17 June 1993, 2UE studios, Sydney, Australia
PM (at 13.45) : Well can I just say, the thing to look forward to is a country which is in its soul at peace with itself. That is not prospering in including the dispossession of another people and that is the point of the High Court decision, that is the point of the reference I just read about the dispossession injustice. I mean, we are a unique country now, this is a multicultural country it has changed enormously since the war. It has tremendous opportunities, it is an island continent, we are the only nation in the world that has a continent to itself, we don't share a border with anybody, we are located in the fastest growing part of the world. We have the natural protection of the sea. There are great opportunities here. But to go forward together as a people means we have to go forward together on terms on which we all agree. And to have the original inhabitants not agreeing, saying that they were dispossessed and largely disadvantaged means we will never do that completely. Now that is why the Mabo decision is an opportunity. It is an opportunity to deal very late in the piece, but better late than never, with the injustice of Aboriginal dispossession. And that is what it is about. But it doesn't threaten, see the point about it is that it doesn't threaten anyone else's property in these areas of Australia we are talking about, but what it does, it brings up on a basis of equality the opportunity of the original inhabitants to have a piece of the country themselves.
(at 10.53) Caller: “My question to the prime minister – I would like to actually ask him quite a few questions on Mabo, but just a very broad question, Mr Keating, why does your government see the Aboriginal people as a much more equal people than the average white Australian?”
Keating: “We don’t. We see them as equal.”
Caller: “Well you might say that, but all the indications are that you don’t.”
Keating: “But I think it was implied in your question that you don’t. You think that non-Aboriginal Australians – there ought to be discrimination in their favour against blacks.”
Caller: “Not whatsoever. I don’t see that at all. But myself and every person I talk to, I am not racist, every person I talk to.”
Keating: “That’s what they all say, don’t they? They put these questions, they always say, ‘I am not racist but, you know, I don’t believe that Aboriginal Australians ought to have a basis in equality with non-Aboriginal Australians’. Well of course that is part of the problem.”
Caller: “Aren’t they more equal than us at the moment with the preferences they get?”
Keating: “It is not for me to be giving you a history lesson, they were largely dispossessed of the land they held.”
Caller: “I think there is a question over that. I think a lot of people would tell you that. You are telling us one thing and expecting us to believe it.”
Keating: “Well, if you are sitting on the title of any block of land in New South Wales you can bet an Aboriginal person at some stage was dispossessed of it.”
Caller: “You know that for sure, do you?”
Keating: “Well of course we know it for sure.”
Caller: “Yeah. Well, going on to your last caller there, I think he had some pertinent things to say that you couldn’t answer either.”
Keating: “Yeah I know but you hold his view, don’t you?”
Caller: “Of course I do.”
Keating: “That’s part of the problem.”
John Laws: “Let’s clarify the view. What is the view?”
Caller: “My question in general, I mean is with regard just to the whole Aboriginal question, is why does the average white Australian feel that he is prejudiced against? Why? Because of the things your government does.”
Keating: “Like what?”
Caller: “The preferential treatment.”
Keating: “Are you challenging the high court decision? Are you saying that the high court has got this all wrong?”
Caller: “No, I am not saying that at all. I wouldn’t know who was on the high court.”
Keating: “Well why don’t you sign off, if you don’t know anything about it and you’re not interested, goodbye. You can’t challenge these things and then say I don’t know about them.”
John Laws: “Well, he’s gone. But you see sadly what you are hearing there is in some ways very typical of the feeling that exists and it may be a very unhealthy feeling but it exists there. What do you do to placate those people who feel that strongly, and they do feel, I talk to them every day, they do feel that they are being disadvantaged by what is being given to the Aboriginal people.”
Keating: “Well, what is being given to the Aboriginal people is at this stage limited land. Let’s say, before the Mabo judgment, limited land opportunities and some income support and social justice in education and in health, so there are commonwealth programs for health and social justice to deal with such things as diseases which particularly afflicted Aboriginal people, like glaucoma of the eyes, and infant mortality and all these other problems they had; we have tried to direct funding to deal with those problems, to extend educational opportunities to Aboriginal people.”