I’m not sure how work opportunities can be created in the middle of deserts where only aborigines live. So, given skill shortages and the unforgivable quick-fix tactics of a government unwilling to train Australians (bringing in foreigners and allowing employers to rort the special visa system), why can’t aborigines move to locations where training and jobs can be supplied? After all, most aboriginal Australians live in urban areas, and most of them seem to work and live independently without sitting on their bums waiting for handouts.

This ‘indigenous demands for self-determination’ is pathetic. Urban aborigines have brought about their own self-determination. Living out in the middle of nowhere just because your ancestors did is a cop out in the 21st Century. And no, little left leprechauns, I do not blame the aborigines for trying to live in the Stone Age, but with the benefits of civilization. I blame white fellahs like Nugget Coombes, Gough Whitlam and sundry other left ideologues.

Further on in his piece, the author does mention real self-determination – people moving themselves out instead of listening to do-gooding drivel.

Three cheers for self-determination for aborigines. When are they going to throw off the yoke put on them by patronising politicians and get on with it

I thought that 'money and self determination' were the causes of ghettoes like Wadeye and other dysfunctional communities.
Perhaps the question is,"Can a modern, progressive nation afford to have a population living in a primitive,uneducated community where male sexual and physical abuse of women and children is the norm?"
Not to mention that in such communities the chances of employment/ careers are very slim .
All Australians should be given the same advantages, responsibilies and hopes for a future.
That is the only answer.

Speak to any nurse in a remote community and you'll find that Aboriginal people are about the most prodded and tested people in the counrty. I'm sure this would be confirmed by anyone who bothered to check statistics for the number of visits to the clinic/doctor per head of population relative to ethnic origin (perhaps statistics like this would be too politically incorrect to keep?). Remote nurses I've spoken to have been exacerbated by the over servicing that goes on.

The constant blaming of everyone except Aboriginals is another well versed form of paternalism. Self-determination means being able to accept responsibility for shortcomings, learning from them, and working to fix the problem. Blaming everyone else just signals an inabilty to take responsibility for their actions.

Leigh,
Good on ya mate, now at least you are talking about a subject you are educated in "drivel."

Leigh,
You are a bit of a seagull.
You fly around screaming and s**ting on everyone and everything.

You demonstrate a limited knowledge base on which to scream about.

Get over your little ego trip and let a little sanity into your mind, maybe learn to read a little history - accurate history that is, not the edited version of the overlords.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders have not only had their land, culture, and children stolen from them. People like you keep insisting they must try to be 'white'.

There is a large amount of historical documentation of white colonialists enslaving Aboriginal children (some as young as 8) and women for sexual slavery.

It is easy to understand why some communities are dysfunctional when culture has been destroyed and Aboriginal people are abandoned. Such deviates that molest kids are not following Aboriginal law but they have learned a lot from the colonialists.

Just look at the grog culture in OZ. 9am in the morning, people are drinking plonk on morning TV shows. Oh and they are not black Australians.

There are many records of Indigenous Australians being enslaved to the colonialists.

Starvation and genocide is the lot that Indigenous Australians have experienced since colonisation.

Even today cretins like you insist that Aboriginals must be like people like you.
What is it with you and your mob - do you think you are somewhat God like - that every person must reflect your image?

Harry, your reference to” New book Indigenous Peoples and Poverty (pdf 101KB)”
Is not coming up on my browser, have you entered it wrong.

The Steven Cornell you refer to would by any chance be Stephen Cornell Director of the Udall Centre for Studies in Public Policy and Professor of Sociology and of Public Administration and Policy at the University of Arizona?

You will know when Sydney’s water is really too low to recover, Aboriginal people, will leave there in droves. Kinda like observing the birds, they head for the big water hole.