No need for constitutional change

I would like to clarify some of the arguments and assumptions made by David Casey (Forum CCN 407).

Hundreds of years ago, British, Spanish, French and Portuguese empires explored the unknown parts of the world, established their ownership, ruled ruthlessly and vastly increased their wealth and power at the expense of natives all over the world.

It took courage, determination and a sense of reason and fair play to break those shackles and gain independence.

India was one of those countries.

While our children were not snatched away, Indians were ruled harshly and exploited.

Yet, we look at the positives; gaining a national language, workable legal system, good infrastructure, education etc and the list goes on.

The same positives apply to Australians as well.

That is how this country became a “lucky country” and a magnet to many of the migrants.

While some indigenous people have strived and become successful in all walks of life, one wonders why the rest of them won’t do it?

That is what we should try to understand and overcome, not blindly changing the Constitution and giving up the entire nation.

People all over the world look back on history and learn from it, (even after the Jewish genocide), get on with their lives and strive for better lives.

I fail to understand Mr Casey’s argument, as to why all of us have to compensate for what the First Nation people were subjected to.

No-one is against helping the disadvantaged, whatever their race, religion or nationality might be.

We Australians have always been offering monetary and other forms of help all over the world.

The Productivity Commission‘s recent report shows that although $30B is allocated to the Indigenous people, only $8B actually reaches them.

If (according to that report) there are about 300,000 Indigenous Australians , where and how is the money being spent?

Do we, as taxpayers, have a right to question this or not?

Pouring more dollars and giving unquestioned and irresponsible power to a select group of bureaucrats is what bothers a lot of us.

If a transparent , responsible and non-profit organisation takes over bettering their education, health, prevention of alcoholism, domestic violence, arson and criminality in children, I am all for it.

But I, like many migrant Australians, do not believe in changing the Constitution for this.

Email, Sep 16
Nalini Padmanabhan, Terrigal