Former NT chief justice Brian Martin has resigned from his post just days after being appointed, after a four corners program highlighted child abuse. He will be replaced by two co-commissioners: Indigenous leader Mick Gooda, and former Supreme Court judge Margaret White, who was involved in the Mabo case.

Mr Gooda's appointment came from some community and political pressure to appoint an Indigenous representative and concern's about 'bias' re Mr Martin's involvement in legal affairs.

There are many Aboriginal people angry over what they consider to be the invasion of their country and the harsh treatment of their people, in terms of the stolen generation.

To put this in perspective, myself being vegetarian, I am very biased on the matter. I don't like the meat industry at all, and some of the information that gets put out by the sector, is misinformed, cheap and make jokes about those who have chosen to live a vegetarian lifestyle.

Why has there been such a short turnaround, will the community end up with a one sided report from a 'biased' royal commission? Doesn't this show the need for Federal Government action and no royal commission at all?

Hi Nathan,

Are you suggesting a 'whole-of-community' approach ? i.e. of each 'community' which keeps producing these destroyed children ? Are you suggesting that, somehow, perhaps even parents may be, in some sort of way, involved ? What, do you mean that parents should put their own kids before themselves ?

Are you implying, that, somehow, patents may have something to do with how their kids turn out ? That parents should feed their kids, clothe their kids, make sure they are safe every night and have a clean bed to sleep in, that parents should protect their children from any potential abuser (no matter how closely related), and should keep them away from grog and drugs ? That they should LOVE their kids ?!

Do you mean that, if fathers looked for and found work, no matter where and doing what, to put food on their kids' table and provide a role model of effort, and if mothers tried to maintain a tidy house in order to provide some sort of role model of effort, this might have some positive effect on kids' attitudes ?

Surely you're not expecting to get a job in Aboriginal organisations, are you ? If you are, don't mention these facets, just talk about colonialism instead.

Cheers,

Joe

Too right Joe, not a word mentioned about how and why these kids are there in the first place, they would rather just blame someone else.

The truth is we are now caught between a rock and a hard place, because apologising for the stolen generation is admitting guilt, so there is no turning back from here. Of cause the authorities of the day were doing what they thought was the right thing at the time.

The media would have us believe these are harmless kids, the 'butter wouldn't melt in their mouths' types, but in reality the majority are extremely violent thugs.

I think these indigenous activists, mostly cross breeds, should be thanking their lucky stars the Dutch, or the French, or even the Arabs didn't discover Australia, because had they, Aboriginal history would not exist, other than the mass slaughter that would have occurred.

Hi Butch,

Yes, my bet is that the Royal Commission will not get out of the gates of Don Dale.

And so it will keep going.

Cheers,

Joe

http://nt.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/362699/letters-patent-royal-commission.pdf

In resigning, Chief Justice Martin spoke of the disingenuous and misinformation behind the sledging against him and his family. That vicious sledging of a man who has served Australia should be abhorrent to all.

Although it is self-evident that the slurs against Chief Justice Martin were ill-deserved, scurrilous and entirely without basis. Now Warren Mundine, who previously spoke of his support for Martin has unloaded on him, alleging the Chief Justice lacks 'courage'(!).

<Martin 'wimped out', Mundine claims

The head of the Prime Minister's Indigenous Advisory Council, Warren Mundine, told triple j's Hack that Mr Martin "wimped out."

"To be a royal commissioner you've got to be tough, you're going to deal with some very serious issues … You're looking at criminality, there could be charges, there's going to be whole range of things come out of this royal commission," Mr Mundine said.

"There's going to be people not happy, people abusing him, and it's going to be a tough job."

However, he said Mr Martin did not need to resign.

"He just needed to work with the Government and move forward. But that's his call," Mr Mundine said.>

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-08-01/brian-martin-stands-down-from-royal-commission/7677400

However many will be left wondering if indigenous advocates and Aborigines themselves wouldn't rather they always had an excuse in their pocket for trashing the RC and and its findings to come.

The Chief Justice was right to resign and block that favourite 'out' whenever indigenous are called upon to accept responsibility for their own decisions.

With hindsight it is obvious the government acted with undue haste in setting up the Royal Commission and appointing Brian Martin, whom on the face of it seemed a good choice. Not only does the commissioner need to be seen as unbiased, there must also be no perception of possible bias. Turnbull and co, failed to apply due diligence and failed to consult all stakeholder. The government should have also made greater efforts to obtain bipartisan support from the Labor Party and left the NT government at arms length as it will be a key player in the proceeding.
For some there was a perception that the RC would be another white mans colonial court, with Aboriginal people, a major stakeholder being left on the outside looking in, as whitey once more determined matters concerning him. After this initial kerfuffle lets hope things now move on in a positive manner.