I don't think Mal Brough set up the isolated communities. He is trying to get some common sense into what appears to be an impassable barrier.
I saw the Lateline programme , just for once Tony Jones was not bringing up the 'stolen generations' and treaties, apologies ect,ect.
The Elder lady said it all. The word now is 'the lost generations'.
Left to themselves, the Aboriginals will self destruct ably helped by the men who should be sent far away so that they cannot taint the young anymore.
If paternalism will give the women and children any hope, then the sooner it is applied the better.
And if aboriginal men want to keep the present situation going then one can only ponder why.

Today, in "The Australian" is a story about one functional aboriginal community. It is Mapoon in western Cape York and well worth a look at by posters on this site.

They boast a 95% school attendence, which is really good and very low crime rate. They have businesses and work,and no grog.

There has to be more successes around and these need pointing out to the Minister so that we learn from them. Does anyone on OLO know of other functional communities?

The present situation in some Aboriginal communities is terrible and must be changed .
Perhaps if the media concentrated a bit on the positive side of things, it could show how to run a community or good teenagers or positive parenting.
Instead the media just loves showing the worst of everyone and everywhere,one would think that there is no scope for optimism, no hope for improvement,there is only a dark side . And that is so wrong ,there are ways that can help if enough goodwill is shown and determination applied.
There is always hope. It just needs publicity.

Mickjo, agree with you, but sometimes its not so much the negative versus the positive. This is the media selling bad news stories which inevitably creates a desire in readership for 'a positive' side.

Some of the positive things people in commmunities want are often simply things we take for granted. Like a good school and teachers, good housing etcetera. For every Murdoch media driven Aboriginal disaster stories there are thousands of very good things happening in Aboriginal communities on a daily basis. But this doesn't sell newspapers or is interesting to shock jocks and news editors of television.

Have now heard of two more "good" aboriginal communities. Cooktown and Derby, but no details. Another which is 300k N/West of Alice, but cannot recall or pronounce the name. Aparently, night patrols by ladies has made and enormous difference to amount of drunks and violence.

Was impressed with Sue Gordon and Marcia Langton, interviewed last night on 'Lateline'. They agree that law and order is paramount but need to address underlining issues as well.

I care little about the label action is given. Self Management or Paternalism does not matter as long as it is of benefit to communities.

Rainier, I would really like to hear about the 'good things happening' that you refered to. I am just a Joe Blow but I will get the good things I hear about into the Ministers office.

I wonder if a couple of desperate Aboriginal families and their children
sailed up to our parliament and asked for "asylum" , would it shake the dissidents who appear to concentrate only on overseas people but conveniently manage to overlook all Australian born people who are in need?
Aboriginals, homeless youth and aged,mentally ill, there are thousands out there who need someone to stand up for them.
Those people in parliament are simply grandstanding, if they were sincere they would fix things in their own country before parading their 'caring ' natures.
I hope Mal Brough does not give up but he is not going to get much help or encouragement from state leaders.