At the time when constitutional recognition of the indigenous people is being proposed, and Mick Dodson demands this state that the nation was taken from the indigenous people without their consent, the release of a secret report – which the government did not want the public to see – is timely.
A relevant consideration is that if recognition is effected what benefit will it be? This should be debated- a referendum is not something to be undertaken lightly, although both government and opposition support it. I assume this must surely be "in principle" support – no one knows what the proposal will be.
Thanks to the Channel 7 network the public can see the report they paid for about the spending of their money (“$3.5bn a year failing to lift Aborigines out of the 1970s”, Matthew Franklin, The Australian, 8/8)
…dismal conclusion…
The conclusion in the report is dismal. Our first Aboriginal member of parliamnet, and one of the founders of ACM, Neville Bonner, would have been disappointed by the lack of any real progress since he left the Senate.
(Continued below)
The report says that the history of commonwealth policy for indigenous Australians over the past 40 years is ”largely a story of good intentions, flawed policies, unrealistic assumptions, poor implementation, unintended consequences and dashed hopes, concludes a secret report the government did not want made public.”
"Strong policy commitments and large investments of government funding have too often produced outcomes which have been disappointing at best and appalling at worst. Individual success stories notwithstanding, the circumstances and prospects of many individual Australians are little better in 2010, relative to other Australians, than those which faced their counterparts in 1970.”
…rank and file knew this…
This confirms what most Australians have long suspected – just listen to commercial radio – except the elites who want to put the Aboriginal people into utopian aspic.
The policies of governments of both persuasions have failed, from throwing taxpayers’ money at the problem ($3.5 billion dollars a year),to harmonising Commonwealth-State policies, letting Canberra take over .
ill changing the constitution solve the proble- or even ameliorate it? Thand even changing the constitution.
The terms of this and whether it will be benefical is a debate w