The great fly-over problem
A new report has drawn fresh attention to Australia's great fly-over problem: the condition of Aborigines living in indigenous communities. Since reporting from the Northern Territory earlier in the year, the closest that I have come to an Aboriginal community is 30,000 feet, and this geographic remoteness partly explains why indigenous affairs are so easy to push to the fringes of the national consciousness.
Were this an urban or suburban problem, it would surely have received more political and public attention. And since the onset of the Global Financial Crisis, Aboriginal leaders have felt that they have been swept even further to the fringes.
Another oft-heard complaint is that the reconciliation process, of which Kevin Rudd's national apology was the central component, is intended primarily to assuage white guilt - it is a "whitefella's project". But would not indigenous groups have felt even more aggrieved had the prime minister not said sorry? That, after all, was always one of the chief complaints against John Howard.
The inventory of statistics comparing life for indigenous and non-indigenous Australians has always made for grim reading, and the latest findings of the Productivity Commission are no exception. Compiled every two years, the report measures indicators of disadvantage in 50 separate areas. There's been no improvement in 80% of them.
Perhaps the most disturbing finding is that cases of child abuse among indigenous children have more than doubled from 16 per 1000 children in 1990-2000 to 35 per 1000 in 2007-2008. Indigenous children are six times as likely to be abused as non-indigenous children.
The report is not unremittingly gloomy. It suggest that the life expectancy gap is closer than previously thought. In 2002, the gap was estimated at 20 years for men. For 2005-2007, it seems to be 12 years. But the common-held view is that this report chronicles decades of policy failure.
Kevin Rudd has described the report as "devastating". Many thought that the soothing words of his historic apology to Aborigines for past injustices could hardly have been more eloquent. But everyone knew that formulating a policy response would be much more difficult than drafting a parliamentary address.
As part of its Closing the Gap initiative, the Rudd government had pledged some $A4.6 billion towards indigenous communities over the next six years.
, a reporter with The Australian who has probably done as much as any mainstream reporter in bringing these kind of issues to the attention of the nation, has this to say of the new report:
"Governments throughout Australia have been aware of the horrific statistics for many years, and have done little to save children from continued abuse. A royal commission - where witnesses are protected, where perpetrators are identified, charged and removed from the communities - is a necessary starting point. But no Labor government has the courage to do that because it would upset its leftist supporters who contend that 'white interference' is culturally inappropriate."
His comment seems like a good place to start the debate.....
I'm 
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