We note with a certain sadness the troubles besetting Canada’s First Nation Peoples, and believe that we, with our proud history of helping our own First Nation peoples here in Australia, can help our Canadian brothers. The following is a transcript of a speech made at the recent Pacific Rim Partnership summit held in Toronto, in which the Minister for Indigenous Affairs offered assistance to the Canadian government in the thoughtful integration of native Americans into mainstream societies

Mal Brough. Progenitor of the ‘Ideas Boom’, outlines the benefits of the Intervention and the trickle down effect in Parliament.

The former Prime Minister for Indigenous Australians. (The look says it all).

‘It’s time the “ideas boom’ demonstrated more than just rhetoric and it is with some pride that the Australian Government announced today a far reaching programme to internationalise our world ranking in dealing with the vexed problems of indigenous suicide, imprisonment and life expectancy. What we have here is an opportunity to do some heavy lifting on the global stage.

The free trade deals we’ve signed are just not far reaching enough, and as the indices prove, the public just don’t get the benefits of working harder for less. We cannot expect the public to understand the contribution made by shareholders in selling off our manufacturing, agriculture and natural resources so that they may benefit from the trickle down effect. It’s a concept too remote for them to appreciate.

Yet, on the subject of remoteness, we share many similarities with other great economies. And they incidentally share with us the capacity to generate wealth from vast underpopulated tracts. Tracts which until recently have been largely undeveloped. Canada, as cited, has a problem with their first nations. The message is clearly not getting through that governments are here to help them, and to make them SAFE! With first nation imprisonment at only 25 percent of the population, and burgeoning youth suicide, they’re clearly not going far enough to demonstrate a co-ordinated approach to tackling these decisive issues.

‘Once again, we are doing the heavy lifting, and by incarceration of both male and female first Australians we’re keeping them safe. Safe from themselves, and safe from their natural tendency, to suicide’ .

On the recent issue on youth suicide there are, (and the extreme weather conditions may have something to do with this), just not enough NGO’s on the job to ensure that the youth understand fully that government is there to help. Clearly in Canada, they’re not utilising to the full potential of public and private mechanisms. And sadly they haven’t integrated healthcare, youth, education, and employment into a one stop shop. In our remote communities we have literally dozens, of NGO’s on the job. In any remote community it’s impossible to move without bumping into them. They’re wall to wall, chock a block. NGO’s assisting in everything from maternal care, youth outreach programs, and citizenship initiatives that ensure that all members of the first nations are duly processed and indexed according to the most up to date standardised benchmark. Prison.

Let the statistics speak for themselves. In the U.S, allegedly the world leader, there are seven hundred persons per one hundred thousand in prison. Whereas in the NT we have over nine hundred in prison, per one hundred thousand, and of those nine hundred we’re proud to say that over eighty six percent are first Australians. Once again, we are doing the heavy lifting, and by incarceration of both male and female first Australians we’re keeping them safe. Safe from themselves, and safe from their natural tendency, to suicide .

‘the beneficiaries post intervention of the biggest upgrade in corrective, educative and health orientated services since federation’

Suicide is destructive, and demonstrates a resoluteness to end suffering. In Australia we’ve progressed beyond this ‘integration adjustment phase’, to the state defined by our experts as the ‘torpor of apathy’. In most of our communities, we’ve got to the situation where no one can be bothered with suicide. Only the extremely young and feeble suicide. The rest are rendered emotionally depleted by our service provision to just exist. It keeps them safe. Safe, from themselves.

And why would they bother with suicide? After all we’ve done for them, and the consistent efforts by NGO’s to assist them in reaching goals that the other vast majority of Australians take for granted. We have rendered them carefree! They are the beneficiaries post intervention of the biggest upgrade in corrective, educative and health orientated services since federation.

We gift Canada the Intervention! Bold decisive action is good for service growth. Good for the economy and great for the shareholders. That’s why we propose exporting the intervention to our friends in Canada so that their first nations can benefit from the bounty that follows. A bounty that provides certainty for all, and the surety that with the proliferation of services that follow, they’ll be literally dying to became part of a stronger future. So they too can share in the bounty of the trickle down effect.

There remains one last residual problem. We’re working on that one. And that is, after all we’ve done for them, why can’t they be just a little bit more grateful?