Stevenlmeyer,
I don't dispute the rationale of your post. What i am drawing attention to is that the majority of people are conditioned by consumerism to live the way they do. The only time I hear an indigenous person to ask for commodities is via the media. Most really don't demand many of the so-called services that are provided by the taxpayer. Much of this is imposed because public servants demand conditions to be provided which are not demanded by many long-term remote area residents. This is the negative side of the so-called equal entitlements for remote area communities. With this come all the rules & restrictions to which main stream is conditioned. People in the bush are not & this creates much discontent. The argument that people have to pull their weight is not opposed by many. What is opposed is the fact that many of the resources are taken from remote area & when some of the wealth from these resources is put back into the community it is portrayed as taxpayer funding.

Banjo,

I take your point. However, there must be definition on our books as to what constitutes abuse. Before migrants come to this country, they should be informed that
certain matters are criminal HERE. Perhaps, even require ALL migrants, whatever their
background, to sign a document stating that they understand what constitutes criminal activity.

Female circumsion has no relevance to religion - either Islamic or Christain; indeed, those who first converted to Christianity also practiced it - not now. It is an ancient tribal practice. In one place where it was practiced, the women themselves, refused to permit their daughters undergo this procedure. I am sure that we have migrants from such areas that practice this - however, I am also sure that other migrants from the same area don't.

Either we have laws in place - in which EVERYONE IS EQUAL before the law, and EQUALLY PROTECTED by law. What of the victim in all of this? It really is appalling that the people we elect haven't got the courage to make a stand. Surely, we don't need a referendum on this ...

As it is; it seems that everyone has to be sensitive to barbaric "cultural" practices. But those who do it, don't have to have any cultural sensitivity to the laws of the land of their adoption.

Danielle,
Yes, FGM is a cultural matter as people of various religions carry it out. I consider it to be barbaric child abuse and it is disappointing that parents carry it out here with impunity from our laws.

Your first point about migrants getting information is interesting.

Up until now potential migrants have had to find out about our society, laws and culture from their own sourses or word of mouth. Only when their visa application was approved were they given official information. This has always been the case and just prior to the last election changes were made to have the information given when an approach was made to obtain a visa. Last I heard this material was ready for printing, in many languages.

I don't know what has happened since the election, but hopefully it will continue as previously decided. Its an obvious beneficial change.

Banjo,

Thank you for your comments. There has been discussion before OLO, that prior to migrants coming to Australia they should be educated about us, our laws, even our constitution. This should be implemented by the relative embassies. It must be frightening to arrive in a strange country and not know anything about it. At least this would be a good means of introduction.

This is no way should be seen as a means to discourage and isolate migrants, but is absolutely necessary information - specially for those liable to experience culture shock.
We shouldn't be expected to radically change our values, developed over hundreds of years, to accommodate those we perceive as undesirable, such as female circumcison.

Generally, before aussies go to spend an extended period of time in another country, they
seek as much information, even undertaking language classes. This is part of the joy of visiting other places - otherwise we may as well stay at home and watch travel programs on TV.

When I was younger (I don't know if this this happens now) prior to entering another country, one was issued with "notes for your guidance" ... I recall that our sign for OK (thumb and forfinger in a circle) was an obscene insult in (I "think" Greece). Even this advice is necessary.

I was once told by bunch of females, that schmalz is actually what
they want to hear.

"That dress looks wonderful on you", "you are the most gorgeous
female that I know", "of course you are not fat". etc. etc.

I guess this is where we have some stereotypical gender
differences. Men are more into things, women more into how
they feel. Its already apparent at a young age.

I think its actually true, as I know a few males who are experts
at dishing out schmalz and they have kids running around
everywhere :)

Seems that David Burchell shares my misgivings. Maybe he reads Online Opinion ;-)

See:

FUZZY FEELINGS WON'T SAVE ANYONE

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23229210-7583,00.html

Some snippets

...It's not clear that most Aboriginal children were actually taken from their families on explicitly racialist grounds,

...conscience, guilt, atonement and forgiveness can be double-edged emotional swords. … Bestowing an apology on another can cause us a perverse kind of pleasure: the pleasure of feeling better about ourselves as apologisers.

Perhaps that's why so many of the people …managed …to be so mean-spirited towards the hapless but basically well-intentioned Brendan Nelson. They were distancing themselves from the other Australians out there, those less virtuous than themselves.

...I worry whether a PM ...will muster THE STRENGTH OF CHARACTER TO BE HATED (vociferously hated, perhaps) by many Australians - white and black alike - for making the kinds of unpopular decisions that are surely required. (Emphasis added)

The danger is that in a generation's time we'll have a new apology to make. Put briefly, it might read something like this:

* It was we who kept Aboriginal people in chaotic communities without livelihoods, services or decent sanitation, in the belief that in this manner their culture might be preserved as an instructive reproach to our own

* It was we who persuaded ourselves that while we need decently paid jobs, financial assets and life security as part of our human and social rights, Aboriginal people were happier and more in touch with their true nature without those things

* It was we who went on long camping tours of the Top End, where we almost began to imagine ourselves as Aboriginal. Except that when we came back from these sentimental journeys we talked always of land, mysticism and the simple joys of community, and never of hygiene, employment opportunities or child safety.

* It was we who, having operatically distanced ourselves from the hard-hearted policies of another generation, LET OUR SOFT-HEARTEDNESS TURN ONCE AGAIN INTO PURE, UNADULTERATED FUNK.