The news this morning indicated that some aboriginal communities have been terrorised by Mr. Howard's charge. Mr. Howard likens the situation in aboriginal communities to a storm like Katrina. Except abuse in aboriginal communities has been reported for years; and has been officially reported to the Federal Government several times.

Mr. Howard is reported to have said “…Why now? Because if we had held back after the release of the Wild-Anderson report, we would have stood condemned, and rightly so.” Quoted from today’s Sydney Morning Herald.
If that is the case he already stands condemned,as he had not acted much earlier.

A very carefully planned response utilising aboriginal leaders and aboriginal communities, State and Territory leaders, psychologists, social workers and medical staff would have been a better start.
The emphasis being on utilisng people within aboriginal communities who have a knowledge of how particular communities operate and have the trust of their peers.

As it now stands aboriginal communities have been terrorized

Mulrunji couldnt trust police.
Why should Aboriginal people in the NT trust police?
These reports are decades, if not a century or more old.
What have the politicians and police been doing all these years?

If we didn’t already know that you’re a Labor insider, Jocelyn Scutt, we could tell from the snide message in your first eleven words…hence your partisan diatribe.
You pay lip service only to the plight and the terror of the Aboriginal women and children.
No fault to Labor at all…… none to Fraser ( Labor’s new best friend , eaten away with envy and hatred)….all the blame to Howard as treasurer then and PM now ….what a sick joke you are.

It’s frauds like you and the rest of the 'look at me' Left …those who get their feel-good from masquerading as champions of the oppressed, while keeping them uneducated and oppressed, who are to blame for things getting to this stage.
Demonising Howard was always your main game, making it impossible for him to do what he wanted to do to help, without being called racist….he wanted to fix up all these problems and said so…practical reconciliation.. remember?…. but your lot sneered and called him racist…you just wanted the show business…the empty apology…bridge-walking etc….all for your own self- aggrandizement.
Everyone knows ATSIC was dysfunctional and unworkable …plagued by nepotism and standover tactics by some.
Your skepticism about the troops must be due to your ignorance of the army assistance program(AACAP), a Howard government initiative, whereby the army personnel have, every year since 1996, set up camp in aboriginal settlements, and built roads, houses and airstrips… provided health care …taught aboriginal people how to maintain things…taught young aboriginals skills for trades ….a different place every year…asking the locals what they need and then providing it.
So ….many of the Aboriginal people are very familiar with the army, and get on very well with them.
They will only be fearful if people like you make them so.
Your Labor has always specialized in theatrical flourishes and empty symbolism…the big handout, then look away… policies that failed the indigenous people.
Your promotion of the UN shows your insincerity…we all know they are useless…see Rwanda, Darfur, Iraq etc.

I'm in two minds.

I am happy, that after years of neglect, SOMETHING is being done. The problem is entrenched, and we need desisive action to save it.

However, I worry that Howard is running into this unprepared, unqualified and without a clue what he is doing. Some of his plans (such as a compusary medical examination of all children) is impractical and unlikely to be able to be properly implemented. His plan to fly in extra police may work in the short term, but the NT gov't has tried for years to get extra police to remote communities without success.

But more I am worried that no plans, drastic or otherwise have be released to hack into the massive economic and social disadvantage that indigenous Australians find themselves in.

I've travelled a bit in outback WA, and people in remote communities have nothing. No education, medical or recreational facilities. No infastructure that I took for granted. Nothing.

We need a comprehensive plan to help erase the social dispartity of indigenous communities.

Sucessive Australian governments have failed these people. Right wing. Left wing. Both sides have failed to fix this problem.

So now that we are starting to get around to doing something, lets bloody well do it right, and not pretend that quick fixes are magic bullets.

Excellent article. I lived in Alice Springs and worked for Community Development from 1965-1989 and have maintained an interest in developments since that time. Since Howard has been PM, the advances that occurred previously have disappeared since he has withdrawn funding from health, services, substance abuse treatment and employment opportunities. This regression has escalated since MB took over.

This 6 month military invasion and occupation of the NT is an election ploy and a land grab so the government and the mines can take over the land where there are uranium deposits. Howard doesn't care about improving conditions for the aboriginals, it's just another Tampa, designed to get the racists on side. I see some in this forum have been taken in by his latest pre-election ploy. He has no intention of funding services to improve the situation. If he gets re-elected he will continue to withdraw funds and services. Meanwhile, I feel sick, knowing the fear the aboriginal women would be feeling, and why they're taking their children to the sand hills. The women thought they'd get help, instead Howard is determined to destroy all aboriginals and their culture.