Joe, just to add, the ideal immigrants are Mum Dad with two Kids. Where Mum is exceptionally well trained in her chosen field of science which the nation is crying out for skilled people in. Dad is an entrepreneur investor with 10 billion bucks in his pocket ready for new science businesses which will employ thousands. The Kids are a couple of Rhodes Scholars, with PHD's in everything and ready to go at it!

You said "Is that 'blaming the victim'?" No more than blaming the smoker who dies an early death from lung cancer. How I read it, you are only stating the obvious. From a positive aspect what should be done to improve heath, specifically Aboriginal health, and in general everybody's health.

Hi Paul,

I'm all for immigration, and an increased refugee intake. My point is that sometimes one's preferred policy has unintended social effects in other areas.

Yes, of course, many migrants bring their families with them, including young children and babies. But on the whole, they tend to be mature adults. As you point out, they also are able to bring their more elderly relations to Australia, as of course they should be able to. After all, migrants are not just 'guest workers', to be used and then told to go back: they become Australians like you and me.

Migrants make up the shortfall in our population growth. Without them, Australia's population would level off and then decline. But they don't appear out of thin air: their emigration from their home countries reduces population back there. Our gain, their loss.

Although it's getting a bit off-topic: world population is not growing as much as you think, and certainly not evenly everywhere: in many developed countries, it may be static or declining - and certainly would be declining if it weren't for immigration. In Africa, populations are growing but not as fast as a few decades ago.

To circuitously get back to topic: Indigenous graduates tend to be women. They tend to have fewer children than non-graduates, and to inter-marry. As elsewhere, the more education women have, the later they marry, the freer are their marriage choices, the fewer children they have and the more they will invest in their children's education.

So yes, much higher mortality devastates the Indigenous welfare-oriented population, while higher education for women reduces the birth-rate. These factors (and others) are associated with continuing lower Indigenous population growth.

Cheers,

Joe

The pain is real as when I saw a middle-aged man banging his head on concrete when his wife argued with him for lying down drunk. Sadly when "elders" are seen in the media they are likely to be women, completely against culture for land-custodians. Young men seem to have a brief burst of crime to assert identity then it's downhill with no pathway out.

"Sadly when "elders" are seen in the media they are likely to be women, completely against culture for land-custodians"

Accepting that indigenous women do get a lion's share of the media limelight and I am not so sure is the case, you nonetheless have raised an important issue for discussion, that there is an apparent division, a separating way ways, between indigenous women and men.

After thinking about it, I believe you may be right. I am not so sure you are being frank about the whats and whys though. Indigenous women sure have reasons to want change. Not that the prevailing power structure in indigenous politics will allow that.

Being frank is in my blood as much as nick . In fact I've never been franker and I'm sure the same applies. Why not be frank ! wank, frank, thanks. but women as tribal spokesmen does great violence to their dis-empowered men , a silent form of abuse which may not be noticed in the general anguish of pain frankly.

No, Nick, non violent action NEVER EVER does violence, and the claim that it does is usually just an excuse by the violent to justify their evil actions.

As for why it's the women who are more prominent now, it's partly a reaction to events. More damage has been inflicted on the men than the women in many Aboriginal tribes, both by violence by settlers in the 19th century and by alcohol more recently.