Thread: Aborigines: "A national tragedy"

I'm sure this will generate a few "Anti-Abo" comments, but personally I find it a bit of a shame.

Aborigine jail rate a 'tragedy': Australian report
(AFP) – 1 hour ago
SYDNEY — Aborigines account for one quarter of Australia's prisoners, despite representing just 2.5 percent of the population, a report found Tuesday, describing the figures as a "national tragedy".
The "Doing Time" report, prepared by a government committee on Aboriginal affairs, said entrenched social and economic disadvantages meant younger generations were following their forebears into the criminal justice system.
Young Aborigines were 28 times more likely to be jailed than non-Aborigines, the report found, a "shameful state of affairs" that saw them accounting for 59 percent of the juvenile prison population.
It had been 20 years since a landmark inquiry into Aboriginal prison deaths that aimed to reduce jail rates, "yet the incarceration rate of indigenous Australians... is worse now than at any other time since", it added.
"Although indigenous Australians make up only approximately 2.5 percent of the population, 25 percent of prisoners in Australia are indigenous," the report said.
"This is a national tragedy, and questions must be raised as to why the situation has worsened so dramatically after the sweeping reforms recommended by the Royal Commission."
The number of Aboriginal men in custody had spiked 55 percent in the past 10 years, while there were 47 percent more indigenous women in prison -- a "disturbing" trend for community and family stability, the report said.
Total imprisonment rates for Aborigines grew 66 percent from 2000 levels, with 1,891 in every 100,000 indigenous people now behind bars.
"Intergenerational dysfunction" meant many young Aborigines were exposed to domestic violence, alcohol and drug abuse, poor housing, health and school attendance and a lack of job skills and employment opportunities.
"This situation is a national disgrace," it said, adding that government at all levels had "failed to adequately address this problem".
The committee urged "rapid and effective" action, including a review of alternatives to detention for Aboriginal youth and better programmes both inside prisons and post-release, aimed at successful reintegration into the community.
It called for quotas or dedicated seats in the nation's parliament for Aborigines and said greater engagement with and empowerment of indigenous leaders was key to reversing disadvantage.
Flying the Aboriginal flag in schools and using local indigenous languages to name school sports teams and classrooms were also among the committee's recommendations to boost pride in, and respect for, the nation's first people.
Australia's original inhabitants, the country's most impoverished minority, are believed to have numbered around one million at the time of white settlement, but there are now just 470,000 in a nation of 22 million.

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More...

For about 18 months the Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs has been researching the high level of Indigenous young people in contact with the law. The committee has received submissions, hosted public hearings and visited three detention centres to gather information to make the report. The Chair of the Committee, Member for Blair, Shayne Neumann says Indigenous young people are 28 times more likely to be detained than non-indigenous juveniles and those figures are "a national shame and a national tragedy." The paper makes 40 recommendations including the creation of a National Partnership Agreement that outlines a target reduction of juvenile Indigenous incarceration rates for states and territories to aim towards. There is also a need for early diagnosis of health issues, such as hearing loss or family substance abuse.
Mr Neumann says when the committee travelled to juvenile detention centres they noticed a generational trend of those being incarcerated, in some cases it was not only children following in their parents footsteps, but grandparents as well. He also noted that Indigenous people were more likely to be the victims of crime.
Take a look at the report at the Inquiry into the high level of involvement of Indigenous juveniles and young adults in the criminal justice system.

Link

and

Indigenous youth crime rates a 'national crisis'

By Sabra Lane

A new parliamentary committee report describes incarceration rates for young Indigenous people as "shameful".

A federal parliamentary committee has described the over-representation of Indigenous youth in Australia's criminal justice system as a "national crisis", finding that Aboriginal youth are 28 times more likely to be detained than non-Indigenous youth.

Twenty years after the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths In Custody, the new parliamentary committee report describes incarceration rates for young Indigenous people as "shameful".

Like other inquires before it, it has made a long list of recommendations to address the problem.

Labor MP Shayne Neumann chaired the committee and says the statistics are "damning".

"We're talking about Indigenous youth being 28 times more likely to be incarcerated than non-Indigenous youth and Indigenous adults at about 15-times more likely," he said.

"And if you're an Indigenous woman you're 35 times more likely to be hospitalised by partner abuse than non-Indigenous women.

"The rates of incarceration are going up: women 47 per cent in the last 10 years, 55 per cent for men. The figures are damning and we've got to do better."

Western Australia's chief justice, Wayne Martin, is not surprised by the figures.

"It does make depressing reading but unfortunately we've known for some years now that the statistics are heading in exactly the wrong direction," he said.

The committee has made 40 wide-ranging recommendations including: better police training, incentives for school attendance and the introduction of mentoring programs.

Liberal committee member Sharman Stone says mentoring is the way forward.

"If a lot of the Indigenous young people have someone to look up to, whether Indigenous or non-Indigenous, that can help them find their way, their pathway through to life beyond offending," she said.

The report says all pre-schoolers and incarcerated youth should have hearing tests, as it found 40 per cent of Indigenous people in urban areas and 70 per cent in rural Australia had a hearing loss, a disability that put them at high risk of contact with police.

Mr Neumann says hearing loss is a good thing to address.

"If you have hearing loss you may not hear that police officer, for example, ask you that question and the police officer might think you're surly," Mr Neumann said.

"[And] as a young person if you're not tested for hearing loss between kindergarten and school, you may then go through the whole of school with academic disadvantage, then you're less likely to get a job. If you get frustrated and despondent, you're more likely to engage in criminal activities."

The committee says the Government should include justice targets in its annual Closing The Gap statement alongside goals to improve life expectancy, health, education and employment.

Chief Justice Wayne Martin agrees.

"Unfortunately there is no silver bullet, there is no single answer. We have to maintain or resolve," he said.

"We've got to think laterally. The one thing you can conclude, I think, from the way the figures are getting steadily worse is that whatever the solutions are we haven't yet found them."

The report also says the Government should set up a commission to examine how to increase Indigenous representation in Parliament, through quotas or specially dedicated seats, to give youth a voice.

"I think that if Indigenous young people can see a way to express their political ideals and aspirations and can work towards certain goals I think that's a way ... something we should look at," Mr Neumann said.

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs Social Justice Commissioner, Mick Gooda, says Australia must act now, before it loses another generation to the criminal justice system.

Link

When I witness how the local police treat the young Aboriginals in the village I reside in it angers me.

It's just dig, stir, dig, stir until they get the reaction they want. Then out comes the old trifecta.

"Use of abusive language"
"Resist arrest"
"Assault police"

Then it's in the paddy wagon for Christ knows what awaits them down the station.

Probably help if they all stopped shagging their own kids.

So many problems in the Aboriginal community can be traced to substance abuse, primarily alcohol. This is one community that would probably benefit by converting en masse to Islam. Many indigenous success stories on the sporting field though, particularly in aussie rules.

All you ever hear about this is how it's the government's fault, the government aren't doing enough, etc. But what more is the government to do?

Originally Posted by 9999

All you ever hear about this is how it's the government's fault, the government aren't doing enough, etc. But what more is the government to do?

Well you get the impression that whatever it's doing, it isn't achieving very much.

The suggest from these reports is that it's time for a rethink.

They are a waste of space, I grew up around abos and they were give more chances and money than any of the whites.
Fok em I say, cut all funding right now and make them stand on there on feet,

I didn't even read it, I just knew i would be, blah blah blah read it too many times before.
National tragedy, too true.
On the other hand, that's just the way it is.

just had a quick read through and noticed a bit that mentioned something about flying the 'aboriginal flag'.
I didn't even realize they had developed weaving technology, let alone designed a flag.

It all sounds a bit like blacks in the USA.

"If a lot of the Indigenous young people have someone to look up to, whether Indigenous or non-Indigenous, that can help them find their way, their pathway through to life beyond offending," she said.

Exactly.

it found 40 per cent of Indigenous people in urban areas and 70 per cent in rural Australia had a hearing loss, a disability that put them at high risk of contact with police. "If you have hearing loss you may not hear that police officer, for example, ask you that question and the police officer might think you're surly,"

This, however, strikes me as very strange. 70% have a hearing loss? Why?

Originally Posted by WilliamBlake

"If a lot of the Indigenous young people have someone to look up to, whether Indigenous or non-Indigenous, that can help them find their way, their pathway through to life beyond offending," she said.

Exactly.

it found 40 per cent of Indigenous people in urban areas and 70 per cent in rural Australia had a hearing loss, a disability that put them at high risk of contact with police. "If you have hearing loss you may not hear that police officer, for example, ask you that question and the police officer might think you're surly,"

This, however, strikes me as very strange. 70% have a hearing loss? Why?

Sounds like bullshit to me.

Originally Posted by Rigger

They are a waste of space, I grew up around abos and they were give more chances and money than any of the whites.
Fok em I say, cut all funding right now and make them stand on there on feet,

It's the same with the Indians in Canada. Some years ago an actuary in Ottawa wrote a kind of "tongue in cheek" article stating that if the Canadian government moved all the status Indians to Florida, we could accomodate them in five star hotels; give each one $30K a year spending mon, and we would save about $500 million a year.

Although the article was not meant as a serious commentary it turned out that when the numbers were checked out, the guy was right. The Indians of course went apeshit and the guy was branded for life. That's part of the problem. Facts don't matter and we are just not allowed to make statements like that even if they are true...so the problem never goes away and no politician can back up any idea that might destroy the myth of the childred of the forest, living in harmony with nature and bonding with the land etc etc...when in fact all they do is freeload, steal, and make endless demands on the system without ever putting anything back in.

As always there are noteable exceptions and some Indian bands have prospered as well as individuals who have accomplished great things...but these really are exceptions. There is just so much graft, corruption, and abuse within the aborigional communities and no apparent way to stop it.

Billions have been spent on attempts to educate and assimilate these people. Business grants and special treatment of their business ventures had been tried. All their education and healthcare is provided free. The do not have to pay income or sales taxes and still they can't make it.

What exactly does a governent do when everything that has been tried for over a hundred years has failed. Most people I know have no real anti-Indian feelings because the endless guilt trip that we are subjected to about how our forefathers invaded their lands and destroyed their culture prevents us from really dealing with the situation. You would actually think that the Indians were the only people ever to be invaded to hear some of them talk.

The Aboriginals were probably quite happy wandering around the bush eating lizards and roots before the white man came along and dramatically "improved" their lives.

Originally Posted by Ascotkiwi

The Aboriginals were probably quite happy wandering around the bush eating lizards and roots before the white man came along and dramatically "improved" their lives.

Undoubtedly, so cut off their dole money and send them back out into the bush.

It's their country,

These people have been living free off that land for Centuries, why do they wanna pay now ?

Do what us Brits did, round up all the crims and dump em on an island far far away.

If you dump them in France, I'm pretty sure they will be shown how to get into the UK

The chickens have come home to roost......................What goes around comes around Bruce

Originally Posted by WilliamBlake

"If a lot of the Indigenous young people have someone to look up to, whether Indigenous or non-Indigenous, that can help them find their way, their pathway through to life beyond offending," she said.

Exactly.

it found 40 per cent of Indigenous people in urban areas and 70 per cent in rural Australia had a hearing loss, a disability that put them at high risk of contact with police. "If you have hearing loss you may not hear that police officer, for example, ask you that question and the police officer might think you're surly,"

This, however, strikes me as very strange. 70% have a hearing loss? Why?

Apparently they have very sensitive hearing, which causes them problems living in noisy environments. Maybe this is the reason? Having lived in isolation for 1,000s of years, they are more susceptible to many illnesses.

Throwing more money at them isn't the answer, what's needed is more tolerance and understanding from white Australians. It's morons like Rigger who say 'fok 'em', that are the real problem.

Originally Posted by sabaii sabaii

It's their country,

Correction.
It WAS there country.
FFS, how quickly they forget.
They're lucky we still let them live there.

Originally Posted by Rigger

They are a waste of space, I grew up around abos and they were give more chances and money than any of the whites.
Fok em I say, cut all funding right now and make them stand on there on feet,

Yup, and they mix up their 'there's, 'their's and 'they're's....

just goes to show how uneducated they are.

Read yesterday about some "Australian" in a hospital being treated for alcohol abuse related illness, staff wondered why he got dazed until they found 6 empty bottles of the hand sanitizer staff use

I wondered if it was an Abo or just homegrown white Aussie scum you really have to be "thirsty" to drink that shit.

^ Weren't Nedwalk in hospital with his leg ?

Originally Posted by sabang

This is one community that would probably benefit by converting en masse to Islam.

as much as i hate to admit it, you are prolly right. god help australia if it ever happens. god, of course being a cross between joey ramone and errol flyn somewhere in athiest heaven..

i used to have a lot more sympathy for native australians until i moved to cairns. unprovoked bashings are common in cairns, such as this one Cairns|bashing
i personally knew a japanese girl who was punched off her bicycle and robbed , and these stories of unprovoked violence and robbery are in the local rag - the cairns post almost every other day. media articles on these incidents pretty much always finish with the words , the suspects are of either torress straight island or aboriginal appearence.

When I witness how the local police treat the young Aboriginals in the village I reside in it angers me.

It's just dig, stir, dig, stir until they get the reaction they want. Then out comes the old trifecta.

"Use of abusive language"
"Resist arrest"
"Assault police"

Then it's in the paddy wagon for Christ knows what awaits them down the station.

yes. this happens too.

Queensland cops are not as bad as Thai cops, but have to be up there with former South Africa's..

I liked them when I was there in WA - no Aborigine ever called me pom
And I liked how they move at a majestically slow pace
perhaps my opinions might change if i lived there ?

That was about 8 years ago , before the £ got found out ...
those were the days

Originally Posted by Koojo

Sounds like bullshit to me.

Doesn't sound like anything to the abo's, they can't hear anything!

^^^Koman, you are just so right!