FOCUS! 'We all want the same thing - an end to child abuse' - Yes - with the RESOURCES and LONG-TERM multi-task action required too!

We need to stop SILO cultures operating and alienating the good work possible from all sides. Many hands shared make light work.

Noel is right in his early arguments about "white servants" however it was and is a bit harsh to put us ALL in this box.

Education for ALL must suffice. We have the opportunty from "GRASSROOTS" to make this work if we stop alienating ourselves, from ourselves. Government needs to get rid of the RED-TAPE and understand the value of practical engagement. (PRODUCTIVITY at community levels must be based on building capacity (Social Capital) This is economic!).

See the Candoo response to "TIME-POOR" experiences which exhaust goodwill and good social capital identified through experience in Cape York. (How good Community Work can be neglectfully reduced to frustation and stress) This issue is a NATIONAL one involving ALL public services in regional and rural areas.

http://www.miacat.com/Media_Pan_One/REGIONAL_Pacific_News/Local_Cape_York/New_campaign/Do_We_Ck_Busy.asp

Grassroots needs government as government needs grassroots. This takes two-way (quality) COMMUNICATION and COLLABORATION rather than just leaning on GOVERNMENT CHAMPIONS... see the cause (QLD) for the introduction of this framework.

It is the heart of the real problem everywhere.

It is unsound - not moral and wasteful economics!

http://www.miacat.com/
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Healthwatcher:
in bald figures around $33 billion of Commonwealth funds has been spent directly on "Aboriginal Affairs" over the last ten years.

To be fair you would deduct from this the money spent on the CDEP (mistakenly known as the "black work for the dole scheme") as this is in lieu of benefits that people would be receiving anyway. This would take up around $3.5 billion.

Similarly with much of the rest of the Indigenous section of the Commonwealth's budget: the same amount should be deducted for expenditure on health services, in lieu of use of mainstream primary health facilities. This would bring us down to about $26 billion.

You could deduct another large hunk for public housing; more for education, employment services, municipal services etc. You would end up with only a relatively small fraction being spent on things that are distinctly different and Indigenous specific.

So don't get too anxious about that.

But what I suspect you are really concerned about is this: why has all the money spent by governments generally on Indigenous people over the last ten years not produced better results than appear to be the case?

The reasons for this are fairly complicated, but I believe that Brough is onto some of the reasons and trying to deal with them.

For example, the Commonwealth in the 70s and 80s unilaterally withdrew much of its direct activity and expenditure on job creation, community development, administration and management in Indigenous communities, which began the process of degeneration of standards and services in these places.

State governments (particularly the NT and SA) pulled back from adequately policing many remote Indigenous communities. This led to a huge growth of substance abuse and violence, which in turn led to an extraordinary increase of abuse and thuggery.

Consequently even the relatively high levels of expenditure (provided through grants to a ragtag army of small, often ill-governed and semi-competent councils and NGOs )has not been deployed in an "effective or efficient manner" over many years, and the average efficacy of many services has been on a down-hill run.

Yes, Andrew we all want an end to child abuse. But how to go about it? The means is as important as the goal we are seeking. So where do we stand on the extensive housing shortages? Over-crowding in homes often leads to conflicts and violence.

First let's look at Howard's way of doing things. Does Howard's approach need improvement?

This is how NT Environment Minister Marion Scrymgour, from the Tiwi Islands, sees things: She said mothers needed reassuring their children were not going to subjected to invasive medical checks or removed from their homes.

"There is a lot of fear, particularly amongst our older women where not so long ago, and we can look back only 30 or 40 years, where children were taken in remote Aboriginal communities out of the arms of mothers and there is that same sort of fear amongst the women that this is going to happen," she said.

Marion said: "There is very little detail and the goal posts keep changing every day but nevertheless we need to get out there and we do need to reassure our communities."

The spectacular launch by Howard, did not involve consultation. What a shame and a very bad start that makes Australia look bad.

What outcomes will change to improve the situation? Over-crowded housing is an obvious strarting point but the PM is already baulking at the cost provided by Clare Martin for the NT.

The measure of Howard's sincerity will be the number of cyclone resistant dwellings he constructs in these communities that is appropriate for the different lifestyles of residents.

That will range from young single mums to extended families and aged care facilities. Australia wide, the cost will be a few billion - but well worth the investment.

Howard needs to examine funding approaches that have worked well elsewhere in Austrlia and other countries.

Let's look at rehabilitation of violent offenders including sexual predators. We do not do well. The cycle needs to be broken. Why oh why are we not following Canadian best practice?

A report in today's ABC new reports: 'Indigenous Australians make up just 2 per cent of the general Australian population, but 25 per cent of the prison population. In Canada they used to have similar figures, but 20 years ago Canadians began trying to change this by creating indigenous-run prisons.

The Stan Daniels Healing Centre in Edmonton, Alberta, is where native Canadian inmates go to serve the last six months of their sentence.

The aim is to get them to reconnect with their culture, and the results are extremely impressive.

The centre is about redemption. It is a place where damaged men try to heal and redeem themselves before they are released back into the world.'

'The elders who run this program say that about 80 per cent of the men who complete it never reoffend.

It has impressed the head of Corrections in Australia's Northern Territory, Jens Tolstrup, who says that one in two of his prisoners end up back in jail within five years of their release.

Mr Tolstrup believes recidivism rates for Australian Aborigines could be improved if a jail similar to the Stan Daniels Healing Centre was opened here.

The link between identity, culture and better criminal justice outcomes has been proven around the world, but to make it happen in the NT, Mr Tolstrup needs more money.

Successive Canadian governments have invested the necessary cash over the last 20 years. The will to act and to spend in Australia has seemingly been lacking.' Will Howard put up the money?

Can anybody tell me why Howard is focusing on a few hundred people in N.T. and avoiding the rest of Australian child abuse. Somewhere in Australia a phone rings every 2 minutes to report child abuse.

Me thinks it maybe old mean and tricky setting up a "crisis" of "children overboard" proportions to once again scare the living daylights out of ordinary voters.

Dear Andrew
We met once (at a Senate Hearing) I was not impressed by your grasp of that subject matter either.
The time for consultation is over. Consultation can go on endlessly. If you had the answers you should have spoken up.
The reality is that, in politics, there will always be someone who does not like the answer to a question.
If the Democrats had listened then they might not be a spent force in politics.