Foxy: I believe he's not speaking of urban Indigenous People - but the communities in the outback.

Ok, so Bushies & those on Reservations. Well, Yes I agree. Lets start with Courses on; Basic Hygene, How to keep you House & Yard tidy, Basic Home Maintainence, & a few others.

Then;

The code of behaviour for Aboriginal People

“This Code of Behaviour contains a list of expectations about how you will behave at all times. It does not contain all your rights and duties under Australian law. If you are found to have breached the Code of Behaviour, you could have your income support reduced,

• You must not disobey any Australian laws including Australian road laws; you must cooperate with all lawful instructions given to you by police and other government officials;

• You must not make sexual contact with another person without that person’s consent, regardless of their age; you must never make sexual contact with someone under the age of consent;

• You must not take part in, or get involved in any kind of criminal behaviour in Australia, including violence against any person, including your family or government officials; deliberately damage property; give false identity documents or lie to a government official;

• You must not harass, intimidate or bully any other person or group of people or engage in any antisocial or disruptive activities that are inconsiderate, disrespectful or threaten the peaceful enjoyment of other members of the community;

• You must not refuse to comply with any health undertaking provided by the Department of Health or direction issued by the Chief Medical Officer to undertake treatment for a health condition for public health purposes;

• You must co-operate with all reasonable requests from the department to attend interviews.

• I, __________[name to be written]_______ ______________________________________ agree to abide by this Code of Behaviour

I'm really rather tired of John's par for the course rant. There is only one hand that raises the glass time and again. Ditto glue and petrol sniffing, and other substance abuse problems, or the level of domestic violence or child abuse.
If John had his way, children routinely abused by drunken or doped to the gills parents, would be left to suffer whatever fate awaits them.
There is not a black way, nor a white way, just a right way and people owning their own behavior!
And wouldn't that make a pleasant change from all the pointless belly aching!
Little wonder the victim mentality is alive and well in some indigenous communities? With shite stirrers just like John stirring and fanning the flames?
I don't know how many billions have been thrown at the Aboriginal community and or, their so-called problems, or how many billions has been patently misappropriated or quite grossly mismanaged by their own elites, over many decades?
It's high time that the govt stepped in and simply tied all welfare and progress grants, to particular outcomes!
And if that means direct funding models that isolates the so called control freak elites, then that is exactly what must happen. No ifs, buts or maybes.
There will come a day, when all aboriginal kids attend school and obtain high enough grades to go on and benefit from a university education.
These are the future leaders we need to cultivate and patronize! Not professional belly aches trying to humbug almost everyone, for less than objective or best possible outcomes.
The pages of history can never ever be erased!
Compensation? How about we simply limit that to the people who caused the problems, rather than second or third generations, digging deep to try and alleviate, many of the current self created miseries!
We need more totally sober people on the ground and taking charge, it would be preferable if those same people we also members of their own community, rather than white hating reverse racists? Or political activists like John, patently stirring, to serve their own self serving agenda?
Rhrosty.

In 2012, 5,824 Indigenous people are recorded as commencing university study. Data is collected from universities, which rely on people ticking the right box, and are usually 15-20 % below actual commencements. No matter, let's run with 5,824. And 12,632 enrolments. And 1742 graduations.

The number of Indigenous people turning 24 (the average age of commencing university) was around 12,000. So the equivalent of 48 % of an age-group commenced uni study. some of those were second-timers, people returning to study, some were enrolling in post-graduate courses. But either way, let's say that the equivalent of 40 % of an Indigenous age-group commenced uni study for the first time.

Gosh, that does seem close the Gillard's target for 2020 ?

But will you hear a word of this from rumour-mongers like Pilger ? Not in our life-times.

A fuller database, going back to 1989, can be found on my web-site:

www.firstsources.info

under 'Twenty-first century data'. Commencements and graduations are rising by an average of 7 % p.a. But overwhelmingly of urban people. Out in the self-imposed apartheid 'homelands', the participation rate is understandably abysmal, overwhelmingly female. People can move to where such opportunities are available if they have good enough English - all Australian university courses are in English - but, thanks to neo-colonialists, English is not used, out in the 'homelands'.

Yes, let's get rid of apartheid in Australia - let's encourage people to move to towns, where their kids can get a decent, English-language, education, English-language jobs, and participate in our English-language economy.

Let's give rumour-mongers like Pilger less to scare their European audiences with. Let's begin with the truth.

Joe

Dear Jayb,

I imagine it's easy for urbanites like ourselves
to judge others by our standards. However, I'm not
sure if I'd be worried about hygiene and proper behaviour
as my first priority, if I didn't have access to the basics
(that we take for granted in the cities), and my kids
were hungry and sick.

Dear Joe (Loudmouth),

John Pilger a rumour-mongerer?

Why are you so keen to only speak of the success-stories
of the Indigenous people - the few that do make it -
but the reality of many who are not so fortunate you
brand as "rumours." When was the last time you were amongst
the Indigenous communities in the outback, in towns that
Mr Pilger mentions? He speaks from what he has experienced
and seen and in my book that does not qualify as "rumour,"
but as reality.

Joe Loudmouth,

Hear hear, well said.

Out with Pilger and in with Joe as an OLO article writer.

No way, SPQR, I'm just a bitter old fart,

Foxy/Lexi,

Like any other Australians, I can assess what i hear and see in relation to remote communities. But you're onto something: My point was that, on the whole, Indigenous people are not doing too badly in terms of participation in university education, but that a huge task remained - for the hotshot Indigenous education 'leaders', if they ever thought for a moment about anything but their own careers - in reaching out to people in remote and rural centres, in combatting the bullsh!t about 'learning in one's own language', and not in the common language that is so necessary for everyone. And getting real education from real educators, for a standard school week.

But first, the bigger task would be to persuade people out there that lifelong-welfare is not really an option - it kills. To persuade parents that their kids may not be able to follow in their foot-steps to lifelong-welfare, that their kids may actually need to get educated, and therefore to see the point of schooling. Half-wits and blow-hards like Pilger skim over all that, even if they were aware of it.

My point also was that success at universities is possible for Indigenous people, they've already done it, so the other whingers who implicitly rely on the myth that somehow such education is not for Aboriginal people, that we should be feeling sorry for Indigenous people because it's all so impossible - Black and white whingers -really should crawl back into their holes.

Joe
www.firstsources.info