I can't understand the comments about qualified aboriginal people not being able to get jobs in their chosen field.
In the north there is a desperate shortage of nurses, social workers, doctors, dentists, teachers etc. Race doesn't come into the issue. Everyone who applies is given serious consideration and all things being equal, aboriginal people have as much chance of being employed as everyone else.
The example of Aboriginal Health Worker is misleading. This is not a general accredited course. It is not open to non indigenous people and entry has no minimum required except basic literacy and numeracy. The course content is well below the standard needed for a registerd nurse, or even an Enrolled nurse, which is why employment prospects are limited to indigenous health organisations, and even then not in a management role.
Part of the problem here is that aboriginal people with any sort of qualifications have a very limited range of jobs they will apply for. No unskilled work, no dirty work, no outside work, in fact they want nothing but administration jobs,preferably with vehicle supplied.
The area of greatest employment chances here, apart from professional jobs, is in hospitality, for about 7 months a year. However, no indigenous people seem to want to work in this area and local businesses have to rely on backpackers.
Another area desperate for staff is in disability support. Speaking to an agency yesterday they tell me they cannot find any locals willing to be employed in this field and heavily rely on overseas visitors on working visas. Considering that the majority of young people with disabilities here are indigenous this is tragic.
The greatest challange is to get indigenous people to lower their expectations of what jobs they can get and keep, with the qualifications they have.

Hi there Joe (LOUDMOUTH)...

Mate, I really don't know what we should do, other than it MUST be a collaborative effort between our indigenous folk and us, through the government. Better minds than I, have grappled with this issue, so I wouldn't be so presumptuous as to claim I have the magic bullet?

Joe, the only thing I do know, whatever they decide to do, they must ensure the black fella, maintains his self-respect and is afforded the respect (by us) for who he is, and from where he's come from. I've heard from many respected anthropologists, our native aboriginals have been here (in Oz) for nearly thirty thousand years! They've been custodians of this great continent for all this time, and haven't put a foot wrong! For that, they deserve our total respect.

Finally Joe, before I started as a relieving police sergeant in the bush, I pictured the black fella as you'd see them, years ago at Redfern and nearby! After nearly 12 months of relieving, I was really taught a very BIG lesson, and realised how bloody ignorant I'd been! I knew absolutely nothing regarding the odious circumstances confronting many of our indigenous Australians, especially those in the bush.

Due to years of over compensation a large percentage of indigenous with varying degrees of European blood, have become 'kept', totally reliant on handouts with a sense of entitlement. Time to cut the apron strings and enforce some sense of personal responsibility. Besides saving tax payers billions of unnecessary expenditure, the focus can then be turned solely onto those in remote areas, who no longer live off the land and genuinely require health care and education. In turn giving their children a better chance of a safe healthy future.

There are half a dozen major articles in today's Australian dealing with crucial Indigenous issues, by Noel Pearson, Nicolas Rothwell, Jeremy Sammut, Brendan O'Neill and others, as well as an editorial - there's a morning's read.

IF there are two Indigenous populations - one living on lifelong welfare, the other getting some education and lifelong employment - then it's striking that most of those articles deal with only one of those populations.

As for the QUT case, when I worked in Indigenous student support, there was never any trouble since non-Indigenous students were usually accompanied by Indigenous friends and were welcomed by everybody. The Indigenous space was primarily social and for mutual support. In those days, we had only a couple of old Amstrad computers, so most Indigenous students used the common computer rooms.

I wouldn't have thought that there would be any need for separate computer rooms these days - a social space, yes - since Indigenous students are far more likely to be enrolled in mainstream courses, and in any case are in far bigger numbers: Newcastle and Charles Sturt now have close to a thousand students each, so I should imagine that computer labs would always have Indigenous students working in them. In fact, my bet is that the computer labs at QUT especially set aside for Indigenous students were, to put it delicately, under-used, but of course with a full-time staff member.

Joe
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