a good experiment fails

On my 3AW programme yesterday I was critical of a group calling themselves BlackGST who have nicknamed the Games the Stolenwealth Games and who have set up an illegal protest tent city in Kings Domain.

Police, Park Rangers and the Games Minister, Justin Madden, have been treading on egg-shells and letting these illegal tents be pitched. The also turned a blind eye when the protesters lit several fires on a total fire ban day on Sunday.

They are entitled to protest after all – as Prime Minister Howard said as he ducked the issue “it’s a free country”. But if a bunch of white Australians tried a similar stunt they would not get away with it.

I made the point that nearly two billion dollars a year is spent on programmes and handouts for indigenous Australians.

But there is a small story –overlooked by many – in the news today that shows how far we still have to go to lift living standards and even save lives in outback communities in 2006.

The BlackGST protesters claim we must “end genocide now”. As I said: What genocide? The only people killing aboriginal people are aboriginal people. Domestic violence, alcoholism, petrol sniffing.

An example is in a tiny town of Balgo, a town of 400 people about 1800 kilometres north of Perth.

A 16-year-old chronic petrol sniffer was caught allegedly raping a four-year-old girl. She is the four-year-old niece of his adopted family.

At the weekend police flew him to Broome for his own safety. There is another reason for sadness in all of this – apart from the alleged assault on a little girl.

Balgo was meant to be a model for other outback towns with juvenile problems. It received funds from both the state government and the federal government. Two police officers and two youth workers were stationed there last year.

Teenagers played basketball on the town’s new court or played in the community rock band using equipment paid for as part of a “shared responsibility” between the federal government and locals.

The crime rate dropped and petrol sniffing virtually disappeared. But then the youth workers reluctantly left after state funding ran out. Anti-social behaviour is again on the rise.  Balgo is sliding back into that swamp of misery.

Footnote: A report released yesterday predicts that petrol sniffing now costs Australia $79 million a year.

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

©Copyright Derryn Hinch 2006