Verdant, good post,especially about the bottom line which as you say is human rights. And by the way, we all suffer from 'downward envy' at times. Having the emotional intelligence to recognise this is critical. You must have a high IQ.

Sage,

See Paul Keating redfern speech here: http://apology.west.net.au/redfern.html

I agree with Brett Solomon and others that urgent and long overdue action is needed to combat child abuse and sexual assault in Indigenous communities. What decent person wouldn't?

Howard has known about this issue during the past 11 years, so why is it only now he’s decided to dramatise this as a “national crisis”.

Yet, setting aside Howard’s motive and his past intransigence, his paternalistic and heavy-handed plan raises many concerns:

(a) the failure to consult with Indigenous communities whose lives are affected and rights significantly eroded;
(b) the failure to plan with the Northern Territory Government whose laws are being overridden;
(c) the ‘quick-fix’ superficial nature of the Howard reaction.

The disturbing components of the plan that require urgent reconsideration include:
• the use of troops and ‘foreign’ police out of their area of training;
• compulsory invasive medical examinations of children under 16 by professionals largely untrained in cultural issues;
• the feasibility of these health inspections given the current health infrastructure in the NT already stretched to breaking point;
• the feasibility of enforcing bans on alcohol and pornography;
• the failure to extend action to white males involved in child abuse;
• the rationale for resuming Indigenous land to deal with chronic health and welfare problems;
• the reasons why the Government has ignored the recommendations of the very Report they say gives rise to their action.

Above all, the Howard ‘crisis’ plan fails to address the thoroughly well documented underlying issues of Indigenous health, housing, education and employment.

Is it any wonder people of good-will who want to see an end to child abuse and other areas of social neglect are cynical about the fate of this ‘shock and awe’ campaign once the election is over? Where was Howard’s deep concern for the ‘lost years of childhood’ when he was locking up hundreds of children in detention?

Perhaps you people who are winging about the lack of facilities that Aborigines have been provided with should take a trip into Aboriginal country all round Australia and visit same. The facilities have been provided but in many instances they have been either vandalised or completely destroyed by those very same people. Until attitudes change, it is rather pointless for any government to do anything. Aborigines need to divest themselves of the victim mentality and get out there and help themselves. It is no good having white Australians setting up enterprises to provide employment if the local communities are just going to sit on their arses under a tree sniffing petrol and drinking themselves stupid.

Wake up and then white Australia will start to treat you like human beings again.

VK3AUU:

"Wake up and then white Australia will start to treat you like human beings again."

Again? With your attitude there's no need for "again".

I love the way so many people on both sides of this argument talk about what should happen to "our" aborigines. We don't talk about "our" Tasmanians or "our" Greeks or "our" middle class. But it's ok to talk about "our" aborigines as if they're pets or something.

Says a lot about the contribution white attitudes make to the problems we're seeing.

So does Brough and the PM's strategy on this.
- Send in the police and the army, then discover you don't have enough policy or army.
- Announce doctors will check the kiddies, then discover you don't have any doctors.
- Announce kiddies will be educated, then discover you don't have any teachers.
- Announce ban on alcohol, then discover half of these communities are already dry.
- Announce you can be trusted to fix everything, then wonder why people don't believe you.

I'd love to see these guys organise a p!ss up in a brewery.

Well said, chainsmoker.

VK3AUU,
I completely agree with what you say.