We’re all still deaf to the tragically unheard Aboriginal children

Billions of dollars, hundreds of reports, dozens of inquiries and endless hand-wringing have done far less than is urgently needed to improve the lives of Aboriginal children living in remote parts of the Northern Territory.

That is the stupefying finding of two coronial inquests into the likely preventable deaths of six Aboriginal kids. Yet the stupid thing about it is that no one in these places needed a coronial inquest to tell them that.

Bush communities are a mess and, by many accounts, deteriorating. Labor has a lot to answer for here, having ruled the NT almost uninterrupted for the past two decades.

Whether you are a religious conservative, a social justice advocate, an upstanding citizen or just a caring person, it’s easy to agree with Coroner Greg Cavanagh saying “that these conditions continue to exist in an affluent country such as Australia is a disgrace”.

Yet despite this broad concurrence across the political spectrum, action on big issues that could perhaps make a difference is perennially blocked by ideology.

No government has worked out how to get Indigenous land and labour productivity engaged in the economy without falling afoul of cries of racism.

Too many people seem reluctant to exorcise violence and pedophilia for fear of impugning culture.

The ones who go tragically unheard in all this are the kids — the future.

Cavanagh’s finding that agencies showed “unsettling … blindness … to the (children’s) obvious trauma” discloses reprehensible failings and systemic breakdowns.

But it also testifies to challenges that intimidate even governments.

“Failing to recognise trauma cannot be isolated to the failure of training or induction, the misapplication of a policy or lack of resources. It is more than that,” he says.

He’s right.