Aborigines asked to shower in petrol pump deal is 'not blackmail'

AUSTRALIA'S government yesterday rejected accusations it had humiliated an outback Aboriginal community with a demand that indigenous children wash their faces twice a day to promote public health if the town is to be given a petrol pump.

Aborigines and opposition MPs branded the deal racist and an example of blackmail while the government promised hundreds of thousands of similar pacts will be introduced to Aboriginal communities across the nation.

The government offered to provide the Mulan desert community in Western Australia with a 170,000 Australian dollars (€100,000) pump if its 170 Aboriginal residents signed an agreement they would comply with a range of conditions including making their children wash their faces twice a day and shower daily.