"Government forms demand people accept racial identification as a basic requirement before considering rights, responsibilites and opportunities available to them with all to popular welfare claim is being done to help you..." - polpak

This is bad news. I thought it illegal. Metaphorically, giving one "race" greater opportunities based on that "race", is no different than saying, where one can sit on the bus. The Deep South in the Middle North? Disadvantaged folk deserve help. but, it must be non-discriminatory. Access to a level assistance should be based lvel of need and level of personal responsibility, not race. Else, one risks a racism industry, as in the US, with the Revered So n' So, deriding his country, while driving a Lincoln and wearing a Rolex.

In NSW jobs are sometimes advertised, except from anti-discrimination provisions. One can understand this provision for social workers or interpreters, buy clerical positions?

Moreover, building-on my earlier comment of assimilation, and, aboriginal Australia regarding the rest of us as an out-group. What possible connection is there between a second genartion Vietnamese Aussies and the treatment of Aborigines by the British Crown in 1820?

Stephen suggests govenment loans made to communities. Micro-loans have worked in African countries. Australia is wealthy, it can give even larger loans. But, if money is lent, the borrower needs to accept responsibility for the debt, and, devise a workable business plan, and, act entrpreneurally. Even outside of govenment, there are venture capitalists and development banks, that will lend on good ideas and sound business plans, in return for equity, where the proposer is not well-financed. Recipients must realise wealth doesn't rain from the sky, it is cultivated from the soil [ Trust the metaphor is not lost on the Guardians of the Good Earth.].

RELEVANT NEWS NOTE FROM YESTERDAY'S "THE AUSTRALIAN";

In the Australian it was stated that government would stop paying for repairs on the highly price discounted houses provided to indigenous Australians. Funding would re-routed to rural communities.

HOUSING

Stephen mentions access to low-cost housing. I have an aboriginal friend, who now owns a million dollar property in Cronulla (Sydney beach surburb). Back circa. 1970, when he and his non-indigenous wife purchased the place, I am sure he said that he received some special government help. Not Housing Commission, rather, actually to buy market property.

MYTH? -- IS BELOW TRUE OR JUST MADE UP? Stephen do you know?

-1- Indigenous communities "often" have been known to strip their houses of wood for fires? True/Lie?

-2- That the Government offered to clean-up the houses in Redfern's "The Block". The residents wanted it keep things looking shabby to show others how bad-off folks were/ are? Besides, the people in Redfern have Clan relationships and other properties in Wagga Wagga?

IF lies, these [false?] idea are certainly common community perceptions, which need to changed.

[Aside: I have noticed there is a broken down shack, as often the backdrop to millionaire George W.'s range shots.]

Stephen?

I think Hagan makes some interesting points. Why do governments make laws only for Indigenous people. THe AMP's are a perfect example. If the same laws were applied to a predominantly non-Indigneous town then the public would protest.

Why blame to whole community for the ills of a few. Does every person in a city get blamed if it has the highest reported cases of alcohol related injuries?

Indigenous people are moving away from communities in large numbers, according to ABS over the past 40 years, there are now more Indigenous people living in regional and urban communities than in Indigenous communities.

Most have moved to access the basics, housing, employment, health and other services. This AMP is just another way of deconstructing the INdigenous identity and a means of destroying land and country links.

Sad to see that people cannot put themselves in the shoes of Indigenous people.

2deadly: you are sadly ignorant. If non-Indigenous towns experienced similar levels of alcohol-related harms, including very high murder and serious assault rates, as existed on Cape York communities pre-AMPs, then the population of those towns would be up in arms demanding similar alcohol restrictions (the way Tennant Ck, Alice Springs, Katherine, Groote Eytland and Nhulunbuy - all majority white towns - have demanded similarly restrictive plans lately). 13 years ago I did a research project for Indigenous organisations in Cairns, interviewing people who were living in the parks. The majority gave as their main reason for leaving their communities on Cape York the fact that there was too much alcohol-related violence in their home communities. In other words, Lockhart River, Napranum, Pormpuraaw etc were much more dangerous places to live than the public parks of Cairns, if you were a heavy drinker anyway. They still felt this, even though they were occasionally attacked by hooligans wielding baseball bats in the Cairns parks. So in a sense you are part right: these people moved away from the grog-soaked hellholes called communities (in 1994, pre-Alcohol Management Plans) to take advantage of the better services (well maintained parks & clean ablution blocks, better policing and security, free breakfasts from St Vincents de Paul, free beds in wet weather from another church charity doss-house) provided in Cairns. I have lived on some of these Cape York communities, with their wet canteens, and they were like scenes from the most wretched sections of Dante's Inferno. It is ridiculous to say that the AMPs are "just another way of deconstructing the Indigenous identity and a means of destroying land and country links." In fact, they are the exact opposite. They are attempting to help halt the downward slide in safety and life-expectancy and capability in these remote communities, by enabling more people to be sober enough for long enough not only to practise their culture but also to take advantage of the myriad of programs that are available to them to assist them to cope in the contemporary world - education, housing, health, recreation, employment etc.

Stephen,

What is the role of the family? Why don't parents povide better familial models to their children