//Simple solution here folks, outlaw alcohol.//

Because that worked so well in the US....

SR,
Do you have any info about the trial of the blokes? I can only find about their arrest.

SR and Toni,

Both cases are horrific, but I think the point that Bolt is trying to make is exactly the one I heard from a woman aboriginal elder about a year ago on Radio National (ABC):

Two of the issues that the aboriginal rights campaigners are pursuing are the high rates of aboriginal incarceration, and the high rates of aboriginal children being removed from their parents. I believe that the figures are such that 2x as many children are presently removed as during the "stolen children" times, and aboriginals are incarcerated at 10x non aboriginal rates.

However, the other major problems are the high rates of child abuse and domestic violence in aboriginal households which I believe is about 30x the amount in non aboriginal houses.

The resulting pressure on magistrates not to administer jail except in extreme circumstances, and on child services not to remove children except in extreme circumstances. The result is that perpetrators of domestic violence and abuse are often given a slap on the wrist and sent home, and victims of child abuse are often left with their abusers far longer than non aboriginal families.

This is the worst Hobson's choice that I have seen.

God, so many unicorns !

A two-year-old is raped in Tennant Creek. BUT look over there ! Some bloke in Melbourne ! Some Catholic pederasts years ago !

So a two-year-old getting raped isn't so bad, and anyway, it was done by a Blackfella, so that lightens the 'offence', doesn't it ? And the poor bloke might have Foetal Alcohol Syndrome too, brought on by colonisation. So he's hardly responsible at all, is he ?

So we punish no-one instead ? We let these offences continue ? Especially if it might well be part of someone's 'culture' ? Or is there a sort of scale of offences, and therefore a scale of punishments, tempered and reduced by all manner of possible excuses ?

Joe

//So we punish no-one instead ? We let these offences continue ?//

According to the article the offender was arrested and charged. Details of the outcome of the trial were not provided.

Hi Toni,

Yes, and just wait for the 'mitigating circumstances'. A few years ago, that bloke - if he was found guilty - would have been strung up without delay. And fair enough. A two-year-old, for Christ's sake. What do you reckon are her chances of reaching five, or ten, or adulthood ? And how many more like her are out there, in never-policed 'communities' ?

Joe