Fred Chaney has spent 50 years working with Aboriginal Australians and, despite continuing major problems, has never been more optimistic.
FRED Chaney remembers the very first time he saw an Aboriginal.
“I was a school boy, and I didn’t see where that person fitted, and that sparked my interest and curiosity ... I sensed exclusion.”
That interest and curiosity has been a constant in Mr Chaney’s life, from his days as a lawyer, to being a federal government minister, to the numerous groups he has worked with since leaving politics.
His lifelong involvement with Aboriginal Australians gives him a perspective afforded few others.
“I spend most of my time feeling worried about the negatives, but the really remarkable thing for me is the number of allies now,” he says.
“We are in a particularly positive period because of the breadth of engagement, and business has been a really important part of that.”
Mr Chaney – the older brother of former Wesfarmers chief executive and current Woodside chairman Michael Chaney – has a perspective that is informed by his memories of how bad things were in his youth.
“I worked on the wheat bins and I saw things that were pretty horrible; circumstances that I thought were intolerable,” Mr Chaney told WA Business News.
As a young lawyer, he campaigned for the 1967 referendum that formally recognised Aborigines as Australians and gave them the right to vote.
A decade later, he was minister for Aboriginal affairs in the Fraser government, followed by the more senior role of social security minister.
It was during this period his Liberal Party colleagues dubbed him ‘Red Fred’, deriding his ‘small l’ liberal beliefs.
Since leaving politics in 1993, Mr Chaney’s roles have included deputy chairman of the National Native Title Tribunal, co-chair of Reconciliation Australia and, his current major focus, chairman of Desert Knowledge Australia.
“Because I’ve been involved for 50 years, I’ve seen things unfolding in so many positive ways,” he says. “I’m not at all blind to how bad things are in some areas, and how education, health and employment lag woefully, but the difference between Australia then and now is that there are so many people engaged in changing that.”
He believes a very encouraging sign is the large number of businesses and other organisations that have made formal pledges through Reconciliation Action Plans.
“The 11 largest companies in Australia are putting their backs into it; that is one of the positive changes that have occurred,” Mr Chaney says.
“It’s dramatic in the case of the mining industry because until 1995 the mining industry was probably the most vocal opponent of the recognition of Aboriginal interests.
“The 1980s campaigns against land rights were in my view racist and vicious.
“Contrast that to today, it’s like living in a different country.”
Mr Chaney is a big fan of recent native title agreements, which he sees as another indicator of progress.
“How would you have believed that you’d have this vast deal with the traditional owners at James Price Point?
“How would you believe these agreements in the Pilbara, particularly by companies like Rio and BHP, where Aboriginal people have a seat at the table for nearly every major development?”
Mr Chaney also admires the growth in Aboriginal employment and contracting in the mining industry.
“I’m close enough to see the results of these things and to see a lot of Aboriginal people who are doing really well,” he says.
Mr Chaney acknowledges there are still problem areas, including some companies that he says fail to negotiate in good faith.
He believes the turning point for the mining industry was a 1995 speech by Leon Davis, who went on to become the global chief executive of Rio Tinto.
“The catalyst was undoubtedly the speech that Leon Davis made,” Mr Chaney says.
“When he said we are going to work with native title, that was a huge breakthrough.”
“He said its one of those areas where you can do the right thing morally and it was also to your commercial advantage.”
Mr Chaney says he is comfortable with self-interest being a motivator for change.
“I don’t mind, I want self interest to drive change, that’s fine.”
And he is becoming increasingly aware that social disadvantage, whether in Aboriginal or white people, is a ‘cradle-to-grave’ issue.
That is why he is happy to see a wide range of groups tackling the problem from different angles.
“The profusion of effort is a good thing.
“Universities, hospitals, schools, businesses, local authorities, they all have a different contribution to make,” Mr Chaney says.
“But we need to be hard-headed about this, we need to see what is actually producing results.
“And if you are not getting results, do something else.”
He singles out one area as being particularly important in tackling social disadvantage.
“The critical reason why it’s not being fixed is education. It’s absolutely critical that you have an education system that is capable of educating all aboriginal children, so they are competent in both cultures.
“We need to make local state schools work for Aboriginal kids, and that is the really big challenge.”
To try and tackle this challenge, Mr Chaney helped to establish the Graham (Polly) Farmer Foundation.
It works with Aboriginal families to ensure their children finish school; more particularly, that they finish school with a quality education.
“We work in schools where previously Aboriginal kids never finished school, now there are kids finishing,” Mr Chaney says.
“Tom Price had never had an Aboriginal kid finish school, we got one, then we got seven.
“BHP tracked kids who went through our Port Hedland project, and they did better than the other kids.”
As he approaches his 70th birthday next year, Mr Chaney shows little sign of slowing his pace.
In fact, he seems to relish the opportunities.
“You go on learning all the time,” he says.
“Each of these tasks brings you into contact with a different group of people, and I’ve never been with a different group where I didn’t learn something.”
Mr Chaney’s major focus now is Desert Knowledge Australia, which is based in Alice Springs and serves all remote parts of the country.