WW, the first point I would make is that no matter how much taxpayer’s money went to the first Aussies, let’s say since they got the right to vote in 1962, it all went back into our domestic economy. Whether it was rorted or ended up doing what it was earmarked for, it added to the economy.

I can’t think of a single indigenous culture that profited by Caucasians invasion. The America’s, Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, and Polynesia were not vacant and all those original cultures are at the bottom of the current economic ladder. None of these cultures have prospered, but the Polynesians have fared better than most, and our first Aussie has fared worse than most.

The inability to fit into the consumer society is at its base. It comes down to values. We all know that Aboriginal communities have a track record for destroying the infrastructure that they live in, and the concept of ownership of goods and chattels is not as strong in them as their mercantile white brothers.
TB

I also believe it is a DNA thing. After a thousand generations the concept of time in the indigenous and the concept of time in the Caucasians are different. One way to put it is that the Caucasians brain is on work time, while the first fella here works on holiday time. I think that even without alcohol ravaging all the native communities that the indigenous people would still have ended up at the bottom in the cultural transfer.

About the money and the way it is administered:
When the white guy controlled the funds they were rorted.
When the black guy controlled the funds they were rorted.

The national aboriginal community have many outstanding spokesmen and women who understand that education, support and time will see our mates find the middle ground that brings them community respect and self determination.

God WW, I well remember going to the Empress hotel in Redfern regularly with Mark, still a mate, to drag his dad home….they were wild days for that aboriginal community I can assure you. I can see how our indigenous city cousins have assimilated to modernity, but we still need to support the bushies who haven’t

I am sick of aboriginals. Perhaps I am more sick of the aboriginal industry than of the people, but the result is the same.

I am sick of hearing cries of anguish about the health of people who are drinking themselves into the grave.

I am sick of cries of poor education of people who won't send their kids to school.

I am sick of hearing "the government" doesn't provide employment for people who chose to live where is no employment, or go walkabout after just a few months in a real job.

I am sick of those who want to be paid to pretend to help aboriginals.

I no longer donate to the Royal Flying Doctor service, since that time when they were "too busy" flying pregnant aboriginal women to & from their regular check up in Cairns, to divert to pick up an injured worker.

It is time we walked away, with the understanding of the old tale about leading horses to water, & making them drink. We should dump all references to aboriginals in law, & in parliaments.

When, or if, they are ready to be helped into the modern world, they will come demanding their "rights". Until we are merely pushing it up hill with a sharp stick, while being ripped off by a bunch of smarties. Enough must be enough surely.

Sorry sonofgloin, that is nothing particularly to do with aboriginal culture old mate.

In the days of 6.00 o'clock closing I would often be sent down to one of the pubs in town around 7.00PM to drag dad home, or at least take the car home if he wouldn't come. Mom was worried about him killing himself if he attempted to drive home. I was 15 or 16 at the time.

We had a bike rack made for the back of the car, so I didn't have to walk in.

I was not alone, there could be half a dozen kids in fetching dad, & not an aboriginal among them. Some times the local police sargent would come in & help roust the men out. It was amusing that he made sure it was the unlicensed kids driving, not the drunk fathers.

It took many of these ex WW11 soldiers 20 yeras to grow out of it, & many died a lot younger than they should have.

It may take many more years than that for our aborigines to grow out of it, after all, it took our European ancestors a couple of hundred years to grow up during the industrial revolution, why should we expect aboriginals to be any faster?

It is time to stop pushing, & let them find themselves, in their own time, in their own way.

Hasbeen old fruit, calm down. I won't dispute what you have said.

My only comment is that (for the sake of perspective) I wish you were born to an alcoholic father and illiterate mother, living in an inner city hovel supported by benefits with no authority figure at home that thinks past today. Not much chance for that kid, and that was most of the aboriginal kids I grew up with.

Your stereotypes are not historically false, but they aint helping.

As I said in my first post, any money given to aboriginals stays in our economy….unlike the Billions that the Carbon Tax is sending to new owners in the northern hemisphere.

Last year while driving up to Qld I stopped to get a burger at a small town on the coast. A couple of young aboriginal women were being served. The only way that I could describe their attitude and the way they addressed the Caucasian woman behind the counter would be with contempt. When I picked up my burger I asked the woman what their problem was. She said that the majority of aboriginals treated the whites with contempt; she said they begrudge what the whites have.

People are people, and the uneducated come in all colours and that is all I took away from that episode.

While you were up in gods country, did you notice any of the Kanakas, or their mixed race progeny.

You may not, they have disappeared into the scenery. The check out chick, the local mechanic or whatever, it is hard to spot them.

They came as near slaves, with no more advantages than the aboriginal, but with no department bleeding all over them, they have just got on with life, & did the best they could. That is not a bad best either.

A mate of mine had a cane cutting kanaka father. He was one of 7 kids, living in a country town, with the educational disadvantages that gave. It did not stop him flying as an air force Sabre pilot in the Korean war.

I reckon many aborigines could have done the same, if they had not suffered from the sit down money syndrome.