I'd vote against any proposal for indigenous Australians to be treated any differently to the rest of us, we're supposed to be one nation.

It's time for the Aboriginal Industry to be abolished.

Dear Joe,

<<Otherwise, where's the fun in being on OLO ?>>

As I said, the definition of "public" in section 18(c) is too inclusive.
OLO should be considered a private club whose sovereign is Graham Young.

My sincere wish: that you all read Stan Grant's book 'Talking to My Country' before you comment further.

By 'my country', he means you, me, all Australians.

I could quote from the book, but a single quote would not do it justice. I'll just say, I was truly moved.

Stan Grant is not everyone's cup of tea,

http://zanettisview.com/story/50-shades-of-grant/2624

Fair enough. But read the book and make up your own mind.

Possibly why it touched me is because it rang true to me, a white women who has worked with Aboriginal communities since the 1970s. I've experienced the spill-over of racism - been followed by the police, physically shoved about by white people etc. The first words I learned in the local language were 'the police are watching us'. I'm aware of the hassles that Italian and Greek migrants had, but it has basically taken just a generation for that to fade. For Aboriginal people it is multiple generations. And while things have improved a lot, there's still a depth of antagonism against Aborigines in some sectors that isn't there against Italians.

Read the book and make up your own mind. Grant is pretty honest about himself and his stumbles and the difficulties he (and others) have in coming to terms with their combined Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal ancestry.

He's not perfect, but who is? Let he who is without sin cast the first stone....

Where were you in the Seventies?

I grew up on farms where Aborigines chose traditional or non-traditional lives and some flexed back and forth. They had complete freedom of movement across properties and worked as they wished. As children my siblings and I never saw any difference and nor did anyone else.

At boarding school there were students from Europe, PNG, Asia and Indigenous of course. Again, I cannot recall any friction or even mild discrimination. In fact, we benefitted in the football and athletics (maybe not having formal birth records might have helped) and as far as scholastic achievements went, the Asian students with their superior early grounding in maths, sciences generally and even in English were a boon.

Frankly I don't know that the patronising 'initiatives' of Whitlam et al did not create the very opposite result to that intended. The self management and the black curtain of self-imposed apartheid immediately gave power, opportunity and cover to bullies in the communities, and corruption and wastage became rife. Public money that was intended for services at the sharp end were gobbled up by the myriad of fleas on fleas, black and white.

There was a host of social workers and other professionals who created problems for the future by (wrongly) experimenting with and applying social change strategies and political activism that had failed or were in the process of failing in the US.

To be frank with you, what was needed at the time was practical skills, especially trades to build some useful infrastructure, including improved communication and transport. -Instead there was an expensive gaggle of social science and political science grads, bureaucrats and in NGOs, eager to stuff around with people's heads, to play politics (US left activist style) and gobble up $millions in the process.

Times haven't changed much and I wonder just how many dollars from the millions allocated each year actually deliver something of practical worth and MEASURABLE at the sharp end.