The savagery of abuse

So what is the future for Aurukun and other remote Indigenous communities which seem to be incapable of policing their own citizens?

When The Courier-Mail journalist Peter Michael reported his conversation with Aurukun Mayor Neville Pootchamunka on December 11, the Mayor’s remarks raised more questions than answers.

“I don’t want to comment about it”, he said. “If I do, my community will read it and they will say the Mayor got involved. They will say I had something to do with it (the men getting off).

“I am not aware of the rape. Of course, I am the leader. Of course I have a strong opinion.”

He added: “I think this is all a lot of crap.”

Whether the Mayor was being evasive and subsequently misrepresented by The Courier-Mail I can’t comment - but suffice to say that he needs to seriously assess if he is the visionary leader that the Aurukun community needs at this dire time in their lives.

I would suggest Mayor Pootchamunka and his councillors read the paper titled Addressing Extreme Disadvantage Through Investment in Capability Development, presented by Dr Ken Henry, Secretary to the Treasury, to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare Conference "Australia’s Welfare 2007" in Canberra on December 6.

In his paper Dr Henry outline seven steps, that if followed would go a long way to addressing the chronic social problems that many communities like Aurukun currently experience, including:

First, and fundamentally, there must be basic protective security from violence for Indigenous parents and children.

Second, there is strong international evidence that early childhood development interventions, coupled with parental support to develop appropriate at-home learning environments, provide a critical foundational base for young children.

Third, the home environment needs to be conducive to regular patterns of sleep and study, free from overcrowding and distraction.

Fourth, there needs to be ready access to suitable primary health service infrastructure.