Abbott to spend a week with indigenous communities

“So it is an honour to be here in this island which has been so significant for Indigenous people and is now so significant for all Australians”.

Tony Abbott will on Monday become Australia’s first Prime Minister to visit the grave site of prominent land rights campaigner Eddie Koiki Mabo during his week- long tour of the Torres Strait Islands.

Gail Mabo said Abbott’s visit should not be underestimated.

Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion and Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister Alan Tudge will accompany Mr Abbott for the week, along with secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet Michael Thawley. “It really isn’t too much, given that that section of our population has, to a considerable extent, been neglected for the last couple of hundred years”. Aborigines numbered about a million when the British arrived in 1788, but there are now just 470,000 in a population of 23 million.

They are the nation’s most disadvantaged citizens and have a much shorter life expectancy than other Australians while suffering disproportionate levels of imprisonment and social problems such as unemployment.

The white paper set out a development plan to 2035, with Aus$1.2 billion of initial investment in infrastructure projects, land reforms and cutting red tape.

Abbott dedicates one week per year to travel to a remote indigenous community in Australia. It is the second time Mr Abbott has relocated the machinery of government to a remote indigenous community, having visited Nhulunbuy in Arnhem Land in September past year.

Mr Abbott is also expected to meet the family of land rights pioneer Eddie Mabo, who successfully challenged in the High Court the presumption of Terra Nullius – that Australia was uninhabited before colonisation.