Seeds of misery sown in remote settlements
NORTHERN Territory politicians were warned by senior bureaucrats of an impending disaster in Aboriginal health as far back as 30 years ago, with officials calling for urgent improvements in living standards to address the "pervading aura of hopelessness" in remote communities.
NORTHERN Territory politicians were warned by senior bureaucrats of an impending disaster in Aboriginal health as far back as 30 years ago, with officials calling for urgent improvements in living standards to address the "pervading aura of hopelessness" in remote communities.
Cabinet documents paint an alarming picture of the trends that were observed in Aboriginal health in the Territory in 1978, the first year of NT self-government.
Child mortality rates were three times the national average and showed signs of increasing, and living standards in overcrowded and underserviced remote settlements were deemed by the NT's top health official to be "far too low for our national conscience".
The director of the federal Department of Aboriginal Affairs' NT Health division, CH Gurl, warned that the newly created NT government would receive an "unfortunate inheritance" in the form of an Aboriginal health disaster unless social issues -- due to massive changes in Aboriginal governance and employment conditions in the early to mid-1970s -- were addressed.
The cabinet papers, the first to be released in the NT, reveal that governments in the mid to late-1970s were struggling to cope with the declining health and social status of Aboriginal people, as large numbers of indigenous families shifted into remote settlements from pastoral properties.
They show the seeds of Aboriginal governance breakdown being sown, with the NT government pushing the commonwealth for more money and better initiatives, but demanding total control over services and cash. Thirty years on, little has improved in Aboriginal health and welfare.
Millions to keep mine going
THE Fraser cabinet approved a $1.4 million loan to save Australia's only remaining asbestos mine at Woodsreef in NSW in October 1978 in the hope that its owner could sell more than 90,000 tonnes of the material to Southeast Asian customers.
Fees ban to curb radical Left
ALMOST 30 years before John Howard succeeded in making student unionism voluntary, the Fraser government considered banning the use of student union fees for political campaigns and creating a right for individuals to opt out of student body membership and fees.