[LINK] On the planned relocation of Aborigine communities in Australia

[rfmcdonald]

The Australian Broadcast Corporation's report by Rebecca Curtin and Jane Norman about the Australian government's plan to relocate economically unviable Aborigine communities is stunning. Part of me does wonder if the Australian government's openness is better than the neglect of the Canadian government of similarly situated communities: The end result, the depopulation of indigenous communities in national hinterlands, is the same.

The Federal Opposition is demanding the Prime Minister apologise after he suggested it is a lifestyle choice to live in remote Indigenous communities.

Tony Abbott has backed the West Australian Government's plans to close nearly half of the state's 274 remote communities and said it was not unreasonable if the cost of providing services such as schools, outweighed the benefits.

"What we can't do is endlessly subsidise lifestyle choices if those lifestyle choices are not conducive to the kind of full participation in Australian society that everyone should have," he said.

Mr Abbott said if people choose to live in areas where there are no schools or jobs, there is a limit to what they can expect the state to provide.

"If people choose to live miles away from where there's a school, if people choose not to access the school of the air, if people choose to live where there's no jobs, obviously it's very, very difficult to close the gap," he said.

The WA Government flagged the closure of up to 150 of the state's remote Aboriginal communities after the Federal Government, which funded about two-thirds of the state's remote Indigenous settlements, announced in September it was transitioning that responsibility to the states over the next two years.