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The Forum > Article Comments > Closing the gap report revelations reveal nothing new > Comments

Closing the gap report revelations reveal nothing new : Comments

By Jack Wilkie-Jans, published 11/4/2017

Continuing down the path of throwing cash at the problems without any difficult-to-swallow scrutiny of existing outlooks, processes and policies will only continue to exacerbate the problems.

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All Indigenous communities need a wide range of skilled people, with a huge range of trades and professional expertise. Paradoxically, the smaller a community, the more skilled individuals need to be, since all manner of functions and services have to be provided no matter how large or small they may be. Those services need to be either on-site or easily accessible.

Every Indigenous community needs to develop an economic base to be viable in the long-term, otherwise they risk becoming, in time, not much more than pensioner villages. Given how difficult devising an economic base in many communities may be, this will take imagination and, inevitably, people, ideally Indigenous people, with a wide range of expertise.

I could be wrong but I suspect that not too many Indigenous people qualify these days in all those essential trades that every community needs. One hears stories, perhaps completely untrue, of plumbers flying in hundreds of kilometres, and costing a huge amount, just to change tap washers. So TAFE/VET, perhaps on-site, has a huge role yet.

But there are currently more than forty thousand Indigenous university graduates, overwhelmingly in mainstream areas - and overwhelmingly in urban areas. total graduate numbers are growing by around 6 % p.a., so a target of fifty thousand will be reached before 2020, and a hundred thousand by 2030-2032. Yes,some of them have graduated in fields which are completely useless to communities, and there are nowhere near enough graduates in some crucial fields, such as agriculture, agribusiness and genuine conservation management. And of course, most will understandably seek to remain in the urban areas that they have been born and bred in.

But some will want to work in more remote communities. One problem though is that they may have the precise skills which a completely-welfare-oriented community may need, but not many will have the skills, nor may there be any development plans, that may be essential for any genuine economic growth, in infrastructure and enterprises, to help people move away from lifelong welfare, to viable enterprises and genuine economic self-determination.

[TBC]
Posted by Loudmouth, Tuesday, 11 April 2017 9:59:45 AM
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[continued]

Ultimately, it may be that many young people in communities will need to take the long road to essential trades, and the longer road to professional skills.

Ideally, university Indigenous support programs should be actively and exhaustively reaching out to work with community organisations and schools, including those at remote communities, to devise step-by-step innovative programs to assist young people to develop their learning skills step-by-step, year by year, to the point when they can comfortably enrol, and ultimately graduate, across the full range of university courses. Then, if they wish, they can return to communities and apply those skills, provided communities have developed appropriate and realistic development plans.

But just as an aside, I think that day-long visits to universities by groups of kids from remote communities are utterly useless and probably very counter-productive. Those sorts of 'programs', easy to 'run', with kids wandering aimlessly around huge and alien campuses, should be a long way down the track, after many other career information and inspiration programs in environments more congenial to potential students, are thoroughly embedded in communities.

So, many agencies have different and vital roles to play, even if some of the difficulties that the author has eloquently described seem insurmountable. But what do we do: forever curse the darkness or light a candle ?

Joe
Posted by Loudmouth, Tuesday, 11 April 2017 10:18:03 AM
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So, what else is new? Doing what you've always done while expecting a different result? Is an apt description of insanity.

Or what would be on the table as reform, when the inmates had taken over the asylum?

We really are going to miss John Clark and his cut through satire, which he managed so adroitly as to have the targets forced to chuckle at themselves!

What we need here is tough love and getting folk to see that their stone age culture and customs are no longer relevant as is the BS activism and humbugging of urban blacks and their messages of eternal dissatisfaction/hate!

And their obsessive willingness to play the disenfranchised victims and simply obstructing for the sake of obstructing?

No one alive today played any role in any of that and bear no more responsibility for the past than recent migrants whose skin is snowy white!

There is a gap and an ever widening gap that can only ever grow wider as one disenfranchised group is played off against the other, with the willing consent of the loaded and aimed instruments!

Time for a change we can not only all believe in, but most importantly, completely unite behind!

United we stand, divided we fall! We get nowhere fighting ourselves for the spoils of defeat! Time to forgive the past and stop being tools for never ever satisfied activists!
Alan B.
Posted by Alan B., Tuesday, 11 April 2017 12:03:18 PM
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Commonwealth claims right to apply racial discrimination to qualify legal rights and legal responsibilities of Australians.

Commonwealth claims right to segregate Australians using racial tags.

Commonwealth claims rights to support, to promote, to practice, to commit racial discrimination upon Australians.

Commonwealth already seeks Australians answer their racial identification on forms, soon perhaps a requirement we wear NAZI or other racial-ID tags ?

We directly challenge Commonwealth's claim of legality for its racial discrimination upon Australians.

Commonwealth's CLC after acknowledged rights of my wife, my children, even our grandchildren to return to Kintore as "Traditional Owners", then rejected any right to live in a house, rejected any protection from being subjected to racist apartheid segregation of our family.

Commonwealth still practices apartheid in Australia.

Required is interpretation of true purpose of Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act's s.51(xxvi) and s.128.

Constitution s.128 sets amending our Constitution as reserved legislative action for Australian voters.

As specifically reserved power, interpretation concerns whether the purpose of Australian voters is superior to purpose of Parliament.

Establishing Commonwealth Australian voters sort their Constitution to ensure NO racial discrimination between Australians who previously were Irish, Scots, Aborigines, Saxons, Chinese, Arabs, any other ancestry.

In 1967 Australians per s.128 legislated re s.51(xxvi) to correct interpretation failings which resulted in racism upon Australians, the Australian voters' purpose was to ensure eliminated ALL legislative racial discrimination between Australians.

Thus Commonwealth's racial segregation, Commonwealth racial qualification of our rights as Australians is unlawful.

Sort is High Court declare until Commonwealth seeks&obtains clear authority to qualify Australians' legal rights using racial identification, all such qualification is unlawful.

Attorney-General's office defends Commonwealth racism and apartheid using ongoing denial of legal assistance.

Any Solicitors, Barristers, Senior Counsel prepared pro-bono legal representation to resolve this ?

.
Posted by polpak, Tuesday, 11 April 2017 1:58:24 PM
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Hi Polpak,

Are you saying that you and your family went back to Kintore, but that you were knocked back on a house that you wanted to be provided by some government agency ? And that all of that means 'Apartheid' ?

If you stand back a bit, it's possible that you may perceive that any provision of facilities in remote communities where there is no work now, and none in the foreseeable future, anything that locks people into a future remote from opportunities, is very much like Apartheid on a much grander scale.

Is that what you are complaining about ?

Cheers,

Joe
Posted by Loudmouth, Tuesday, 11 April 2017 2:22:14 PM
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Yes, the waste continues.

Kinda makes you feel all warm and fuzzy, knowing your taxes just continually go down the drain.
Posted by rehctub, Tuesday, 11 April 2017 4:18:03 PM
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