How do Indigenous people vote?

The refusal of the major parties to address the chronic social issues of our people accentuate the extent to which we, as an identifiable group within Australian society, are viewed by the power brokers and in turn, the broader community.

Outgoing HREOC Social Justice Commissioner, Dr Bill Jonas, conceded that the existing legislative approaches to negotiations are not delivering for Indigenous communities or the environment. A new approach, he said, based on respect and co-operation has the potential to deliver many practical benefits in the long run.

Mark Latham talked about his Medicare Gold policy for over 75s but his advisors obviously failed to inform him about our social indicators that clearly show life expectancy for Indigenous males is just 56 years and 63 years for females. I don’t know the man but perhaps he factored that into the equation.

AMA President Dr. Bill Glasson, speaking on the Access Economics report, says the government needs to spend an extra $1.6 billion alone to address the chronic health problems of the Indigenous community.

The Labour government spoke of an injection of $50.8m into Indigenous health if they gained office. However when reminded of the Access Economics report recommendation leader Mark Latham bluntly commented that the party “hasn’t got unlimited spending”. Strange I seem to remember them throwing billions of dollars around at “swinging voters”.

I didn’t get to hear any commitments to the Indigenous community from the Coalition Government but then again I could’ve missed the fine print in one of the lesser-known papers. What I did hear from John Howard was a lot of noise about terrorists or anyone who could conceivably be branded a threat to “the Australian way of life”. That threat also included the ALP and their leaders’ abysmal handling of the economy and in particular interest rates. Smart public relations exercise on interest rates from Howard - the ALP could do with an injection of likeminded PR savvy executives on their payroll.

Did I just say interest rates?

This brings me back to my original quandary - How do Indigenous people vote?

Several examples of the disparity of Indigenous voting patterns can be clearly probed by outcomes such as the 4.5 per cent swing to the conservative Member for Leichhardt, Liberals Warren Entsch. He boastfully declared that, “It’s the first time ever we have had this sort of swing from the Aboriginal community - it’s been incredible”.

In Central Australia, CLP Indigenous candidate Maisie Austin, says she could have done a lot for disadvantaged Aboriginal people if elected. “I think that a lot of Indigenous people live in the past and they really need to let go and go forward and take their people with them.”

Non Indigenous ALP incumbent for Lingiari, Warren Snowdon, held on to his seat with a swing of 2.5 per cent.

Then we have the leader of the national fundamentalist Christian Family First Party, Andrea Mason, an Adelaide based Indigenous lawyer and former Australian netball champion quoted on ABC Radio: “I think that there will be a significant change in the way we perceive ourselves and our relationships with each other when there is an apology made to the stolen generations. I really believe that."

I’m looking forward to seeing John Howard attempt the extremely difficult pronunciation of the five-lettered word S.O.R.R.Y. just to gain that extra vote from Family First in the Senate.

To top it off our brightest and only Federal politician, Aden Ridgeway, was unsuccessful in his attempt to hold onto his NSW Senate seat for the Australian Democrats. Aden was quoted as saying the Australian Democrats have lost the middle ground of an increasingly polarised electorate.

Where once Indigenous voters were expected to vote for the Australian Labour Party we now have success and failure of Indigenous representation from a whole host of political parties across the country.

In Queensland alone two Indigenous men became politicians: Neville Bonner (1971) a Liberal Party Senator and Eric Deeral (1974) a National Party Member for Cook. Both members of the Federal and State parliaments respectively were fiercely proud Indigenous men with a conservative leaning. At the other end of the continuum today, Indigenous females like Territory Labor, Marion Scrymgour, Member for Arafura, Minister for Family and Community, the Environment and Heritage and ALP Linda Burney, State Member for Canterbury in Sydney attempt to address the multitude of concerns raised to them by their mainstream constituents.

There are many other politicians around the country who identify as being of Indigenous descent, predominantly to the left of politics.

Unfortunately most Indigenous candidates who stood for public office in the last election, representing such diverse parties as the Greens, Democrats, Social Alliance, Your Voice, Liberals, NT Country Liberal Party as well as the Independents have conceded defeat. The exception appears to be the Family First leader and candidate Andrea Mason who is still in with a slight chance of being elected as a Senator for South Australia. I eagerly await the outcome of the final count of ballot papers.

Today there is a strange anomaly where Indigenous households, unheard of a generation ago, are blessed with choices deriving from dual incomes. These families’ are more focused on the interest rates that will impact on their monthly mortgage than concerning themselves, like many Indigenous families, on whether to pay the growing list of bills or to buy a large grocery order. The new “middle class murries” now also have the luxury of choice on whether to upgrade to the latest vehicle with all the modern accessories and (or) entertain the choice of public or private school education for their children. That’s not to say these “middle class murries” have turned their backs on those less fortunate members of their race in struggle towns and suburbs throughout the nation. Most are still very passionate about righting the wrongs of their people.

However these hard working breadwinners are also consumers and will take the time to assess their particular circumstance when it comes to casting their vote. Who’s to say they sold out their people by not voting along the traditional lines of their parents? Are they coconuts (black on the outside and white in the middle) or “uptowners”? It appears obvious that Indigenous voters from the Cape York communities cast their vote in significant numbers for the coalition as a protest against the Beattie government's alcohol management plans that they view as prohibition. Those northern traditional voters do not fall into the category of “middle class murries”.

So what of the future for Indigenous voters?

One thing you can bet your house on for the next parliamentary term is that it will deliver a major widening of the gap between the haves and have nots. It will also provide a windfall for the rising middle class Indigenous professionals. The gap between those “middle class murries” and their “brothers” and “sisters” in the less desirable parts of town will be more pronounced than the mainstream divide.

Will that mean a change to the old voting pattern to correct the inequality?

It’s a bit like the Tasmanian loggers who traditionally voted for Labour - sadly when circumstances change so will voting patterns irrespective of profession or ethnicity.