He spoke exclusively to SBS reporter Karalee Tilvern about the crisis facing indigenous communities. Here’s some of what he had to say:
Karalee Tilvern: What needs to be done now?
Malcolm Fraser: There needs to be a commitment to do something about it. If people come together and then make some decisions that are going to be effective then that's fine. But if the minister (Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough) is just getting people together to try and get them to treat his latest statements as a law and order issue, then that's not going to do any good at all. You're treating a symptom, if you like, when you've got to get underneath and treat the cause.
There are special problems and there needs to be special policy maybe one day in the distant future. You can have a common policy for everyone but at the moment you need a special policy. But the governments have been moving more and more away and saying that it’s just got to be the same as everyone else.
You need policies that will be decided in consultation with local communities, you need policies to provide employment and opportunity and hope. I was told only today that there is one community of 2,500 thousand people where there are only 25 paid jobs in that community. There must be jobs, must be hope, must be education, there must be the prospect of a reasonable future. Now this is changing attitudes and giving people a sense of purpose but it's not going to happen overnight. It's slow and laborious business and people have to be dedicated and committed to the task. There needs to be resources.
The solution is known, there’s no mystery about it. It’s a question of will and commitment. I can't believe if the resources are there, I can not believe that there aren’t enough committed Australians, other Australians, who will help to put these appropriate policies in place … who will work to give Aboriginal people some belief, some faith that this country is theirs and that they have a legitimate part to play in it.
One of the worst things is there's no debate in Canberra. The opposition seems to have no ideas. When things are bad, things are known and understood but they're not raised as a scandal in the federal parliament, the opposition might as well be silent. We may as well be a one party state so far as federal government is concerned and that doesn't help.
Karalee Tilvern: How do you feel now about removal of aboriginal children?
The ordinance that applied to Aboriginals was to take them away as a matter of policy, as a matter of policy regardless of the condition capacity of parents so there was a fundamental difference. If a family shows it's quite incompetent and unable to look after children then there are obviously circumstances where the state has to provide appropriate mechanisms with welfare agencies to help and try and do what can be done for that particular child. But if the current situation is just going to be treated as that sort of issue it's not going to help the children, not going to help the communities. It would just be seen as just white people taking away children again and this would be the attitude and that would lead to more despair, drunkenness and more abuse.
Australian governments must treat this seriously and get to the cause of the problems, the abuse, petrol sniffing, drunkenness, whatever is really the manifestation of what we see as despair.