Despite all these anecdotal stories about Aboriginals and their six figure bank accounts, and fellas off the reservation, and on the war path, the simple fact remains Indigenous Australian are in the main disadvantaged members of our society. Some people because of their philosophical leanings oppose any assistance to our indigenous brethren purely because they see such people as "undeserving" of their charity. To justify their personal prejudices they "produce" these narrow anecdotal stories with some degree of negative content, then extrapolate this specific instance to cast a general negativity over the whole group.
On a number of fronts many Indigenous Australians still remain disadvantaged, health, education, housing, employment to name but a few. As a society we can equate to the negativity that some claim is the norm, and do nothing, or we can act to do our best to overcome the undeniable problems many Indigenous Australians face everyday. There have been failures, and there has been waste, some are quick to point that out, but there has also been successes, many of us are slow to recognise those successes, preferring to finger point and reinforce the failures. So be it, but I know where I stand.

Paul1405,

You sound very much like a dupe for those with a vested interest in maintaining a dysfunctional system because they get personal power out of it and are making hay out of taxpayer' millions that were earmarked to make a contribution to the welfare of Aborigines but are being converted into private gain.

The Australian National Audit Office reports are independent and they show wholesale waste and fraud - for decades.

You need to travel IN Australia to see for yourself. Then advise why some communities do well and some indigenous take advantage of education, but others do not.

Of course the Greens Protest Party is only interested in trouble and protest, sensationalism and headlines, so that is not so likely.

The Greens would prefer to get some votes from the ruthless and lazy, who along with their own relatives and mates have managed to get themselves into representative, advocacy and management positions where they are doing alright for themselves, but NOT for the indigenous housing and so on that those millions of taxpayers' dollars were approved for.

It is a fact that a dysfunctional system is protected and continued by those internal to the system and with a stake in the corruption remaining that way. The initiative and solutions must come from within the indigenous community to remove the greedy, corrupt individuals who block progress.

Taxpayers have been most patient but are exasperated and are demanding results NOW.

Beach, no thanks for your usual extreme radical opinion of The Greens. As for the rest of your comment, when waste and/or corruption are uncovered then the authorities are obliged to take action to correct the situation, not just with matters relating to Aboriginals but with all areas of government expenditure.
Your claim the system is dysfunctional, and I can only assume you mean totally dysfunctional, is a rather broad statement when there is no independent evidence to support that generalisation. there is no denial from me that things can be improved and things can be done better, can not see how that makes me a "dupe for those with a vested interests". As for your comment "You (Paul1405) need to travel IN Australia to see for yourself." I see the problems faced by indigenous people everyday in our large indigenous community in inner Sydney, the problems of the urban community are none the lesser that those of other indigenous communities. I see and deal with problem people regularly, do you?

Paul1405, "when waste and/or corruption are uncovered then the authorities are obliged to take action to correct the situation"

Ordinarily yes, you would expect that to be the case, but NOT where indigenous are concerned.

Otherwise why do you imagine that the deficiencies are found over and over again for decades?

Any observer of politics would know why that is so. I have already listed the causes. The exasperated public are demanding accountability and results.

The term 'wealth distribution' is used often these days to describe the disparity between the rich and the poor.

It would be very interesting to find out what percentage of indigenous folk receive what percentage of the overall funding. It may well be that 98% of the funding gies to 2 % of the population, as is often the case in third world countries.

If this is the case and activists are well catered for, perhaps this would then be one of the problems because they may well adopt the attitude of why rock the boat. For this reason it may be worth removing any conflict of interest that may be in place because let's face it, with the millions being paid for decades, little enrodes are being made in rectifying the ongoing problem.

Maybe by giving up to 4th generation aboriginals such areas as Coastal fishing, Forest, and inland plains, and river as self managed reserves and fund and teach them to live and produce income from product in those areas for the wider community and not give individual handouts. Once anyone lives outside those areas they accept the status of the wider Australian community.