Injection of money was tried by the Federal Government as a means to overcome the Aboriginal plight in the early 1970's. And the other is either partial integration or the tribal style of living with some European influence on it. The Police Union also argued that its members had to accept a 'welfare' component in their role, and that this needed to be understood and tolerated by Aborigines. However any advances which could be made in this area were eroded by Aboriginal lobby groups such as the Aboriginal Legal Service. The first thing that needs to be said about that statement is that whatever the statistics on assaults in the Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal community one major factor is that of Aboriginal people's visibility.
Aboriginal people are out in the open, so naturally people say they are violent people.
It is enlightening to see that the Police Union assertion ignores the sort of sociological features pertaining to Aboriginal society, features around which my Commission is centred, which were explored in the Alwyn Peter case, in Queensland. The statistics also show that Aboriginal people are imprisoned at a much greater rate for minor and serious assaults, than are non-Aboriginal people. That may be a result of visibility, arrest practices and sentencing practices. The number of 'serious' assault sentences being served by Aboriginal people may also be a product of the fact that to assault a police officer is in the State of Western Australia an 'aggravated' assault. The Union also ignores the fact that what it refers to as the 'watering down of the blood line' has not automatically resulted in loss of lifestyle and codes of conduct, as later sections in my report will illustrate.