Hi there HASBEEN...

I couldn't agree with you more ! As a retired copper, I can't begin to tell you of the enormous damage this bloke and his cohorts have done to people, who've had the misfortune to appear before the Family Court.

It is we the police, who have to pick up the pieces of the many shattered lives who have suffered abominably, from some of the most appalling judgements that have come down from the 'erudite' bench of the Family Court.

How this bloke and his species can ever hold his head up in public, after presiding over and occasioning so much human misery, in the illusion and facade of despensing Justice, I'll never ever know ?

Thank you Alastair Nicholson for naming the shameful violations of human rights which Australia has perpetrated on Indigenous people under the NTER. Ironically the NTER commenced on the day that policeman, Chris Hurley was acquitted of charges in relation to the death in custody of Mulrunji Domadgee on Palm Island. Aboriginal people can be beaten to death in police cells and nobody white will be held responsible, while the government legislates for racial discrimination. Since the NTER Aboriginal people have lost the right to control their income, to choose where to shop, their ability to move around (as their store cards permit them to shop only in places which accept the cards)- this in turn affects people's capacity to attend to cultural business, to afford larger purchases, to transport their kids to school...because they are Aboriginal and live in the Northern Territory. Australia does not need to take away people's income, human rights, land rights as well as their language, their children, their material and cultural heritage in order to provide decent standards of community housing, health, education and policing. Thanks so much to Nicholson for having the courage to speak. The posters who condemn him reveal their racism in their deficit beliefs about Aboriginal people.

What about the Aboriginal children's rights Mog?

Some of the children in those communities don't get enough food because their parents would rather spend it on alcohol and gambling.
Some of the parents are often so drunk they don't look out for their kids and the kids are left to fend for themselves in violent areas.
They are often physically and sexually abused, as well as neglected.

Where are their rights Mog?

Sorry, but the kids rights come before the adults rights as far as I am concerned.
The local community health staff and police know the families where children are at risk. It is these families that should have their incomes managed so that the kids get food at least.

Leaving the kids in that situation equates to child abuse by the rest of our society.
If the kid's situation does not improve by managing the parent's income for them, then it is time to find the kids another family who will give them what they deserve- the basics of life at least.
And yes, I believe this sort of management should apply to ALL parents, not just Aboriginal parents.

I don't care about the abusive adults 'rights'

Dear suzeonline I agree with the need to protect children from abuse but you are proceeding on the belief that the NTER has actually improved children's well-being. There have been no child sex abuse prosecutions arising from the NTER. There have been no measurable gains in children's health indicators. As Nicholson notes the justification for the NTER was reducing child abuse but it hasn't. That's the problem. One of the main contributors to child abuse is crowded housing - nothing has changed. The point is the government did not need to suspend race discrimination and land rights to get better food and health and education and policing services to children. They just needed to deliver the services. They still have not done that. They have just taken away from people that's the problem.

Mog,

' .... deficit beliefs about Aboriginal people ... ' ? I hardly trhink so. What Suze and I are proposing is that surely Aboriginal people, especially children, are entitled to much better lives. They shouldn't have to put up with abuse and violence any more than any other Australians do.

Figures released yesterday showed that twenty per cent of all women murdered in Australia in 2007-2009 were Indigenous, ten times more than their 'share' of the population. Is that tolerable ?

Hospitalisation rates for Aboriginal women from remote communities are vastly higher than for other Australian women. Should they have to tolerate that sort of treatment, even in the name of 'culture' ?

Aboriginal children are vastly more likely to be put into care for neglect and abuse than other Australian kids. Is that tolerable ?

Anybody who knows much about any Indigenous community knows that the suicide rate OUTSIDE OF CUSTODY is at least ten times higher for Aboriginal youth than it is for other Australian youth. Is that tolerable ?

Overwhelmingly, these stats are dealing with people who are unemployed, living in remote communities, marginalised from Australian society, and crippled from being able to easily participate in it. Is that any way to live ?

Meanwhile, the equivalent of 40 % of the 20-year-old age-group are first-time enrolments in university courses, every year. Of course, they are mostly young people in the towns and cities who have this opportunity: they are literate, speak English as a first language, and often have pushy parents, massive advantages that are not available - thanks to 'defenders' like Mr Nicholson - to people in remote communities.

So who is pandering to the 'deficit', Mog ? Who is protecting the 'deficit', keeping it going, trying to shield it from criticism ?

Mog, I see where you are coming from. This problem is huge and has no immediate answers. However, throwing money and houses at the communities has not worked before and is not the answer.

I was working in a community where the Government employed a building company to train and hire the local men to build about 50 new houses in order to stop the overcrowding, and associated problems, of Aboriginal dwellings already there.

The houses were eventually built to much fanfare.
By 12 months, more than 40 of the houses were trashed. The glass on the solar hot water systems were smashed, and any wooden parts of the houses were ripped off and used as firewood- even though the community was surrounded by bush. All windows were smashed and gardens died.

Many of the patients I visited would not leave their houses unattended because all the contents would be gone when they returned.
All this perpetrated by their own people.
As each new house became uninhabitable, they all crowded into other relatives houses, and so the cycle went on.

So where to now for these communities Mog?

In my opinion, the only way to treat this problem is to limit access to alcohol, and to limit access to money other than for essential groceries for some of these dysfunctional families.
If we don't, then another generation of these people will be lost