No one can deny that the recent Report on Aboriginal welfare is devastating - and a blight on all Australian governments down the years and Australians in allowing such deplorable conditions and situations to continue to exist.
But, the wide-ranging response by the Federal Government so obviously smacks of political opportunism in this election year. It has all the grubby paws of PM Howard over the policy initiatives clearly hastily cobbled together.
Gregory Phillips, a medical anthropologist specialising in healing, post-traumatic stress syndromes and addictions in indigenous communities, writing an op-ed piece in The Age, also questions the Government's actions - and is cynical to boot:
"Far from being a radical saviour concerned with the protection of Aboriginal children from sexual abuse in the Northern Territory, the Prime Minister is mostly concerned with painting all Aborigines as being useless crooks and abusers. That way, he can put up a smokescreen to justify the weakening of Aboriginal communal rights to land under the guise of economic development.
Nobody denies that sexual abuse and alcoholic dysfunction in indigenous communities is a massive problem. Many Aborigines have long advocated for better services to deal with the issues, and have strongly asserted that alcoholism and sexual abuse are not a part of Aboriginal culture. It is, in fact, a learned behaviour. Where did Aborigines learn it? It is partly a hangover of the missionary days only 20 and 30 years ago, where sexual violence was routinely perpetrated on Aborigines by police, pastoralists and missionaries, and where the church often forced people to marry against their social and cultural clan systems. This is not an excuse for abuse today, but it is part of the reason people are behaving this way now. Sure, the abuser must take responsibility for these terrible actions, and sure, society has a responsibility to protect children. But to do so only through the law has never worked either here or overseas.
There's no evidence that dealing with addictions and sexual abuse through legal, criminal or administrative systems alone works. It might help alleviate some physical injury and perhaps prevent a small amount of abuse, but it doesn't address the emotional and mental turmoil that gave rise to the behaviour in the first place."
But, the wide-ranging response by the Federal Government so obviously smacks of political opportunism in this election year. It has all the grubby paws of PM Howard over the policy initiatives clearly hastily cobbled together.
Gregory Phillips, a medical anthropologist specialising in healing, post-traumatic stress syndromes and addictions in indigenous communities, writing an op-ed piece in The Age, also questions the Government's actions - and is cynical to boot:
"Far from being a radical saviour concerned with the protection of Aboriginal children from sexual abuse in the Northern Territory, the Prime Minister is mostly concerned with painting all Aborigines as being useless crooks and abusers. That way, he can put up a smokescreen to justify the weakening of Aboriginal communal rights to land under the guise of economic development.
Nobody denies that sexual abuse and alcoholic dysfunction in indigenous communities is a massive problem. Many Aborigines have long advocated for better services to deal with the issues, and have strongly asserted that alcoholism and sexual abuse are not a part of Aboriginal culture. It is, in fact, a learned behaviour. Where did Aborigines learn it? It is partly a hangover of the missionary days only 20 and 30 years ago, where sexual violence was routinely perpetrated on Aborigines by police, pastoralists and missionaries, and where the church often forced people to marry against their social and cultural clan systems. This is not an excuse for abuse today, but it is part of the reason people are behaving this way now. Sure, the abuser must take responsibility for these terrible actions, and sure, society has a responsibility to protect children. But to do so only through the law has never worked either here or overseas.
There's no evidence that dealing with addictions and sexual abuse through legal, criminal or administrative systems alone works. It might help alleviate some physical injury and perhaps prevent a small amount of abuse, but it doesn't address the emotional and mental turmoil that gave rise to the behaviour in the first place."
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