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June 28, 2007
Sending in the troops and police to stop alcoholism, drug abuse, domestic violence and neglect of children is not going to achieve 'the desire and capacity of Aboriginal people to put an end to their disadvantaged situation and take control of their own lives'. Anthony Smith says in Digest run by the Australian Review of Public Affairs that:
Contemporary debate about Indigenous policy (Indigenous trusteeship) has mostly focused on the destructive impacts of poverty, violence, and unemployment in many rural and remote Aboriginal communities. Because these communities have been at the forefront of state administration for three decades, the very nature of Aboriginal society and community has come under scrutiny.Thirty years ago, when the likes of Nugget Coombs and Charles Perkins wrestled with the economic and social effects of economic downturn, proposed solutions did not rely on the draconian policing methods now widely proposed, nor rural to urban migration. In fact, they sought to find ways to re-mobilise agrarian labour within the constraints of the rural economy. Compared with that approach, today’s policy response signals the end of an agrarian development policy.
Rural development was seen among the limited range of possibilities open with existing resources as offering an opportunity to soften the impact of the harsh economic realities facing indigenous communities. It initially meant land purchase in northern regions involving the transfer of pastoral stations and former Aboriginal reserves to Aboriginal management and the formation of Aboriginal enterprises.
The state today has no regional development agenda.
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