Just to add that it was the grinning Bob Brown, leader of the Greens who toppled Julia Gillard, Australia's first woman PM.

Although in a partnership agreement, the Greens were constant critics and embarrassed the Gillard government at every opportunity, slyly claiming credit in advance of Gillard's announcements and all of the while pretending to support her.

Paul Keating's comments on the disruption, treachery and disloyalty of the Greens were mild.

It is a protest party where everything is skewed towards the advantage of the few who are the controlling elite who are on a power trip and are more interested in their own benefit and being able to disrupt the legislature at will.

That is what attracted the flakey far left from Labor to the Greens. But cynical Bill Shorten is trying to entice them back with his Class War and getting into trouble with Plibersek and ors for that.

Where Shorten and the Greens are concerned, indigenous presents more opportunities for opportunist political gamesmanship, that is all.

"Paul Keating on the contribution of the Greens to federal politics,

"Greens self-serving Trots: ex-PM Keating"

And yet Labor under Gillard aligned with them. I think Labor changed rather radically from Kevin Rudd on. My father would not recognize the party he voted for all his voting life, as anywhere near the same party these days.

Sometimes I even think some of Labor's ideals align quite closely with the Greens

Hi Joe, what my point is, the celebration of the 67 referendum is of little impotence and secondary, when compared to what can be celebrated as the fine achievements of Aboriginal people, despite the sterotypers and knockers we have in society . I would like to celebrate the young Aboriginal girl I met for the first time on Wednesday in Redfern, she is well educated, well spoken, and works assisting disadvantaged people, she is a cause for celebration.
"Those are the facts, and surely Paul, facts matter" they certainly do Joe, they certainly do. All the facts, the good as well as the bad.

Hi Leo, thanks for all that opinionated dribble including the comments from the 'Antique Clock' himself. When it suits. you will label Keating "Australia's worse PM ever" same goes for Gillard, Rudd, Hawke, and not to forget the dreaded Gough! is there a trend there, or are you just biased? You can slag off The Greens all you like, it suits your deflection tactics. never a word of criticism of the Lovely Pauline or One Nation.
As for the entitlement seeking mad Abbott and what he did for Aboriginal people, if you call taking advantage of photo ops, and having a team of gofors an dofors running around after you is doing something I suppose Abbott did a lot.
I liked your comment elsewhere on "Muslim acquaintances", I suppose buying a kebab from 'Abdul's Takeaway' down at the local strip makes the bloke behind the counter a Muslim acquaintance. How often do you buy a kebab to make those Muslim acquaintances? Do you have any Aboriginal acquaintances?

Paul, are you suggesting that people way up the Kimberley had better access to services than the majority who were living in large towns and cities?
Surely not.
As for university students, the Kimberley was producing qualified teachers and nurses/midwives in the 60s, girls raised in remote areas with poor access to education but who, despite all this disadvantage lived down south for years then returned to the Kimberley.
The 60s also saw a large number of qualified tradesmen, especially carpenters, who were involved in boat building for the pearling industry and fishing.
Today you will find many jobs being done by aboriginal people. The technician who came to fix my air conditioner last week was aboriginal.
And many are now buying their own homes, many have children at private schools.
And these are dark skinned aboriginal people who still remain in close contact with their traditional land and what little remaims of the real culture.
That's how far most aboriginal people have progressed since the 60s.
The small percentage who have disastrous lives are those who remained in small isolated enclaves with little contact with the outside world, except to pick up the worst of its habits.
Whilst they live in these places or in the first generation or two in town, we will continue to have these problems unless, like their earlier relatives three/four generations ago, who moved into towns, they are forced to live at the same standard as the rest of the community.

Most indigenous are of very mixed race. Many are so minimally Aboriginal that in no other country could they call themselves indigenous.

Most are in mixed marriages and very much a part of the mainstream society. This indicates minimal racism by indigenous and non-indigenous.

The minority still struggling are suffering because of dysfunctional cultural attitudes, often entrenched in the remote communities in which they live.

Indigenous Australians, even those with so little Aboriginal ancestry it is a joke, get more benefits than non-indigenous, even if they do not need help. That is wrong. Benefits should be needs-based not race-based, particularly when there is often so little race involved.

Hi Rhross,

Yes, I agree that benefits should be needs-based. I did a rough income study 35 years ago of a community where we had lived, assuming from the look of it that I would find much poverty, but the average household weekly wage there was equal to the Australian average at the time, and rents were about a fifth of the national average. So poverty wasn't it.

But whether or not someone genuinely can claim some Indigenous heritage depends largely on who raises them - usually that happens to be the mother, so if she is strongly Indigenous, especially if she has ties to her birth-community, then her children are likely to feel strongly Indigenous too (especially in the absence of any other alternative ancestry 'presence'), regardless of how dark or pale they might be.

But these days, there seems to be a disconnect between Indigeneity and poverty, I'm very glad to say :)

Hi Big Nana,

I don't know what's happening up North, but down this way, it seems that a couple of 'communities' have pretty much closed up shop, with just one or maybe two families living there. I've heard also that many 'outstations' in the North-West of SA haven't had anybody staying there for years (unless a government visit is planned), yet are maintained, roads, solar panels (so the lights are on all night), water tanks, telephone box, etc. I don't know how common this is.

Cheers,

Joe