The crisis of policy failure or the moral crisis of an idea: colonial politics in contemporary Australia and New Zealand

ABSTRACT

When analysing Indigenous public policy, crisis is best seen as the moral crisis of an enduring idea rather than the crisis of sporadic and unconnected instances of policy failure. In Australia and New Zealand, states use manufactured crises of Indigenous personal deficiencies to justify colonial authority. A justification which may be countered by positioning colonialism itself as the point of crisis. From this perspective, the crisis in Indigenous public policy is not resolved by the state becoming better at policy-making or more attentive to the egalitarian distribution of public resources. Instead, it is in the non-colonial possibilities of Indigenous self-determination that paths beyond crisis may lie. In practical terms, by ensuring spaces of independent Indigenous authority alongside spaces of distinctive culturally framed participation in the public life of the state. The potential for such arrangements in Australia is discussed with reference to a proposed First Nations’ Voice to Parliament and possible treaties between First Nations and the state. For New Zealand, their potential is discussed with reference to te Tiriti o Waitangi’s affirmation of independent Māori authority (rangatiratanga) and substantive state citizenship.

KEYWORDS:

• Crisis theory
• colonialism
• indigenous self-determination
• political crisis
• māori politics
• treaty of waitangi
• indigenous politics

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The Waitangi Tribunal is an administrative tribunal established in 1975 to investigate alleged breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi by the Crown

2. Mana whenua is the geo-political connection to a specific place and its environment that stems from ancestral connection. It is especially relevant to how people think about the care, protection and use of the natural environment, which is a regional council responsibility. Distinctive voice is therefore most relevant with respect to those places where one has an ancestral [mana whenua] connection.

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Notes on contributors

Dominic O’Sullivan

Dominic O’Sullivan is Professor of Political Science at Charles Strut University, Australia. He has published extensively on the comparative politics of indigeneity. His most recent book was sharing the Sovereing: indigeneous peoples, recognition, treaties and the state (Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan, 2021)