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The National Day of Thanksgiving: it's the ‘white fella’ religious right again : Comments
By Alan Matheson, published 24/5/2007The paternalism and arrogance of the religious right and its National Day of Thanksgiving is breathtaking.
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56,875 Indigenous persons were counted by the Census in the NT at 30 June 2001, which is about 29% of the total NT population (Indigenous children represent 38% of the NT’s children). Despite the lowest median age at death (males 47.1 and females 50) and the shortest average life expectancy (males 55 females 63) the NT Indigenous population has the highest total fertility of all jurisdictions (3.0), the national average is 1.7.
Between 1993 and 1997 Aboriginal children 1-5 years admitted to hospital were 120 times more likely to be diagnosed as undernourished than non-Aboriginal NT children of the same age. In the three years to 2002, there was a 25% increase in the number of children admitted to Royal Darwin Hospital with malnutrition and diarrhea.
The most important thing to understand about the NT demographics is how young the Indigenous population is, the rapid rate of population growth, and where the population is living. About two thirds of the NT Indigenous population currently lives outside of the major municipal boundaries. From that platform, ask what will people be doing in 20 years time? Where will the jobs be? Where will the services need to be? How should we go about planning to provide services to the remote populations of the future?
As for sheep, cows and kangaroos: around remote semi-arid/arid zone communities kangaroos and other native meat supplies are largely hunted out, thanks to guns and vehicles and plenty of time for hunting. Millions of sheep live in Central Qld; southern NSW and Victoria have vast numbers of cattle when the prices are right. Fodder is available for those with money. You don't need to farm roos, there are tens of millions of them out here anyway. You just have to kill and eat them. Coles & Woolies supermarkets carry unlimited amounts of good cuts of roo meat at half the price of beef & lamb and it's far healthier as it has much lower fat and cholestorol content. Just buy it! Tastes great.