There are a few fairly specious arguments there. For a start, what is the point of the permit system if "Central Land Council approves more than 3,990 of the 4,000 permits". If only 10 were rejected, it seems that you might as well let every one in. The grog and all the other nasties are supplied either by people who don't need permits or else by those who got permits, so it obviously is a waste of time having them.

While you are busy heaping coals of fire on the Minister's head, how about a few scattered in the direction of the NT government and your ex ATSIC mates for sitting on their hands taking the money and doing very little to fix the problems for the past 40 years.

It is going to take some time and considerable resources to get on top of all the problems which have been allowed to build up and whichever party gets into power at the next election is going to have a massive job on their hands, so all you knockers had better get behind them and stop complaining.

David

Truth and Respect through politic's in Australia sets a disgusting example for civilians.Apart from the mud slinging there is no substance.Yesterday was another valuable day wasted by politians engaging in school-yard bullying reducing the real need for debate off the bench.

I feel the LIBERAL's have alot of learning to do. They are out of touch with the processes and needs of FAIR GO AUSTRALIA and how we would like to feel about our country on a International and National scale.

I support Kevin Rudd for his HUMAN FACE. His approachable manner, and I know with the need for "grassroot" services for Aboriginal people, Farmers and the rest of us struggling in the rural and regional area's... we might gain some continuity should the ALP get the chance to attack the problems that are skinking our communities.

WHY? It would be a way to PROBLEM SOLVE. While I don't believe we would be a ALP nation with all the STATE elections...possibly changing the ALP balance through State election later, I do seriously believe it would give our nation time to GET REAL... sort a few things out... especially on the ground for rural Australia.

Howard is disapointing - even after the emotional up-heaval of his Leadership scare. It was awful to watch. I note the way he utilises SOCIAL CAPITAL(in Benalong) asking for "help" and "support" for his own gain while having his minders do his dirty work.MISSION - slag ALP. SAD, the evidence I needed to confirm the motivates behind Howard and the so called team.As a motivated person myself, I would not last the distance in this kind of cultural environment. No this is not mainstream Australia, it is exclusive scare mongering.

The war in Iraq.Like Bush I believe Howard and his government is spining the meaning of "support" like real estates profit on lingo used to promote ecology and environment.

Our Federal Government is acting like used car sales men and I would be extremely worried if they were to win office this time.

Of course Howard wants to get rid of the permit system, no matter what.
Does anyone seriously think that this government gives a hoot about the aboriginal people?
All the pious stuff about saving aboriginal children from abuse – it sounds pretty hollow when you realise that the government has completely ignored the recommendations of the “Little Children Are Sacred” report.

I am sure that there are many good people working hard and well, to implement the “intervention’s” measures to improve aboriginal health and welfare. The intervention will surely have some good results, despite the hypocrisy behind the plan.

Who is surprised that the Howard government ignores the truth about aboriginal land and the permit system? After all, lying is entrenched in the Howard style.
Howard said he would “never bring in a GST”.
Howard knew that those refugees “threw their children overboard”
Howard knew that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction (so Australia went off to that foolish war in Iraq)
Howard didn’t know anything about the Australian Wheat Board bribing Saddam Hussein, while our troops were in Iraq. (We presumably are supposed to believe that Howard, Vaille etc are incompetent – just didn’t know what they were doing)

So – the Howard government says that it’s a good thing to demolish the reputation of the aboriginal people, commandeer their land, and remove their permit system.

Well – it is a good thing – for uranium exploration and mining, and for setting up the structure for nuclear waste dumping. After all, Howard tried to get South Australia to accept nuclear waste dumping, and it didn’t work. But the aboriginal people might be more vulnerable to bribery or intimidation about this.
As Australia has just signed up to the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership – well, it will be expected to take back international nuclear wastes, and we’ve gotta put them somewhere.
Christina Macpherson www.antinuclearaustralia.com

The Australian Community including Kevin Rudd and the ALP were effectively disarmed when John Howard and Mal Brough acted on the emotive issue of the little children are sacred and had to be saved from 'sexual abuse', 'pornography' and 'rivers of Grog'

Nobody seemed to notice that the rest of the 97 recommendations were ignored.

The invasion is best described as official vandalism, with ill conceived, hastily prepared legislation, pushed through a controlled parliamentary process, the Howard Government has effectively destroyed years of good reconciliation work and returned Aboriginal advancement to the years of ignorant paternalism.

Sadly, they will not be punished for their wilful acts of vandalism but leave the mess to be cleaned up after they have been expelled from Government.

The N.T. Government who commissioned the report are being severely hampered in implementing recommendations by Howard's agenda that has more to do with his electoral opportunism that any desire to uplift Aboriginal people from life below the poverty line.

The chances of two events as rare as a ringy thingy article and accuracy occurring on the same page are indeed astronomical: the PM flew in and out of Hermannsburg, so the 'sealed road' and 'official cars' (and Prime Ministerial comforts) had nothing to do with it.

Howard returned to Alice Airport hours before the moon turned red.

Sorry to spoil your precious imagery Gra-Gra, but that's life in lalaland for you.

It seems the PM is not the only one with a special talent for platitudes - meet our man in the Alice! Just read his articles, if you can bear the boredom.

And the haggard nit from the NIT can hardly afford to be sarcastic about other peoples' acronyms, let alone those of people like Chalmers and Brough who are actually doing some constructive & useful work despite their ill-judged propaganda and heavy handed approach.

Our no-brainer from somewhere, cub commentator Graham, can hardly load ammunition let alone fire it. The first line of defence against drugs and grog trafficking is not the permit system: the first line is decent and diligent cops with the trust of the community. Don't believe Ringy's ignorant nostrums and weird analysis.

As for my fellow commentators ChristinaMac and maracas, they have both got it as wrong as the thingy: Howard & co have not 'completely ignored the recommendations of the “Little Children Are Sacred” report.'

Far from it: if you go through the report's recommendations, you will find that Howard/Brough/Hockey/Abbott/Stone & co are addressing the vast majority of them, either directly or indirectly, wholly or partly.

They might be bastards, and doing some of it for the wrong motives, and have neglected to make these reforms years ago, and be doing some of it badly, but credit where credit's due please: they are actually ploughing more than a billion dollars into much needed reforms, some of which - the health, housing, policing, stores, safety, welfare, budgetting, training and employment provisions for starters - will greatly improve the length and quality of life for many Aboriginal children.

Yes truth is always the first casualty as those here who do not like the truth will run to the moderator.

Yes i know who you are by tag because there is now way you will come out and show the type of people you really are.

What is also funny is how you havnt got what it takes to take me to court for defamation.

I know i posted the truth and to go to court brings everything else out for me to state why i said it.

That is what you are scared off.

Stuart Ulrich
Independent Candidate for Charlton

what on earth was that about? paranoia in cyberspace?

TAFE,Vocational Education Services and Training are a bit SHORT(ZERO) in Cooktown and Cape York. Worse we have no representitives or access to educational networks that w/could help break through the barrier's that might lead toward productive pathways in education.

This topic is loaded and capped with silo politic's (between contactors) having all sorts of snags when it comes to transparencies. Policys at GROUND LEVEL are not addressed.

Centerlink contracts two different jobnet centers (offices under-staffed) and their resources appear to be leaner than lean, especially the PSP program (Personal Support Program) which does zero for those needing the personal support...

WHY?

NO RESOURCES.

Linkages with other services are poor though the school is part of the framework.... and trys...

Again DISTANCE - transport - accomadation and cost of training fees

Worker's are flat-out...too busy,and they are not good at using there imagination when it comes to presenting options for people who need the confidence...extra care, who might otherwise be lead/encouraged/inspired toward thinking about alternative options ie: community based work.

I have phoned endlessly to try and engage with governments and training providers.I am prepared to expose some of the letters as evidence to help break-though this burden.

I have written endless applications to help.

The problem is distance, cost, access.. facilities, information and local knowledge awareness. We have no public IT access unless you use the libaray for $2 per 1/2 hour - no admin spaces for locals who wish to "help themselves".

Also follow-up is erratic. You find that people who live in regional areas do not get the accountablity required...from government workers when it comes doing business with regional "fly-in's".

These people hop all over the Cape and are most always stressed and in a hurry. You are lucky if you can get 15 minutes with anyone of them. I find you get exhausted "chasing" after them... it makes the phone bills (STD) extremely costly to "engage" when it is all added up.

I'd like to see a decenteralised solution. TAFE STUDY GROUPS... Night School and more SKILLS SHARING.

Micro-enterprise hoots at the center of this solution.

http://www.miacat.com

Dan

Don’t worry about Tapp. He is a disgusting maggot who accuses the whole ALP of being child molesters and perverts. He is clearly insane.

I heartily agree with much of your post. Howard is probably doing it for all the wrong reasons, although I would not place Brough in that category. The problem is the left's virulent hatred of Howard. It blinds them to any good the current intervention might do.

The left is far more concerned with platitudes and appearances, like saying 'sorry’ and implementing ‘self determination’. They have looked the other way for twenty years while aboriginal communities were being destroyed from within.

They quickly forget the failure of ATSIC which did little beyond lining the pockets of the select few. No wonder these ex-ATSIC people are not impressed. The gov’t is actually trying to make sure the money gets to the intended recipients.

Maracas makes my point when she talks about undoing RECONCILLIATION work. Do you think the abused kids give a stuff about reconciliation? They want the violence to stop. Aboriginal communities are among the most dangerous on the planet.

What about the kids going hungry because mum/dad has spent all the money on booze. Do you think they care about reconcilliation?

The typical lefty has little contact with Aborigines, yet is already sure that what they need most is more of the same dysfunctional policies from the left.

Noel Pearson has had the guts to stand up and demand something REAL be done for his community. Yet the left shoot him down as a traitor. Where do these people come from?

It’s time we left fairy-land behind us. There are many remote Aboriginal communities that will never be viable. They simply are not big enough to support an economy that will provide them with all the things they need.

The left has avoided this problem by forking out sit-down money. This is destroying aboriginal communities.

We need to ensure that Aboriginal children receive the care, shelter and education they need to enable them to break out of the current cycle of poverty and deprivation.

Could somebody please remind me of exactly how many cases of child "abuse" have been identified since Howard decided that NT Aborigines might be politically useful?

I hear a lot about appalling housing, health and education on the news, but strangely there hasn't been much at all about child abuse.

Wasn't that the reason for all this belated attention to the problems in Indigenous communities that have been steadily festering under more than a decade of Howard government malignant neglect?

Or was the moral panic about apparent hordes of sexually abused Aboriginal kids a cynical attempt to shift the responsibility of that neglect on to its victims (not to mention a cover for winding back land rights)?

It is trust that is the first casualty not truth. Anyone who has worked with indigenous communities knows that sexual abuse is epidemic. I have seen it first hand. People from both sides of politics have a distrust for one another. The media is always predictable and adds to the distrust.

I think most of our politicians start out with good motives but soon realize that to get elected or re elected they need to throw out the spin. This is the same for Labour and Liberal.

When most people rely the daily news for their information it is not surprising that politicians of all brands quickly learn to play the game. That is one reason why people don't trust them

- - - cut and paste start- - -
Apologies for the delayed reply. If you are still looking for an answer on this one - when the legislation is proclaimed Katherine will be able to invite anyone to come to her house without a permit, just like any other place in Australia.

So, when the legislation is proclaimed Katherine’s husband will not require a permit to live with her in her house in Kintore, at her invitation.

When the main permit system changes become law (on a date to be proclaimed but no later than 18 February 2008) there will be public access to common areas of community land and related access roads / airstrips / barge landings. It is important to emphasise that the changes are not yet law.

Community land is generally communities of over 100 people and includes Kintore.

The public will be able to enter or remain on premises on community land with the permission of the occupier. This will apply, for example, when people have been invited into residences by the occupiers, or when there is indication that shops or art centres are open for sales.

- - - end cut and paste

CJMorgan, read the Little Kids Are Sacred Report, cast your mind back to the Mutijulu guests on Lateline; there's nothing apparent about it mate. That part of this is not contestable.

That said, I've been waiting for the arrests to occur too, even allowing for the well known difficulties of prosecuting paedophilia cases.

Maybe Tapp was spurred into action by the association of the NT with Bob Collins?

CJMorgan & Palimpsest:
Re prosecutions: Best to hold judgement on this one for a year or two I think.

There are a number of investigations going on based on hearsay etc, but as always in these matters, getting the hard evidence from child victims & witnesses that will stand up in court under ferocious cross-examination is the killer.

It is instructive that it is now 5 years or more since Sue Gordon's enquiry wound up in WA: it led to increased vigilance by authorities, many more police in more communities, and other reforms, all of which are now beginning to bear fruit with the many investigations and prosecutions (some already successful) in remote areas of WA.

It is also clear that the recent conviction at Ceduna involving 'petrol for sex' was a direct result of the Lateline program - featuring the Mutitjulu witnesses - encouraging Ceduna children to come forward and report what had happened to them.

Thanks Dan F. Maybe you can give us an on the ground update?

Yes Dan, please do. I'm in the Territory now, where are you? Perhaps we can meet and swap notes?