I've just this last hour come back from a big Indigenous meet in Cessnock that has been going on yesterday and today. We CRIED last night because of this. It is so complex and yet I feel I have to at least talk a bit ......... I notice both here and in many other areas there is ongoing comparative mention of other Indigenous communities throughout the world. This is a socio-economic problem, not an Indigenous problem. As Indigenous communities, we are not habitually morally corrupt child abusers which is the impression that the media are giving - although I am not denying the realities of the child abuse. Many MANY of the abusers are white MEN in positions of power in the community as well as local men. I work in an area where among others are many who are convicted of child sex abuses and I have to try and work out ways without abusing their human rights to stop them getting Aboriginal cultural qualifications in order to work in these remote communities. These communities are havens for these sort of people because they are remote, white people have the positions of authority and power , teachers, nurses, doctors, religious ministers, psychologists, sellers of alcohol, store proprieters, policemen, community builders etc. etc. Once again I must be clear that I am not denying a very real problem that exists within a very damaged, dispossessed, and vilified community, that of Indigenous Australians. The problem also exists in many other communities and overall we must all ask ourselves that question, "where are the children", and take on board that we are all the fathers and mothers of all children, difficult as that is in a modern society. A complicity happens in communities that broaden as time goes by. The problems of remote communities have been articulated by the Elders in those communities for many many decades and nothing has been done. Decent housing, accessible food and schooling have been some of the primary requests of these communities for over three decades. The money has been put aside Federally and then, nothing is done. The money is moved elsewhere in the way that governments do and things get worse in the communities. (Either the community is not informed that the money is available and it goes back into Treasury, they lack the administrative organisations or institutional structures that are needed in order for the money to be released and it goes back into Treasury, the money has to be administered through a particular bank in a major area in which case the community is not able to access it so it goes back into Treasury, it is released to local government builders who build something else and so the community doesn't see it ad infinitum) Alcohol abuse, pornography that contributes to various sexual abuses, horrific domestic violence, rape, and child abuse are tremendous problems in Claymore and Mt Druitt (outer western socio-economically disadvantaged suburbs of Sydney Australia) as well.   These problems are also horribly endemic in the poorer and more dispossessed areas of London, Paris, Ottowa, Washington, and so on. They are problems that exist within very damaged communities, and the damage is often primarily related to extreme poverty and extreme dispossession from mainstream social norms such as education, employment, food, housing, health and so on. These problems are not an Indigenous problem, they ARE socio-economic and they get worse and worse because of this complicity of agreeing that it is an Indigenous problem for example, that it is not our problem, that we don't interfere and we don't ask. Almost, it is not a human problem - wherever it exists they are less than human - aren't they???? A young Indigenous man was saying to me today that he has been looking out how Nazi German happened because he really wants to understand how people could be so dreadful to each other and KNOW, and noticed that things eroded slowly, that people chose not to stand up and protest even though they were deeply troubled by what was going on, and finally they too suffered and then there was no-one. WE all let these things happen. We are all complicit in making it another problem, making another race look morally and ethically bankrupt, shrugging our shoulders and lifting our hands. That's one side of the coin. The other is the deeply cynical act of a morally corrupt man who is facing election in three months time and is using the appearance of himself rescuing young children from their dreadfully corrupt families and communities in order to emotionally sway an electorate who was swayed once before in the same way. Remember those dreadful families who threw their children overboard? What sort of people are they? Certainly not the sort that we want in Australia. Yet minutes after he got back in it was found to be a lie. Those children WERE NOT thrown overboard. Yet how ready Australians were to believe then as they are now, even knowing they accepted a lie once and could again, as the world is now. Constitutionally the Prime Minister knows that he just cannot go in like a big jock with footie boots and kick peoples heads in. What sort of child abuse is it that medically examines children to see if they are virgins, to see if their anus has been 'stretched', if they have venereal disease, all a further concentration on their genitals, their very private selves, which is what child abuse is all about, because that is what the medical examinations are about. What about decent food - it would be very easy to organise with communities to have a free breakfast program within a school that EXISTS within the communities, not kilometres and hours away. It would be easy to organise community based health centres with community people being trained to nurture, heal, administer and educate. It would be easy to build houses within communities and train local people to be builders, electricians, etc. as an ongoing building, maintenance and renovation programme. It would be easy to support through community workers and community vans, the demands of communities for 'dry' communities. So many communities have already done this. These have been the requests from these communities for over thirty years and because nothing has been done, things get worse and worse. Would young girls star in pornographic movies made by local ringers and drovers and miners, if food, clothing, shelter, and hope were an everyday part of their lives. We all know they wouldn't. But this Prime Minister comes in boots and all and cynically exploits the endemic racism in this country, exploits the apathy of a people who are prepared to believe that Indigenous people are so less human than they that they cannot even protect their own without asking why, exploits the helplessness of children who can do nothing when he inevitably fails them, attacks the very basis of democracy in this country which is the right of each individual, each community, to contribute to their own self-determination. These are the reasons why we cried. We felt real hopelessness and despair, something I have not really felt for some time. We have cried our tears for our children, for ourselves, for and with our Elders of which I am one now as I am 60 this year, older than a lot of my people. We cry because our Prime Minister can say these things and do these things with the pathetic support of ALL the political alternatives, and he can comfortably get away with it. Where are we as Indigenous people if this can happen? Meanwhile we, with no resources, no support, no respect or trust from politicians, must try and grow up our children knowing that all damage is generational. We as Elders have survived, just. This is our community - we know it best. We want to be safe, to be educated, to have food in our bellies and a roof over our heads. We want our communities to grow up our children and love them so that they in turn can grow up and love the next generations. With no money, no support and a Prime Minister like this one, what do you reckon our chances are? Anyway, just some thoughts from the heart on this one with the hope that we all can continue to talk and learn in the best ways that we can.