I feel that you have the bull by the tail, what we have is rampant radical capitalism, resulting in the appalling morals and values of corporates and business first governments.
I would never quote Noel Pearson, i see him as an ambitious "white" person. It is my opinion he is not worthy to be a mouthpiece for indigenous peoples.
I have lived and have had different life experiences to yourself, i go back to times when morals and values were not mickey mouse stuff, people did not exploit others as is the done thing in todays self centred and greedy attitude to life. What is right and what is wrong is never talked about today, it is all about, left, right, centre, anti this and anti that.
Most people of your generation, believe they know something about everything, "they" saw it in the paper or on the telly. "They" have never suffered, so therefore they are ignorant about the suffering of others. "They" have been indulged too much, and have never been encouraged to think for themselves, and "they" are easily manipulated and influenced by political and corporate messages, directed at them repeatedly, to achieve success for their masters.
Indigenous peoples have received injustice from the whites, since they first landed here, it is still ongoing, if whites are entitled to their basic right to adequate health and education, then black brindle or any other coloured peoples are also entitled to the same rights and services. They were the first Australians.
You mention Bush, he is the major war criminal and terrorist in todays world, and some ignorant people believe that he is right not wrong in his evil actions.
I have a radical plan too, failed States, such as Australia and the USA, need to be governed by a benevolent dictator to right the wrongs done, by self interested, ambitious, enemies and traitors of the people they lead.

Thankyou Sarah101. Most on the extreme left are too shy to say they want to abolish democracy and install a dictatorship because they can't accept the will of the majority. Many think it, mind you, but they don't dare say it.

You fulfil a valuable role in exposing the green left's inherent nuttiness.

Long may you blather.

Hey grn, think we are being trolled by Sarah. Can't really believe anyone believes such nonsense.

I think the point of the article is that we need better leadership, capable of thinking 'outside the box'. I have to say I will be voting Labour this time. Prior to Rudd this was mainly because of Iraq, but now I actually think I want to vote for the man. In particular I like the way he is happy to endorse government policy if he agrees with it; none of this opposition for the sake of oppostion.

gw

The 3rd way is just well meaning small "l" liberal gibberish. It is to political thought what human resource management is to sociology - tacked on , poorly thought out and with no useful purpose that can be discerned.

It seems to me that the key failure in indigenous policy is that the people have been given rights but lack a requirement for responsible behaviour in return and some of the rights are unsustainable, eg, how do you provide genuine employment in 60+ remote communities or is there just an expectation that the welfare tap will continue to drip its fetid offerings ?

It is amazing how quickly we forget. Many of my friends who were Liberal voters and now changed to Labor have argued that the Liberal Party has lost its way. Its origins (and what I remember as a child in a Liberal voting family) were to protect the interests of small business, encourage competition, stimluate free enterprise and entreprenuerism. The Liberal Party of today has swung so far away from those early ideals into the sphere of big business, free trade and globalisation with a skewed perception of 'economic growth' to our detriment.

I should add that the world wide trend to the 'right' of politics is reflected not only in the Liberals but in Labor as well.

What we now refer to as the Third Way is nothing new. Remember the old days when we owned our utilities, championed free education and when the hospital system worked. Now if you mentioned public ownership you are labelled a left wing radical. It is laughable. The Third Way makes sense.

The excesses and exploitation that capitalism fosters needs to be reigned in and tempered by some regulatory controls, some form of participatory democracy, open and transparent governing which involves community consultation and scrutiny. Most importantly ensuring that community and social justice isses are not placed as the lowest priority and that capitalism does not exhaust our resources to the point of extinction ie.environmental sustainability.

The Third Way is not radical it is common sense.

grn, It is my personal opinion that the use of left and right, acts as a wedge that blunts truthful conversation.
My heroes are Mandela, Ghandi, Mary Robertson and Martin Luther King Jnr. These people believed in rocking the boat to shake people out of their comfort zone to improve the lot of other less fortunate people.
Do you care about those less fortunate than yourself?, or are you an indulged mummy's boy?.

Sarah,

Noel Pearson is spreading some tough love because he cares about the future of his people. Unlike the left who have been far too namby pamby about the whole business. The left cared more about the appearance and the niceties of Aboriginal policy. Finally we have someone who’s interested in results.

Western Red is bang on when he says that for far too long now we have focussed on people’s rights, almost entirely forgetting that citizens used to have responsibilities as well. There is just NO WAY there can be viable economies in every tiny aboriginal settlement. Without REAL work, not gov’t make work, these people can never have the things we take for granted.

Noel Pearson knows that stopping the cycle of poverty isn’t going to be easy. But he’s also no longer prepared to stay quiet while his people are brought to the brink of destruction. Passive welfare, the lefts solution, is killing aborigines and their communities.

When it became clear from the recent study that aboriginal children were suffering from child abuse at levels unimaginable in white Australia, Pearson and the Gov’t said ENOUGH.

There is no point any longer in pretending that aboriginal policy over the last twenty years has been at least as big a failure as the previous twenty.

Noel Pearson should be on your list as he has well and truly rocked the boat to get some real help for his community. No more throwing money at the problem in the hope that we wouldn’t have to do something to fix it

Well what else but a wishy washy ideologically careful piece of prose written by hose who believe in all this civil society rhetoric. New age, born again Marxists playing with themselves.

Disgusting! stop it before you go blind! (too late you already are)

Vern ,
you seem to think that "throwing money " at Aboriginal Services doesn't work .

I disagree . The more money that is thrown at Indigenous Services the better .

It is HOW the money is managed and who catches it that is the most important aspect of Indigenous funding .

Critics of Aboriginal Policy and Aboriginals will use your words to back their argument that Aboriginal people should not receive a brass razoo to help them out with their health, housing and education .

Mal Brough has at last listened to the experts on health ,housing and education and found out that the catch-up money that needs to be thrown at Indigenous Programmes in the Northern Territory is now up around 2 BILLION dollars .

Now that's a lot of buckets .

I disagree with the statement "Third Way debate in Europe and North America in the 1990's never reached Australia. Its only champion, Mark Latham,....." During those 1990's I watched the bits and pieces of Third Way and Blairite stuff spreading through leftie, ALP and "The Mutuals" here in South East Queensland to ad nauseum levels. Acolytes will try on every new idea as it sweeps through. I'm not disputing your basic article, just this opinion.

westernred,

It would be interesting to know how much of the money that comes into these communities goes to white business people.
Indigenous people without the chains of despair ,alcohol and drugs will do OK .

Knocking Aboriginal people has gone on for the last 200 years .

It's poor Form in my book and irresponsble to boot .

Ps.Funny how all the westernreds [kangaroos] around here have disappeared along with most of the Aboriginals.

We always know what's best for the locals.