Boys, boats, beers and bulldust

Initially, medical checks were to be “compulsory” until cooler and more thoughtful heads told the government that this was just silly. You’ve got to wonder what kind of mad monk would come up with such a no-brainer in the first place.

More recently, the CDEP scheme was harpooned so that the government could pay participants through Centrelink, and thus quarantine these payments as it saw fit. Doubtless the locals will need all their money to invest in the burgeoning property markets which are apparently just about to appear in all remote communities. The government has also flagged its intention to “acquire” townships, without providing any detail about how this will work. Incredibly, Minister Brough is also proposing to emasculate the permit system - the first line of defence against undesirables roaming around unsupervised on Aboriginal land.

The scope of these changes is unprecedented. Clearly nothing was going to stand in the government’s way as it moved mountains in the interest of Indigenous Australians. Nothing that is, bar the sacred “fishing trip”.

Why not extend this “beers for the boys” principle to solid ground, and make alcohol permissible on hunting trips and at footy matches as well?

It makes no less sense than the fishing-trip fiasco. Don’t get me wrong. I enjoy a cool drink on a hot day. But this backdown leaves the government’s credibility in tatters. They can’t seriously continue to run their inflated “national emergency” rhetoric while claiming that fishing trips are sacrosanct.

Meanwhile, Minister Brough’s sanctimonious statements about stopping the “rivers of grog” begin to sound pretty hollow.

Bulldust is a problem in the Territory.