I'm sure it would be helpful to publish the assets of the aboriginal 'leaders'. Most of the people speaking for 'the most disadvantaged' are probably millionaires because they have all been given lucrative government 'jobs' for many years. Noel Pearson rails against 'sit-down money' but his income is from the same government though vastly greater. Even troublemakers suddenly become 'professors' just so they shut up so they don't lose their cushie high-paying job. The entire system is baloney & it will never improve until aborigines are Australians like all the other citizens of Australia.

Surely its possible to 'close the gap' for indigenous peoples in general AND focus on those 'at the bottom of the pile' as well. Surely it doesn't have to be 'either/or' - unless you're obsessed with ever-smaller government and always finding any excuses to cut...

There is a lot to be said for the common sense of this article. Many, many aboriginal Australians manage their lives as well as anyone else, and it must be remembered that many aborigines are PART aborigine and look and act accordingly with the white part. It's the 'bush' aborigines who are disadvantaged; not the 'bitzers' bludging on their traces of aboriginality. Turnbull and his Lefty mates are merely enablers for these bludgers, at our expense. 'Closing the Gap' is just more waffle - the only thing Turnbull is good at.

A good few years ago I worked with an Aboriginal chap. A good worker too. Then he got a job with the Aboriginal & Torres Straight Agency. This was in the late 80's. I ran into him a few years later & asked him how the job was going. His words, "I get a new car every 2 years, $76 Grand a year, & I all I have to do is drive out & listen to them whinge for a couple of hours, write a report, then go home to a Rent Free home. If I solve their problems I'll be out of a job."

I ran into a couple of infamous ladies in Townsville & asked them to get some Portable Toilets for the Homeless Aboriginal living under the Rail bridge over Ross Creek. The area stank like you'd never believe. They abused me & called me a Racist. If they did give them Toilets then these two would have anything to condemn ""Whitey." for would they? & they were very vocal about it. Both of these ladies have been done multiple times for misappropriation. They just, Rename the agencies & swopped places & started all over again.

That's where the money goes, & that's just Townsville.

But I guess it's not Politically Correct to say that, eh.

Being aboriginal isn't a disadvantage in itself. In fact it is actually an advantage these days. I should know, I have a multitude of aboriginal grand and great grandchildren and the services available to them far outweigh the services available to white children.
The problems arise because aboriginal people either don't take advantage of all these programs and services or they have extremely poor work habits when they do get jobs.
It wasn't always this way. Back in the 70s, before activism had reached its height, aboriginal people in the north at least were working to the same standard as their white counterparts, for the same pay, and sending their kids to school everyday.
Apart from those on the missions, who were kept in an infantile state by paternalistic policies destined to stunt their growth.
Today's problems arise from those who wish to keep aboriginal people in cultural zoos in remote communities to justify some personal need to feel different to everyone else.
The soft bigotry of lowered expectations is truly at work in this country, and until we see " aboriginal" problems as simply human problems, nothing will change

Thanks, Sara, that certainly needed to be said: that the money and jobs etc. go to those who are best able to take advantage of any opportunities.

Tristan, as ttbn writes just below your post, there is a huge proportion - I would say it's better than 60 %, perhaps 75 % - of indigenous people who are not in need of any government assistance at all. They're doing okay, and have done for at least a generation.

So where does that thirty billion go ? That's a lot of perks, a lot of no-work 'jobs'.

Not that genuine income is lacking in even the most remote areas either: standard welfare payments, plus royalties (minerals, conservation park fees) plus low rents may be partly offset by high food prices, but let me know when you hear of a plethora of vegetable gardens, orchards, chook yards, dairy cows, across the northern remote settlements, providing the basics for 'self-determination'.

If I were Turnbull or Scullion, I would be assessing every program funded through tat thirty billion dollars, and immediately scrapping every one which has not shown the slightest improvement in the past year or so. I know a couple that they could start with .....

Jayb,

Perhaps the degree of Indigenous affluence could be measured by the rate at which Indigenous bureaucrats, academics, etc., enrol their children in private schools. I think people would be amazed and somewhat appalled.

Cheers,

Joe