Solve Aboriginal problems by withdrawing government

That’s the opinion of respected anthropologist Peter Sutton,  talking on ABC PM:

I’m not sure that governments can close gaps by action in this context other than tweaking things around the edges. I wish it were otherwise. I have the view that in the short-term these interventions are necessary, or at least most of them are, but in the long-term that the best action would be to actually withdraw government from interfering so much with people’s lives and racially structuring the community so that there are developing two nations in the way that we haven’t had before, or at least not on the scale that we’ve had before in the last 30 or 40 years.

I don’t see new government programmes, no matter how well intentioned, closing the gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australia. If anything, programmes have made problems worse by creating addiction to welfare, creating a sense of economic and political entitlement through a politicised education system and providing remote communities the ability to practice a culture that is inconsistent with modern society. The Howard government spent record sums of money on Aboriginal issues, and we now learn that the gap has only grown larger. At some point remote communities will need to take responsibility for their own welfare instead of just throwing it back on government.