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Two-and-a-half months after declaring a national emergency, Howard is finally ready to visit an NT Aboriginal community

By Chris Graham - National Indigenous Times

24 August 2007 - Prime Minister John Howard is tipped to finally make an appearance on the ground in Central Australia next week, more than two months after declaring that conditions in Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory were "akin to a national emergency".

On June 21, Mr Howard and Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Mal Brough announced the federal government would be seizing control of remote Aboriginal communities, following the release of the Little Children Are Sacred report which documented child abuse in remote NT Aboriginal communities.

But since his shock announcement, Howard has twice flown over the Northern Territory, once to visit troops in East Timor and once to visit miners in Kalgoorlie. He's even stayed overnight Darwin (on his way to East Timor), but hasn't found the time to visit any Aboriginal communities.

All that is set to change next week.

Government sources told NIT this afternoon that Mr Howard will arrive in Darwin on Monday to announce funding for 12 beds at a new cardiac ward at Royal Darwin Hospital. He is then expected to fly to Central Australia on Tuesday for a brief visit to the community of Ntaria (Hermannsburg) west of Alice Springs.

In his 12 years as Prime Minister, Howard has only ever visited three Aboriginal communities, two of them in the Northern Territory.

Howard's visit to Ntaria represents the longest delay during his Prime Ministership for a visit to a disaster zone from the time of a declaration of an emergency.

In the past few years, Howard has arrived at the scenes of disaster areas no later than three days after the event.

Howard has even arrived at disaster zones in other countries faster than he's arrived in the NT - Howard toured Banda Aceh, one of the Indonesian provinces devastated by the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami a month after the disaster.

But his pending arrival in the NT is unlikely to win him much support, at least among Aboriginal people. So says the Combined Aboriginal Organisations (CAO) of the Northern Territory, the peak body for Indigenous groups in the Territory.

"We have twice formally written to the PM inviting him to meet with us. We're the ones with decades of experience working with Aboriginal people on the ground, yet he's not even paid us the simple courtesy of a response," said CAO spokesperson Pat Turner.

Ms Turner suggested Mr Howard's visit was probably motivated by fresh polling which showed he was still trailing the ALP in the lead-up to the federal election.

"It seems to be the only thing that drives the Prime Minister," she said.

"He has been in power since March 1996 and in all that time, to the best of my knowledge, he has only visited three Aboriginal communities in this country."

Ms Turner said the Prime Minister's past expenditure of public money - particularly in Indigenous affairs - was almost entirely poll driven.

"I want to remind people that in his first budget when he came to power in 1996 he wiped $400 million off the ATSIC budget which went to funding the very issues he's now talking about - women's centres, youth programs, children's programs and other social programs that benefited Aboriginal communities.

"That $400 million equates to $830 million in today's budgetary terms, so his $500 million 'rough Brough' package isn't even restoring the equivalent of what he removed from ATSIC in 1996.

"And what's more, they're using Aboriginal Benefits Account monies to pay for essential services in Aboriginal communities.

"Now he's going to open a cardiac unit in Darwin, or announce funding for it. It's just a bit more pork-barrelling."

Leader of the Ntaria community, Gus Williams OAM told NIT this evening that while there was some initial concerns about the Prime Minister visiting “due to the late notice” provided the community, he predicted local residents would still welcome Howard.

“Well, it might not be with open arms, but whether we support someone or not, at Hermannsburg we still welcome them to our community,” Mr Williams said.

The Prime Minister's office declined to comment to NIT, noting that the PM did not discuss his future itineraries for security reasons.

HOWARD'S EMERGENCY RESPONSES

ASIAN TSUNAMI, Boxing Day 2004: Was in Indonesia within two weeks of disaster for ASEAN leaders summit; declared a "National Day of Mourning and Reflection" for all Australians on January 7; and visited Banda Aceh disaster area a month after tsunami.

CYCLONE LARRY, North Queensland, March 20, 2006: Howard toured devastated region within 48 hours of cyclone.

VICTORIAN AND TASMANIAN BUSHFIRES, December 2006: Toured both states within days of the bushfires.

CENTRAL COAST STORMS, NSW, June 11, 2007: Toured region within three days of disaster.

NT ABORIGINAL INTERVENTION: Planning to visit one NT community two months after declaring situation was "akin to a national emergency".

Source: National Indigenous Times

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