The phrase was coined by Seretse Khama's country folk, in reprimand to the British public servants who refused to 'permit' him to be the Botswana chief because of his marriage to white British woman, Ruth Williams. Sixty-seven years later 'dislike for the unlike' well sums up the attitude of the ruling classes over and against the subject classes of a former British colony — Australia.
In 1978 Kaurna/Narungga woman, Georgina Williams, said to me that Aboriginal people tend to be first on the receiving end of governmental oppressive practices and, when that works, the practices are extended to other poor Australians.
Thirty-nine years later, almost every day brings new evidence of a relentless campaign against the poor. In post-Budget May, the Guardian Australia had two examples in one day: first, that welfare payments would be cancelled for those who don't accept 'suitable jobs', and second, that sewage would be tested to find areas of high drug use during trial drug testing of welfare recipients.
The federal government, too, via the disputably named Human Services Minister Tudge, has yet another confident solution to the problems of the poor — the Cashless Card.
In 2007, in the federal Senate chamber, I witnessed Kaurna/Narungga elder Dr Alitya Rigney's horror to see Labor Opposition members cross the floor 'laughing and talking' to legalise the repressive, all-encompassing Intervention into the lives and organisations of the Northern Territory Aboriginal peoples.
Shamefully, the Intervention, rebadged and extended by Labor in government, continues now in its tenth year, almost unnoticed by the rest of the country.
Just one of these Interventions to Aboriginal people on Social Security was the BasicsCard. Later, chiefly to technically comply with the Racial Discrimination Act, the 50 per cent cash-quarantined card was spread to include other poor Northern Territorians. Later still, it was extended to six disadvantaged areas nationally — largely encouraged by their respective Members of Parliament.
The mining billionaire Andrew Forrest's 2014 proposal of the 100 per cent Cashless Card was among 26 of his repressive recommendations accepted by the Abbott Government. In 2017, the proposal was incorporated to two areas, naturally both of high Aboriginal population: the East Kimberley and South Australia's Ceduna area, incorporating Yalata and Oak Valley. It was indiscriminately imposed on all 'welfare' recipients; 80 per cent of their income is quarantined.
"Interviewed about the Cashless Card and the decision to extend the trial in Ceduna and East Kimberley, Tudge spoke of the present tactics as 'innovative, agile and flexible'. In reality they are vindictive."
Though the trial has lately been declared a success by Minister Tudge, SA police reports tell a different story: robbery and related offences were up 111 per cent, aggravated robbery up 120 per cent, non-aggravated robbery up 400 per cent and serious criminal trespass up 20 per cent.
What do the instigators expect? How do those afflicted by alcoholism, drug dependency or gambling neatly and immediately resolve their issues? Prohibited from using 80 per cent of their income on such measures, of course there will be attempts to obtain the cash elswhere. There are also reports of prostitution and various other ways to obtain cash, not necessarily for the now declared 'illegal' purchases. Living as a poor person with so little available cash has many difficulties. There is also the shame of using the distinctive grey card with the name of the for-profit operator, Indue, emblazoned upon it.
Moreover, as Forrest's negotiating partners were Woolworths, Coles and the banks, the May 2017 report that a small Ceduna business is owed $100,000 and is near closure confirms that here is another win for big business and a loss for both the holders of the card and small business. Interviewed about the Cashless Card and the decision to extend the trial in Ceduna and East Kimberley, Tudge spoke of the present tactics as 'innovative, agile and flexible'. In reality they are vindictive.
At Adelaide's March in March gathering, Njole Naujokas' impassioned speech from her personal experience explained how the federal government's constant harassment of those on welfare affects women and children in particular. 'Poverty is a labour of its own, and it's usually a woman's labour,' she said. 'The relentless mental, physical and emotional labour of poverty tugs at the core of a person ...
'Amazing how people on welfare are called lazy. Women especially are kept relentlessly busy with poverty. Going to a laundromat if you have no washing machine, remembering where the free food is given away, budgeting to eat three meals a day on an amount that doesn't even amount to the daily living allowance of a politician, a mother not eating so her children can. Having to say "no" over and over again to her children going to sports, birthdays, canteen lunches, excursions to the point where the child stops asking. Choosing between medicine and food, or food and electricity, or electricity and rent.'
In his novel, 'Barracuda', Christos Tsiolkas has his character, the Scotsman Clyde, declaim that although Australians claim to be egalitarian, in reality, they're 'terrified of the poor'. The present political climate reflects that truth. The poor remain handy political scapegoats, 'dislike for the unlike' malevolently heightened to detestation. Or to use the word of the Australian Council of Social Service: demonisation.
Michele Madigan is a Sister of St Joseph who has spent the past 38 years working with Aboriginal people in remote areas of South Australia and in Adelaide. Her work has included advocacy and support for senior Aboriginal women of Coober Pedy in their campaign against the proposed national radioactive dump.