November 8, 2006
This image of the effects of passive welfare brings the idea of pomoting self-reliance and greater personal responsibility into play:
Sharpe
As Jack Waterford observes in The Canberra Times the main victims of violence are
within their own families and communities rather than in the wider world. The people being assaulted, abused, and stolen from are overwhelmingly their own. And, as some point out, the incidence of the crime, and victimhood involved, is probably far higher than is ever recorded in the statistics, because of the pressures on victims not to dob. Proponents of some of the new theories of improving the lot of Aborigines believe fervently that the cycle of welfare dependency, hopelessness and despair must be attacked, if need be with sharp shocks which force Aborigines not only into the broader economy but into a broader citizenship. In particular, they believe that more welfare, more dependency, and more sitting around will only perpetuate the present horrors and make the ultimate outcomes worse. Only Aborigines can liberate themselves from the prisons of our making and theirs.
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