(SF)

Original Story Here

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) -- Australia's leader has announced plans to ban pornography and alcohol for Aborigines in some areas, and to tighten control over their welfare benefits to fight what he called a child sex abuse crisis among them.

Prime Minister John Howard was responding to an officially commissioned report last week saying child abuse was rampant in indigenous communities in the Northern Territory, fueled by alcohol abuse, unemployment, poverty and other factors causing a breakdown in civil society.

"This is a national emergency," Howard told Parliament Thursday. "We're dealing with a group of young Australians for whom the concept of childhood innocence has never been present."

Some Aboriginal leaders immediately slammed the plan as paternalistic, saying they had not been consulted about it and that they objected to restricting how indigenous people can spend welfare benefits.

Others applaud the plan's requirement that at least half of area Aborigines' welfare checks be spent on food and other necessities -- a measure aimed to cut spending on gambling and alcohol. They want similar conditions placed on payments in a trial in neighboring Queensland state.

Family welfare payments would also be linked to children's school attendance.

However, some warn that such a system -- applied only to Aborigines -- could breach federal discrimination laws.

Howard announced the measures for the Northern Territory, an Outback region where his federal government retains powers that it doesn't have over Australia's six states, and urged state leaders to apply similar tough rules in their jurisdictions.

The new measures would apply to about half of the sprawling Northern Territory, on land that has been returned to Aboriginal ownership under federal law over the past 30 years.

The sale, possession and transportation of alcohol would be banned for six months on the Aboriginal-owned land, Howard said, and sales would be reviewed after that.

The child abuse report said drinking was a key contributor to Aboriginal culture's collapse, and to neglect of children and creating opportunities for pedophiles.

Hardcore pornography, which the report found was rife in Aboriginal communities and available to children -- who were thus desensitized to sex with adults, and who sometimes act out scenes with each other -- also would be banned.

Publicly funded computers would be audited to ensure that they had not been used to download such images, the government said.

Some Aboriginal leaders immediately condemned the plan -- which the government had not previously indicated it was considering -- saying it exemplified government behavior that has disenfranchised their people and created social problems in the first place.

"I'm absolutely disgusted by this patronizing government control," said Mitch, a member of a government board helping Aborigines who were taken from their parents under past assimilation laws.

"And tying drinking with welfare payments is just disgusting," said Mitch, who uses only one name.

"If they're going to do that, they're going to have to do that with every single person in Australia, not just black people," she said.

Some civic leaders fear further alcohol restrictions could drive troublemakers off Aboriginal land into Northern Territory towns and cities, to live and drink on the streets.

Many Aboriginal communities already ban or restrict alcohol. Their residents sometimes travel to towns for drinking binges.

"We'd be concerned about anything that led to more people coming to town seeking alcohol," said Geoff Brooks, chief executive office of the Katherine Town Council.

The federal government can change laws in the territory with an act of Parliament, where Howard has a majority that ensures he can implement his policy.

Howard also urged state governments to send police to the Northern Territory to address an Aboriginal land shortage.

About 60,000 of Australia's roughly 400,000 Aborigines live in the Northern Territory -- the highest proportion of indigenous residents anywhere in the country.

Many live in isolated, impoverished communities where jobs are scarce and substance abuse is widespread.

Aborigines are a tiny minority among Australia's 21 million people.

They suffer much higher poverty and addiction rates, and other problems. Their life expectancy is 17 years shorter than that of other Australians.

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Oh, boy. Yeah, that's show 'em. Why not pass openly racist, we-know-better-than-you laws aimed at controlling other peoples' lives in this enlightened day and age?

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There has been a generation of social experiment where the indiginous Australians were ceded ownership of much of Australia's richest lands on the understanding that this ownership would bring on a sense of self-worth and dignity.

Some have gone down the road of educating the young ones to be strong in the aboriginal and wider communities.

Some have chosen a more traditional lifestyle of abuse, drink and violence, led by tribal elders who play the same tribal game we see in Somalia, Iraq, west Africa and Asia. This tribalism is the root of the Tongs, the Yakusa and the colour gangs now spread from the USA throughout the western world.

Children are being allowed to run through the bush as in "Lord of the Flies" without discipline (often to escape the elders) and are reaching the age where their own violence and antisocial activities are bringing them before the courts without the ability to read and speak English. These children have no skills which are useful in employment (unless your name is Fagin) and of late are roaming in gangs through the suburbs making mischief.

"This enlightened day and age" doesn't exist for many of these people and the Feds have taken a tough decision. Damned if you do and damned if you don't.

This modern world is tough on well educated, focussed mainstreamers. It must be hell for those who have no viable options but to sit in a corner, drink and fornicate away their welfare money.

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You'd prefer then that the child abuse, rape, murders, early deaths and other nasties be let continue then?

There are dry places in Australia, that no person in the whole community may have alcohol...wether they be white or black.

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Ok, I've seen this posted on a few other forums, and well it pretty much went down like it did here.

Does the law target only aborigines, or anyone on welfare?

If it says "Aborigines can't purchase booze and porn", then it's racist as I seriously doubt there are any pale skinned natives in Australia.

And since, I think it is tied in with money people get for being an aborigine, it would be de facto racist. I don't know how your welfare system works over there.

Does the Australian government give all entitlements in one lump sum through one program or is it like in America where they give out food stamps (which are highly restricted in what you can and cannot purchase), housing is done through vouchers, and there is very little actual cash moneythrough welfare (and that is only a temporary 5 year lifetime supply.)

But it seems to me that if you get anything form the government, then the government should have the right to come in and say "Hey don't blow our tax money on hookers and meth!"

Oh and by contrast, in some Scandinavian countries they do allow people to use their government check on hookers.

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Well sir that seems to be someone else's problem.

In this case Aborigines....they are out of control in some parts of Australia...and not all aborigines just the ones that are out of control.

You get a fortnightly welfare payment in Australia...it is not doled out as food stamps and such that i am aware of...it is cash.

They do nothing to help themselves and sit there waiting for their handouts (from taxpayers money), then wasting what they do get on crap that puts them more in a rut! The crime rate among these Aborigines is way out of control.

These are my views, i am not stating that ALL aboriginal people are in need of 'control'. Some aboriginals would be the nicest people you would meet. I am not a racist. If it was a white community with the same problems, i would applaud the goverment for tackling it the same way.

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Orli,

You can say it's a class issue all you want, but the fact is that this law affects only poor and black people. I'm sure Australia has it's fair share of white trash.

And if I said that I don't have a problem with black people, just the ones who sit around collecting government checks so they can buy 40's and smoke crack, I'd be labeled as a racist.

And I think I saw what they get every fortnight, and that's a pretty large chunk of money they could have spent any way they see fit. I'm not sure what the exchange rate is in Australia vs. U.S, but basically if you give a person enough money to where they don't have to work they will just sit around smoking weed and watch T.V. all day.

So really is it possible for a white person to get a government check for that amount every fortnight? What are the drug laws like in Australia? And I could probably fake an accent so I don't look or sound like a foreigner. Unless, a Texas drawl is suddenly sexy somewhere in the world, but yeah if I can get free money I'm totally moving to Australia.

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Well sir that seems to be someone else's problem.