"...the 17-year life expectancy gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians..."

I would be curious to see the gap between Indigenous Australians integrated into the rest of society, and those living in isolated communities. It may be the unfortunate situation that Aboriginals are genetically more vulnerable to many 'white man' diseases that makes up a significant proportion of this gap.

"...policing, primary health care, education, housing and real employment opportunities."

Policing - I believe there is/was a significant push to have the locals police themselves with their own cultural laws.

Health - Last time i checked we were facing a chronic shortage of health care professionals across the country. Locating valuable resources to remote communities is an inefficient solution that will only aggravate the situation elsewhere.

Housing - Despite being employed, many non-indigenous Australian families are struggling to afford housing, sharing with extended family. When is the government going to start building these people their own homes?

Education - This is a key area of opportunity to change not only a individual's opportunities, but a community's attitude.

Real Employment Opportunities - This where we need to face the reality that there is no chance of "Real Employment Opportunities" in these remote communities. The only chance of significant employment would be
a socialist style government sponsored centre with no real productive purpose. Something that will not achieve many of the goals of "Real Employment".

Providing even an exceptional level of social services to these communities is nothing but a quick-fix as you put it. The only real, long term solution is relocation of these people to an area where they can integrate with the rest of society. I doubt any of the "trailblazers" you talk of live lives so geographically disconnected from the rest of society.

Of course relocating is something we cannot force on anyone. It's their choice, and as such the consequences should be their responsibility.

Translation: throw billions more public dollars at the problem, leave Aborigines and welfare groups alone to spend it as they see fit, and they'll fix things. Just like they've been doing so successfully for the past 30 years.

When is the welfare lobby going to wake up to the fact that their thoroughly discredited "solutions" are part of the problem!

Desipis

As you say, it would be interesting to see more analysis of differences in health status between Indigenous people who are integrated into the rest of society, and those living in isolated communities.

Indications are that Aboriginal people living in small country towns with endemic alcohol and drug abuse may have the worst health profiles. The large Indigenous populations in the major cities may produce a different profile, as many of these people work and study, and can look forward to some kind of rewarding future, so their health profiles may be a bit better despite the high rates of substance misuse and chronic diseases which exist even amongst this group.

The problem with the perennial "push to have the locals police themselves with their own cultural laws" is that the locals are often themselves not well, have close relatives who are troublemakers, and are not usually well equipped to deal with often-violent drunks, illegal dealing in grog and dope, or enforcement of necessary laws about weapons, vehicles etc. Programs involving locals and elders invariably work much better if there are sensible fully-empowered police present in the community to provide a safe context, and ready to back them up when they need it.

On Health: the government has a commitment to supply a basic level of health services to all Australians, but is not willing to do the hard yards and use its powers (and control of the money) to induce more doctors to move out of their comfort zones in the cities and spend some time in the outback. Consequently the existing staff in remote clinics are over-worked and over-stressed, and burn out quickly.

Re Employment: there are chances of "Real Employment Opportunities" in these remote communities (eg in building and maintenance, service provision, roadworks, environmental care, tourism, mining, recreation).

As you say, to get mass participation by local Aboriginal people in these jobs would require significant government subsidy, but it would be productive in the true sense if organised properly, and far less expensive for the government than dealing with the consequences of the present disastrous mess.

I must of missed it....what is "the root causes of this crisis"?

The root cause is poverty, ignorance, and the failure to address them with other than platitudes and programs that prop up the project managers

Perhaps you misunderstand the word 'root'.

Poverty is not a root cause, but merely another symptom.

On the basis of Oxfam's excellent record in impoverished communities around the world, I'd like to see Oxfam contracted by the Federal Government to trial some of their innovative community development programs in consultation with remote Aboriginal communities.

There are many good programs in Australia and around the world. In my experience at Gununa, with the right approach and funding, significant improvements to the quality of life of residents, including economic and cultural community development are possible.

Poverty is both, both a root cause and another symptom.

People who do not feel themselves poor do better than people who feel themselves poor.

People who feel themselves capable of improving things for themselves tend to get to work and improve things for themselves, not wait on others to do it for them.

Oxfam worked well where people did not have sit down money.

I am sad, and I weep for first nations, but the issues, as vast as they are are inflicted by the intelligentsia of our nation both black and white.

In my state we have five universities, each with an Aboriginal/Indigenous centre of focus.

None of those centres has a black face with a PhD leading the centre!

I recall eleven years ago when the first Nyoongar Phd qualified, in education. I thought that there would be a fight over writing a package for the woman to head a university centre. Wrong!

Wrong why? The vice-chancellor's of these institutions have the patronised comfortable black faces they want in their comfort zone, and they are not about to change that situation. They have their feelgood, and are not moving to a spill of positions.

Concurrent with this white failure, a policy of "Aboriginalisation" was pursued in academe. Bottom line I expressed at the time was, to an Aboriginal leader, "Your son needs brain surgery? D'you want a black bricklayer or a real brain surgeon to do the job?"

I saw one white woman, a registered nurse with thirty years experience with at least two graduate degrees moved out of lecturing in Aboriginal Health, to be replaced by an Aboriginal face, with no tertiary qualifications!

I have seen a head of centre (HOC) given three years fully paid study time to gain a Phd. That she did not qualify did not did not thrust her HOC and professor's salary out the door for a qualified person.

Cynical, maybe, but about both black and white Australia, white by patronisation, and black by accepting assimilation by superannuation.

But this does not stop the babies from dying does it? Where is the fix?

In part by academe doing its job; responsibly, professionally, and determinedly, and if that means sacking either lazy Aborigines and/or patronising vice-chancellors, so be it.

And another part is in Aboriginal Australia accepting that the world in which we live demands high quality real qualifications regardless of status, colour, creed or any other aspect of one's cultural roots

Ah, James Nesnor, in your eagerness to praise the gatekeepers of Aboriginal health services you forgot/omitted to mention the unmentionable, the nurses who are relied upon for health care in remote communities. An academic oversight perhaps - or could it be denial? And in your desire to follow popular lines you omitted to ask about the distribution of funding for Aboriginal health (so did Oxfan and NACCHO)in the Closing the Gap report. Who gets the bulk of the money? When was the last critical audit of health care outcomes (if there ever was one)? The answers, should you be curious enough - or care enough - to know, could surprise you and alert you to the need for a deeper investigation.

Jenni,

http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=6097#87700

You and I have a point of agreement here. Years ago I viewed the invention of the graduate Aboriginal Health Worker with some optomism. I was horribly wrong. We yet have no NATIONAL competency and registration base, due in the main, to state based politics.

We have an adequate health structure, we need First Nation Australians to enter into it. But whilst the issue is patronised by the politics of academe and their hierarchy, the babies are still dying....

Sapper_K9

As a community most Aboriginal people agreed to work for the dole, then the do gooder's fearing that whites may have to as well had the program stopped. The same idiots also told us we couldn't disipline our children or send them bush to learn our law, and then complained when they broke the white's mans poor excuse for law.

Also how is it that when money spent on Indigenous people to right wrongs created by the theft of our lands and economy is refered to us taxpayers money. Big news without the theft of that land their would be no white economy, and handouts to car makers, various sporting events and first home buyers would not have happened.

Don't get me wrong I hate the parasites in my community as well who have created a lifestyle for themselves with little education, and blocked opportunities in the community for self preservation reasons like ATSIC. As for behavioural problems in the communities, as far as I am concerned we should round up all the drunks druggies and pedophiles in the community, transport them to the middle of the desert and let them rot in the sun.