…but I have never claimed a thing, and I despise those that do and still complain.

    • Ted says:

      08:06am | 23/12/10

      Keiith, you are now a racist because you dare to demand real equality.

      Now lets look at this myth of their current disadvantage in remote settlements for example. The government built that housing they had, the aboriginals trashed it and now the bleeding hearts yell persecution and new houses are being built. The aboriginals then yell discrimination because there is no “town” water and electricity, so no these services are being run. Now lets look at the situation for a non aboriginal. If they want to live in the middle of no where, they have had to build their own house, use generators for electricity, and have no hope of every getting “town” water or sewerage attached. Doctor services are not provided, they are expected to got to it unless it is an emergency, unlike the aboriginals, ETC.

      Now lets look at cities, again housing provided and a percentage has been trashed (which the government repeatedly repairs), grants given, kids given free taxies and paid to attend school, positive discrimination in the work force, etc.

      To quote Nelson Mandela in an ABC joint interview (which has was stopped and hidden after the quote) with an aboriginal activist, “YOU DON’T KNOW EVEN KNOW THE FIRST THING ABOUT MEANING OF THE WORD DISCRIMINATION”. I would suggest that many aboriginals need to get over their victim mentality and take advantage of all the gifts the government give only to them, as some have.

      Reply

    • jess says:

      09:43am | 23/12/10

      SO AGREE!!! despite what they say most of the ones who sook they are disadvantaged have every option of doing what im doing and go to uni through OUA, you get a real degree but you dont need a HSC score or to attend campus, all you need is an internet connection. the REAL disadvantaged aboriginals have been offered housing but refuse it.

    • Ted says:

      11:03am | 23/12/10

      Well done Jess. Hope you go well with your uni studies and you get the job your after !!!

    • acotrel says:

      04:54am | 24/12/10

      @Jim
      ‘Unions deserve to be bashed - nothing but organised crime, thuggery and rorts leading into an equally dishonest Labor gig.’

      That sort of comment is as stupid as calling the ALP ‘commie’!  When the Liberal party is in power, the scams are rife! What’s the difference? You’d probably object if I called the Libs ‘fascist’, but have a look at their ideology, it was around in the 30s, and prior to that!  The agenda has not changed!

    • Non-aboriginal Renter says:

      08:18am | 23/12/10

      “With a starting interest rate of 4 per cent, and a cap at 1 per cent below market interest rates, it’s a good deal for indigenous Australians.”

      Thanks for making by day, the house prices are bad enough and in my current position I am just outside of ever owning my own home. Now you confirm that my taxes are going to give free loaders with a victim mentality a special deal that clearly discriminates against me. Why do your people who are clearly racists expect any respect from me?!?!?!?!

      Reply

    • Dave-o says:

      08:33am | 23/12/10

      Wasn’t minority home ownership the reason for the US government handing out NINJA loans in the first place?

      Reply

    • Zeta says:

      08:34am | 23/12/10

      It’s kind of sad you had to put who David Unaipon was in brackets for the benefit of stupid people.

      Reply

    • Ted H says:

      08:56am | 23/12/10

      Stupid people? Try people only remember names of interest or significant to their life. Are you one of those racist aboriginals or a blinded bleeding heart? PS my IQ is over 150 and this name in itself means nothing to me and I am certain that the names of many of the great thinkers and contributors of this world that are familiar to me mean nothing to you. I am not however arrogant enough or blinded by a victim mentality that allows me to call you stupid.

    • Ben81 says:

      09:32am | 23/12/10

      Yes we already knew he invented the $50 note.

    • StefanR says:

      10:39am | 23/12/10

      @ Ted H: “PS my IQ is over 150 and… I am certain that the names of many of the great thinkers and contributors of this world that are familiar to me mean nothing to you.”

      “I am not however arrogant enough to…”

      Surely this is satire?

    • Ted H says:

      11:10am | 23/12/10

      Nice try StfanR. Just proving the point that recognising a name is not tied to stupidity which infers a low IQ. If you need to take a simple illustration and infer arrogance that is your choice. To me it doesn’t matter if your IQ is high or low, it is who you are and if your need to label people to gain some self perceived superiority that is the measure of the person.

    • Zeta says:

      11:14am | 23/12/10

      @ Ted H - I think it’s a bit of indictment on the Wechler Adult Intelligence scale that you have an intelligence quotient of 150, yet have handled thousands of $50 notes in your life without ever wondering who that noble looking bro on them is. Sorry, instead of stupid I should probably have said ‘a lack of curiosity bordering on ignorance’.

      Unaipon invented the electric sheep shearer. So the term ‘off the sheep’s back’, meaning the wealth Australia accrued between the late 1930s to the late 1950s can be directly attributed to the invention of David Unaipon. Which I’m guessing is why he’s on the $50 note, because his perpetual motion machine and boomerang shaped helicopter never got beyond the design stage.

      I don’t think you need to be a ‘racist’ aboriginie or a blind bleeding heart to acknowledge the fact inventing the electric f***ing sheep shearer was a pretty important part of Australia’s history, because without it, we’d still be using scissors.

      And if you were a ‘racist’ aboriginie, or a modern day leftist, you’d hate David Unaipon, because he embraced English culture, spoke fluent classical English, was the first Aborigine to have his writing published in English, and converted to Christianity.

      The real racists are the Australias who see David Unaipon on the $50 note and simply assume he was put there so we’d have at least one aboriginie on our currency, not because of his enourmous contribution to our economy and way of life beyond his contribution to indigenous rights.

      And in case you’re stupid, that you I’m talking about.

    • Ted H says:

      11:43am | 23/12/10

      Hi Zeta, you really seem to have a dispirit need to put down anyone that does not recognise David Unaipon. I am sorry but the only thing matters to me about a $50 note is that it is not counterfeit. From your description, he deserves a place of recognition, but I feel you need to talk to someone about the anger you seem to have pent up inside of you.

    • Tim says:

      12:32pm | 23/12/10

      “The real racists are the Australias who see David Unaipon on the $50 note and simply assume he was put there so we’d have at least one aboriginie on our currency”

      Zeta,
      what about the 2 buck coin?
      Don’t tell me you forgot one pound Jimmy?

    • James1 says:

      01:11pm | 23/12/10

      Even with your high IQ, Ted H, you still cannot tell the difference between the adjective “Aboriginal” and the noun “Aborigine”.  Hmmm.

    • Ted H says:

      02:09pm | 23/12/10

      James1, I never claimed English was my strong point, but move into the engineering/computer fields and you will have a totally different result.

    • GDS says:

      05:20pm | 23/12/10

      yo Ted H, as a computer expert, you should know that internet IQ tests are bogus wink

    • Markus says:

      09:08am | 23/12/10

      The ACT government are currently running a program in which people who are approved for government housing can over time pay off the house they are assigned, so that they will eventually own the house outright.

      The program is only in its early stages, but results have been promising so far. The added bonus is that residents look to be a whole lot less likely to just trash the place if the end goal is that it is going to be theirs to own.

      Perhaps a similar program could be looked into for indigenous Australians?

      Reply

    • Chris says:

      10:00am | 23/12/10

      Sorry, the local indigenous people (Alice Springs) have very little desire to pay for their own home when they KNOW they’ll get it for next to nothing and get it serviced and repaired by the ‘gummint’ or CLC. The first house built under the intervention at Hoppy’s Town camp had the windows painted over in less than a month after completion.

      What left of their culture demands that if you have a house (or car, etc) you MUST share it with your relatives (and no, you don’t have to be a blood relative to be a rellie) and given the high incidence of alcohol or petrol sniffing, this house will be destroyed in short order, only to be rebuilt again.

      The aboriginal nation lost their last chance to save their culture when the last crop of elders died. It’s in terminal decline now, and sadly (and I mean this sincerely) there’s no going back now, no matter how much we try.

      At least the Aborignal Land Councils can afford to buy the Yulara Resort tho.

      Reply

    • Suzie says:

      10:14am | 23/12/10

      Good article Glen. As an Aboriginal mortgage holder with a mainstream financial institution, I agree. A mortgage requires decades of capacity to service, capacity that is enabled by good health, good education and continuous employment.

      Reply

    • The Other Phil says:

      10:40am | 23/12/10

      Here’s a truly honest question driven by curiousity: What differences do you see between yourself and those in the wider Aboriginal community? How did you come to have access to good education and continuous employment which seemed to allow you to have good health?

      I’ve seen programs like ABStudy and the Indigenous Health programs run by Medicare providing cheap (or free) access to education and health or Aboriginals, and when housing is being provided by the Government in a number of instances, I just wonder what differences there are between your opportunities and others.

    • Rebecca says:

      11:38am | 23/12/10

      The Other Phil, I’m also an Aboriginal mortgage holder with a mainstream financial institution and I have often thought about what sets me apart from the Aboriginals drinking their dole money in the park and I have to say I think it is a generational thing. My mother came from an unstable home and had many siblings. At some point in their childhood a white family took interest in them and showed them another way of life, a life with choices and options that they could pursue.  Most of my aunt’s and uncles went on to further education and are now variously employed in professional capacities, business owners, and home owners.  My parents have always worked and paid off their mortgage and now I do the same. We didn’t have access to Abstudy at school as we didn’t meet the income test (which from memory was the same as Austudy limit).  I’m not suggesting that white families need to adopt an Aboriginal family.  I’m suggesting it is hard to aim for something you don’t even know exists.  Check out Yalari, the work they do can really make a difference. It may be that a smaller ground level approach that builds trust and respect gradually may one day snow ball and achieve what multi departmental, million dollar schemes fail at, intergenerational wealth creation.

    • Steve says:

      10:56am | 23/12/10

      Each Abroriginal person is the only person who can help themselves. The goverment can provide cheap home loans, AB study, cheap healthcare and lots of other opportunities but unless each person grabs those opportunities with both hands and uses them to better themselves and there familes the cycle will continue. This does not just apply to Abroginal this applies to all people the opportunties are there you just need to use them.

      Reply

    • Rossco says:

      10:59am | 23/12/10

      Is it all Aboriginals who can get the loans at the starting interest rate of 4% or just the disadvantaged ones?

      Reply

    • Adam Diver says:

      11:11am | 23/12/10

      Exhibit A: Glen Brennan

      “My parents are both proudly Aboriginal. As a young bloke, I remember their pride when they bought their first home, a little house on the edge of town.

      Growing up I watched them struggle to pay the mortgage, through good and bad times. Extensions, cars, funerals and even my university education were all paid for via refinancing the family home”

      Now whatever your prents had, needs to be bottled and applied elsewhere. I can only assume that they, did not have government help and that the success was due to hard work, good decisions etc etc.

      How do you institutionalize personal responsibility??????

      Reply

    • Sid says:

      11:49am | 23/12/10

      Many Aboriginals AND non-Aboriginals should learn from your parents. They prove what can be done when you work with the cards you are dealt.

    • Anna C says:

      11:12am | 23/12/10

      The aboriginal people that I know are middle class, public servants living in the inner city. Why should they be entitled to a lower interest rate on their mortgage just because they are aboriginal? Contrary to popular belief not all aborigines are disadvantaged.

      Reply

    • Rebecca says:

      11:47am | 23/12/10

      That’s right Anna C but we never hear about them and how they have got to this point in their life.  We only hear the bad news stories.  Perhaps if more were heard about this then the rest would realise that it is attainable.

    • jess says:

      12:05pm | 23/12/10

      I am truly amazed by this article. I don’t live in a rural town so perhaps its different there, but I grew up in a poor outer suburb in Perth. The aboriginals that “attended” my school were given free healthcare, free housing and even PAID to attend school. What I couldn’t understand is that they chose not to go to school, to destroy their free housing and not use the free healthcare. They also chose to spend all their money on booze and cigarettes and spend a lot of their time vandalising other people’s properties.

      These particular aboriginals were not disadvantaged, they were given far more than my struggling family was. Yet we managed to help ourselves, they are continuing the cycle.
      The government has done so much in the last 20 years including a lot of “positive” discrimination and handouts. Any aboriginal person who wants to get a good education, good healthcare or good housing can do so. The aboriginal community now needs to take responsibility. You can lead a horse to water, but you cant make it drink.

      Reply

    • The Aristocrat says:

      02:37pm | 23/12/10

      Same as when I was in high school. Glenn wants generational wealth accumulation, but currently they have generational pity accumulation. The aboriginal community still harbours “the big bad white man” mindset, and this is passed onto each new generation.

      When the community changes its view, then real change can begin. Stop feeling sorry for yourselves and accept that things have changed since the “settlement”. No one alive today is accountable for the “invasion” so why treat us like we’re raping and stealing “your” land??

    • jess says:

      04:45pm | 23/12/10

      And also, remember that most of the ‘big bad white men’ diddnt want to come here, they were tied up on boats for months and dumped here to try and survive, they are just as much victims as the Aborigines. The only people accountable for the invasion were the brtish people who planned it and they are all dead now. just because someone is white does not mean they are responsible for what happened in history. would the Australian aboriginals prefer it if every non-indiginous person left the country and took every single piece of evidence we existed here? or would you miss tv and internet and clothes, shoes ect?
      Bad things happened to aborigines in history yes, but it is being milked for all its worth in oz, I have never heard Italy apologize to Britain

    • St. Michael says:

      01:21pm | 23/12/10

      The problem I have with this article is that what is described as “intergenerational wealth creation opportunities” is known by another name in the US: “affirmative action”.  And affirmative action is slowly being withdrawn in the US because it doesn’t work.

      The economic form of that affirmative action was, in many cases, the loaning of money to subprime mortgage holders backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  Look where that eventually got us.  The experience in Africa also supports this point of view: the average African today is *worse* off economically than they were forty odd years ago *even with all of the foreign aid that’s been poured into that continent*.

      I applaud every Aboriginal person who manages to overcome the stereotype that is, unfortunately, out there in the media.  Noel Pearson, on my very superficial view of what I see of him in the media, seems to be one of them.  There are many others.  And that’s the point: I accept it’s a hard stereotype to confront or break.  But other stereotypes have existed in this country and were conclusively broken.  Consider the hysteria over the immigration of European communities to Australia in the fifties; consider Jack Van Tongeren’s terrorist campaign to stop the supposed “asian invasion”.  Anybody still think Italian migrants are all in the Mafia and all out to terk er jerbs?

      The point being: they were stereotypes broken by reason of the work ethic and willingness to integrate that those migrant groups displayed.  Nothing less.  I still firmly believe, redneck morons notwithstanding, that no matter the colour of your skin, most Australian employers will give you a fair go.  From there it’s up to you.  Handouts might help to tide over the desperate in emergencies, but as a continuing payment they only corrupt, because they breed a sense of dependency which is a lot harder to break than any sense that none of the brothers are getting ahead in life.

      The point being, how many more role models does Aboriginal Australia require? Cathy Freeman ran the Aboriginal flag around Olympic stadiums.  Mundine’s taken on some of the better white boxers in Australia and won.  Noel Pearson laid down the law on TV to pretty well his entire community, leaving even the supposed “elders” abashed at how clearly he saw the situation and what they were all doing to continue the cycle of dependency.  There’s even Ken Wyatt and Ernie Bridge as Parliamentarians - State and Federal!  What does it take, an Aboriginal banker or an Aboriginal CEO? At what point do the excuses stop and welfare-dependent Aboriginals realise they don’t have to buy into the bullshit of “We’re downtrodden, we’re always going to be downtrodden, and we’ll keep taking the white man’s cheque until someone comes along to make us more equal than the white man?”

      Reply

    • acotrel says:

      05:10am | 24/12/10

      @Jess
      ‘The aboriginal community still harbours “the big bad white man” mindset, and this is passed onto each new generation.’

      In Australia’s history the first 50 years of the19th century were taken up with wars against the aborigines!  Are they supposed to forget?

    • fairsfair says:

      10:25am | 24/12/10

      Acotrel, I think that they would like to forget so that we can all move on as a nation. Australia is a fantastic country that we have all ended up lumped here together for whatever reason.  It is white people like you that won’t let people forget. Less dredging of the past - more looking to the future…. and FFS - reply to the correct thread! Surely you can not be serious.

    • Charles Kelly says:

      11:47am | 24/12/10

      Hey acotrel, I drive a GERMAN car and own many products made in CHINA and JAPAN! What was I thinking?!?!?!?!

    • Razor says:

      02:03pm | 23/12/10

      Why on earth were they borrowing at mortgage rates to pay for a University Degree - unless you went for non-HECS funded place?

      Reply

    • Robert S McCormickq says:

      03:08pm | 23/12/10

      I am all in favour of Everyone having the opportunity to have their own home - black,pink,coffee,yellow & of whatever belief system thet like.
      I seem to remember back before GAR (that’s Gillard Assasinated Rudd) the Rudd aLP Federal Government allocated close to $700 millions for Indigenoeus Housing in the Northern Territory. This was a great initiative but, if reports since are any indication, only TWO new houses have actually been built & a few existing ones have had very minimla repairs carried out on them. What has happened to all this money? Has the Gillard Federal ALP Government just very quietly abandoned the whole project? If so, why? Why has it been kept a secret? Is this yet another failed project just like Peter Garrett’s Pink Batt Home Insulation scandal?
      Or Julia Gillard’s rorted & distroted Building the Education Revolution project to construct the Julia Gillard Memorial Halls?
      Or the now abandoned Green Loans scandal?
      Or the vastly expensive & long-since abandoned Grocery Watch & Fuel Watch disasters?
      Or the Rudd-Gillard ETS & Carbon Price proposals (They could have gone to a Double Dissolution on this but they actually wanted it to fail ‘& they did not have the guts to proceed)
      Gillard & Co should remember that the Indigeneous Housing money of almost $700 millions is Taxpayer’s Money & we have the right to know what has happened to it. How many new houses have been completed over the last 4 years, Ms Gillard? Or have you quietly shelved the whole project but haven’t the guts to tell us let alone the Indigeneous Population?

      Reply

    • Yon Toad says:

      03:50pm | 23/12/10

      Talk to Noel Pearson. Listen to Noel Pearson.

      Reply

    • guy lee hanlon says:

      04:13pm | 23/12/10

      Dear Noel Pearson ,
      Will you be Australia’s Prime Minister one day Or Australian Treasurer?
      Are you Liberal ( Home ownership and mortgage payments ) or Labor ( government housing and welfAre)?
      in tomorrow’s world, home ownership is not a dream .
      its an impossibility.
      in tomorrow’s world, rent and homelessness are kings.
      Thank You
      Me

      Reply

    • Craig says:

      04:16pm | 23/12/10

      What a load of rubbish. indigenous have every opportunity to own their own home just like every other Australian - By hard work not handouts. Go to school, get your education & get a job or study like everyone else does. The only disadvantage that young indigenous people have is their upbringing by their parents and auntys/uncles to teach them not to do these things, and then to expect handouts etc to get what they want. There should be no such thing as austudy or abstudy, or different loan rates etc.. Everyone should be treated equally - but only if they want to put in the hard yards like everyone else to get there. My parents taught me the value of money and hard work and I now have a mortgage and a house. My wife and I work damn hard, but it’s rewarding. Everyone has that same opportunity in Australia.

      I am not saying all indigenous are like this, I have some mates who are indigenous and they work hard for everything and actually hate the indigenous who give them a bad name.

      Reply

    • Peter Oataway says:

      04:25pm | 23/12/10

      I have lived and worked and are friends with many proud aboriginals proud of who they are, proud of their aboriginality, proud of where they live and proud of what they do..yet some want to destroy our Murray Darling basin rural economies on the say so from some urban based scientists.
      Dick Esten’s work in Moree, Noel Pearson wanting commercial opportunities rather than just government opportunities in North Queensland and Aboriginal employment up and down the river system across mainly Queensland and New South Wales show this is something that needs to be taken into account in any water plan…I wish urban people would actually get out and seek more varied opinions than just some loud mouthed urban Greens with vested political interests

      Reply

    • Isabel Storey says:

      10:24am | 24/12/10

      When living in the Pilbara, my skin turned so dark I was often asked for my skin name by Aboriginal persons. When stopped on the Nullarbor by WA police I felt a wall of hate emanate from them until I opened my mouth and dispelled their notion of my Aboriginality. When relating this to elders in Norseman, these older men burst into laughter and said they experience this wall of hatred every time they walk about town. The first disadvantage is being hated on sight.
      Aboriginal housing may fare better were the persons housed not insulted by (in Kalumburu) having their houses built on the old rubbish tip. Also expressed to me by elder Aboriginal women is the anathema of situating the lavatory under the main roof. This practice was regarded by them as disgusting almost beyond words. If people are forced to live in dwellings where they are expected to shit in their own nests, why be surprised at the way they respond. The second disadvantage is the assumption that some are more equal and deserving that others. The third disadvantage is that the state of war was never officially accepted so cannot be officially brought to an end. The greatest advantage for non-Aboriginal Australians is that they continue to remain in ignorance of their own lack of compassion.

      Reply

    • Charles Kelly says:

      11:22am | 24/12/10

      There’s a simple solution to all of this:

      A: Locate shoulder

      B: Locate chip

      C: Remove chip from shoulder

      D: Repeat

      Reply

    • nurse practitioner says:

      01:34pm | 10/01/11

      I think one of your advertisements caused my internet browser to resize, you might want to put that on your blacklist.

      Reply
 
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