The Aboriginal Blueprint Debate

Noel Pearson writes again in The Australian today on Howard's new blueprint to tackle abuse in Aboriginal communities. It's once again a heartfelt piece from Pearson, and although the first byte The Australian presented on it's front page was very misleading, it was pretty straight down the line.

'Whatever view we take, my thought is this: what policies do we need so that all avoidable suffering is avoided in our society? We cannot remove evil from the world and I am not basing our hopes of escaping avoidable suffering on supra-human powers. I am asking us to use our considerable human powers to escape avoidable suffering.'

'This is a question for social policy: are our policies maximising the avoidance of such suffering? My answer is no. There is too much misery - chiefly endured by the disadvantaged in our society, the lowest classes - that is avoidable. And we do not need to achieve a socialist nirvana to relieve this suffering.'

Questions still arise though as to whether we are going about this in the right way. There are mixed feelings in Aboriginal communities, and Pearson certainly doesn't speak for all of Indigenous Australia. Lumping each community in the same bag will prove to be a mistake, I believe, if they choose to take a hard line position across the board. Some seem to just need the extra resources rather than teams of soldiers and police. It's amazing that an "emergency" had to be called for them to realise this.

But in some communities the fear is real and the security most welcome. I fail to see how a boost in security in these terrified communities is a bad thing. When crimes are occurring right now, police are needed right now, this is as plain as day.

On another note The Australian seems to have completely about faced!!!!!!!!

'It is crucial that debate not be shut down by suggesting that anyone who critiques any aspect of the Government's actions is, ipso facto, supporting child abuse or maintenance of the status quo.'

Considering that they were becoming the pioneers of this action, I find this incredible, good, but incredible. They can listen to reason after all.