"Minister Macklin claims that many women have told her that if the quarantining wasn’t compulsory for everyone then they would be humbugged for money by violent husbands or relatives. This is a problem for some women in many parts of Australia. But imposing paternalistic quarantining for another year just prolongs the problem: it does not solve it. If there was a real intent to solve the problem, then the government would engage in a community development program to work with the community to fully discuss the issues and come to solutions which would prevent such humbugging. Such programs have succeeded previously in the Territory."

Minister Macklin ought to talk to the girls of all hues who are being humbugged by the father's of their children, some of them are also their statutory rapists.
The same paternalistic Centrelink gives these child/mothers large sums of money for six months, enough for them to choose to live independently from their families, perhaps choosing to live with the law breaker/father. And what does centrelink say when the concerned parent/s of these child/mothers ask about their daughter, "sorry we can't tell you anything about your child, it's confidential"
Meanwhile in the NT we have Elder Indigenous Australians who have never used alcohol or any other drug and never abused their children having their payments quarantined. This is obscene.

No,no,NO!
Dont ignore the men.

Surely you dont recommend castrating them?
Mind you , this should apply to EVERYONE,not just aboriginal men.We have teachers and priests who would qualify.
They wouldnt re-offend,that's for sure.
Women and children would be a lot safer.

A bit drastic?

socratease

Don't you mob pretend Macklin & Brough are or have the answers to Aboriginal problems, they should be coming from the people themselves & therefore we should be taught, not over-ridden to achieve socio-political change, as well as supported financially.

Anyone who thinks THIS intervention is working is wrong, it is not aimed at improving social & health services for women & children, take a look at where the funding mostly goes... to Centrelink & the Ginger Bread Men, government business managers who are paid around $180, 000 pa, white fellas who don't know the communities they are dumped in then give thier advice about what is best for the people who have been there about 10 billion times longer.

What your anti-bleeding hearts perpetuate is the myth that all Aboriginal men get drunk, bash their wives, abuse their children & destroy thier communities, this is wrong, deeply wrong & just a perpetuation of excuses made to prolong the injustices you say we have to put up with, grow up Australia, you can't apologise a past wrong while continuing an ongoing one while hiding behind propoganda which falsly vindicates the coastal communities from accepting that this is social engineering made to centralise service delivery, force Aboriginal people off homelands into town for slave labour while the mining trucks come in, take over & make millions for international companies leaving the culturally inept blacks nibbling the peanuts they get for cleaning tables in shopping centres.

Bundagee

'leaving the culturally inept blacks nibbling the peanuts they get for cleaning tables in shopping centres.'

This would be better than getting sit down money in order to buy grog. There are plenty of whites, Asians and Africans cleaning tables. I did it for 2 years in order to pay for food, clothing and rent. Not everyone can have an ATSIC funded and Aboriginal Legal services jobs that pays high wages for little return. A number of mining companies I know of have bent over backwards in order to give Aboriginals good jobs. Due to a number of reasons they find it difficult to keep paying for people who regularly don't turn up for work. I suggest it might be your stereo typing that is keeping your people in bondage.

What stereotyping, I've seen the Aboriginal cleaners & crap kickers, what I don't see is the Aboriginal managers in these shopping centres, it is the conservative right who keep bringing up stereotypes to justify ignorance & discrimination like bringing up ATSIC again, which has been dead for years.
How's this for stereotypes, I have full time employment, my children go to school & childcare, I have a mortgage not a criminal record.
What I lack & am frustrated with is the ignorance of cultural integrity, without culture I am just a coconut, a brown Australian, not an Aboriginal Australian. If people don't get a comprehension of cultural obligations then they won't fully comprehend Aboriginal Australia.
Talk about hypocricy, bring up ATSIC then accuse me of stereotyping?!

Good article John, as always the "real white experts" here on OLO will indirectly rebuke you on your plea for justice to compensate for their own ignorance.