You can not expect an individual or a group to perform to a standard which is not defined or the goal posts are changed the moment a player gets close.
This is what's happening in Australia now. I see it in the communities when Government raves on about self management or community building yet the moment someone gets up & has a go some regulation prevents them from doing anything. Council amalgamation was supposed to solve all that. The morale in communities has hit rock bottom since amalgamation. It's a failure of biblical proportion yet more & more faked reports get forwarded to the controllers in Brisbane telling the Government everything is honky dory. It is not ! People on communities are now so disillusioned that I can't see any light at the end of the tunnel until we have a change of Government & a change of top bureaucrats at the same time.

I'm with you Aaron 1975. I did 15 years in the Army & any was proud to serve with many Aboriginal soldiers, in fact there are a couple that I look up to, Like Billy Coolaburra, Buddy Lee, etc. There are too many to mention. My CSM at Singleton was Aboriginal. Field promoted to 2nd, Lt in Korea, downgraded (as was the practice) to WO2 after the conflict.
Army service for Aboriginal is a very good idea.

Army service for Aboriginal is a very good idea.
Jayb,
a non-military National Service for everyone would be even better !

Individual,

For everyone, yes: perhaps for the year after they finish secondary school, at no matter what age. It used to be the custom in many countries in Europe (perhaps still is) that they had to do a year (or maybe it was two) working either in a factory or on a farm, or in the armed forces, before they moved on to university or wherever. One could add in current economic and social circumstances, a year or two of full-time community work.

The philosopher Karl Popper did a two-year apprenticeship as a cabinet-maker before he went on to university: he always made his own furniture after that. You hear of other people who worked as a supervised classroom teacher in elementary schools, or joined the navy, or worked in a remote logging camp.

The question is: in Australia, can employment opportunities be developed in rural areas, particularly in the north, for every young person to work for a year or two ? Perhaps in the urban areas too ? The armed forces is one option, but could there be others ? Re-forestation ? Infrastructure ? Developing genuine enterprises ? Community rehabilitation and beautification ? Aged care ?

Vegetable gardens ?

Ideas are so easy, I'll concede that: the problem is how to put them into practice :)

Joe

The "IF's" involved are predicated on removing the "issue/problem" from the "Bureaucrat's" that have led the whole thing from one cluster to the next. There are several high-profile individual's who have no time whatever for the "Bureaucracy" involved, but who would participate/donate toward ANY response that was aimed at actually solving the problem rather than furthering careers/feathering ones own nest.

The problem would be finding the funding, without resources from the Governments involved, to field the initial program, with the aim of introducing a Army Cadet-type program into several communities at once. Given the sheer size of the intended outcome, this would entail providing suitably trained/qualified personnel with the assets needed to perform their job. These people would be paid from such a fund, as would the "Cadets". The individuals involved in raising the profile of the organisation, providing positive role models, etc. would only require payment for their time and for their transport.

Once at-risk-youths on identified communities can be convinced that their "status" within the Communities would be raised by service, then work can begin on fitness, teamwork, discipline, literacy, numeracy, etc. which would (a) provide a workforce within the community (not reliant on Centrelink) and (b) provide a semi-trained source of recruits (capable of meeting the entry/exit requirements from Kapooka/Singleton).

The existence of a semi-trained, literate/numerate, fit, disciplined workforce, would allow for realistic exercises for both RAInf/RAEME prior to overseas deployment. It would also provide valuable recruits to the ADF, whose recruiting requirements are getting more and more problematic, as we increase to 3 Brigades (the same size force as during Vietnam/Malaya). The reduction in Government spending that comes with the existence of skilled Labor on Communities, lower unemployment and reduced incarceration rates, would be of direct benefit to the Government.

Individual I just do not believe you served ANY TIME in Aboriginal community's and do not value your posts, not rude honest, your mind is closed,, self assurance miss placed.
I do however very much know the out comes and history of that referendum.
Not very far from me a township voted strongly against giving rights to our first Australians.
Things are worse now, yes now, than the 1970,s we can not surely think putting a whole nation in the army is the answer.
We are failing,stop doing it!get it right, keep those riding on the Aboriginal industry's back away.
Put the problem in the hands of such as Pearson, give them support cash and targets, put accountability on top, reward those who make it.
But let us no longer lie to our selves stop giving more for failure than success.
Stop hiding sexual assaults on children within even near city community's.
Stop looking the other way to third world conditions BOTH SIDES SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF.