It's our hurricane Katrina, says emotion-charged PM

It's our hurricane Katrina, says emotion-charged PM :

"While criticising the plan, the letter does acknowledge the need for immediate action.

One of the letter's signatories, Anglicare Australia chief executive Ray Cleary, questioned why it had taken so long for the Government 'to recognise something that the wisdom and experience of agencies like ours have been saying for 20 years'."

When John Howard decides to act, he acts. That is both his strength and his weakness. He can carry through sweeping change and if half of what he has said in this is true then, clearly, he believes very strongly in the right of his action. That promotes the power to change but it also promotes chaos and fear and that has happened more than once in his stint as Prime Minister.

"We can debate root causes until the cows come home," he said, insisting it would have been easier to make timid declarations aspiring to equality and striving for a cherished consensus."(But) without urgent action to restore social order, the nightmare will go on — more grog, more violence, more pornography and more sexual abuse — as the generation we're supposed to save sinks further into the abyss," he said.

Strong beliefs can bring about great change but sound judgement ensures the change is good. Enough people are saying...wait, wait, listen, listen, that Mr. Howard needs to take wise counsel. He needs to listen to his people and his advisers. He needs to listen most to those who are there and who ought to know better than anyone. He also needs to realise that Aboriginal people have been singled out before for "improvement" and we still haven't said sorry about that particular helpful hand. The emotion needs to come out of it and a sound, solid plan put in place. The buffer zone needs to be created. I haven't noticed we have made any of these sweeping changes to the homes of white children who are equally desperately in need , so get it very clear we are not treating Aborigines in the same way as we are treating whites. When you do that, you are splitting the community. I haven't heard anyone question the need to put a stop to it. Now. This minute. I haven't heard anyone saying that white children are in more abject circumstances in our own country. But we are one people so let's act as one people and use the policies and requirements which apply to us all. We are not allowed to abuse and neglect our children. We are not allowed to be violent. We need people to interpret and explain this properly and fully. We need people to support the very people who are already terrified being terrified more. This will change their social structure, their family structure and their daily lives. We need to talk to those people so we get it right. If Mr. Howard thinks it's our Katrina , the rest of us are worried it'll be our Iraq. Now, slow down, take a deep breath and go about this in the sensible, organised way our emergency task forces go about any crisis management. That is something we do well.