Loudmouth , IF you agree with Amicus ,consider the Post addressed to you also . Cheers, Jim .

Hi Jim,

Amicus speaks for himself, and I speak for myself.

Frankly, I'm not as interested in what people in the north are doing for themselves as I am in the majority Indigenous population, in the towns and cities, and what they are achieving.

Nearly twenty seven thousand university graduates, and eleven thousand current students, for instance (hey, that's 15 % of the entire adult population right there).

Obviously, by inference, what those people can do, so eventually, and with incredible difficulties, the people in 'communities' can do.

But no, Jim, with respect, I disagree with you that Indigenous people have less spent on their health per head than other Australians. Firstly, the urban population overwhelmingly avails itself of standard health services, as other Australians do. So the specific health budget set aside for Indigenous people really relates only to a minority of the Indigenous population. Given the necessarily small scale of many services provided to Indigenous people in remote and small communities, I don't have any problem with this. But let's not pretend that there is any financial shortfall.

Health is a lifestyle issue: people, including Indigenous people, who are employed, taking on all the responsibilities of raising their families and treating each other right, tend to have far fewer health problems that people who are unemployed, heavily into the grog and drugs, sh!tty food, very little exercise or activity, knocking each other around and live totally aimless lives - Black OR white. The Gap is a function of lifestyle, not of history, not of some sort of innate Aboriginality - how racist is that ?!

So the situation is remediable, changeable, fixable. But it may well require the people to want to change, and then to change, their behaviour. Big ask, yes, but there will be no solutions without Indigenous people being part of them, making changes in their own behaviour in the first instance, and nobody else can do THAT for them.

It's their call.

Joe

Jim,

Mal Brough has an interesting proposal today:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/politics-news/nt-intervention-stagnant-just-another-failed-plan-mal-brough/story-fn59nqld-1226012282587

He proposes that the rehabilitation and education process should involve heavy drinkers, but of course it might involve only people who have also committed serious offences.

Let's examine another proposal: this one may not have to involve minor offenders, at least at first, but certainly major offenders, violent offenders, should be offered the option of doing their full sentence OR finishing a course of roughly equivalent length, obviously one relevant to their level of education and to their work preference, if any.

Surely it would be better if someone who gets, say, five years for accidentally but brutally bashing his beloved to death, spends that time getting a five-year education than just sitting in a cell or in the main lounge room, watching daytime TV ?

On those criteria, someone who commits a minor offence, say smashing all the shop windows in Todd Street, and cops two years, should be able to exchange that sentence for a two-year course - it may involve, for argument's sake, a year of English-language and a year of literacy training, with a bit of manual work, just to experience it for the first time, like people do out in the real world.

A major offender, who has, say, brutally beaten his second beloved to death over a five-hour period, involving rocks, bottles, star pickets and heavy boots, might get fifteen years - he could be given the opportunity to complete a range of courses over fifteen years, ranging from English-language (say one year), literacy (another year), Certificates I-IV (four years), a trades course apprenticed to a tradesman employed within the training establishment (four years), and then five years of working around the establishment gaining experience in his trade = fifteen years.

Would such a man be rehabilitated ? Or would be turn his boots onto a third beloved ? It would be worth the gamble, since he would be out anyway, sooner or later, trained or not trained.

Jim,

You might find this NT government media release interesting:

NT Indigenous Expenditure Highest of All Jurisdictions: on
http://newsroom.nt.gov.au/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewRelease&id=7906&d=5

containing these illuminating sentences:

“Today’s report found the Territory Government spent $2.16 billion in 2008-09 on services for Indigenous people which equates to 53.9 per cent of all of the NT expenditure. In comparison, Indigenous people comprise about 30 per cent of the Territory’s population. ” [Treasurer] Ms Lawrie said.

"This means per capita spending on Indigenous people was 2.7 times higher than non?Indigenous people in the Territory.

“The report found that more than half of NT Government spending in the areas of early childhood development, schools and training, healthy lives, home environment and safe and supportive communities benefited Indigenous Territorians.”

Fair enough, there's a lot of catch-up to do. But let's not pretend that the issues still revolve around poor funding. Surely they also involve people's responses to their situation ? i.e. whether they take responsibility for their own lives or keep trying to palm that off onto governments ?

Meanwhile, in settled and urban areas, university enrolments of Indigenous people look like breaking yet more records - there could be more than five thousand commencements this year, i.e. new enrolments, [remember a young age-group contains around 8,000-9,000 people] , i.e. the equivalent of MORE THAN HALF of a young Indigenous age-group commences university study for the first time. Where do you see that in the world ? Heroes in the making !

And a record of more than eleven thousand enrolments. Bloody heroes !

By the end of this year, there could be more than 28,000 [twenty eight thousand, no mistake] Indigenous university graduates across the country, mainly in the towns and cities. That's one in nine adults, roughly what the situation is in many parts of Europe. Not bad, in barely twenty years. Heroes !

Joe

Hi again Jim,

Inside Story has another useful article:

http://inside.org.au/big-problems-in-alice-springs/

I hope that one day, people will be writing about Indigenous successes, and I don't mean just in sport or art, either. Maybe when there are fifty thousand university graduates, almost all working across the country, providing role models for all Australians, maybe then there will be too many to ignore. Maybe then, people will acknowledge that Indigenous people are as competent and as able as anybody else.

Or maybe they will just keep their eyes shut. You don't have to think too hard if your eyes are shut.

Joe

Ah, what we have wanted since we Invaded Joe, the problem solved.........they're just like us .

Cheers,Jim.