Australia or Invasion Day, page-43

More responses to the OP

We have some fantastic indigenous staff but in a lot of locations we really struggle to even get applicants for the indigenous community and so we recruit a farmer’s wife or a Uni recruit who only wants to work "way out west" for 6 months or so before moving back to Brisbane to do social work. We also really struggle to get interest from the community, in a lot of remote communities domestic violence is so common it is not considered a crime or a problem, it is simply a normal part of life and the community will not report it or buy into programs that try to educate people about it.

Now I completely understand the historical issues and mistrust indigenous people have of the government and police, but what would make me shed tears of happiness would be if large parts of the community actively wanted to improve their lot, wanted to see their kids finish school, or even attend regularly and thought that domestic violence, drug use and so on were things that were holding their mob back.

Multiple recent conferences in Northern Australia that have yet again discussed the need to 'address' the shortage of health professionals - have, yet again, focused on 'recruitment and retention' of staff. These staff are predominantly non-Indigenous, and they are making a small fortune. There is, and never has been a serious, broad scale attempt to allow, or provide a means for,Indigenous Australians to gain control over their health and health care.

There are remote areas with 'Hospitals' that provide emergency care and round the clock shift workers, like you'd expect in a city - but they provide the poorest primary health care anywhere in the country. Money is wasted on an inappropriate set up, that doesn't serve the community needs at all.

The health system itself is set up and maintained by non-Indigenous people who are payed exorbitant amounts of money, for failing to address the needs of the people they are supposed to provide a service to. So if you want to complain about money spent, check the pay packets of those perpetuating the problem and profiteering from it - in fact let’s make it transparent - who is being payed, for what are they being paid, and what/where exactly are the improved outcomes. You'd be very surprised.