One issue that hasn’t been raised anywhere, not that I have seen anyway.
The family of this child are blaming Child Protection for not acting on reports put in on this child.
My question is, why did no family member step in and just take the child if the situation was so bad? Culturally it is appropriate for the grandmothers, aunts or older sisters to take on a child who is not being properly cared for, or in danger.
No one with any integrity at all would leave a vulnerable family member in gross danger and simply sit back and wait for the government to act.

Glorifying a culture above the lives of kids.

Big Nana - Simple answer is it is easier to blame the white man for everything especially with the amplification of Politically Correct.

The white man is to blame for not doing anything (that we know),
The white man will be blamed if he does anything.

Big Nana & Phillip,

Is it possible that many Aboriginal people - far from being oppressed by colonisation - believe that colonisation means that this Big Government will henceforth take responsibility for all of the sorts of tasks that parents - and 'communities' - usually have ? That colonisation represents, in their eyes, some sort of liberation from all social duties ? Beauty ! That a major function of the government also includes giving out money for effectively unlimited grog, while some other part of 'government' looks after their kids ? And, of course, that kids are their property, like their dogs, to do with as they wish ?

So self-determination, in that paradigm, means telling some government person what they should be doing. It doesn't mean, in this view, the opportunity to do more for yourself, and to take more responsibility - as Noel Pearson advocates - for your kids ?

How long is this going to go on for ? Another couple of ghastly generations ?

Joe

Dear loudmouth,

The reason I raised the horrific incident in melbourne was not to lessen what had happened in Tennent Creek but to counter this from runner;

“One wonders how many agencies receiving massive amounts of tax payer funded money in these towns do anything useful other than promote 'culture'.”

There is a hell of a lot of money spend in Melbourne not only on policing and medical services but also on culture, some of it completely esoteric to the wider population like ballet.

When we traveled around OZ over a decade ago it really struck home to me the disparity of services within some Aboriginal communities. There was one small town which had over 50% more residents than mine here in Victoria. It had a single nurse and no policemen. There had been a police station built 3 years before we visited but had never been staffed.

From memory our Victorian town had at the time 3 policemen and a doctors clinic with 4 doctors practicing. Although life here is pretty good there are certainly some families dealing with violence and sexual assault within our small community. Luckily there are strong social services to address these things when they occur.

I understand that remoteness can bring its own challenges and costs but there is a strong argument that communities facing disfunction should have the attention and resources that would meaningfully address the issues. Our State Government recently spent over $160 million dollars revitalising just one suburb of a large town near us.

The question I had for myself was of all the money supposedly given to Aboriginal communities why did that particular police station not get manned for 3 years?

Steeleredux, I have no idea the size of your town but in the north every town of any size has police stationed there. Fitzroy Crossing in the Kimberley only has a population of 1200 but they have a fully manned police station plus a 50 bed hospital with doctors, nurses and even a renal dialysis unit.
And something that most people seemed to forget. White people living in these areas have no better access to services than the black ones do. In fact, in areas like health and education, the really remote people, like those on cattlestations and pearling farms have less services than aboriginal people living in remote communities. They have to provide their own housing, electricity , water, airstrip and teach their own children, unless they have enough children to qualify for a state paid teacher, but even then they have to provide the house for the teacher. Things that no aboriginal communities have to worry about.