For the benefit of readers of this thread, Steel is quoting Ludwig from the second post on the thread.

Things HAVE been tried with this most difficult of problems for many years. You can hardly say that Howard hasn’t done anything in the last 11 years. He's done just about as much as a series governments before him.

There is no doubt that the timing of this latest effort has everything to do with the election. But it is also a matter of realising that ‘pussy-footing’ around the issues just doesn’t get us anywhere, and that it is time for a strong and decisive approach.

belly
Just remember most of Australia has been under state labour Government.
So if you cant praise Howards efforts because you reckon the Federal Government have been slack- Whats labours excuse? Umm
Our biggest mistake has been to listen tothe do gooders.
They are the ones who insisted! we treated aboriginal people differently to the rest of Australians.
That has resulted in their own aboriginal leaders rippping their own people.
At least Rudd has agreed its a step in the right direction.
So really all your comments and along with a few misinformed buddies are doing is highlighting once again disunity within labour.
Nothing else.
Please have the common decency to leave helping the poor little aboriginal kids and elderly OUT of cheap political shots.
I dont support the Howard Government in many things but - This is something any decent person supports and Rudds smart enough to know the public will punish him unless he supports it.
Good on the Howard Government

Even Rudd

"They are the ones who insisted! we treated aboriginal people differently to the rest of Australians."
I guess you think they should have no native title then. They were here 40 000 years at least, before their land was invaded and stolen by foreigners. Seems as though you are forgetting that.

"Things HAVE been tried with this most difficult of problems for many years. You can hardly say that Howard hasn’t done anything in the last 11 years. He's done just about as much as a series governments before him."

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/howard-took-no-interest-last-year-nt/2007/06/22/1182019367427.html
"A Queensland doctor, Lara Wieland, also said she had tried to tell the Prime Minister several years ago of the extent of abuse of indigenous children.
Dr Wieland personally handed Mr Howard a 10-page letter saying state authorities had ignored her multiple reports of child abuse, including cases of five-year-olds with sexually transmitted diseases."

Steel , If Howard was handed the letter on Aboriginal problems that needed adressing ,and one would assume a brief idea of it's contents -- What did he say ?

Steel, always tell us who you are responding to. This gets read by hundreds of people, not just you and the person you are debating with. People need to easily be able to follow lines of discussion.

“I guess you think they should have no native title then.”

Well you would be wrong. I suggest being very careful about making wild extrapolations. You obviously bombed out completely, to your considerable embarrassment I would think, when you did that to me on another thread: http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=728#13125, http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=728#13129.

“They were here 40 000 years at least, before their land was invaded and stolen by foreigners. Seems as though you are forgetting that.”

Hey, I am one of the most ardent critics of our nation’s forefathers for treating Australia as Terra Nullius and for invading and displacing the Aboriginal people of this continent. This aspect of our national history is as bad as anything in the world.

Now we live with an apartheid legacy, where those who live in indigenous communities are severely disadvantaged in terms of the most basic factors; quality of life, health, life expectancy and everything to do with them.

We need strong policies to unwind some of this terrible discrimination and bring indigenous peoples' quality of life up to somewhere near the national average.

Things HAVE been tried with this most difficult of problems for many years. But of course none of this has been anywhere near good enough.

Neither will these new measures be good enough by themselves. But it is the best sign of hope that I’ve seen in a very long time. I just hope that they prove to be reasonably successful and quickly, and get built upon with more wide-ranging policy changes.

Despite the apparent disempowerment of Aboriginal people over this, I reckon that if they can see it improving their lives, they will quickly feel more empowered than they have in their whole lives, and will in time be able to control the terrible alcoholism, child abuse and despair of their own volition, that seem uncontrollable at present without strong paternalistic government intervention.