ABORIGINAL Australians are in danger of being treated as spectators of their own future, according to Catholic Religious Australia (CRA).
CRA has welcomed the recent concern of the Federal Government for children who are harmed by situations of substance abuse, family violence and sexual abuse.
The Government reforms for some indigenous communities in the Northern Territory include alcohol and pornography bans, compulsory medical checks for children under 16 and conditional welfare payments.
About 60 communities will be controlled by the Federal Government under a five-year lease scheme while a team of police from around Australia, supported by the Australian Federal Police and backed up by Australian Defence Force troops, will enforce the changes.
However, the peak body for Australia’s 8000 Catholic nuns, brothers and priests, is alarmed at the way these intolerable circumstances are being addressed.
CRA said recently that religious brothers, nuns and priests had been working with indigenous people in a multitude of remote communities across Australia for generations.
CRA spokesperson Missionaries of the Sacred Heart’s Fr Tim Brennan said what appeared to be absent from the present strategy was the harnessing of the existing passion of indigenous people for a better future for themselves and their families.
