A couple of quick reality checks are in order.

- As a group, Aboriginal people are more likely not to drink at all than most other sections of the Australian comunity. Approxiamately 50% of Aboriginal peope describe themselves as teetotallers. (2001 Census IIRC)
- Not drinking is also associated with participation in religion. I don't know any stats but I would guess that Indigenous people are much more likely to describe themselves as practicing Christians than the rest of society.
- There are no social workers in remote Aboriginal communities where most of petrol sniffing takes place. At best there is a community health nurse/midwife and a local police presence. The latter is only present in the larger communities.
- Since forced removal has been abandoned. Children from these communities are rarely reviewed by child abuse teams even if they present to regional hospitals with venereal disease. A not uncommon experience - syphillis is endemic in remote communities.
- Most remote communities have very few people with incomes greater than the dole. Food prices in remote communities are on average 3 times those found in the city. Second hand clothing is not available.
- The jobs that are available, including work for the dole are fought over and are a cause for dissension and jealousy. Work for the dole is sought after because of the security that it brings, not the income.
- When people suggest that in these circumstances child petrol sniffers(most are primary school age) should be responsible or their parents should be responsible, I'd like to suggest that they offer to exchange places with an indigenous family in one of these communities for a year and then let us know how they got on. Just remember you won't have a house, a car, and the only shop will be a community store with a range of frozen mutton. Oh, and no TV or internet either. Hope your good at keeping your kids amused when the temperatures 40 degrees
each day in summer and below freezing most nights in winter.

Kyangadac “When people suggest that in these circumstances child petrol sniffers (most are primary school age) should be responsible or their parents should be responsible, I'd like to suggest that they offer to exchange places with an indigenous family in one of these communities for a year and then let us know how they got on”

If aboriginal remote community life is so bereft of quality that they try to escape into a brain damaging haze (by alcohol or petrol abuse) – why do people bother to cling to it?

If an aboriginal community is so lacking in social values – why would you expect anyone with a reasonable values to expose their children to a society in which every one else is devoid of moral responsibility or accountability.

Plus if individuals themselves (infants are not responsible) thus their parents are not responsible – tell me who is responsible ( governments cannot be responsible for us – they are our servants – not out guardians)?

There is nothing stopping people moving themselves (and their petrol sniffing children) to find better circumstances – millions of Australian immigrants have proved that works.

Thankyou Col Rouge, I agree with you whole-heartedly.

Rainier? I certainly wasn't "blaming aboriginal people or their communities".

There is nothing new with youths getting high. There are many means by which they can do this. I'm pretty sure the price and availability of "conventional" drugs (like those taken by youths in big towns and cities) would be prohibitive in remote Aboriginal communities.

So Rainier you tell us: Do Aboriginal youths living in remote areas get high for the same reasons non-indigenous youths get high? Or is it because of cultural pressures of reconciling Aboriginal culture with white australian christian culture? Or are drugs part of the Aboriginal culture? If it isn't, then I belive petrol sniffing is a direct result of trying to force white christian culture onto Aborigines, ie "Assmiliation".

And part of that assimiliation has led to our Gov't allowing Aborigines to have different social/environmental accountablities to non-indigenous Australians (eg, different laws), or on-going welfare and assistance (see Col Rouge's points), etc. If the Gov insists on treating us differently, they are also responsible the consequences.

Col Rouge writes:"If aboriginal remote community life is so bereft of quality that they try to escape into a brain damaging haze (by alcohol or petrol abuse) – why do people bother to cling to it?" The problem with this sort of statement is that it is a generalization, as if everybody in the community is condoning petrol sniffing. Which clearly isn't the case in any community.

A major cultural difference that Aboriginal communities have is one of extended family obligations. These obligations to kin often apply no matter what. We Europeans may discard are family like a skin and reinvent ourselves without prejudice. For historical as well as cultural reasons this is not the case for most aboriginal communities. As a consequence it is often difficult if not impossible for individuals to operate outside their family context. This is why families like the Dodson's and Yunupingu's dominate Aboriginal politics. The converse is also true, dysfunctional families hold back otherwise personally responsible individuals. This cultural conflict can be extremely difficult for young people in particular.

The situation in remote communities where petrol sniffing is rife has a lot to do with the economic history of these places and the inability of people to escape because they are too poor and have no where to go. Most Aborginal people over 50 have no education in these communities and many cannot speak more than a limited amount of English. Would you leave your grandmother in a humpy in the desert to fend for herself, especially if you yourself knew no other life.

Many of these communities are artificial. Consider Papunya for instance, which did not exist until the 1950's and has a poulation of approximately 1000. The vast majority of it's residents were moved their forcibly in the 1950's to create the testing range for Woomera.

As Paul Kelly sang, we have always had 'special treatment' for Aboriginal people - most Aboriginal people are sick of special treatment. Most remote Aboriginal communities would love the same services that are taken for granted in most remote and rural 'white' towns

There are no text book solutions. Eleanor Hogan may well ask “After ten years - what exactly has been achieved” in indigenous communities in regards to petrol sniffing. I reckon this problem is more complex than the type of fuels and solvents available to youth in any area. What we have today is whole communities under severe stress and it probably dates back to the original disruption of their culture.

Although I have no personal experience of life in those targeted remote areas I feel some sympathy with this kind of frustration. After living next door to a “metho” drinking mob and watching visiting kids (relatives) demolish the old mans carefully stacked long neck bottle collection down my side fence with two half bricks one wild weekend, I guess can comment.

Our authorities responded to the old “sister” on fire in the backyard toilet after a cigarette, newspapers and “turps” explosion with a police eviction and demolition of the ancient two room weatherboard seaside cottage by a front end loader.

The burnt out old boxer gave me his only possessions, a new shifting spanner, a hammer and a tin of salvaged nails from their drift wood. He was sad to leave the beach but trusted me to fix my place. Perhaps there is still hope on the inside if enough members of families can be encouraged to fight their degeneration regardless of any outside administration.

The most amazing fact was those kids had no fear. When they retrieved their bricks from all the smashed bottles I noticed their bare feet as they climbed back on the roof of the washhouse toilet to resume their game.

They had real fun till I stopped them showering our place with brown glass

Following on; the nasty habit of youth petrol sniffing may simply start as an early expression of freedom from what ever pressures they perceive back home. But understanding their way of thinking is only the first step. I doubt our policy writers will understand any of this though.

We have winners and losers in every society.

A red haired pommey guy on parole for arson in our sometimes isolated community once said “on the inside, you need to make a brutal choice – are you on top or underneath the dog pile”. Although he had used his brains to get an early release several of us were shocked one day when he suddenly left to seek a violent revenge. His estranged wife and mother of seven red haired beautiful kids was accidentally discovered living far away with his “friend” by a workmate. She had succumbed to the “cultural isolation” of her life in an adjacent tiny mining community.

This region was featured again yesterday on ABC radio as a target area for top end tax relief. What a load of Polly nonsense!

I am not surprised. Decades on from my own attempts through our committee of union stewards to reform welfare by demands on both federal and state governments to re-examine conditions in those neglected towns, it seems their problems go on indefinitely.

Although we got a major initiative then from both administrations and forced several sackings in local agencies including recruitment, everyone has forgotten the lessons, but some of us know why people are driven to extremes in their re-action. I made it my business to understand something about say –alcohol or arson.

We thought we were articulate in our documentation. What hope have the indigenous communities got?

Aren’t we so smug when we are not involved!