$30 billion per year, only 4 of 19 Closing the Gap targets on track. MMP rebuilds the foundations: SBC corridors that end remote isolation, off-grid sovereign communities, education redesigned around country, 2% mineral royalty paid into a community-controlled sovereign wealth fund — constitutionally guaranteed.
$30 billion per year. Only 4 of 19 Closing the Gap targets on track. Government designs programmes in Canberra, contractors deliver them, communities receive them. The programmes are designed for the convenience of the agency that funds them, not the community that lives with the result. The structure produces failure by design.
Before 1968, Aboriginal men were the backbone of the pastoral industry — skilled stockmen living on country across generations. When equal pay rightly ended near-slave wages, station owners chose to mechanise rather than pay. A working economic foundation on country was destroyed in a single policy change. The mission system replaced it with dependency. Two generations of damage. The repair is structural, not symbolic.
Remote Aboriginal communities run almost entirely on diesel generators and rely on food trucked in over vast distances. A fuel supply disruption — the kind MMP has declared a national security emergency — hits these communities first and hardest. Self-sufficiency is sovereignty. It must be built where the need is most acute.
SBC corridors connect remote Aboriginal communities: corridor solar power replaces diesel generators. Alice Hub water ends trucked water dependency. Fibre brings AusLLM in language, AusFarm on a low-bandwidth phone, and AusLearn to every child. The SBC is the material precondition for self-sufficiency on country. Power, water, fibre, and economic opportunity.
Solar microgrids replace diesel permanently. Bore and rainwater replace trucked water. Community food gardens. Seed banks. Soil restoration. A community that generates its own power and grows its own food cannot be held hostage by a fuel supply shock. Self-sufficiency is sovereignty — built first where the need is most acute.
Education redesigned for how Aboriginal children actually learn: story, country, observation, doing alongside elders. Bilingual where communities choose. Elder involvement in curriculum as standard. AusLearn in first languages. The goal: not children processed through a system designed for someone else — people skilled, grounded, and proud.
Genuine employment on country — not welfare. Land management. Fire management. Ecological restoration. One billion trees — Indigenous communities as primary partners: paid work, on country, permanent. Green Corps alongside community members. Food production. Work the community can point to and say: we built that.
GP and health. Legal services. Education and training. Government services under one roof. Commercial kitchen. Workshop and makerspace. Sport and recreation. Community-owned. Community-staffed. Community-defined. A genuine hub from which enterprise, cultural practice, and self-governance grow.
Chronic shortages of doctors, nurses, engineers, teachers, tradies in remote communities. Fix: graduates who commit to five years in designated remote Indigenous communities have their full HECS debt discharged. Not deferred. Discharged. Skills follow purpose when the path is clear. Communities get the professionals they need. Graduates get a debt-free start doing something that matters.
Night patrols: arrests fell from 1,336 to 188 in one Kimberley community in a year. Community justice works when it is community-defined and properly resourced. MMP funds community-controlled night patrols, community courts where communities choose them, and legal recognition of cultural authority on cultural matters.
2% royalty rate on all minerals from native title country — paid into a community sovereign wealth fund. Constitutionally guaranteed. Cannot be cut by future governments. Cannot be diverted to general revenue. Pays out to the communities whose country the resources come from, in perpetuity. From the REL revenue overall, an additional 2% flows to a Traditional Owner Services Fund — also constitutionally protected. Sovereignty backed by sovereign income.
One Australia. One citizenship. One future. Voice referendum result respected — state Voices established where states choose them. The federal response is structural: connect country to corridor power, water, and fibre; redesign education around how Aboriginal children actually learn; fund work on country as the genuine alternative to welfare; and guarantee the income foundation through the 2% royalty into the community sovereign wealth fund. Not symbol. Substance.
| Current — Failing | MMP — Solving |
|---|---|
| $30 billion per year. 4 of 19 Closing the Gap targets on track. | Structural fix: SBC corridor power/water/fibre + community-controlled programs. |
| Remote communities depend on diesel and trucked food. No buffer. | Solar microgrids replace diesel. Bore water + community gardens. Self-sufficiency. |
| Curriculum designed for non-Aboriginal urban children imposed on remote schools. | Education redesigned around country, story, elders. Bilingual where chosen. AusLearn in first languages. |
| Welfare without work on country. Identity and pride destroyed. | Billion trees, fire management, ecological restoration — paid work on country, permanent. |
| Royalties from minerals on native title country largely lost to general revenue. | 2% royalty into community sovereign wealth fund. Constitutionally guaranteed. |
| Chronic professional shortages in remote communities. | HECS discharged after 5 years service. Communities get doctors, teachers, engineers. |
| 78% of Aboriginal youth in detention have not yet been convicted. | Community-controlled night patrols. Community courts where chosen. Cultural authority recognised. |
No memos pinned to this policy yet. When an MMP memo on this topic is published, it will appear here with a short summary. The full memo index is at moralmajority.com.au/memos.html.