Poll Shows that Australians Increasingly Frustrated With Aborigines

Based off the few years I spent living in Australia recently, this sounds about right to me:

Australians are losing interest in the plight of Aborigines, a survey found Monday, days after the prime minister urged the country’s indigenous people to take more control of their lives.

The Australian Reconciliation Barometer survey, gauging relations between Aborigines and their mostly white counterparts, showed a drop in the number of people who considered the relationship important.

The poll showed that Australians increasingly blame Aborigines, who suffer disproportionately high rates of disease, imprisonment, unemployment and alcohol and substance abuse, for their own problems.

The first such poll conducted since a government apology to Aborigines in 2008 for wrongs suffered since white settlement in 1788 found that those who saw relations as poor now outnumbered those who thought them good.

Less than half thought things were improving.

More than eight out of 10 respondents among the 1,220 non-Aborigines who took part said a lack of personal responsibility was to blame for the problems experienced by indigenous people, Australia’s most marginalised group.  [AFP]

Most Australians I know I very frustrated with the Aborigines because in spite of massive funding for government programs to improve their quality of life, nothing improves.  A perfect example of this is the government housing that the government provides for the Aborigines.  If you ever get a chance to see an Aboriginal settlement you would be shocked on how trashed these homes are.  There are literally holes in the roof to let out the smoke from bonfires started from inside the house.

The substance abuse problem is probably the biggest thing that is destroying Aboriginal culture today.  For example it is shocking the amount of stoned Aborigines that can be seen lying in the dry Todd River bed in Alice Springs.  The problems go on and on and despite the historical wrongs committed against the Aborigines I am leaning more towards the Australian perspective that now in 2011 that the biggest problem with the Aborigines is no longer racism of white Australia, but instead the failure of the Aborigines to take an honest look at themselves.