Dear mhaze,

Well I could believe a keyboard warrior like yourself or I could take the word of the AHRC who actually looked at the figures.

"A report by the Australian Human Rights Commission in 2008 said that statistics for confirmed child abuse did not appear to support the "allegations of endemic child abuse in NT remote communities that was the rationale for the NTER"".

The Little Children are Sacred report said categorically: "It is critical that both governments commit to genuine consultation with Aboriginal people in designing initiatives for Aboriginal communities."

Instead Howard set up the Intervention within a couple of weeks of the report coming out.

Dear Fester,

Howard acted in election mode haste and brought in severe restrictions in 67 indigenous communities instead of the dozen that had been specifically identified. He put military boots on the ground. Not only suspended the Racial Discrimination Act, a protection the rest of us feel is sacrosanct, but also Native Title. All indigenous members of those communities had welfare payments quarantined regardless whether they had family issues.

Yet you are prattling on about the White Australia policy?

You continued myopic take on this is very telling. If you supported the Intervention then you support the race powers within the constitution and your protests are very hollow.

In the 1990s when I would weekly travel through Purfleet near Taree, before it was bypassed, young aboriginal girls would line up along the road to pick up a payment for sex. Taree police often would clear the road because they were all underage. I would say they were between 14 and 16 years of age

As usual a discussion topic has gone in a different direction, but I'll try and comment regardless.

I tend to agree with Yuyutsu when mentioning those who are the most sophisticated people and what these people undertake. It's not overly nice in terms of activity and is used as a way to get an upper hand over others.

I prefer to deal with people who are peaceful and content with their lives and even some who are lazy. They may have been busy all day and need time to rest and relax.

I do agree with contented, and in terms of the book Dark Emu and the recent film put out, you don't need to over emphasise people's lives in their early days. For some people this is seen as a plus, but for myself, I'd prefer an accurate account of a person, (in this case Aboriginal), and their life, rather than something to make these people come across as more European (or other) to prove a point by portraying them as farmers, this, that or something else to have an increased level of value in some form. We should value people as they were in earlier times and in principle today.

Albanese believes we must Westernize aboriginals, while remote aboriginals want the old ways of gathering food and their primitive ancestral cultures.
The minister Linda Burney tells the truth, Albanese lies.
MUST SEE:
http://www.facebook.com/reel/3683607388572289

Foxy,

Freudian slip....you wrote "money" when you meant, I presume, 'many'.

ie "" Noel Pearson......He's one of ]many] giving the facts and telling the truth."

The Freudian slip is that this really is all about money.

Dear Steele,

I had no idea what powers Howard used with his intervention. All I knew was that it was a desperate situation with children in those communities at risk of harm and abuse. So in essence those measures were taken to protect children from harm. Note again that Howard's action was not about giving some Australians a democratic privilege over other Australians.

I have read that the race powers can be put to good and bad uses as justification for keeping them in the constitution. I think that we will just have to disagree about whether the Voice is a good or bad use of those powers, but it has been interesting to read your opinions. Incidentally, what first drew me to comment on this thread of Nathan's was my belief that modern civilisation might be doing a bit more for humanity than he imagined it was. Cheers.