WRE, fair go , the Maoris at least received a Treaty and real Land Rights around 1865 .Aboriginal Australians are still waiting .
Correct me if i am wrong ,but i believe the first University trained Maori doctor arrived around the end of the 1800's.
Our treatment of Aboriginal People has and continues to dissadvantage them and is a monumental disgrace .
When the Howard Government realises and admits that it needs more than a good cricket team to gain true World respect , I will be amongst the first to congratulate them .
Howard has the power but because he is slave to and believes he needs the popularist Racist Press and Ugly Right in his party, he lacks the backbone -it's much safer.
Malcolm Fraser has turned out to be at least Twice the man .

Kartiya

The treaty of Waitangi was agreed to between the Maoris and England because the Maori tribes all got together and agreed upon a representative to negotiate (the King/Queen didnt actually exist until this point). The Maoris also had a recognisable territorial/ tribal structure that facilitated this negotiation. Unfortunately the aboriginals did not have such a system- if they did, aboriginals did not and could not produce a credible presence at the negotiating table. Unfortunately from the time of Alexander the Great through Caesar through the Mongols through Spain in South America through Britain in Australasia conquest and negotiation were the way of the world. There is no point forever dwelling on the rights and wrongs of this. It happened.

Now let's talk about winning world respect. The reports written by the UN regarding health and living standards of indigenous Australians are written with such frequency because Australia as a nation is open to the criticism and is actually trying to remedy the problem. I'll draw your attention again to the simple facts and figures- per capita indigenous Australians receive more funding than any other indigenous population in the world! Furthermore I wonder how muslims in Russia, Moroccans in France and Kurds in Iraq would class the disadvantage of Australian aboriginals?

As for Malcolm Fraser- I hope a little country just north of South Africa called Zimbabwe keeps him awake at night. 25 years ago it was the breadbasket of Africa. Since then its had one president, ethnic cleansing of the indigenous Matabele, runs inflation at 1200% and has 6.5 million refugees.