Wedgie wrote:therisingblues wrote:To expand a little further on my original post: part of Hanson's first platform was our own Aboriginal problem. As a nation we were trying to make amends to those people by simply throwing money at them, meanwhile they freely took the handouts, and learnt to do little for themselves, thus they became more dependant on the system we created and required greater handouts, and the cycle continued.
She couldn't be further from the truth there, I can tell you victims of the Stolen Generation still have not received one cent for having the government take them away from their roots and lives as well as throwing the rest of their lives into upheaval due to various issues that arose from the government doing so.
Ive worked for government in various social services for 18 years and I can tell you that aboriginals do not get any extra help, if anything they're disadvantaged as they're so intimidated by the whole set up and miss out on stuff they are eligible for.
This sort of crap that she sprouts really shits me off (and being of aboriginal descent and having my father as one of the stolen generation I feel I can talk on this issue).
There's hippies marching the streets to get a terrorist released from gaol but where were they when there were tens of thouands aboriginals imprisoned just for the sake of their skin? Smoking dope and doing jack shit.
Fair enough Wedgie, The Stolen Generation was one of the biggest crimes committed against the indigenous population of Australia in the past 100 years. Whatever services and funds that are available for Aborigines these days, it is money being mis-spent, IMO as their social and domestic problems continue and they continue to be under represented in professions like medicine where they'd be of great help to their own communities. (This was in most likeliness, worsened by the "upheaval" caused by the Stolen Generation policy). I don't have any answers, but there is a disproportionate amount of Aborigines living off welfare per head than the population in general, and it doesn't appear as if it is actually helping them at all.
Initially I thought Hanson was leading the nation to a different approach to this problem, by at least addressing it, as no one seemed to know what to do about it. History of the period shows that she lost the plot, was mis-informed and that she herself had no tangible answers either. On closer examination of her opening speech to parliament it would appear that she had some pretty skewed opinions about how the world worked from the start. There's enough stuff there to keep any healthy journalist happy for at least a year. As I remember from that point on she just got worse, and in hind-sight perhaps wasn't of any practical use save for creating a public forum where these things were thrashed out.
Perhaps the worse part about what she says is that she creates myths about how the system works, and usually polarises ethnic groups further in the process. Some people will see her as a media scapegoat, and within that group there will be others that will identify with her message even closer, viewing her as a martyr of the cause. I am not a member of any of her "target groups", but she shits me off just the same now I get the full picture.
