Oliver, farming Aboriginals is about right considering the national and state policy that manages a people to the extent the Indigenous are managed so terribly by the Multicultural and Indigenous affairs people across Australia. But should the Federal and State Governments be in the business of farming Aboriginal society? My main issue with multiculturalism is we have all these societies to caretaker instead of a single vibrant society exhibiting pride of accomplishment from family ties through pride of state and nation. Too much dysfunction and waste of resources in micro and macro managing ethnicity and culture. Issues of culture and ethnicity shouldn't be the governments business. Period.
Enjoy the cool weather

re
"... a single vibrant society exhibiting pride of accomplishment from family ties through pride of state and nation."

Myself, I would prefer a society made of a mosaic of interlocking cultures and subgroups, where individuals & groups have their own identities, freedoms and responsibilities assured by an overarching legal system which recognises and protects rights to cultural and religious identity as well as individual rights and obligations, regardless of wealth and status.

My "single, vibrant society" would more resemble a native forest, as opposed to a monoculture plantation; a system which evolves toward greater equity, out of mutual confrontation and accomodation, rather than a place optimised for the profit and advantage of some higher echelon.

If that sounds utopian, then consider the dysutopia which might be justified in the minds of some supporters of a "single, vibrant society". Here is what one man saw last century:

"The Measures Taken"

The lazy are slaughtered
The world grows industrious

The ugly are slaughtered
The world grows beautiful

The foolish are slaughtered
The world grows wise

The sick are slaughtered
The world grows healthy

The sad are slaughtered
The world grows merry

The old are slaughtered
The world grows young

The enemies are slaughtered
the world grows friendly

The wicked are slaughtered
The world grows good"

Erich Fried (1921-1988)
translated from German by Michael Hamburger

Sir Vivor, family ties covers your concerns for religion and cultural freedom. I'm suggesting that the government get out of the business and no longer be concerned with whether or not you celebrate your German/Protestant adjunct or your blackness/whiteness or your Lebanese/Muslim/Christian/Druze adjunct etc.etc. You can be as religious or culturally grounded as you please just leave the rest of us out of it and especially our tax dollars. It's immaterial to most whether you go to Church of a Sunday or Mosque on Saturday, are Jewish, white, black, orange or a genetically pure Aryan or a genetic and cultural stew. Of course if your going to make an issue of religion and culture don't be surprised if some believe that their religion or culture is superior to another. That is plain old human nature and a cause of major social conflict. Multiple societies compete. Providing for that condition under the auspices of one nation is failed governmental programming and is for the most part what has lead to the horrendous state of Immigration, Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs. There is no such thing as apart and united as a single workable concept.

Aqvarivs, re:
"You can be as religious or culturally grounded as you please just leave the rest of us out of it and especially our tax dollars."

Good luck on that one. How will you convince your current government (or the next) to stop funding (for example) chaplains and non-secular schools?

Where, if you succeeded in your lobbying, would the extra money go? Better services and infrastructure for ordinary people? Stronger defenses and alliances? Bigger tax breaks for the corporate world? More advertising and other business subsidies? Or would it, as "lower taxes" never leave your pocket?

Would you say, then, that your posts above express an embedded theme of lower taxes to special interest groups, including religious groups and cultural groups, including Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders?

Why are Australian native peoples less appropriate recipients of tax dollars than large corporations, who are either directly subsidised or are able to claim large tax breaks? Why are they less deserving beneficiaries of the common wealth than my local school, secullar or not, submitting a grant application for a water tank or new toilet block, or myself, submitting a rebate application for a solar hot water heater or my annual tax return prepared with the assistance of a shrewd tax accountant?

Is it because because Aborigines have culture, but I have a family? Is it because Aboriginals living in the bush are leading third world lives, while large corporations and their lobbies, in their embodiment of first world energy and materials flows, have far greater influence over the current government?

Does it all boil down, for you, down to a dislike of paying taxes?

Kartiya Jim wrote:

"3.The Federal Government to make Australia Day and Invasion Day TWO public holidays."

Super idea. Let's enshrine division and hatred within Australian society for all time by means of an annual reminder of the fact that prior standards of dealing with each other are not as good as they are now. And for anyone stupid enough to question that, tell me honestly that you would prefer to be alive 220 years ago with all that would entail for your personal freedoms (for the vast majority), health etc.

Shall we have an invasion day for every other nation that has ever seen an armed takeover of land and forced dispossession within its borders? We better get busy with a new calendar or rotate through on a 12 year basis or something.. Invasion Day??!?!? How is that helpful to anyone?

Pull your head out of wherever it is and look at how real people get on with their lives and make real progress.. and let me give you a hint; it isn't through fostering a sense of perpetual victimhood

Sir Vivor, if one was to succeed there would be no extra money. There would be sufficient taxation to see to the common wealth of the nation. All for one and one for all. Not this beggars pool that exists today. Every one has culture. It's hardly the defining social moment. Well, except for the multiculturalist. The Aboriginals I've spoken with convey with little difficulty that they would like a little more than reliance on culture. Some have actually had the temerity to suggest that with general access to health care, education, employment opportunities, and three square meals a day they might even produce more cultural enterprises to draw in the tourista. But hey, gotta keep them abro's segregated and confined to the reserves. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink, say no more. Say no more.