The rumour mill !

This week police supported by Army infrastructure workers moved into Aboriginal villages in the Northern Territory. Their initial objective was to establish communications with the Indigenous people and allay suspicions caused by the plethora of wild stories that were circulating.
The rumour mill was running on overdrive. Despite Kevin Rudd's solidarity with John Howard on this issue, cynical elements within the Australian Labor party were suggesting that the " national emergency " was an election stunt dreamed up to create a focus similar to that generated by the " Tampa " affair.
Even wilder stories were running riot in the Aboriginal community. There were suggestions that this was a stunt to wind back Aboriginal land rights and to reclaim land for the benefit of white society. There was talk of Aboriginal children being removed from their parents and spirited away to white run camps where they would be " brain washed " to deny their Aboriginality.
A solid band of indigenous people spoke out to dispel these rumours - and it was suggested that the source of such wild yarns was originating from those who had the most to fear from an investigation of child sex abuse. There was certainly an air of panic in some quarters - and a suggestion that some families had abandoned their villages in the Northern Territory to escape what they believed was a coming purge.
It seems that this attempt to put things right in our Aboriginal community will not be restricted to the Northern Territory. The states are coming onboard - with varying degrees of enthusiasm - and at long last there seems to be a consensus of thinking that we have an obligation to the original inhabitants of this land to improve their standard of living, look after their health problems, protect their children from abuse - and offer them the privileges that are a right for all Australian citizens.
Neither side of Federal politics nor any state government can escape the shame of knowing about this problem for decades - and doing nothing ! That problem is now in the glare of the national spotlight - and it is not going to go away.