We do not need to give Abbott a chance, we know who he is

I have been trying, and failing, to understand the behaviour and trajectory of the current government, and in particular the leadership on display by our new Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

The creation of the position of ‘Special Envoy to Indigenous Affairs’ is a role which no one was calling for, but even more baffling than the creation of the role, has been Morrison’s decision to offer this role to Tony Abbott.

The response which this appointment is being met with, has generally been one of scathing condemnation, widely criticised by Indigenous political leaders.

However, the justification which PM Morrison has offered for this decision, centring this on ‘education’ and a claim of Abbott’s ‘enthusiasm’ for Indigenous communities is what has truly left me baffled.

More recently, the Prime Minister’s language escalated to casually referencing an ‘overhaul’ of education by Abbott. While I find this alarming as an Indigenous woman, and education academic, this is also infuriating from the lens of being a voter.

It is not logical, or an appropriate use of tax payer funds to appoint a man as ill equipped, and unqualified as Abbott to such a role even in a symbolic capacity – but to give him free reign, empowering him to ‘overhaul’ a system developed over many decades, in which he has no demonstrated understanding is outrageous.

Tony Abbott holds no qualifications or expertise in the area of education, and has a history of mismanagement and negative meddling when he has been in positions of power over Indigenous affairs previously.

His appointment is nepotistic, seriously bad politics, and has the potential to be significantly harmful for Indigenous people and our educational future.

Education is complex, the term itself is a broad one, with its application and interpretation generally relying on cultural understanding, experiences, and expectations. It is clear by the language used, and the photo opportunities which Abbott is presently coveting, that we are to understand ‘education’ in this context to refer specifically to formal, Anglocentric education within Australian schools.

But while the historical relationship of Indigenous people and formal education since invasion has been a fraught one, and one of significant trauma, there has been significant, positive progress in recent decades. Best practice when it comes to formal education and Indigenous communities is no longer positioned as a grand mystery, or unsolvable puzzle.

On the contrary, thanks to significant work, activism, research, and community collaboration, the relationships between formal education and Indigenous communities have made a lot of progress not just here but around the world.

Recent research has established what Indigenous communities have said all along, Indigenous students have high aspirations.

We have, for the most part, moved as a society past denying the 60,000 years of strong history and inhabitation which existed on this land prior to invasion, and while it is acknowledged, and should be celebrated that here on this land there has been centuries of invention, agriculture, engineering, astrology, and complex social and political systems – our new envoy has made his opinion clear, having referred to Australia as being ‘nothing but bush’ prior to invasion.

His appointment is nepotistic, seriously bad politics, and has the potential to be significantly harmful for Indigenous people and our educational future.

The First Peoples of this land now known as Australia are acknowledged as being the most researched people in the world –decades of exploitation, and more recently research which is built upon consultation, and collaboration with Indigenous communities, has developed a significant body of literature which engages and outlines best practice for community, people, and education.

We know what communities, children, and positive educational spaces need to thrive.

Additionally, there have for some years been several Indigenous advisory bodies, who work with and within all forms of education, supporting staff, students, and the broader community. Within New South Wales, for example, we have the Aboriginal Education Consultative Group, acknowledged as the Peak Advisory Body to the NSW Department of Education since the 1980s. There are equivalent bodies and advisory groups within other States and Territories, and several significant projects which are underway, working with educational departments and Indigenous communities to develop resources and implement evidence-based recommendations.

Within Higher Education there are now over 400 Indigenous academics working full time in Australia, even more if we include those employed casual, or on professional contracts.

The body of Indigenous educators is growing.

So how exactly is a man such as Abbott, with his history of gutting Indigenous services by over $500 million when he was ‘Prime Minister for Indigenous Affairs’, who has a history of being too drunk to engage appropriately in parliament, the best person to be Special Envoy to Indigenous Affairs, empowered to ‘overhaul’ education?

We are in all areas, rural, remote, metropolitan, just as we exist in multifaceted positions, we are community members, cultural knowledge holders, writers, CEOs, directors, Doctors, nurses, lawyers, leaders, and more.

The narrative being sold to voters right now is not an accident, and Abbott’s choice to immediately focus on remote Indigenous communities is intentional. His decision to fly into the Northern Territory, focusing on ‘school attendance’ in paternalistic style, for his first formal engagements reflects only his personal agenda – not the Indigenous people whose affairs he is apparently now special envoy to. 79% of Indigenous people live in urban environments.

It appears that as well as creating a deficit narrative, whereby Indigenous people and communities are positioned as needing the intervention of a white man to pressure us to engage in education, we are also being presented via these statements and photo opportunities as existing only in areas geographically removed from cities and urban environments.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people do not exist only isolated to red earth and deserts, we have always lived and existed across this continent, including along the beautiful coastlines. We are in all areas, rural, remote, metropolitan, just as we exist in multifaceted positions, we are community members, cultural knowledge holders, writers, CEOs, directors, Doctors, nurses, lawyers, leaders, and more.

However, if Abbott is intent on focusing in on remote Indigenous communities, there are significant problems more pressing than school attendance where action is needed.

The lack of safe drinking water would be a good start. In fact, according to recent reports, when community members in Borroloola tried to raise with Envoy Abbott the level of lead contamination in their drinking water, this was met with arrogance rather than listening, having invited himself to their community wanting only to discuss their low school attendance rates – despite their attendance levels being high.

We do not need to give Abbott a chance, we know who he is, and in choosing Abbott, and insisting on his right to hold this position, the Prime Minister Scott Morrison is making it clear who he is.

Abbott’s appointment, and free reign, sends the message that regardless how highly educated, organised, and fluent in the western structure Indigenous people are, we will always be ‘less than’ a white man.