Yindin,
There is a place called Windale, just south of Newcastle,NSW where the child abuse was as high as any. It took them 8 years but now the child abuse is one of the lowest.

That is not just commendable, it is remarkable.

An article was posted here, about Windale, on OLO about the time debate was on about the NT intervention. There was about 120 post about that, but no one wanted to know about how Windale acheived their brilliant result.

I deduced from this that most did not care about the kids at all but was only interested in a political agenda.

Having lived in the territory for a while I know that this is much more complex than most realise.
There *are* groups of aboriginal people who have descended into parasitical victimhood: alcohol, dispair and violence. There are actual cases of housing being dismantled for firewood, 4WDs swapped for slabs of beer, etc. In short, there is a lot of assistance wasted and a lot of wasted people.
These folks are unable to drag themselves out of this scenario because there is no support from trustworthy sources (no resources, traditions lost), and the white-mans "support" comes with undesirable, if not unacheivable requirements. Blaming them is all too common, because it isn't *this* generations fault. (If it isn't "us" then it must be "them" under the "someone to blame" model of politics)
The point is that change must be done using more carrot than stick. Humans (most anyway) will not allow themselves to be bullied by the "enemy". The sad cases that folks like Leigh use to justify a "they need to get their bloody act together" are, sadly, cases that will take more than one generation to fix. Others are genuinely trying, and will start to do well if the governments apology is more than warm-fuzzies. Fact is, if you look only at the sad cases racially, then *any* race (or group for that matter) will be undeserving of help and compassion.
The last thing we need is more stick, kind of like flogging a dying horse, but much more cruel.

Banjo I did read Leigh ( pardon I thought Leigh a women ) statement and he/she has missed the point as you have, unlike both of you I visit these communities quite regularly to visit relatives. We had work for the dole program that made these people work and kept them out of trouble. Then the do gooders came along and stopped it because I suspect that they feared white bludgers in the cities, might have to work for it as well and we can't have that apply to white bludgers its just not cricket.

My point was that the Inuit have thrived on mining money and have schools hospitals etc and unfortunatly still have bludgers, but they have acess to jobs and profits from their resources whereas Aboriginal people still don't in violation of internation law.

I have no issue with your comments on Labor which is why I have always voted Liberal, labor states like QLD,NSW,WA have all had premiers that have had a hand in the deaths by neglect of Indigenous people. Peter Beattie and his apprentice Ann Bligh had overseen some of the most outrageous violations of international human rights ( protection of children and property rights) law against Indigenous people in the country.

So I rejoiced when John sent in the troops and still remain a proud of our efforts as a party

Millions of dollars a year of mining and other resources are stolen from these communities each year without any compensation from the government and from the states.
Yindin,
There's that word again. Stolen ! Yes, much of the wealth in Australia comes from the natural resources over which the indigenous inhabitants have walked for apparently 50,000 years.
That same wealth did not find it's way from the ground into the Banks by osmosis. It was recovered by years & years of hard work, ingenuity & by technology brought to this country. Many, many indigenous have received compensation for the mining of the lands they frequented for so long. land which was harsh even by indigenous standards. It was not a Nirvana as so many attempt to portray it. Indigenous occupants suffered much from this & this has now been officially recognised. In stating this I also have to point out that many indigenous Australians have received considerable compensation. In fact many received more than most of the workers who made this wealth possible. In my view, opportunistic could pass but Stolen is out of context on this one.

John Tomlinson provides us with an insightful review of a book that is worth more than all the rhetoric coming from Canberra and all the glib cliche's and brain dead reasons that spew out from the mouths of black and white supporters of the NT intervention.

But despite this contribtion, the political neaderthals that drag their knuckles from post to post in this forum insist on putting up more BS, BS that they appear to believe and cherish.

Its no wonder very few posters here are from the thousands of learned people who work for the universities that sponsor this website.

It would simply be embarrassing for these to engage in debate with the likes of Leigh and other nutters here, a waste of time and effort.

I wish it was not like this, but that's exactly how it is.

What a shame

"all the glib cliche's and brain dead reasons that spew out from the mouths of black and white supporters of the NT intervention."

Thanks Rainier. You're not very interested in debate it seems, but just the invective that you rail against.