Image from Betoota Advocate via SBS
By Situation Theatre 8/6/2020
The award has been described as “nothing but bullshit”.
Just in case a mining company’s destruction of a 46-000-year-old sacred site during Reconciliation Week wasn’t a clear enough illustration of how all lives matter, this country has gone and awarded Tony Abbott a companion of the Order of Australia for, amongst other sinister travesties, “contributions to Indigenous communities”.
You can read about his Prime Ministerial contributions below:
Breaks his promise to spend his first week with an Aboriginal community –14 September 2013
Cuts Indigenous legal services by $13.4 million. This includes $3.5 million from front line domestic violence support services, defunding the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services and abolishing all policy and law reform positions across the country – 17 December 2013
Pays hundreds of Indigenous workers in his Department up to $19 000 less than non-Indigenous workers doing the same job and cuts the budget for the representative body the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples causing two-thirds of the staff to lose their jobs – 15 February 2014
Axes funding to Aboriginal Early Childhood Support and Learning Incorporated, the only Indigenous peak body advising on early childhood issues for Indigenous people in NSW – 25 February, 2014
Cuts $500 million from Indigenous programs over five years – 13 May 2014
Abolishes the Congress of Australia’s First Peoples, the only elected representative body for Indigenous Australians – 13 May 2014
Cuts funding to the Torres Strait Regional Authority – 13 May 2014
Cuts funding for Indigenous language support – 13 May 2014
Slashes funding from the Indigenous Health Budget – 13 May 2014
Cuts all funding to Vibe Australia, the Indigenous organisation responsible for creating and producing the Deadly Awards, Deadly Vibe and InVibe magazines, Deadly Sounds radio, Move It Mob Style TV and deadlyvibe.com.au – July 14, 2014
Breaks an election promise to a publish a proposal for constitutional recognition for Indigenous people and establish a bipartisan process to try to bring about recognition as soon as possible within the first 12 months of Government – 19 September 2014.
Describes Australia as “nothing but bush” prior to the arrival of the First Fleet when addressing a breakfast for British Prime Minister, David Cameron – 14 November 2014
Gets rid of the Indigenous Water Advisory Committee – 15 December 2014
Silences the Northern Australia Indigenous Experts Forum on sustainable Economic Development – 15 December 2014
Cancels the Indigenous Development effectiveness Initiative Steering Committee – 15 December 2014
Abolishes the First Peoples Education Advisory Group – 15 December 2014
Dismisses Indigenous culture by describing living in remote communities as a “lifestyle choice” – 11 March 2015
Scuttles a proposal from Indigenous leaders for constitutional recognition – 3 August 2015
The award is an acknowledgement of what thousands of Aboriginal people were demanding in the weekend’s mass rallies across the country: yet more racist cronyism.
*Abbott’s actions are taken from Sally McManus’s ever useful record Tracking Abbott’s Wreckage