I wouldn’t neccessarily support the idea that just because someone is white they’ve got more right to call Australia home, but if they’re working and being productive then it shouldn’t matter where they’re from.

Anyone who contributes and is an active part of Australian society deserves to be here.

I am white and i, like the rest of my family believe that we have more right to call this land ours than what these useless black fellas do. They say they have been here for 40,000 years and what have they achieved???? NOTHING!!!!!!

And some how that is white Australias fault and if you dare to question the poor black fella then you are a racist, well sir, i am a racist then. Keep talking the truth oz you have our full support, regards Ron, QLD.

I am not saying there are no problems here, quite on the contrary. However, regardless of what social issue the Govt/society deals with at any one time, compassion should never be absent.

“The Government MUST inject more funding into these systems and actually move to a national legislation and Federal Department for the investigation of child abuse, rather than the current division between the states.”

Note where I said the funding should go – to national child protection for all children. Not just being thrown at people with no rhyme or reason and actually worsening the problem.

Sad to see people just attack you before putting thought into what you wrote and responding. Have you worked in these places? Please come back and comment on my experience when you have,

A relative helps build and repair housing in the Territory. You can place disadvantaged Aboriginal families in a NEW house and within six months the place will be absolutely trashed.

The some southern do-gooder or academic will come along and weep at the shocking conditions Aboriginals are forced to endure. “More money for housing” will be shout. But that will be utterly and completely pointless as everyone in the NT knows.

Aboriginies don’t live in standard western nuclear families and they don’t have the same attitude to appliances, upkeep and cleaning that mainstream Australia does. Nor do they have the same attitude to work. Most Aboriginies I’ve met don’t want a job and can’t see the value of having one.

Again this is a problem where the politically correct dogma insists that everyone be treated as if they think and act in the same way when clearly they don’t.

Great to see you also believe in the welfare of every child, regardless of their background – race, culture, socioeconomic status etc.

I have worked in child protection for a number of years and have spent some time in Alice Springs and to be brutally honest, the living conditions for Indigenous people in the town camps are appalling. They are third world and I was horrified to see that people live like that in Australia and not only does the Government know it happens, but they allow it to happen.

Without going into gory details, I witnessed a lot of things during my short time in Alice Springs that were very sad and left me feeling disillusioned.

However, having worked in a number of states in child protection, I can also say the problem isn’t exclusive to Aboriginal communities. The Government MUST inject more funding into these systems and actually move to a national legislation and Federal Department for the investigation of child abuse, rather than the current division between the states.

Children fall through the gaps and I agree, as a society we should not stand there and let it happen. Unfortunately, K.Rudd is all talk and it seems all his rabbiting on about a national framework for child protection was just about the usual aim of politicians – winning votes.

Shame.

I believe the reason virtually every campaign and program has completely failed is that the modern day policy insists you begin with the premise that Aboriginals are in all intellectual ways equal to mainstream society. But they’re not.

Thousands of years of selective breeding for a nomadic lifestyle has – I believe – wired their brains in different ways.

As you acknowledge, unless you’re talking in the context of cultural differences, saying this is instantly going to get you labelled a racist.

I’m surprised more people don’t speak up about the working conditions or social problems that are happening out there. Why do we need to rely on government reports like this to shed light on the situation?

Is nobody who lives there willing to out the problems themselves or is doing so not looked upon favourably by the rest of the community.

Not inferior, just different. They are simply not capable of absorbing the type of information we routinely require for most jobs in the ways we usually do. Reading and mathematics seem especially difficult for them; but on the otherhand they generally have extraordinarily good memories and are capable of reciting long stories verbatim.

Combine that with a completely different cultural approach to such things as timetables and work obligations and you have a guaranteed epic FAIL in just about anything you want to try.

For example, in my time in the NT I was good mates with a primary teacher who worked waaaay waaaay out. His class included an Aboriginal teacher’s aide. This was a respected older member of the local community who was there to provide a cultural “bridge” from the whitefella teacher to the young Aboriginies, and to impart traditional values and knowledge.

On those days she bothered to turn up she would curl up at the back of the room and sleep.

But she always got paid every week as a teacher’s aide and was repeatedly congratulated as a wonderful example of how things should be done.

My teacher mate couldn’t say anything – certainly not the truth – because that’s never palatable, especially to southerners who simply have no idea how things really are and have almost certainly NEVER me a full blood Aboriginal. And teachers and police who speak too loudly in the NT never work in the Territory again. Simple.

One day this teacher’s aide was told the average annual wage of a primary teacher in the Territory and she squealed !

For two years she’d been flattered and congratulated and told what a great contribution she was making, and so she now wanted at least equal pay to the whitefella.

And to our dear southern city bleeding hearts I’m sure that sounds like a terrible injustice, and certainly a case of lingering racism that this poor elder should have NOT received equal pay.

Bad, bad, racist whitey. But was anyone who actually knew ever going to spoil the little illusion and tell the truth ? Nope. The school admin is not going to say anything; the program administrators want to report a success, and the Aboriginal wasn’t stupid either – she knew how to get excellent money for sleeping at school one or two days a week.

That program was judged an outstanding success.