This article appears to ask what 'we' should be doing for 'them' - what the non-indigenous community should be doing to improve the lives of the indigenous communities. But I keep wondering - am I responsible for my own life and can I expect anyone else to fix my problems? I may be able to turn to others for help and support, but ultimately only I can decide to stop drinking, lose weight, stop smoking, eat better, stop gambling, stop taking drugs, stop fighting, look after my children, stop hitting my partner etc etc. Perhaps the flaw in 'our' thinking is that we are unable to cure anyone else's problems - we appear to have a lot of difficulty solving our own problems. Non-indigenous communities have problems with alcohol, drugs, suicide, despair, violence, diabetes, obesity, as well as more general global warming, resource depletion, unsustainable economics etc etc. When are indigenous peoples (or anyone) responsible for their own actions and their own solutions? Or are they just as incapable of approaching the problems outlined in this article?

What a negative, pessimistic article. The last sentence said it all: Can Abbott translate his feelings of care to actual care? No, he can't.
Abbott has been our PM for about five minutes, and already the author is ready to write him off.
To answer the question posed in the title, "So who's the problem?", you are.

I too am an old white man. Well, ‘elderly’, as they say in polite society. Like Colin Tatz I have had a long time to observe, via the media (because I don’t actually get to see what happens in aboriginal communities), how things are going in those poor rural areas. Badly, is what I conclude. What does that say to me? Two things. That governments have been unable to fix the ‘Aboriginal problem’. And that the harder governments try the worse things get.

This is not a criticism of individual programs and efforts. Each may well do good and certainly the motives are fine. No, there is something more fundamental at fault.

I have long advocated what I see as the fault. It is simply the racism that underlies the policies. I have always hated racism. Racism in any form is bad. No matter how it is dressed up, no matter how beneficent the motives are, using the laws of the land to define for separate consideration and treatment a group of human beings on the grounds of their race can never be good or do good. I cannot prove that of course. No-one can. It is an axiom. And it is an axiom worth testing experimentally, every day if necessary.

Maybe I suffer from confirmation bias. But I see evidence for my axiom every time I read a newspaper. My conclusion is that the most productive action would be to do the precise opposite of what Colin Tatz proposes; less, not more. I confess that this is probably politically impossible. But maybe, just maybe, there would be a ray of hope if the racial basis of present policies was slowly and steadily turned off.

The reality is that nobody, including the Government and Professor Tatz, has a "quick fix" for issues of Aboriginal disadvantage.

So called "closing the gap" will take very many generations to achieve because thousands of years of geographic isolation and the negative effects of colonialism are not easily overcome. Indigenous Australians have a tradition of oral learning rather than learning in educational institutions. This makes it more difficult for Indigenous communities to embrace the standard route of education to advance themselves.

A first step for these communities might be to address issues of poor parenting, which seems a much bigger issue for them than for non-indigenous Australians.

"Aboriginals" are nowadays an extremely diverse group. Majority are mixed race with substantial numbers who 'identify' having less than 25% genetics. By same token there are mixed race 'Aboriginal' people with little/no inclination to be identified as Aboriginal or be part of the 'Kulcha'.

In my humble experience it's generally the latter - more intelligent, those who've had benefit of a relatively "Australian" upbringing who are doing the best.

I've been around longer than the average Social Sciences graduate and it strikes me there are 4 fairly distinct groups. Up the top is the "Part of modern Australian Society and getting on as best we can" group. This is followed by the "Urban Aboriginals - we want 'kulcha' our style and all the white fella things but you pay" group - out of which comes much trouble and helps fill courts & jails. Then the "Aboriginal Industry" group - who wail about past and current injustices and the plight of their people whilst growing fat on siphoned proceeds of grants, poorly managed projects, royalties etc. They usually manage to stay out of jail ...

Then we have the "Victims" group - the minority camp and outstation mobs who despite all efforts and money directed at improving their situation refuse to live otherwise.

Yes, "REFUSE". If people of any other racial background are violent/destructive/drunkards/substance abusers/sexual predators/filthy of person or living space/neglectful or abusive towards offspring/cruel to animals - they would be considered of low standing in their community at best - or a criminal who needs locking up. BUT WE'RE SUPPOSED TO CONSIDER THIS GROUP OF INDIGENOUS AS VICTIMS.

There are victims of course - the hapless children born into this 'KULCHA' which your average Social Worker would agree needs to be part of that childs life, of course! And many women. However at what point of an adults life does one get told to get off their backside and help themselves?

Nothing works? Maybe it's time to start doing nothing - bar what is available to any other citizen

Think about it a little less emotionally, Mr Tatz, and a tad more pragmatically.

"The record shows a long list of failed "-ations": pacification, segregation, protection-segregation, assimilation, integration, self-determination, self-management, mutual obligation..."

That is because they are all aspir-ations.

Without them, no progress whatsoever would be made. With them, there is at least a level of consciousness that guides us along a particular path. And that elbows our mental ribs when we try to head in the opposite direction.