ALTRAV it is interesting that instead of offering any details of the ‘gravy train’ you keep referring to that you simply offer a bland ‘comprises of billions of dollars and govt assisted benefits and hand-outs, such as cars and so on.’ Can you please tell me where I can get my free car? You may also know where I can the no interest home loans that are apparently on offer too.

On a more pertinent note, the main beneficiaries of that ‘gravy train’ are non-Aboriginal bureaucrats earning hundreds of thousands of dollars per annum and who have no connection to Aboriginal/Torres Strait Islander people/communities. I would argue that there is corruption and fraud involved. That became evident during the initial ‘Intervention’ in the Northern Territory where housing contracts were awarded to those who blatantly rorted the system. Basic houses, which were unsuitable for the conditions, that should have cost around $250 000 to build were constructed and billed at up to half a million dollars…and many of them were so badly built they had to be demolished. There should be a Royal Commission into the wasted/rorted monies by white bureaucrats. I doubt any Aboriginal/Torres Strait Islander person of intelligence and sense would object to it.

It is also interesting that you never addressed any of the disadvantages Aboriginal/Torres Strait Islander people face/are subject to that I presented. I could write a 100 000 word thesis on the causes and affects. However, the core root of the issues still lies within the racist policies and restrictions put in place over almost two centuries of invasion/colonisation. Let’s not forget it was only in 1962 that Aboriginal/Torres Strait Islander people were officially given the right to vote in federal elections (and even then it was optional while for non-Aboriginal people it was compulsory)…and in some states (WA and Qld) the right to vote in state elections was not given until as late as 1965. And it wasn’t until after the 1967 referendum that Aboriginal/Torres Strait Islander people were officially counted in the census. I doubt you care though.

Finally we agree on something but I needed you to say it. YES you are correct that the govt and their mates rorted the hell out of the system because that's how they make big money. They hand out big money, manage it, siphon some etc, etc . I will not back off from my original claim though, because for this to work it needs bi-partisan support. Now if you want to know where all the money has gone, we 'mere mortals' are not privy to such information. I can't tell you 'where' to get your cars, houses, mobile phones and God knows what else that we 'mere mortals' can't get. I can't give you specifics you are one of the only ones who can. As for your assumption that we mortals are the reason you guys are being treated so badly, disadvantaged, invaded, colonised, so on. If you want to know part of the reason you feel you are being taken advantage of, is; you guys keep going on about being invaded' Whatever else the white man did from the first settlers. Well here it is. You may have been here when we turned up, fine , now we are here. It's only politics and greedy politicians and friends who are to blame for the current state of events. As far as I am concerned you are not entitled to anything more than we are. Sick and tired of hearing your bleeding heart stories. If you are all so smart get off your backsides and get in line instead 'cutting in' or demanding to be at the 'head of the line' because of some ancestral right. Enough of the 'stolen generation'. The people in question can now bang on about the 'injustice' of it all but I see some well presented, educated and articulate people that would not be so had they been left in their original environment and conditions. Before you carry on maligning me and the rest of Australia, whether you like it or not the 'stolen generation' are better off today because of the white man.

Hi Alt-Rave,

Fools rush in, ay ? So you've dipped your toe in the waters of Indigenous issues ?

Sit back, listen, read, and learn. Then get back to us.

Joe

loudmouth, I have NO idea of what you speak. If I get you right I will say this.
I have sat back and listened; to a lot of reasons why aborigines are special and deserve better treatment than everyone else, justified by words like heritage, oppression, downtrodden, ancestral rights, to name just a few.
Read; I am sick of reading about their hardships and I am sick of reading about the many, many acts of stealing, vandalism, un-provoked attacks on innocent people and the list goes on.
And as for learning; I don't think I want to learn about a bunch of people who conduct themselves more like criminals than the humble and kind people I was lead to believe they were. I have learned about the privileges that they are afforded over the rest of Australians. I have learned that ANYONE who thinks they are linked to an aborigine, even if they are 120th cast is somehow allowed to call themselves aboriginal when in fact they are AUSTRALIAN! So don't try to justify their current stance. I'm a realist and do not get swayed by sob stories or govt's and their lies, better described as 'political correctness'.

Well, confirmation of the racist ALTRAV. No point engaging with that type anywhere.

minotaur don't deflect. You challenged me and I responded. You don't like my response, well, surprise surprise. Fortunately I don't give a 'rats' whether someone 'thinks' I am a racist or any other demeaning categories you can come up with. This is not about me. I'll tell you who is a racist, anyone out there who is not a pure blood aborigine, yet has the affront to commit fraud, for profit or gain by calling themselves aborigine. Heck man, their own elder came out condemning the very people I'm talking about and he tagged them, 'WANNABEE's, and to stop it. 'Connections with the land'?, really? well guess what, plenty of us white fellas also have connections with the land. The difference is we had to pay for it through greedy bastards deciding to make money out of us. We say, we are here now, we have concurred this land and we all live happily ever after, but no. No one was stopping them from being 'connected to anything' if they are truly connected you don't need to make a song and dance and bang on about it. We respect the right of the individual and their beliefs. Too bad you don't.