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All sides of politics urged to support NTER Review recommendations

13 October 2008 - ANTaR - Government, the Opposition and minor parties should unanimously support the recommendations of the Northern Territory Emergency Response (NTER) review report, according to Indigenous rights organisation, ANTaR.

ANTaR National Director, Gary Highland said the report, written by Aboriginal leaders, Peter Yu and Marcia Ella Duncan and former senior public servant, Bill Gray AM, was comprehensive and balanced and provided a blueprint for improving the NTER.

“The Report confirms that the former Minister, Mal Brough was correct in assessing the situation confronting Aboriginal children in NT communities as a national emergency,” Mr Highland said.

Mr Highland said the report also points to improvements resulting from a number if the Intervention’s measures. These include: a more permanent police presence, income management, as well as measures to reduce alcohol-related violence, to increase the quality and availability of housing, to improve the health and wellbeing of communities, and to advance early learning and education.

“However, the report is justifiably critical of the manner in which many of the Intervention’s measures were imposed, saying that its failure to engage constructively with Aboriginal people has so far compromised its success,” Mr Highland said.

The Report points out that:

No matter how good the framework, no matter how much money is available, you cannot drive change into a community and unload it off the back of a truck. That is the lesson of the Intervention.

Deep seated change—safe healthy families—must be grown up within the community. That is the challenge for Aboriginal people.

Mr Highland said he hoped that bi-partisan support would be maintained for the NT Intervention.

“From talking to Coalition Members of Parliament I have no doubt that the original Intervention was motivated by a genuine desire to help Aboriginal children,” Mr Highland said.

“However, as the report points out, this genuine commitment has not resulted in outcomes that the Intervention’s architects or the Australian people should be satisfied with.

“I urge the Federal Opposition particularly, to maintain bi-partisan support for the Intervention by supporting the changes recommended by the Review.”

Mr Highland said there were also lessons for state governments from the NTER Review.

“Governments like NSW, where the situation is just as grave for Aboriginal children as in the Northern Territory , should learn from the Federal Government’s approach.”

Mr Highland said the approach to tackling the abuse of Aboriginal children in NSW has had none of the resourcing or transparency applied to the NT.

“Premier Nathan Reese should seek the advice of report author, Marcia Ella-Duncan on how the NSW approach can be improved in light of the NT experience,” he said.

Media contact: Gary Highland

Source: ANTaR

Report is 'more touchy-feely nonsense'

Patricia Karvelas, Political correspondent |

14 October 2008 - INDIGENOUS academic Marcia Langton has criticised the review of the Northern Territory intervention, arguing that the racial Discrimination Act should remain suspended to allow the radical intervention to continue, and that the watering-down of welfare controls will be dangerous for communities.

Professor Langton's criticisms came as ALP powerbroker and indigenous leader Warren Mundine called on the Rudd Government to ignore the report's recommendations because they would weaken the attack on welfare dependence.

But review board chair Peter Yu yesterday defended his report arguing that for the intervention to be successful a new relationship between indigenous people and governments had to be established.

"You are going to get people on one side saying we haven't gone far enough and on the other side saying we've gone too far so that's part of the democratic society we live in," he said.

"It's about resetting the relationship by re-engaging with the people. We've had a large submission base ... and we have consulted with a large number of people and they are quite capable of speaking for themselves," he said.

Professor Langton, the Chair of Australian indigenous studies at Melbourne University, defended the intervention yesterday, arguing that the suspension of the Racial Discrimination Act to implement the intervention was still justifiable.

Professor Langton said she was disappointed that the review did not suggest replacing the quarantining system with a Family Relationships Commission used in Queensland.

"I don't agree with the report that all government actions need to conform with the Racial Discrimination Act," she said yesterday.

"If a parent is neglecting children ... are they going to put their hands up and say 'I'm exactly the kind of person who needs income management?' Usually they are so embroiled

in their own problems ... they don't have the capacity to ask for help."

Professor Langton said the system introduced by Queensland after consultation with the commonwealth and Noel Pearson's Cape York Institute should be introduced.

Under a trial in the Cape York communities of Aurukun, Coen, Hope Vale and Mossman Gorge the FRC will have the authority to haul welfare recipients before a specially convened hearing to decide how best to manage their affairs.

"What's the point of demanding voluntary income management when the very people who need income management are incapable of volunteering in most cases?" she said.

Professor Langton said the special measures were not based on race but on geography and on economic disadvantage.

"The racial discrimination argument holds that if a person is treated differently, then that is racist; well, that's just nonsense.

"If a person lives in radically different circumstances then different measures are required."

Mr Mundine said he was outraged by the report because it watered down the intervention and weakened the attack on welfare dependency.

"I'm a bit tired of people who want to accept second-best. It's about time that we bit the bullet and got stuck into real economic outcomes," he told The Australian.

"This is just the touchy-feely nonsense that's been going on for decades in Aboriginal communities and I'm quite surprised that such a report has been written.
It's a joke.

"Quite frankly, I think they should ignore it. There are certain parts of this that are becoming a joke. If we don't take the welfare dragon on and defeat it, then we will be condemning indigenous people to poverty forever.

"The only way to close the gap is through tough reforms of indigenous affairs because the previous situation resulted in poverty, shorter lifespans, the failure of education and the failure of employment."

Mr Mundine said the report had been written by people who were not in favour of the intervention's radical principles.

"You pick the people for the report that you want. I was surprised by the selection of the people that were selected but I gave the Government the benefit of the doubt that they really wanted to make reforms in this area."

Federal Labor frontbencher and MP for the NT seat of Lingiari Warren Snowdon said he agreed "wholeheartedly with their finding that the lack of consultation and involvement of indigenous Territorians in the intervention has undermined its effectiveness".

"There is no denying the ongoing need for decisive action to help create a better future for indigenous communities in the Northern Territory, but equally there is a critical need to reset, re-engage and repair the relationship between Aboriginal people and the Territory and federal governments," he said.

Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation national director Gary Highland said the report was comprehensive, balanced and provided a blueprint for improving the intervention.

"However, the report is justifiably critical of the manner in which many of the intervention's measures were imposed, saying that its failure to engage constructively with Aboriginal people has so far compromised its success," Mr Highland said.

Source: The Australian

Two-way bet on NT response

COMMENT: Paul Toohey

14 October 2008 - IT is something of a two-way bet. On the one hand the review commissioned by the Rudd Government into the Northern Territory Emergency Response states: "The situation in remote communities and town camps was - and remains - sufficiently acute to be described as a national emergency. The NTER should continue."

On the other, it recommends that income management be voluntary, rather than mandatory; and it calls for Aboriginal townships to remain closed to the outside world. These are two of the key tenets of the intervention.

Northern Territory Indigenous Policy Minister and Education Policy Minister Marion Scrymgour immediately expressed concern, saying quarantining income was a vital tool that could be used to penalise parents who did not send their children to school.

The review board, led by Peter Yu, Marcia Ella Duncan and Bill Gray, says that the exclusion of the Racial Discrimination Act was unnecessary and painful to Aborigines. It calls for the Government to conform to its human rights obligations by adhering to the Act, rather than excluding it.

But how many bush Aborigines knew the real reason - not the rhetoric - for setting aside the Act in the Territory?

The Howard government did it in order to be able to manage the welfare payments of a specific racial group, and to acquire Aboriginal township land for a period of five years. It is questionable whether bush Aborigines - many of whom support income management - were aware of this nuance.

The issue around the Racial Discrimination Act is a red herring; its exclusion only upsets and pains the elite.

It is curious that two weeks ago the authors were given an extension on their final report after submitting a draft. The Australian understands that the draft contained strong support for the continuation of the old CDEP program - but then Ms Macklin announced what amounted to the abolition of CDEP.

Now the review team makes only vague comments about CDEP which seems to fit with the newly unveiled Macklin employment strategy. This raises questions about the federal Government's claims, yesterday, that the review was "independent and transparent".

Source: The Australian

For the report see: http://www.nterreview.gov.au/report.htm

or download the full NTER REVIEW REPORT (4mb)

Further information: NT intervention issues page - includes news index and external links

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