Tony Abbott is on his way out to Queanbeyan to empathise with yet another small business about how unlivable life will be under the carbon tax. Steve Fielding, a man who used to dress up as a soda-pop bottle, sternly derides Mr Abbott's national plebiscite proposal as "a stunt". In Parliament House, Labor MPs sweat on in fear of their dicey living arrangements on the government benches.

But in the House of Representatives last night, a report was tabled that gives us a pretty stern reminder of what real problems look like. Called Doing Time - Time For Doing, it's a considered look at how many Aboriginal youths are in custody, and why, 20 years after the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.

In fact, if you read nothing else this week, you should read this report.

In the years between 2000 and 2009, the incarceration rate for Indigenous Australians rose by 66 per cent.

Between 2000 and 2010, the actual number of Aboriginal men in prisons rose by 55 per cent, and the number of women rose by 47 per cent.

These figures are confronting enough, but the most depressing part of the report is the extent to which the figures are the result of life-long cycles in which incredibly simple problems can snowball into a lifetime of disadvantage.

Take hearing, for example.

According to the report, 70 per cent of remote Indigenous adults have hearing loss or problems. The committee heard evidence from everywhere that hearing problems among children are endemic among Aboriginal communities.

When a child can't hear properly, the likelihood that they will stay and engage in school, make friends or learn is dramatically curtailed. School dropouts are more likely to be bored and try booze or drugs. Adolescents who can't hear are more likely to get into arguments with police, or to appear insolent. Deaf teenagers are more likely to talk too loudly, exaggerating the appearance of aggression.

Australian Hearing, which provides free treatment for children under the Hearing Services Program, doesn't visit juvenile detention centres.

Everything in this report reinforces the story; a grim cycle of substance abuse, boredom, violence and missed opportunities to connect with circuit breakers.

"We have reached the point of inter-generational family dysfunction in many Indigenous communities, with problems of domestic violence, alcohol and drug abuse, inadequate housing, poor health and school attendance, and a lack of job skills and employment of Indigenous Aborigines," the report concludes.

Seemingly unconnected factors - like the low rate of birth registration in Aboriginal communities - make the situation worse. Kids without birth certificates face problems getting driving licences, but also enrolling in formal sporting programs of the type that have been demonstrated to help keep them out of trouble. The report mentions a pilot project in Dubbo in 2006 that arranged birth certificates to be issued for 750 individuals, 500 of whom went on to participate in organised activities.

The innovative organisation Midnight Basketball, which provides dinner, classes and a ride home to young people in return for participation in late-night basketball tournaments, also got a gong in the report, deservingly.

But the report, compiled by Queensland Labor MP Shayne Neumann and his bipartisan committee, is a confronting read.

In 2007, Indigenous kids made up 59 per cent of the numbers in juvenile detention.

This is despite the fact that Indigenous Australians represent only 2.5 per cent of the population.

Often, political debate in Australia is a competition between politicians and the media to encourage social or industry groups to feel hard-done-by.

But real hardship doesn't come and go as the result of new taxes, or program cuts here and there. Real hardship is grim and tangled and unimaginably difficult to solve.

Annabel Crabb is ABC Online's chief political writer.