Alison seems to be living by another classic - ‘Keep warm this dry season - make trouble’

Your opinion is superior because?????

I can remember the politics in the NT since that Liberal bloke Stone(and before him too) made some of his most racist comments. I think as an Australian, we have a right to an opinion. It is still a democracy isn’t it? Has something happened in the last couple of hours, and someone forgot to tell me? Is the NT still part of the country, or has it been excised?

I just wish aboriginal people would get together in the NT and form their own party. If they think that either of the major parties will ever change the status quo, just look at history? Hasn’t happened - won’t happen either, unless they’re FORCED to change?

STEVEN MARTIN - Tell me then, why are the areas that have all the wealth under the ground so impoverished; where the indigenous people get the royalties etc, why are the people there living in such poverty?Why hasn’t some govt(NT or Federal/State)at least provided decent water, sanitation, housing and education, not to mention criminally neglected their health?Why are kids in these areas still contracting Rheumatic Fever, which was removed from Sydney & Melbourne after the end WW2? Why? It’s well documented that poor sanitation, overcrowding, insufficient foods with nourishment(due to remoteness)and other contributors was the cause then and still is - but it’s good enough isn’t it? After all, it’s not as though they’re real people is it? If it was happening in those 2 states, there’d be an outcry, and it would be deserved.
Why is a lot of these monies kept in a Federal govt account(was under Brough anyway?). Didn’t he spend some of it on a swimming pool in an area where there were hardly any indigenous people? Howard used to use money out of the budget for aboriginal people, and used it to fight them in the courts over native title? Where’s that money now?

Housing? A report was released several months ago. It took 7 years to put together. Houses(one name for them I suppose) built shabbily with no adequate areas to prepare food or clean one’s body. No locks on doors. Light switches on architraves, light bulb in the middle of the room - guess what?No wires between them? Who built them and why weren’t/aren’t they facing charges? What happened to the money they didn’t spend? They built them out of crap, they fell apart and someone made whoopee with the money? That’s the only explanation that makes any sense!
You’d think out of the mining boom over Howard’s 4 terms, that there’d be some sign of aboriginal people enjoying it too wouldn’t you? What was this money spent on STEVEN?

Why do govts think they have the right to just tell people what type, style of housing they’ll get? When will they learn, that aboriginal people have had enough of being patronized and treated with a paternalistic attitude. Some things never change do they?

Health, education and housing are furphies. For one, it turns out that health outcomes are better than have been traditionally measured and reported, adding about 6 years to life expectancy. The health question and how you deliver services is a complicated one — these are often people whose very existence does not include regular visits to doctors, and a lifestyle completely different from the modern Westerner. Diet and nutrition, often borrowed from Western convenience food, is not helping. It’s little wonder that health outcomes are different, and it’s not the fault of the urban middle class constantly being told about ‘health problems’ or how much money needs to be spent on health.

Likewise for education — what are the terms of co-existence going to be? Do you respect and acknowledge the right of indigenous people to live in a traditional subsustence way on their own land without being institutionalised into schools in the Western model? After all, these ‘citizens’ as you call them have had all this — modern industrialism and all its routines and expectations — imposed on them. Why not interfere in their patterns of kinship, marriage and dispute settlement while you’re at it.

As for housing… what do you suggest they should be given? And what are they asking for? If they are receiving ‘royalties’ so generously, why can’t suitable housing be constructed out of the proceeds? And what housing is required in these areas?

I’m tired of middle class urbanised Westerners storming into these places telling everyone how the modernist social constructions of ‘health, housing and education’ all have to be ‘fixed’ for ‘these people’.

You’re taking the piss, Stephen Martin, and just spouting shibboleths. Why not consider what’s under where these camps are? e.g. uranium.