thanx, great article as usual. brandrudd is just howardism with a windswept and interesting haircut. australia remains a basket case with no leadership, unchecked racism and a culture of self hatred.

I have to say, this is a poorly written article. It offers a tired overview of the supposed 'In(ter)vasion'; briefly critiques the hollow Apology; provides an authoritative '5 sub-themes' of dispossession (based on what research?); and concludes by comparing an economic program in a completely different country, different scenario and different people and suggests it could hold the solution for Aboriginal people in Australia.

The author here seems very critical about the lack of 'empirical' evidence from Jenny Macklin, yet falls back on quoting his own online opinion pieces and refers to himself in 3rd person as a 'critic'. He seemingly has read a book about Namibia in which he proposes he has found some kind of solution, without really explaining how that would work in the context of the Northern territory. He is critical of Noel Pearson’s evidence, yet seems to take the Namibian evidence as gospel.

I'm not suggesting the Namibian experiment has not worked; nor am I supportive of many of the Intervention's policies; but flimsy articles such as this do not really serve any purpose or provide much in the way of offering new directions or solutions. Sounds like just more middle-to-upperclass ‘scholarly’ waffle to me.

Tomlinson is just an apologist buffoon.

For whatever reason, he see the British Colonisation of Australia and the extension of the Westminster system of government an offense to nomadic aboriginies and as something which must be extinguished from Australia, regardless of what other (white) Australians might think.

Just like Andrew Bolte said – name me ten victims of the supposed “stolen generation” and I will start to believe in it
And, of course, no one could name them.

The exercise of a beefed up police force and healthcare workers into the charnel house of the Northern Territory Aboriginal settlements was an act of human compassion and not the thing which Tomlinson would have us believe.

Then I suppose that is the problem with the delude – they promote their delusions.

My old mate Tommo up to his usual self-congratulatory tricks and smug superiority again. How could a mere politician like Macklin possibly compare in thinking power to his towering intellect (or ego)?
As a previous comment on his article observes, the differences between Aurukun or Lajamanu and a Namibian farm village in settings & other relevant factors is very large.
Farm workers with presumably no previous access to welfare are a different kettle of cohorts to the intergenerational welfare addicted hunter-gatherer extended families we see in most remote communities and fringe camps.

After the first year “food poverty” in the Namibian community still remains at 37 per cent, and under weight kids at 17 per cent. Sounds like a good case for the introduction of a bit of Income Management to me!
90 per cent of children have paid their school fees, but no indication of what school attendance rate was or is.
Average household debt has fallen from N$1215 to N$ 772 and crime rates fell by 42 per cent, but no indication from Tommo about what other factors have come into play to assist with these changes other than the BIG. For example, have the Lutherans offered any adult education or couselling to accompany the BIG and help the unemployed to adjust?

Then Tommo presumes to speak for "the leading social scientists conducting this evidence-based research in Namibia" about the Australian situation.
I would prefer to hear them speaking for themselves. I suspect that they would be a good deal more circumspect in their claims and judgements than Tommo, if they are indeed as good as he claims.

How about we look at the intervention from a different perspective? What say we put the childrens' rights first, eg their right to sleep safely at night; their right to sufficient food, clothing and shelter; their right to an education and an employment future? Never mind all the rights the academics ascribe to the adults and the culture, and never mind how much worse all the trendy-left academics have made life at the coalface over the decades, let's just put childrens' and families concrete rights first for a change.

And how about we consider the comments and reactions of the people on the ground at the communities under intervention? Like the women who can for the first time use their family income for their family?

As one who has worked closely for many years with indigenous families suffering the catastrophic effects of alcohol, inhalants, other drugs, sexual and spousal violence, child abuse and neglect, and "bastard culture", (all directly linked to sit-down money) I'm just a teensy bit over the opinions of academics and theorists.

Thanks for a good article John, You quickly received a couple of negative criticisms but your detractors didn't explain the failure of the Brough / Macklin policies to provide respite for remote Aboriginal Communities after more than two years but in fact set them back a decade,disrupting Community Council development, abolishing CDEP which had become a working program and putting people back on the dole !! creating a migration to centres such as ALice Springs and Katherine where further problems were exacerbated with people having to hire taxi's to get into town to purchase their groceries.

They are still applying one-solution-fits-all to every Community ignoring the facts that not every Aboriginal Community have the same needs. Instead Jenny Macklin is resorting to bullying instead of negotiations with Alice Springs town camps. and in the case of the One Mile Dam Community, completely ignoring their needs.

The N.T. Government is in the process of commissioning more Jails to cope with an increasing aboriginal incarceration rate. I don't imagine Jenny Macklin notes a connection ......