Steven, you know no-one here is going to take a scrap of notice of actual facts mate.

Steven....what was/is your actual point here ?

My actual point is that there is a "humanitarian crisis" - to use one of the punditocracy's favourite buzz phrases - in Aboriginal Australia.

jayb, let me paint a picture:

You wake up in the morning, generally early given there are 20-odd people, including babies, living in a tin shed with a concrete floor...

That tin shed by the way, was built by shonky contractors and cost the taxpayer the same amount as a waterfront property in Sydney. It has no glass/plastic windows, it is eternally dusty due to the fact that water is limited and grass is virtually unheard of. The other problem, the amount of asbestos dust lying in the ground (yet to be dealt with, wait for it, it will be huge).

Electricity supply is patchy, so the food is limited to Hamper & Damper (which cost several times more than they do in the City - so it is all that can be afforded). Vegetables are scant, quite frankly, not much keeps well with patchy electricity and 40+C heat in a tin shed (suprisingly enough).

There is no television because there is no reception and the DVD player got broken when Uncle & Aunty got drunk last time the hot-grog turned up.

You go for a walk, you don't belong to one of the "lucky" families who control the Council, so you don't have a job, there is nothing to do, so you get bored and go meet up with your mates...

Trouble is, you didn't pay someone back for the couple of beers you had last time, which given a carton costs $120, means you owe quite a bit and you can't pay it back (they don't want money, they want grog & you don't have any), so you get a good flogging after getting there.

Some idiot calls the police, so the other person gets arrested and now blames you for it... So their uncle hits you across the scone with a star-picket for getting his nephew arrested. Next thing you are in an understaffed clinic, where the nurse gives you 2 panadol and a glass of bore water and sends you home.

That is what life on a community is like, next time think before you speak

Custard, let me paint a picture:

I know that picture well. I come from Nth Qld & I know Palm Is. well. I've been there & other remote communities as a guest. Yes, you are right that's exactly how it is in these remote communities. Thank you, Custard.

They take no responsibility for the smashed buildings, the maintainance of their houses or amenities, & the rubbish around their homes or filth in the streets.

This is why I am an advocate of removing all 21st century, modern convienences, tools, clothing, booze, etc from these remote Aboriginal communities. These people lived & survived extremely well until the arrival of modern man destroyed their culture. Therefore in order to preserve their culture, their original way of life, modern man MUST remove himself from their presence totally & they MUST not have any contact with modern man.

Why should they? The riots are real and they take place because of the entrenched racism in the Police, the Judiciary, etc. I still haven't seen any mention on here of the killing in the NT by the Cop, who was then investigated by NT Police (He deliberately fired directly into a crowd of people), who ensured he was not charged until after 2 months had elapsed. As a consequence the case was thrown out, why? Because in the Police Administration Act NT he had to be charged inside 2 months or not at all.

If that happened to me or my family? Would I take responsibility for housing? No. I would make like the Taliban and take out whatever police officer(s) I could get at with whatever weapons I could get/make/fashion. The fact they haven't done so YET, is due to the fact that the "supposed" firebrands, like Ms Smallwoood, are weak as p1ss.

Go to Doomadgee, go to the Pitjantjarra lands... See the Watchhouses with warning signs, saying "Enter at own risk, this building contains asbestos" (explain to me how you enter a watchhouse at own risk?), see the schools with the same signs... Then tell me how keeping people in 3rd world conditions is assisting them in any way...

As to self-worth, explain to me, how that is to be built up with no belief in the Rule of Law? Without that, they our outside society, with no way in (Go read Locke/Hobbes), why would anyone make an effort then mate? How do you teach someone to care for things when nobody is made to answer if they smash/destroy them? If you know what you say, then you are a cold hearted mongrel, if you honestly think it is by choice.

Either that or you are a Cop, they are the only people who ever get to Palm Island and make no effort to divine the causes of the problems. Alcohol fueled violence, absolute lawlessness, murders committed on a whim, yeah, lovely place... Why do you think that is?