June 28, 2007
It is often held that the politics of left and right use the Aborigines to defend highly predictable partisan positions. For instance, the left has refused to acknowledge the social disaster for fear of perpetuating stereotypes; the right has been willing to talk honestly but in order to defend past practices and resuscitate the policy of assimilation. Can we step beyond this frame?
Ken Henry, the Treasury Secretary, says that decades of passive welfare provision have delivered dependency, not capability; indeed, it is dependency that has eroded capability. He acknowledges that there remains some controversy over this position, but responds by saying that we will never make progress in any area of policy unless we are prepared to deal honestly and analytically with the underlying causes of the problems we face.

Sharpe
A quote from Henry's address to the Cape York Institute conference in Cairns:
Indigenous welfare has been provided passively. It has encouraged a state of dependency. And that dependency has contributed to the undermining of indigenous development. These are propositions on which we should be able to agree. And the sooner we can reach agreement on these propositions, the sooner we can start to work on more effective means of securing indigenous development.
I accept that proposition.
The aim is not self-esteem--it is economic development.It is about Indigenous enterprises becoming more established, organised, and confident, and the Aboriginal leadership shifted its emphasis from providing a welfare function to a more commercially oriented view.
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On a positive side. I think Cattle feed lots would be a good way for some communities to go.