澳大利亚总理阿博特对偏远地区原住民社区“选择的生活方式”表示了哀叹。他因此而受到批评。
阿博特星期二在接受澳大利亚广播公司采访时，为他制定的关闭150个原住民社区的计划进行辩解。
持保守立场的阿博特说，如果人们像很多原住民那样，愿意住在偏远地区，那么国家能为他们提供的帮助就是有限的。
阿博特说，如果这些生活方式无助于全面融入澳大利亚社会，国家也就不能无限度地为选择这些生活方式的人们提供补助。
阿博特的这番话招致很多澳大利亚政界人士和分析人士的尖锐反驳，其中包括阿博特的原住民事务首席顾问蒙戴尼。
蒙戴尼对当地媒体说，这不是生活方式，不像退休并期待翻天覆地的变化。而是事关数千年的传统、宗教信仰和原住民的本质。
澳大利亚原住民在澳洲已经生活了至少4万年。与澳大利亚其他居民相比，原住民的生活环境非常艰苦。
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott is coming under criticism after he lamented what he called the "lifestyle choices" of the country's remote indigenous community.
Mr. Abbott made the comments Tuesday in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in which he defended his plan to shut down up to 150 Aboriginal communities.
The conservative prime minister said that if people wanted to live in remote locations, as many Aborigines do, "there's a limit to what you can expect the state to do for you."
"What we can't do is endlessly subsidize lifestyle choices if those lifestyle choices are not conducive to the kind of full participation in Australian society that everyone should have," he said.
The comments drew a sharp rebuke from many Australian politicians and analysts, including Warren Mundine, the prime minister's own chief adviser on Aboriginal affairs.
"It is not about a lifestyle, it is not like retiring and moving for a sea change, it is about thousands of years connection, their religious beliefs and the essence of who they are," Mundine told local media.
Australia's Aboriginal population, which has lived on the continent for at least 40,000 years, is severely disadvantaged in comparison to the rest of the country's citizens.
