The current 52% approval from people wanting to seem 'nice' without having a clue what this change to the Constitution actually means is not a very robust figure, when a majority of people in a majority of states would have to vote yes.

Paul, you should seek counselling.

Going to a meeting tomorrow night, with the guest speaker giving a talk on the treatment of Aboriginals in colonial times. Should be interesting.

Jose'

You said; "Repatriations is part of Closing the Gap" Steele commented; "And if reparations are part of closing the gap then so bloody be it." Which I totally agree with.

Then Indy seems to favour some kind of repatriation of Aboriginal people, he said; Repatriations is part of Closing the Gap. The best estimate is the ancestors of today's Aboriginals originated somewhere around Central India, about 100,000 years ago. I suppose sending the off to Central India, might close the gap, well at least they would be out of sight. As for you and Indy a bit of repatriation back to the old country would do Australia the world of good.

Paul1405,
Why not talk about treatment of Aborigines today ?
Everyone already knows about the dreadful past but hardly anyone knows
about excesses of good will today ! And, no inventing or pontificating of atrocities required.

Hi Indy and Steele,

Indy you asked;
Why not talk about treatment of Aborigines today ? Yes by all means, that's important, but we also need to understand history and how it has lead to today's situation.

I attended that meeting on Thursday night where the guest speaker was a well publish historian on Aboriginal life under colonial rule in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His talk concentrated on the actions of government, European settlers and Aboriginals, he spoke in detail for an hour, taking question after, about the various police forces which were formed by government to deal with the "problem of Aboriginals and their impact on European settlement", he spoke about the action taken, both official and unofficial, his talk centred around northern NSW and southern Queensland including the 'Native Police', which incidentally was the most terrifying at dealing with the indigenous people. The speaker was extremely knowledgeable, and gave accounts of people and incidents that took place, what was the motivation behind government policy both the official policy, and the unspoken genocidal policy, and that's what it was, genocide plain and simple. He spoke of what was the final outcome and how it impacts the make up of modern Australian society. Indy you may ask; "was he a "black fella", no, an eminent historian, not a politician or an black activists, or any of those others you like to demonise, just a well versed historian telling the story from an historical viewpoint. And as he stressed; "I'm not here to flog my new book". At the end during the tea and bikky time I was able to have a short chat about the politics of the subject, me saying you stressed you were not speaking from a political standpoint, but rather an historical perspective. He said, yes but its not easy not to be political when it was very political both then and now.

Paul, who was the historian? I lived in Northern NSW from the 1940s till 1960s and played among aboriginal children. The problem was alcohol use in the family, and the police treated them the same as any drunk. It was just their behaviour was uncontrollable when drunk, and the police in those days used force and you respected them.