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UN 'to examine' Australia's intervention

2 February 2009 - Aboriginal people from the town camps of Alice Springs and nearby communities are preparing to take their fight against the federal intervention to the United Nations.

Sydney-based human rights lawyer George Newhouse says the Australian government, in its treatment of his clients, would not want to be seen in a place which makes determinations about third world despotic regimes that are repressing indigenous populations.

Former Federal Court judge Ron Merkel QC is also working on the case, to be taken to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

"The complaint will be that the intervention laws are racially discriminatory and they breach Australia's international obligations, in particular under the race convention," Mr Newhouse said.

Announced by the Howard government 18 months ago in response to harrowing claims of widespread child sex abuse, the intervention required the suspension of the Racial Discrimination Act in order to roll out some of the more controversial measures.

These include the compulsory quarantining of half of all welfare payments to ensure the money is not spent on grog, gambling or drugs.

Mr Newhouse described the case as "incredibly strong" and said similar matters had gone before the UN "where third world despotic regimes are repressing indigenous populations".

He said the Rudd government should be embarrassed by the measures, which are violating human rights and are blatantly racist.

"There may well be some people who are benefiting from these measures but there are a lot more who aren't ... and that doesn't mean that because some people are receiving some benefits you can punish others," he told ABC Radio in Darwin.

"There are a lot of very good Aboriginal people who lead exemplary lives who are being humiliated and frustrated as a result of these laws."

Mr Newhouse, who will address a public forum on the intervention in Canberra on Monday night, conceded the UN could not force the Rudd government to change its policy.

But it can make a number of recommendations and Mr Newhouse says he expects the government to "be taking note".

"I think it's a source of great embarrassment to the Australian government that indigenous Australians are being forced to take this action," he said.

Source: The Age

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