Don, I guess my use of the word “remains” implies that I have some knowledge of indigenous mortality rates in 1900, but that implication was unintended.

Rather than re-phrasing what I was trying to say, here’s how it is formulated in the Health and Welfare of Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples 2001 report:

In the period 1997–99, the life expectancy at birth for the Indigenous
population was estimated to be 56 years for males and 63 years for
females. In contrast, the life expectancy at birth for all Australians was
76 years for males and 82 years for females. The 1997–99 Indigenous life
expectancies are similar to life expectancy for the total male population
in 1901–1910, and for the total female population in 1920–22
(ABS 1999b)
http://www.aihw.gov.au/publications/ihw/hwaatsip01/hwaatsip01-c08.pdf

I am not aware of any relevant data for indigenous mortality in 1900, though I agree it would be extremely useful.

W

I agree with your sentiments and I am not only annoyed at this lazy argument, I am also ashamed of it. We have succeeded to undermine the sense of self worth of our aboriginal communities to the point that they are now dying due to lack of self care. Despite the fact that our white medical technology exists, aborigines die due to illness which would keep most of us in bed for no more than a week. We need to admit that as far as the Tasmanian aborigines are concerned we have in effect committed genocide. As European's we brought a strain of the common cold to Tasmania which swept through their communities in a matter of months, killing every last Tasmanian aborigine. This article only goes further to supporting the type of attitudes which translates into the emotional abuse encountered by aborigines in Australia. I judge people by the way they treat those who they do not have to treat well. I didn't know that people think this way. I am now beginning to see why aboriginal are still dying despite all government efforts.

W

Thank you: this is helpful information and a good source, though it doesn't quite make the point you originally set out. There are too many variables in all of this to enable us to point to single or even two causes of any condition in the population.

What an hilarious article. The headline should have been "Where have all the parsnips gone?" or "100 intricate ways with parsnips" or, wait, how about "Immigrants made me fat"?

:-D

Obesity has surged since immigration levels surged...what's your point? We've had two world wars and a Great Depression since women got the vote, have Frijters and Beatton got anything to say about that?

I mean, really. I can buy parsnips up the road from my Chinese greengrocer. Is Frijters and Beatton's speculation that there "might well have been 100 intricate ways to cook a parsnip" itself "based on anything more than gut feeling?"

Here's a novel idea to run past you - if you can't buy parsnips locally, maybe it's because there's so little demand for parsnips because, well, parsnips kinda suck, and after I tried the 99th intricate way of cooking them, I got bored. Maybe I should have tried for that elusive 100th intricate way, huh?

Still, that's market forces for you. Why don't you start a parsnip appreciation society and see how many members you get?

I love turning these arguments back on the skinheads...now let's see, what epithets can I hurl over this latest effort? First, this is Australia, mate, and if you don't trust our ethnic diversity, and if you feel closer to your Anglo-Saxon heritage than you do to your Australian hosts, then why don't you go back to Merrie Olde England?

In fact, if you left our diverse community, you'd help to make it less diverse, so by your own arguments you'd be doing us all a favour. We'd be very thankful.

Let's all marry our cousins and then we'll see whether or not there are benefits to diversity.

Just sayin', is all.

The points about irrational thinking raised in the article are very apt. They are similar to the inconsistency in the argument that the first european settlers shouldn't have come here, but modern illegal immigrants for some reason are entitled to come.

Much of the criticism of other posters is based on the old marxist maxim that everyone has to have the same outcome, regardless of cicumstances. The fact that aboriginal life expectancy has doubled since settlement is ignored because it is still less than the non-aboriginal figure, even though it could be said that the non-aboriginal figure has similarly doubled since settlement.

Much of the methodology behind this is based on a famous quote from Konrad Henlein in the 1930s:

"We must make demands that cannot be satisfied".

To be satisfied would be to admit that there was no more need for you political activity. Those who prefer the medium to the message can never admit that.

The points about irrational thinking raised in the article are very apt. They are similar to the inconsistency in the argument that the first european settlers shouldn't have come here, but modern illegal immigrants for some reason are entitled to come.

Much of the criticism of other posters is based on the old marxist maxim that everyone has to have the same outcome, regardless of cicumstances. The fact that aboriginal life expectancy has doubled since settlement is ignored because it is still less than the non-aboriginal figure, even though it could be said that the non-aboriginal figure has similarly doubled since settlement.

Much of the methodology behind this is based on a famous quote from Konrad Henlein in the 1930s:

"We must make demands that cannot be satisfied".

To be satisfied would be to admit that there was no more need for your political activity (or job). Those who prefer the medium to the message can never admit that.