Abbott's welfarism

Reviewing an address by Tony Abbott, Minister for Employment Services and Workplace Relations, to the Indigenous Employment Conference in Canberra, 2002, the author suggests that Abbott's solutions to Aboriginal unemployment are based on a flawed premise. In his view Abbott's belief that native title stands in the way of a successful capitalist economy for Aboriginal communities in remote areas fails to account for the rural decline affecting Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians alike.