Macklin to make 'minor changes' to NT intervention
ABC News | 17 January 2008
Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin says she wants to ensure Indigenous Australians are consulted more as part of the takeover of Northern Territory Aboriginal communities.
She says the new Labor Government supports the intervention, but with some minor changes.
"The number one issue that we've indicated since we were elected that we wanted to add to the intervention is really to bring Indigenous people in the Northern Territory into the process," she said.
"We do think it's very important that Indigenous people are able to contribute."
Ms Macklin also says she is interested in practical solutions, not ideology, in protecting Aboriginal children.
She has reinforced her commitment to the takeover of Northern Territory Indigenous communities during her first meeting with the intervention taskforce in Canberra today.
Ms Macklin says the meeting was extremely productive.
"I emphasised to the taskforce that my whole approach in Indigenous affairs will be that based on evidence," she said.
"I'm not interested in ideology, I'm interested in what works."
Permit system
Ms Macklin says she is yet to decide how and when to implement Labor's policy to reinstate the permit system for accessing Indigenous communities.
Under current legislation the permit system is set to be scrapped next month.
But Ms Macklin says she is still considering how best to retain it.
"I'm seeking advice from the department about the most effective way to implement the Government's policy," she said.
"The Government's policy is to make sure that [we] do provide access for journalists and contractors who are doing work for both the Northern Territory Government and the Australian Government in those communities."
See: ABC News
AMA asks what intervention aims to achieve
ABC News | 17 January 2008
The Australian Medical Association says serious modifications need to be made to health initiatives in the Commonwealth's intervention.
The Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin is meeting the Territory's intervention taskforce and the acting Chief Minister today to discuss the future of the intervention and how it should be modified.
The AMA's Territory president Peter Beaumont says he is not convinced health measures that are part of the intervention have been effective.
He wants to see a clear health plan come out of today's meeting with long, middle and short term goals.
"I haven't seen any clear goals with the current regime other than the number children that are going to examine and I don't think that's appropriate in today's medicine.
"We need to clearly understand what we're trying to achieve.
"I'm sure that they have enough data to be able to show that they've done something, but I don't think they were very clear in the beginning about what they wanted out of this and I think how to move forward from here is to have very, very clear goals both short medium and long term."
See: ABC News
Scrymgour backs down from comments
ABC News | 17 January 2008
The acting Northern Territory Chief Minister Marion Scrymgour has backed down from comments aimed at the chairwoman of the intervention taskforce Sue Gordon.
Ms Scrymgour says she didn't mean to offend anyone when she called on Professor Gordon to change her mentality from that of the Howard Government.
"My comments weren't aimed at Sue Gordon on a personal level. It is never that. It is not about personalities or a criticism on a personal level.
"I was just saying that we all have to remember that there is a change and we all have to work together to make that happen, I will work with Sue Gordon."
See: ABC News
Intervention should have been rolled back: community council
ABC News | 17 January 2008
A community liaison officer at Central Australia's largest Aboriginal community says Labor should have rolled back the whole Federal Intervention.
Ned Hargraves Jampajinpa from Yuendumu says he's happy the Government has decided to bring back CDEP and keep the permit system for Aboriginal land.
But he says the Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin should have stopped the roll-out of welfare quarantining.
The program hasn't reached Yuendumu yet, but Mr Hargraves Jampajinpa says people from other communities are suffering because of it.
"It sucks really. They think it's a good idea but it's not. A lot of our young men are all out in the bush and mothers and sisters and brothers are finding it very hard to keep them going to give them food.
"We can't book down, we can't go to the shop and say 'Look, I'll pay it the next payday, let me take this'. We finding that hard.
"We don't want this community to have quarantine, because we don't agree one bit with it because it's not going to work. Read our lips, it's not going to work."
See: ABC News
Scrymgour defends state of intervention
NI Times | 16 January 2008
The most senior Aboriginal politician in Australia says it's time to get the intervention into Northern Territory Indigenous communities "back on track".
But NT Indigenous Affairs Minister and Acting Chief Minister Marion Scrymgour dismissed claims the unprecedented move to combat child sex abuse was in danger of stalling.
She also said the Rudd federal government needed to look at whether it was time for "new blood" within the top ranks of the taskforce implementing the reforms.
Speaking at Darwin airport ahead of a trip to Canberra to meet with federal counterpart Jenny Macklin, Ms Scrymgour told reporters it was time to "get some more focus".
"Now we need to continue and move forward to make sure, particularly with the intervention, that we get that back on track," Ms Scrymgour said.
The chair of the intervention taskforce, Sue Gordon, has called for an acceleration in the takeover of Aboriginal communities, claiming Labor has failed to give the intervention any direction for the next six months.
But Ms Scrymgour denied the reforms had derailed.
"That's not true there is no plan. There is a clear plan," Ms Scrymgour said.
"We are fully committed ... and we are on track."
Ms Scrymgour said it was up to Ms Macklin - who meets the entire NT Indigenous intervention taskforce for the first time on Thursday - to decide whether Dr Gordon and intervention commander Major General David Chalmers should be replaced.
"That's up to her to make that decision," she said.
"Whether she feels that the previous members of the taskforce, maybe it needs new blood, that is certainly something that she needs to look at, and if she makes that decision then we will work with that."
Ms Scrymgour said she had always been a vocal critic of aspects of the intervention, such as scrapping the permit system and compulsory acquisition of land, but she said Dr Gordon had no reason to be nervous.
"We will work through those (issues) in this new partnership," Ms Scrymgour said as she dismissed Dr Gordon's suggestion the federal government should make sure the NT government "was serious".
"I don't think the federal government needs to be tough with us. Sue Gordon needs to not have the same mentality that was the mentality of the previous government. We are about working together."
Ms Scrymgour said under existing legislation the permit system, which controls the access of non-Indigenous people onto Aboriginal land, would be modified on February 19.
"(Ms Macklin) may allow that to happen," she said.
"If communities clearly want the permit system lifted, let's do it by regulation, but you leave that system embodied (in law) so that in every other community that wants to retain the permit system it can stay." - AAP
See: NI Times
Christmas spirit in the Northern Territory
ABC News | 15 January 2008
By Rachel Willika
The children at Eva Valley community had no Christmas presents this year. No Santa Claus, no decorations, no Christmas spirit, nothing.
Christmas Day, we had lunch at the Women's Centre. The Fred Hollows Foundation provided and paid for all the food. It was good food. We had salad, ham, turkey, prawns, Christmas cake, chips, lollies for the children. We all helped with getting that food ready.
It was a quick lunch because a family member had passed away.
I don't know why there were no presents this year. In other years, we've had presents. Someone helps us-a local organisation, or someone. But we had no presents this year.
We couldn't buy presents ourselves because that quarantining has come in. We got that store card just before Christmas. That store card is just for Woolworths, Big W, and Caltex. There is no Big W in Katherine, only Target, so we couldn't buy toys. Only little toys that are in Woolworths.
We could only buy food with that store card. What about presents, and Christmas decorations and streamers, and stuff like that? Those things are important, too.
You can't choose where to spend your store card. You can only spend it at those places that they say. Woolworths, Big W, Caltex. There's pictures showing on the card. Woolworths, Big W, Caltex.
I got my Target card on January 3.
My friend and I were walking around Eva Valley yesterday and we said 'No-one's been listening to us. Nothing has changed'.
We've told those intervention people about our worries, but nothing has changed.
We want our voices to be heard. We want a store up and running at Eva Valley, so we don't have to get a taxi to Katherine to buy food. The community bus is broken down and the taxi costs $220 in and $220 back. When we go to town some of us share the cost of that taxi, but it is a lot of money, even when you share the cost.
Last Thursday I went to town to get my store card, to buy food. When I went to that Centrelink there was a sign 'There are no store cards in the Katherine office until 1pm today.' Centrelink was running out of store cards.
They could only give me a store card for $50 to buy food, and one for $200 for clothing. I've still got $94 that they have to give me for food.
Now, I'll have to pay another taxi ride to get back to Katherine to buy food. I think they won't give me a taxi voucher. I'm a bit worried, because they might not have enough store cards again.
There were a lot of people lined up at Centrelink, and some of them were getting upset. They said 'This is no good' and 'I don't like standing in line all day.' Some people had come in from a long way.
One old lady from Beswick said: 'Oh, hurry up. I've got to get my voucher so I can go back and the water might be up over the bridge. I might not be able to get in, if I go back too late.'
There were over 500 or 600 people at Centrelink. They were from Barunga, Beswick, Eva Valley, Walpiri Camp, Gorge Camp, Binjari, Long Grass, some from Hudson's Downs, some from Roper. Some were inside, and some were waiting outside.
There was a big, long waiting line. Everyone was complaining about the time. There were only six or seven workers. I counted them.
A lot of people only got a store voucher for a little bit of money, like me. I think maybe some of them didn't get anything. That Centrelink was running out of store cards.
One woman had a problem getting her ID card. You have to have your ID card with you all the time. We got our ID cards from legal aid. We paid $5 to get that card.
Centrelink said we had to get our ID card. It has our photo on it. We had to go right back, walk over to legal aid, walk back to Centrelink, wait in line again.
At Katherine Centrelink, there is a toilet but it is not in use. Some people have to wander off to find a toilet and they miss out when their names are called. They have to wait in line again.
One young girl from Barunga said: 'I live at Barunga and we don't have access to store cards at our community, even though we've got a store. I have to come all the way to Katherine to get my store card.'
Just before Christmas we were stranded in Katherine. That mini bus driver said 'Wait. I can't travel at night. I'm going to have to take you mob in the morning now.'
We were stranded, and we had bought all our food. We didn't know where to sleep.
I know that Christian Brother from church, and I saw him, so I asked him 'Can you help us out? Do you have a vehicle that can take us to Eva Valley?'
He went to ask his friend and his friend wasn't there. He was on holiday. He said to me 'This is not fair on you. You have to travel a long way. You should talk to your local government, write a letter.'
He said 'When you come into town next time, you and me can sit down and write a letter. We can go to that local government together and talk to them.'
This has been a hard Christmas for us at Eva Valley.
If people want to help Aboriginal communities have a good Christmas spirit next year they should make a donation through the Fred Hollows Foundation.
Next Christmas I hope we have presents and Santa Claus and a real Christmas spirit.
Rachel Willika lives at Eva Valley, one of the Aboriginal communities prescribed by the Federal Government's intervention in the Northern Territory.
See: ABC News
Indigenous mental health on NT agenda
NI Times | 14 January 2008
Preventing the onset of mental health problems in Aboriginal people living in remote communities will be explored by an expanded Menzies School for Health.
The Northern Territory's leading health research institute is set to double its capacity following a $5.5 million grant from the NT government.
Menzies' director, professor Jonathan Carapetis, said the expansion was the next step towards helping to ensure a healthier future for thousands of Aboriginal people.
"One of the things we are trying to do in the next 10 years is to continue the work we do in Indigenous health, tropical health and supporting the health of people in developing countries in our region," he said in a statement.
Ms Carapetis said the money would allow the Charles Darwin University institute to expand its workforce from 162 to 400 over the next 10 years.
"The diversity of our research at Menzies has expanded significantly in recent years and this expansion will allow us to continue to grow our research output," he said.
"We have got bigger plans for child health, particularly the early years.
"We are also very interested in expanding our work in mental health, looking at prevention, particularly in remote communities."
NT Health Minister Chris Burns said the grant would improve health services for all territory families.
"Menzies is acknowledged as the leading research institute on Indigenous health in Australia and its international reputation continues to grow," he said.
Work on the extension is expected to begin within 12 months.
See: NI Times
Welfare quarantining begins in Wadeye
ABC News | 14 January 2008
The Northern Territory's largest Indigenous community today becomes the latest to have welfare payments quarantined under the federal intervention.
The onset of Cyclone Helen last week delayed the rollout of the welfare reforms in Wadeye, 250 kilometres south west of Darwin.
But from today, half of people's welfare payments will be isolated for essential items like rent, food and medical services.
The program is part of the previous federal government's intervention in Aboriginal communities.
The current Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin says feedback welfare quarantining has been positive in other communities.
"We certainly had very good reports from mothers and grandmothers who have found they are not as subject to humbugging - not getting people coming to them asking for money for gambling or alcohol," she says.
Ms Macklin says Centrelink staff have been preparing local businesses for the change.
"Three stores are now ready for this change and they have certainly had a lot of contact with Centrelink in the lead up to today."
See: ABC News
Wadeye welfare withheld
The Australian | 14 January 2008
Recipients of welfare in Wadeye, scene of violent street clashes last month, will have half their income quarantined from today.
Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin yesterday announced the "income management" scheme would extend to one of the Northern Territory's largest Aboriginal communities.
"Essential items such as food, rent, medicines and utilities are important for families throughout Australia, and income management can help Wadeye families ensure their children are supported by these basic rights," she said.
The scheme has been rolled out in more than 25 settlements since the Howard government last year announced the controversial federal intervention to tackle drug and child abuse in indigenous communities in the Territory.
Income management will take effect in Wadeye less than three weeks after gangs of youths took to the streets with rocks, spears and iron bars, causing widespread damage to property.
The remote township, on the western edge of the Daly River community, southwest of Darwin, has a long history of disputes.
The federal Government will assume control over half the income support and family tax benefit payments received by Wadeye residents.
Ms Macklin said residents were given the opportunity to discuss with Centrelink officials their needs, expenses and how their payments would be best used.
The Rudd Government has announced it will continue with the controversial intervention, with a review due in the middle of the year.
See: The Australian
Govt defends task force despite lack of convictions
ABC News | 10 January 2008
The Northern Territory Government is maintaining its support for the National Taskforce on child abuse in Aboriginal communities even though there have been no criminal convictions.
The Australian Crime Commission taskforce has visited 128 communities since it was set up in December 2006.
The Commission says it has made hundreds of referrals to government agencies but no convictions have stemmed from the reports.
The Territory's acting Chief Minister, Marion Scrymgour, says all extra resourcing to tackle child abuse needs long-term support.
"Because they don't have any prosecutions at the moment, that gives the basis of, 'oh well, it hasn't worked and therefore sexual abuse or those issues aren't an issue'," she said.
"[But] I think that they need to continue that work, I think the vigilance in terms of that needs to continue."
See: ABC News
Apology is just one step towards finally setting things right
The Age | 9 January 2008
OHN Howard was never prone to admit to mistakes during his four terms as prime minister, which made his speech on reconciliation on the eve of the election campaign all the more remarkable. Committing himself, if re-elected, to support the insertion of a statement of reconciliation into the preamble of the Australian constitution, Mr Howard conceded that "this whole area is one I have struggled with during the entire time I have been prime minister".
There were many dimensions to this struggle, but the most significant was Mr Howard's discomfort with what he considered the "dominant paradigm for indigenous policy", which he saw as "based on the guilt and shame of non-indigenous Australians" and a repudiation of the Australia in which he grew up. Also in the mix were his assessment that the established indigenous leadership when he became prime minister in 1996, led by the likes of Pat Dodson, was too close to Labor; an emphatic conviction that a national apology for past injustices would simply "reinforce a culture of victimhood" and take the country backwards; and a reluctance to commit adequate resources to what he considered the main game in indigenous affairs — supporting practical steps to overcome profound disadvantage.
The former government's intervention in the Northern Territory last July was a big departure on two counts. Not only did it recognise the scale of the problem but, for the first time, this resulted in the allocation of enough money to sustain an unprecedented assault on the symptoms of disadvantage, particularly family violence and the sexual abuse of women and children.
Sadly, however, the intervention was flawed by a lack of consultation with those with expertise on the ground, including members of the National Indigenous Council, the indigenous body the former government set up to offer precisely this kind of advice. The scrapping of the CDEP work-for-the-dole program, for instance, meant the end of the real employment in areas where the scheme had operated well.
Nonetheless, the result of Mr Howard's two initiatives — one symbolic, the other practical — is to enhance a once-in-a-generation opportunity for the incoming Government to finally get policy on indigenous affairs right. More than an opportunity, it is an obligation to implement a comprehensive strategy to address what has been a national disgrace for far too long and, finally, to set this nation on the path to true reconciliation.
Labor, of course, had its own deficiencies in this area until the past two or three years. If the former prime minister was blinkered by his singular focus on the practical, Labor's capacity to see the whole picture was limited by a disproportionate concern with indigenous rights and symbolism — and a reluctance to tackle the consequences of passive welfare in a comprehensive manner.
Now, after too many lost years and too many reports highlighting the problems and pointing to solutions, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is well placed to strike the right balance between the symbolic and the practical. Certainly, Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin has the credentials to steer the debate and the formulation of policy towards this goal. From her days as an adviser to Brian Howe on welfare reform, she understands the importance of the principle of mutual obligation in welfare policy. Moreover, she is a longstanding and passionate supporter of reconciliation.
At the top of her in-tray is the formulation of a national apology for past injustices, particularly to victims of the forced removal of children from their families, which Labor rightly sees as more pressing than any constitutional amendment. As respected indigenous academic Marcia Langton argues, a formal apology achieves two ends: restoring a sense of dignity and legitimacy to those who have suffered, and acknowledging the harm done by previous governments to a class of people on the grounds of their race. It does not, as Mr Howard consistently argued, imply an acceptance of individual guilt or responsibility for past wrongs. It does play a critical role in the process of reconciliation.
An apology was the central recommendation of the Bringing Them Home report of 1997, along with monetary compensation for those who had suffered. The Rudd Government has rejected the call to establish a compensation fund, arguing that it intends to back the apology with a concerted effort to close the 17-year gap in life expectancy between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians, while providing "targeted assistance" to members of the stolen generations. This is a pragmatic and prudent response, given the scale of the overriding commitment to give indigenous Australians the same opportunities to reach their potential as other citizens.
Another question requiring early consideration is the future of the National Indigenous Council. While it includes some very capable people, the council was ineffective because indigenous Australia had no say in who was on it and the Government had no obligation to consult it. Sensibly, Ms Macklin intends to consult widely before deciding how Labor will give effect to its promise to have a representative body speaking on behalf of Aboriginal Australia.
The biggest challenge, however, is maintaining the momentum for change. There are many reasons to be optimistic, including the leadership role industry is increasingly prepared to play in forging agreements that involve the training, employment and nurturing of indigenous workers and the employment opportunities created by the resources boom in remote areas, many of them close to indigenous communities.
The danger, of course, is that the political will slips when things either become too hard or more electorally sensitive challenges take priority. Too often, the pattern in indigenous affairs — reflected in the tragic story of gang rape in the Cape York community of Aurukun — is for shocking revelations to be followed by massive publicity, then expressions of political will and finally inaction or ineffective action.
Some time ago Noel Pearson, Mr Dodson and Professor Langton, all board members of the Lingiari Policy Centre, suggested that an independent body, like the Productivity Commission, should be given the task of monitoring progress and holding ministers and departments to account. It is an idea Ms Macklin should revisit very soon.
See: The Age
Income management in Aboriginal communities
Crikey | 9 January 2008
Bob Durnan, Health Services Development Officer with the Western Aranda Health Aboriginal Corporation, writes: "Government's bargain basement apology to stolen generations" (yesterday, item 4). Graham Ring in his comments critical of the Rudd Government's experiments with Income Management (of welfare income) chooses to ignore the fact that there are overwhelming levels of violence and child neglect associated with excessive alcohol and illegal drug consumption on the Alice Springs town camps (and in most remote Aboriginal communities). The fact that some more responsible town camp dwellers choose to voluntarily use food vouchers to buy from the Tangentyere-owned shop rather than carry cash simply attests to the extremely problematic environment in which they are forced to live. The "self-quarantining" by the few does nothing to obviate the government's ethical and political responsibility to act and act quickly, given the seriousness of the problems and the failure of other measures over three decades.
See: Crikey
Nortruss building boon
NT News | 9 January 2008
Building supplies company Nortrussis likely to be a direct beneficiaryof the $750 million earmarked for remote indigenous housing under the federal intervention.
The Darwin-based company produces building supplies and timber frames for houses.
It has supplied Defence housing and mining companies across northern Australia along with the reconstruction of East Timor.
And last month it bought Gove supplier Gorrkbuy Industrial Supplies.
Not only did Gorrkbuy have the capability to provide electrical and plumbing supplies - which Nortruss lacked - but the firm had strong links to remote indigenous communities.
Gorrkbuy has supplied 200 prefabricated buildings through Arnhem Land.
Nortruss managing director Brock Simon said the move to Gove had been a strategic one - thought out before the federal intervention.
"The (housing) need was always there," Mr Simon said.
"We'd identified it a long time ago - you've only got to go there to know the money had to be spent."
With established supply chains into remote areas, Nortruss is perfectly positioned to benefit from the government spending spree.
"I had a dream a decade ago to diversify across the north," Mr Simon said.
"You don't have to go down south to get a supplier, there's one right here in NT."
Gorrkbuy founder Denise Fincham has acquired a shareholding and will join the Nortruss board.
See: NT News
Outstation manager criticises Aboriginal welfare quarantining
ABC News | 9 January 2008
Outstation manager criticises Aboriginal welfare quarantining
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/01/09/2134938.htm
The introduction of welfare quarantining for Aboriginal people in Alice Springs has been called frustrating and paternalistic by the manager of an outstation resource service.
Ingerreke Outstation resource services manager Scott McConnell says the measures, which began in Alice Springs town camps and outstations on Monday, have offended Aboriginal people.
New Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin decided to continue with the roll-out of quarantining last week.
But Mr McConnell says the move has confused people who thought Labor would stop the federal intervention.
"There was an election campaign thrown in the middle of it saying that things like CDEP would be brought back," he said.
"A lot of people have got caught up in the idea that it'll all go back to the old way and there will be no more intervention and CDEP will be back and everything will be the same as it was before.
"Now that's clearly not the case."
Mr McConnell says the changes punish those who were doing the right thing.
"There's a lot of people of really high capacity who look after their families and children very well, particularly grandmothers, who are caught up in income quarantining when they already manage their affairs very well," he said.
"It's very paternalistic and very unfortunate and it makes people feel very bad about themselves."
See: ABC News
Slogans won't heal the wrong
Canberra Times | 9 January 2008
Just when the Rudd Government should be determining some real policies and programs for Aboriginal Australians, along comes yet another convenient distraction to enmesh Aboriginal activists and those who think they support them in a new era of victimhood, marching backwards and getting nowhere.
Typically enough for a Labor Party and a pro-Aboriginal constituency ever susceptible to such things, the distraction is but a slogan, and one almost without meaning. It is compensation, particularly compensation to be paid to victims of the "stolen generation".
A South Australian victim recently won handsome compensation through the court system. The plaintiff-lawyer lobby is back spruiking the benefit of making claims, and it's now dominating the limited space for discussion.
The Government is trying to insist that individually focused compensation is not on, despite recommendations from the original stolen children report. But its own actions at the election, discussing another aspect of the same report saying sorry inevitably put it in the mix.
I have ambivalent views about compensation, and certainly not a jot of disapproval of the South Australian verdict. But my heart sinks at efforts to put compensation at the forefront of any Aboriginal agenda. It will suck energy, concentration and achievement from much more important issues of work, education, health and living conditions, and from the equally important issues of helping Aborigines liberate themselves from pauperism, despair and family dysfunction. This might suit some: after all the worse all these things remain and the more miserable Aboriginal people are, the better seems their moral case for compensation. But even then, compensation, and apologies, are not going to fill in the gap.
Labor, and Aborigines, have taken such wrong turns before, not least by converting all Aboriginal aspirations into a single slogan. In 1983, it was national land rights. Work and energy on everything else was suspended until it became obvious, thanks to the Western Australian Labor government, that this was not going to happen. There were more wasted years pursuing the silly belief that all would be well after a (consciously) imperfectly designed elected body could manage a (consciously) inadequate budget and make up for all past deficiencies.
Then, in the early years of the Howard government, matters which had not even been issues before the stolen children report, the sorry question, and the flow-on of the Aboriginal deaths in custody report filled almost the whole agenda. John Howard would say this was not his fault. He was, after all, dismissing the left's demands as meaningless symbolism and saying his focus was on "practical reconciliation". In fact, he did very little even about that.
Then, as an election year stunt, he seized on a report which seemed to put traditional Aborigines at a moral disadvantage (over child abuse) to announce an intervention in Aboriginal affairs, chiefly focused at top-down coercive management of all indigenous matters.
Labor was not (and is not) going to be wedged on the issue and, even now, changes to this doomed policy await a formal review at year's end. That Labor policy on Aboriginal affairs had not been the subject of much internal analysis or debate, and is replete with slogans, moral vanities, pious hopes, guilt and 1970s-style collectivism, has inhibited its capacity to have anything else much on the table.
Labor has not been part of the debate about welfarism which it sees as coming essentially from the radical right (if most articulately espoused by Noel Pearson), but also reflecting a change of thinking from the old left shown by people such as Bill Clinton and Tony Blair. They argue a welfare system can provide a safety net and even a ladder to those who are motivated to take responsibility for their lives and want nothing more than to be out of it. But it will not work in an underclass sunk in despair, with a cultivated sense of victimhood and entitlement, and even incentives to be dependent and irresponsible.
But if Pearson's critique contains much truth, and points in the directions of better policy, it cannot be said that Howard followed it. Demonising and penalising every Aboriginal family, and returning people to the status of wards, lunatics and children, is hardly calculated to engender a new culture of accepting personal responsibility.
Moreover, Pearson has been equally forthright, if less listened to, on another fundamental failure of access, particularly by rural Aborigines, to the ordinary services that all other Australians take for granted. Some think that because there are special programs, say in health, Aborigines get "more" than other citizens. The truth is, Aborigines consume, on average, less than half the public goods the average Australian does, but need them more.
This is true in health, in education and in basic municipal and community services. Whatever the failures of Aborigines' to get off their bums and make the best of their opportunities on offer, the failure to have access to services is not the fault of the victims.
It is primarily the fault of governments at every level and of bureaucracies. The problem is compounded by levels of federal administration and blame-shifting, as well as failures to coordinate the work of different agencies, by poor planning and, as often as not, poor consultation, or, under the last minister and the last bureaucracy, a complete impatience with any form of consultation at all.
The first priority for the Indigenous Affairs Minister, Jenny Macklin, is to address this and not be distracted by the crafting of sorry statements or by questions of compensation. She has the benefit, for what it is worth, of Council of Australian Government trials on better coordination of programs and the Commonwealth departmental secretaries' initiative, and the negative benefit of the experience of the intervention team which has squandered $1billion to no evident good purpose.
If she achieves anything in this field (if she does, she will be the first minister in 25 years to do so), other efforts on the welfarism front, focused on rewarding initiative, promoting personal responsibility, creating real choice and improving the morale and prospects of families and communities may bear some fruit. But it will not be by discrimination and blanket policies against all Aborigines, or in particular areas, but by programs tailored towards actual behaviour programs that were always available under general welfare legislation.
Jack Waterford is Editor-at-Large.
See: Canberra Times
Pupils mark Indigenous language milestone
ABC News | 8 January 2008
Aboriginal students in Alice Springs have completed Year 12 studies in an Indigenous language for the first time.
Dominique Castle from the Alice Springs language centre says five Indigenous students received high NTCE scores in Arrernte language studies in 2007.
Ms Castle says the students' success is a good sign for the future of the Arrernte language in the region.
"It's very important to be teaching an Indigenous language and especially to have an Indigenous teacher who's also on the team teaching it, because students are getting the cultural and the language aspect of it and can keep the language alive," she said.
Ms Castle says the students even went on a study tour of New Zealand to see how the Maori language is taught in schools.
"Our students came back very, very enthusiastic to promote the Arrernte language and to keep it going because they realised that in New Zealand it's very, very strong," she said.
"They're wanting the same thing to happen over here for Arrernte people."
See: ABC News
Show to shatter Aboriginal stereotypes
The MacArthur Chronicle | 8 January 2008
The exhibition More Than My Skin would smash images of Aboriginal men being "drug-taking pedophiles" perpetuated by events like the Northern Territory intervention, according to the exhibition's curator.
Campbelltown Arts Centre's Djon Mundine said subjects presented by six Aboriginal photographers Michael Riley, Mervin Bishop, Ricky Maynard, Gary Lee, Peter McKenzie and Michael Airds would vary from football to drag comedian Mary G.
"The idea is that you are a human being more than a stereotype," he said.
The exhibition, which opens at the arts centre on Friday, February 8, would show how Campbelltown had changed from the Aboriginal man's perspective, and how this passage of time had fostered creative impulse.
"There's an incredible population of creative people who have drifted ... in to the city who were born and raised here," Mr Mundine said.
The housing estates of Minto and Claymore were "new spaces for people and (they) allowed people to think differently", he said.
"(People) cope with the fact that they live in a neglected place as far as government policy goes," he said.
"Human lives are interesting there's no Minto Ramsay St (of the Channel 10 show Neighbours), but there could be."
Aboriginal leader and spokesman Aden Ridgeway will open the 12-day exhibition.
In addition, a companion volume to the book Tell Me My Mother, which chronicled the lives of 20 local Aboriginal women, will be launched two months later, on Tuesday, April 8.
Mr Mundine said it would focus on Aboriginal mens' lives.
See: The MacArthur Chronicle
Elliott CEO quits over local Govt changes
ABC News | 8 January 2008
The chief executive officer of the Elliott community, about halfway between Darwin and Alice Springs, has quit because of the Territory's planned changes to local government.
Linda Keane says it has been a smoke and mirrors process, where the Territory Government set up a consultation process and then ignored it.
She says when the nine new super shires are created this year, Elliott will have only one representative on a council governing a 250,000 square kilometres.
"I feel that it is going to really be the death knell of remote communities and it is also a step in the direction of sidelining Indigenous people from having a say in local government," she said.
The Territory Government's business plans suggest the services could be delivered by other agencies, but Ms Keane says those agencies do not exist in Elliott.
"We have children at the school receiving daily meals through the aged care program as well, so we have 120 children that could be at risk," she said.
"We have got an arts program here that is starting to be able to survive as a business and that's very much at risk."
Local Government Minister Elliot McAdam says Elliott will be represented well on the shire council and decisions on services will still be made at a local level.
Mr McAdam says local government reform will allow Elliott to provide better services.
"I believe Linda has acted prematurely because the local government reform will enhance the capacity of communities like Elliott to grow and to provide better services," he said.
"I'm disappointed that Linda's taken this action."
See: ABC News
Scrymgour goes with flow as NT history beckons
NT News | 8 January 2008
NADJA HAINKE
MARION Scrymgour started her job as the first indigenous government leader in Australian history by visiting Katherine yesterday.
The acting Chief Minister toured several sites after a briefing from the Katherine Regional Counter Disaster Committee.
Ms Scrymgour said she enjoyed the top job and appreciated the challenges that came with it.
"I will do the best that I can and it's not just for indigenous Territorians but it's for all Territorians," she said.
"I'm looking forward to the next couple of weeks but I'm certainly looking forward to the Chief Minister coming back and taking back his role.
"What it says to these indigenous kids out there is to aspire."
Ms Scrymgour was believed to have had an emotional and physical collapse on Christmas Eve.
But she rejected suggestions yesterday that she was not able to cope with the workload.
"I feel fantastic. I had a couple of weeks off. I'm rested," she said.
"Every time I manage to see a doctor at the hospital my private life gets splashed on the front page of the Northern Territory News.
"It's actually quite a private issue."
Ms. Scrymgour will be acting Chief Minister for the following two weeks until Paul Henderson returns from holidays.
See: NT News
After The Howard Disaster: Indigenous
Leaders Look To The Future
Freedom Socialist Bulletin | 8 January 2008
Many Australians were jubilant to see former Prime Minister, John Howard, lose his own seat of Bennelong at the 24 November federal election. But for the Indigenous rights activists holding a sovereignty vigil outside the old Victorian Aboriginal Health Service building in Fitzroy on election night, the news that Mal Brough - architect of the hated Northern Territory intervention and Howard's Minister for Aboriginal Affairs - had also lost his seat brought whoops of joy.
Brough had been scathing of respected Aboriginal leaders who travelled to Canberra to make last-minute appeals against the hurried passage of the NT intervention, dismissively stating he did not regard them "as real Indigenous leaders." Brough claimed that "grassroots people loved the plan," which includes sending troops, a land grab, the abolition of the permit system and quarantining of welfare payments - all under the guise of fighting child abuse. So confident was the Coalition that Adam Gilies - an Indigenous man and the Country Liberal Party candidate for the seat of Lingiari, which covers the whole of the NT except Darwin - said the federal election was a referendum on the intervention. And Aboriginal people in 70 remote territories across the NT spoke. In all but one, the ALP candidate Warren Snowden won in a landslide with winning margins of up to 98% of the vote!
Uncle Toms, such as John Howard's favourite Aboriginal "leader," Noel Pearson, were also shown to have little real support. The vote for the ALP was 75% in Hopevale, Pearson's community, with a 21% swing against the Coalition. In Yirrikala, the home of Galarrwuy Yunupingu, a late convert to the NT intervention, the Coalition scored just two votes out of a possible 266!
The verdict from Aboriginal Australia was unambiguous. John Howard's 11 years in office were a disaster for Indigenous Australians and, says Michael Mansell, Legal Director for the Tasmanian Legal Centre and a spokesperson for the National Aboriginal Alliance, "Aboriginal people across Australia are relieved to see the back of Howard and Brough."
Howard's legacy. Prior to the election, the National Indigenous Times (NIT) published an editorial in which it said, "it is impossible to get past the fact that for Aboriginal Australia, John Howard has been the most divisive and destructive prime minister in living memory."
Few Indigenous people would disagree. Commenting on the Howard era, Ray Jackson, president of the Indigenous Social Justice Association, told the Freedom Socialist Bulletin: "Howard came in with a plan and spent a lot of time and money fighting Aboriginal interests to implement it. His aim was to expand profits by opening land up to mining and other interests. One of his first targets was the Racial Discrimination Act (RDA.) At first he couldn't overturn it. It was only with the NT intervention that he was finally able to do this. Then the Coalition attacked land rights - they unleashed the Wik 10 point plan, which amended the Native Title Act to provide certainty to big business. Howard opposed the claims of the Stolen Generations and refused to say 'sorry.' The attacks were constant. The last big one, the invasion of the NT, was again multi-layered. While there was resistance, Howard just rolled on like a juganaught."
Troy Austin, former Victorian Zone Commissioner for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, spoke with the Freedom Socialist Bulletin and slammed Howard for "totally ignoring the issues affecting a majority of the Aboriginal people who live in capital cities and towns throughout Australia." Howard gutted the Abstudy program. Under his prime ministership, the number of Indigenous people enrolled in university declined and employment of Indigenous people in the public service plummeted to an all-time low. Despite Howard's claims to stand for practical measures, nothing was done to close the scandalous gap in Indigenous health funding, despite the resources clearly being available to do so. Since 2002, the federal government has delivered sufficient budget surpluses to eliminate the Indigenous health funding gap, according to Australian Medical Association estimates, at least 168 times!
Another legacy of John Howard was the abolition of the elected Indigenous leadership body, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC). While the Coalition claimed ATSIC failed to deliver, its replacement methods of funding Indigenous affairs were a disaster. While Aboriginal Affairs Minister, Amanda Vanstone promised "a quiet revolution" in Indigenous funding and introduced a trial based on centralising service delivery for each community in the hands of a single government department. The scheme was a miserable failure strangled in red tape. In the remote community of Wadeye, the trial delivered a total of five new houses while 15 become uninhabitable. And, at its conclusion, there was still no high school, and the primary school was able to house only half the school-aged population.
So ideologically driven was the Howard government in its hatred of Indigenous people - especially radicals - that it railed against "symbolic reconciliation" and "rights-based legislation," dismantled the Tent Embassy on the lawns of Old Parliament House and ensured that Australia was one of only four countries to vote against the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People. Little wonder the Coalition had barely a friend among Indigenous Australians.
The Rudd blueprint. But what of the new Rudd ALP Government? Indigenous leaders in the NT have welcomed the opportunity to sit down and talk with Rudd and the new Minister, Jenny Macklin. The language has certainly changed and consultation, it seems, is back on the agenda. In an interview with Koori Mail, Macklin used the need to "consult" as a convenient way to avoid answering all tricky questions!
Ray Jackson says that, "While Macklin and Rudd are being very choosy about who they consult, they are being forced to listen to elders from the communities who have opposed the intervention. As long as they are talking with genuine community leaders, that is a good start."
But, Jackson believes that, "when it comes to national issues, they will not talk with radicals; they will not talk with people who want sovereignty and a treaty. That is not on the Rudd agenda at all."
Rudd has announced that he will set up some kind of representative body. Troy Austin, who had the experience of being part of ATSIC, believes that such a structure must "put Indigenous leaders in a position to influence the agenda on Indigenous issues" and must
be "an independent Indigenous structure that establishes an economic base for Indigenous Australians." He insists that "such a structure should not be reliant on recurrent government funding."
The NT intervention, which Rudd supported before the election, will stay with no review of controversial elements, such as the patronising welfare quarantine measures, until the second half of 2008. The new government will not, however, dismantle the Community Development Employment Scheme (CDEP.) This scheme, where Indigenous people work for a payment 25% more than welfare, was criticised by the Howard government as "too generous." While the scheme has strong support in remote Aboriginal communities, the vital work done by workers on the CDEP program should be properly funded and paid for at award wages.
After initially promising not to extend the NT measures to other parts of Australia, the prime minister announced he supports a plan to extend welfare quarantining measures to Cape York communities in Queensland. Les Malezer from the Foundation of Aboriginal and Islander Research Action accused the ALP of "abusing the support it got from Aboriginal people."
Malezer is not the only leader concerned about what a Rudd government might bring. Larissa Behrendt, Professor of Law and Indigenous Studies at the University of Technology in Sydney, criticised Rudd for running a "me too" campaign. She is concerned that the ALP "has indicated that they are happy to embrace the mantra of mutual obligation." Behrendt says much Indigenous scepticism results from the ALP's poor record on Indigenous issues while in opposition: "There is its failure to take issue with the harshest and most insidious aspects of the intervention. Many still remember how the ALP allowed its incoming president, Warren Mundine, to sit on the National Indigenous Council and to set the Howard government's agenda on the privatisation of communal land. Nor has the memory dimmed about the role played by past prime ministerial aspirant and ALP leader, Mark Latham, in agreeing to the abolition of ATSIC."
Ray Jackson is also pessimistic about what a Rudd government will deliver unless it is forced to do so. "I don't believe his government will change much. We will get an apology to the Stolen Generation, but there will be no compensation." He supports the call raised by Michael Mansell for a billion dollar compensation fund for the Stolen Generations. Jackson argues there's a surplus and says the compensation "could come from one of the multi-billion dollar future funds."
Putting sovereignty and treaty on the agenda. Jackson also sees the fight to end the NT invasion as a key priority. "Rudd has already stated that the NT invasion will continue for at least 12 months. Then he will decide if it will be widened. We are going to converge on Canberra on 11 February to argue forcefully and loudly that we do not accept the continuation of the invasion. We - the Left, both Black and white - need to keep pressure on the Rudd government and demand justice. We need united pressure from everyone who wants to join the movement. We do not want the wishy washy mealy mouthed social justice that they want to give us. We will not be grateful or satisfied with measures simply because they are not as bad as Howard's."
Jackson points out that Rudd "is not interested in talking sovereignty and treaty. But," he argues" these issues are the fundamental bottom line. Just as we had to educate previous governments, the Rudd government will be forced to learn from a mobilised mass movement that lobbies, pickets, marches and campaigns . The argument for sovereignty, treaty and social justice is remains as strong as ever. As the more radical movement leaders have pointed out - these demands, fundamental to the struggles of Indigenous people, can't be bought off. They are not going away!"
Alison Thorne
 |
Indigenous welfare quaranting begins
ABC News | 7 January 2008
Aboriginal people in Alice Springs town camps and nearby communities will have half their welfare payments quarantined from today.
The new Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin has decided to continue with the federal intervention measure after reviewing it last week.
Officers from Centrelink spent the past month visiting town camps and the communities of Ingerreke and Amoonguna, where the quaranting of payments will be start today.
Those affected will have half their welfare payments held back for use on food, rent or utility bills.
The minister says the new Labor Government decided to continue with the quarantining because the program has been successful and well-received in other communities.
See: ABC News
Scrymgour makes history in top job
NT News | 7 January 2008
NIGEL ADLAM
TIWI-BORN Marion Scrymgour this morning became the first Aboriginal government leader in Australian history.
She will be acting Chief Minister for the next two weeks while Paul Henderson is on holiday.
Her first job will be to inspect the flooding in Katherine today.
Ms Scrymgour said the first indigenous head of government had been a long time coming.
"But rather than reflect on that, I just want to get on with the job," she told the Northern Territory News.
"I feel very privileged and my family is very proud."
Asked if she aspired to be Chief Minister full-time, Ms Scrymgour said: "I just want to concentrate on doing a good job as deputy first."
It has been a history-making few days in Territory politics - Delia Lawrie last week became the first NT-born Chief Minister when she stepped in while Ms Scrymgour and Mr Henderson were away.
Ms Scrymgour had what seemed to be an emotional and physical collapse on Christmas Eve and spent several hours being treated at Royal Darwin Hospital.
But she said last night that she was now "feeling good".
She said she had endured a tough year - her father and brother died.
But some observers believe she has too heavy a workload.
Ms Scrymgour is the Territory's Aboriginal Affairs Minister - the first indigenous MLA to hold the portfolio - and is expecting dramatic changes now that Labor is in power in Canberra.
She said she would work with her federal counterpart, Jenny Macklin, to attack indigenous disadvantage.
"I want to work with her to ensure the next stage of going forward with the intervention works."
Ms Scrymgour launched a ferocious attack on the intervention late last year, which earned her a rebuke from then federal Aboriginal Affairs Minister Mal Brough, who reminded her that the NT Government supported the initiative.
She was also criticised by Labor colleague Alison Anderson.
Ms Scrymgour blamed the virulence of her language partly on the emotion caused by the death of her father.
Shane Stone and Clare Martin are the only former chief ministers still living in the Territory.
See: NT News
Scrymgour becomes country's first Indigenous leader
ABC News | 7 January 2008
For the first time, Australia has an Indigenous person leading a state or territory government.
The Northern Territory's deputy leader Marion Scrymgour stepped in as Chief Minister this morning, and will stay in the role while Paul Henderson is on holiday.
Ms Scrymgour has one of the heaviest portfolio workloads in the Territory Government, including indigenous policy, family and community services, and education.
Her first day in the job has seen her fly to the flood-threatened Katherine region.
See: ABC News
Building costs increasing in remote communities: group
ABC News | 4 January 2008
The Arnhem Land Progress Association says the rising cost of fuel means renovation and building projects in remote communities are becoming much more expensive.
The association's Alastair King says high fuel prices are being passed on via transport costs for food and other supplies like building materials.
"We have had to cancel a lot of other smaller projects we were planning to do," he said.
"We had a program to renovate a couple of stores and that's going to have to be pulled back to one store because we just can't afford to do it because of the additional costs."
See: ABC News
Sounds of Summer: NT intervention
ABC News: PM | 4 January 2008
Reporter: Sara Everingham
ELIZABETH JACKSON: For the Northern Territory's Indigenous people 2007 was a turbulent year, to say the least.
The former prime minister John Howard and his minister for Indigenous Affairs Mal Brough effectively took over the Northern Territory's 73 Aboriginal communities as part of their emergency response to Indigenous child abuse.
They sent out police to restore law and order, squads of doctors were flown in to undertake health checks on children, bans on alcohol and pornography were imposed and they began quarantining welfare payments to ensure that children were adequately fed and clothed.
Six months in, Sara Everingham prepared this progress report.
SARA EVERINGHAM: In June this year more than 100 Aboriginal girls from the cross border region in Central Australia met at Yulara near Uluru.
They had been brought together for a careers conference organised by the Aboriginal run NPY (Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara) Women's Council which delivers health and community services in the region.
One of the girls at the conference was 16-year-old Nadine Wicker from the community of Blackstone near the Western Desert. She was trying to become one of the first in her community to finish year 12.
NADINE WICKER: It's good, high school. Good fun at school. You learn, get more education, you know.
SARA EVERINGHAM: Nadine Wicker was trying to regularly attend school in spite of the difficulties.
NADINE WICKER: It's really hard sometimes with families and friends, when you get friends and all that.
SARA EVERINGHAM: What do you mean it can be hard?
NADINE WICKER: Fighting, people yelling, families drinking and smoking.
SARA EVERINGHAM: And in spite of pressure from her peers.
NADINE WICKER: There's too much sniffing. I used to sniff when I was 12, I used to smoke, drink but I stopped them now.
SARA EVERINGHAM: The conference had workshops for the girls not only on drugs and alcohol but also domestic violence and sexual abuse.
KERRIANNE COX: That's just a shame, because we all know what is going down in our community, aye, nobody can't say that we don't know what's going on.
SARA EVERINGHAM: Singer Kerrianne Cox has been speaking and performing at the conferences since they began 10 years ago.
She's been talking to the girls about how she dealt with being sexually abused as a child.
KERRIANNE COX: The extent of the problem has gone too far and enough's enough. We must stop it. And it's really important for all of us to be accountable. If we continue to deny ourselves then we are supporting the very violation that has violated me and many of us, whether we're men or women, you know. And it's the fact that women are now starting to take a stance and say we don't want that, because we are the bearers of our children, you know, and it's like, "no more, we don't want our children to go through it."
EXCERPT FROM SONG BY KERRIANNE COX: When you gonna turn around and see your light? Too long has it been now living in the same way. You've got to grow some day. Can't see you hurt yourself this way. Can't keep living tragic cycles. You've got to grow.
SARA EVERINGHAM: It's women like Kerrianne Cox and Nadine Wicker that John Howard and Mal Brough said they were trying to help with their radical intervention in the Northern Territory's Indigenous communities.
The emergency response was announced after the release of the Little Children Are Sacred Report, which detailed a cycle of sexual abuse and violence fuelled by so-called "rivers of grog" in the Territory's Indigenous communities.
Mal Brough said the Northern Territory Government had failed to provide law and order in remote areas and said children needed urgent protection.
The Territory Government's own backbencher, Alison Anderson, an Indigenous woman from Papunya says she saw a chance for change.
ALISON ANDERSON: I think it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I've said this before. I think that what we have to do is, instead of concentrating on the bad issues, we need to have a look at the fact that Aboriginal affairs is back on the national agenda, that there's a national focus to it, you've got the prime minister committed to something and we need to be get Aboriginal people committed in this journey.
SARA EVERINGHAM: The Government's operation began with teams of troops, police and public servants travelling through Central Australia explaining the changes to community members.
STEVE VAUGHAN: The first objective of this will be to keep your community safe. The prime minister and minister Brough are adamant that we have to ensure that your chi chis (phonetic), your young children, the old people and the whole community are safe.
SARA EVERINGHAM: But on the ground the intervention was met with a mixed response and some people welcomed parts of the intervention but at the same time rejected others.
The intervention took communities by surprise. There was confusion, scepticism and some anger.
VOX POP (translated): We've been waiting for such a long time. Our schools haven't been opened our health clinic, our cars are all down and I've been listening and waiting. Nothing has been done.
HARRY WILSON: We've told this mob three times what the community needs are and what the community wants. Three times!
SARA EVERINGHAM: But for others there was hope that help might finally be on the way.
SANDRA ARMSTRONG: We need a safe policeman to come up and stay with us, work for this community. Save our lives!
SARA EVERINGHAM: But others saw no hope in the intervention at all.
PAT TURNER: This is what we think of Mal Brough and John Howard's legislation.
SARA EVERINGHAM: At a rally in Alice Springs, several Indigenous groups burnt the Commonwealth's intervention legislation, vowing to fight every aspect of the plan. Pat Turner, the CEO of National Indigenous Television and a former CEO of ATSIC (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission) has been the intervention's most vocal opponent.
PAT TURNER: To put, in the 40th anniversary of the 1967 referendum, the most discriminatory, racist legislation that this country has ever seen in place is a national shame.
(applause)
SARA EVERINGHAM: The Hermannsburg community about 130 kilometres west of Alice Springs was one of the first to be affected by the intervention.
It's a community of about 600 people. It's an old Lutheran Mission and where the late artist, Albert Namatjira, who's famous for his watercolour landscapes, grew up.
Today I'm here with the Alison Anderson, the local Labor member. While she's from Papunya, she spent time here as a child, and driving through Hermannsburg she sees a community that needs help.
ALISON ANDERSON: That house there has got about 16 people living in it and two elderly couple and this one here's got lots and lots of young people living in it so it would have about 10 young people inside there.
SARA EVERINGHAM: And what, it's just a two or three bedroom house?
ALISON ANDERSON: Two bedroom houses, yeah, three bedroom houses. And this one's a three bedroom house and it's got a couple of elderly ladies and lots of children and there's 27 people living inside that one three bedroom house just here.
SARA EVERINGHAM: Alison Anderson has the support of several women here in Hermannsburg, as they told the former Indigenous Affairs minister Mal Brough when he made a surprise visit to the community on a windy day during the recent election campaign.
MAL BROUGH: G'day, mate, how are ya?
HELEN KANTAWARRA: This is a press release that me and the women here have worked on, not knowing that you were going to be here, so it just happened like that 'cause we were really worried about our kids and all that sort of thing.
Minister, community members, women especially, at Hermannsburg are calling on all politicians to listen to their voices as people living in a community affected by the emergency, the intervention.
Please don't take too much notice of self-appointed people who have never lived on our communities when they say they are leaders and are speaking on our behalf. The issue here is the wellbeing and health of our children and the future of our families and communities.
Whether or not somebody is really sincere - I'm shaking 'cause this is something really close to my heart - whether or not somebody is really sincere or trying to get political advantage or make up for the past errors or rush things too fast is secondary.
The main thing, as Alison Anderson has been saying, is to take this rare opportunity to do our best to make a new future for our people. We are desperate to see real changes and she is doing everything she can to make this intervention effective in the ways that really matter in the bush communities.
SARA EVERINGHAM: The women in Hermannsburg said alcohol abuse was their biggest concern and they wanted extra police to stop alcohol getting into their supposedly dry community.
And Mal Brough was in Hermannsburg to specifically hear from women.
MAL BROUGH: Because, quite frankly, a lot of the men in the communities have been lost. They are the ones that are bringing the grog in. Not every man, but as they. the women here asked me that very question today, and as they said. I said, I get it reported to me all the time that you sometimes feel intimidated and can not say what you want to say.
So it's about trying to really get down to what the issues are for them. It's not excluding the men. I have men's meetings and they actually said it's traditional for them to have men's and women's meetings as well.
SARA EVERINGHAM: While the women in Hermannsburg expressed support for the intervention, the community is divided and Mal Brough faced more critical questions from the men who went along to the meeting, including community president Gus Williams.
GUS WILLIAMS: You're sort of misleading us a little bit. You can tell me I'm lying. I'm not going to tell you that you're lying too. It's only when the child abuse came in when minister Brough found money. Before that we were just people like. we didn't know what was happening and then big things are going to happen. And he's talking more now because we've got four weeks before the election.
SARA EVERINGHAM: In Hermannsburg many parts of the intervention are now in place.
A medical team has been through to do children's health checks, the Aboriginal community-run work for the dole scheme, CDEP (Community Development Employment Projects), has been replaced with mainstream work for the dole and some people have moved into so-called real jobs. Also, and it seems most controversially, Centrelink has started quarantining 50 per cent of welfare payments for food, rent and other essentials.
Mildred Inkamala is one resident in Hermannsburg who's happy with the changes. She says income management is starting to make the community safer for children.
MILDRED INKAMALA: This intervention, it changed a bit for the parents that are the drinkers, and some families that gamble a lot with their money and something has changed a bit.
SARA EVERINGHAM: So you think there's less alcohol coming into the community?
MILDRED INKAMALA: Yes. We've only got, yeah, we've got a few people but it's gone down.
SARA EVERINGHAM: What about gambling? Why do you think there's less gambling than there was before?
MILDRED INKAMALA: Because parents used to get cash. That's why the gambling went down too, it's better now in the community.
SARA EVERINGHAM: Do you have money that's been quarantined?
MILDRED INKAMALA: Yeah, I've got money that was quarantined but I reckon that it's good.
SARA EVERINGHAM: The women in Hermannsburg say there's also been a rise in school attendance because parents are worried that all their welfare could be quarantined if their children don't go to school.
Some people in the community say attendance has risen by 30 per cent.
But Mildred Inkamala says there are many teenagers in Hermannsburg who don't go to school and says the community still needs more police.
She also says there are problems here that income management won't fix.
MILDRED INKAMALA: We've got people here that smoke marijuana here and we've got mums that doesn't drink and they bring, they go and get their son marijuana. It's the mums that are bringing that marijuana into the town here too in the community.
SARA EVERINGHAM: Why do they do that?
MILDRED INKAMALA: I don't know, maybe their sons might hit them.
SARA EVERINGHAM: So they do it because they're threatened with violence, is that what you're saying?
MILDRED INKAMALA: Yes, their sons they threaten them with violence and that's why the mums are getting marijuana for them.
SARA EVERINGHAM: The critics of the intervention point to a lack of arrests for child sexual abuse.
But Mildred Inkamala says the intervention has shone a light on the problem.
MILDRED INKAMALA: 'Cause it was always in the dark but now it's sort of like come into the light. I reckon this is good, you know, to get it in the light, because people's been abusing kids in the community.
SARA EVERINGHAM: In this community?
MILDRED INKAMALA: Just, not really in this community but, you know, in other community. But maybe I don't know, 'cause maybe it's been happening here too. It was happening here too.
SARA EVERINGHAM: At the Hermannsburg store, staff and customers are trying to get used to the new system of quarantined welfare payments.
And here there's less enthusiasm about the changes.
CHARLIE FLETCHER: My name's Charlie Fletcher. I'm the store manager at Hermannsburg.
SARA EVERINGHAM: How long have you been working in the store here?
CHARLIE FLETCHER: I've been here for 12-and-a-half years now.
SARA EVERINGHAM: Now you've seen income management introduced here in the last few weeks. What's that been like?
CHARLIE FLETCHER: Well, it's been quite traumatic. It's been demoralising for the people. This is what I feel. They know it's unfair, they consider it racist. My big concern has always been, I've told the council this, I agree with it, except it's targeting the wrong people. It's just one blanket target, it's capturing the good people, the bad people and it should be targeted to the people who aren't using their money properly.
But at the moment now, when everyone's just under the whole scheme, there's no peer pressure, there's no nothing and they basically are very despondent and a lot of the men, particularly the men, they've had a lot of their self-esteem knocked out of them. And this has been caused by losing the CDEP, and then on top of that they're forced to work for the dole, on top of that they lose half their dole money.
SARA EVERINGHAM: So you've noticed men feeling it more.
CHARLIE FLETCHER: I think the men are probably feeling it more than the women. I think some of the women were offered full-time employment very, very early on, and this is just personal opinion that they seem as though they're coping with it a lot better than the men.
SARA EVERINGHAM: In Hermannsburg the women told Mal Brough they were worried that when CDEP was removed none of the first so-called "real jobs" went to men, and that men who'd been working on CDEP in municipal services positions were now on work for the dole.
And it seems the first jobs being identified in communities by the Commonwealth and the Northern Territory Government are in areas where positions are predominantly filled by women.
The women in Hermannsburg were concerned the men had been left out of opportunities for meaningful work.
Eileen Hoosan, a representative of one of the town camps in Alice Springs, says women in other communities are also concerned.
EILEEN HOOSAN: Well, I've got family from remote communities, and they've told me that because of that burden placed on the woman who's got a full-time position and the husband who's not working, she's starting to feel that maybe she shouldn't go to work. Maybe she shouldn't be the income earner for the family, maybe it's better just to stay home, because then they'll be less likely to have family problems.
SARA EVERINGHAM: The former ATSIC regional chairman Des Rogers now runs an Indigenous security firm in Alice Springs and has employed 10 Indigenous staff who have come off welfare to work for him.
He's from the small Wallace Rockhole community that neighbours Hermannsburg.
He says many men feel disenfranchised by the intervention process.
DES ROGERS: Well I think it's just been a culmination of the nature of how we've gone about business in communities. Aboriginal men have always been mobile, women and kids have been left on communities and you know it was either lay down and die or get strong and obviously they've got strong and I think the time's right now for us and Aboriginal men to stand up and, as I say, you know, want to be a part of this process, otherwise we're just going to fade away.
And as I'm trying to articulate, you know, not all Aboriginal men are bad. Not all Aboriginal men are drinkers, wife bashers and sexual perpetrators. You know, there's a lot of good Aboriginal men out there.
SARA EVERINGHAM: But Des Rogers has hope for the intervention under the Rudd Government.
DES ROGERS: Rudd's talking about a revolution in education. I think there should be a revolution in a whole range of other areas. I think genuine participation of Aboriginal people, because Rudd also said one Australia for all Australians. So I'm really pleased with those comments and really confident that as we move forward we're going to see some real positive outcomes for Aboriginal people and for the whole of community.
SARA EVERINGHAM: Kevin Rudd says his government is committed to the intervention but will review some parts of it once it's been in place for 12 months.
Recently in Parliament, Alison Anderson called for the intervention to continue in spite of the changes in Canberra, and she says the needs of remote communities must stay on the agenda.
ALISON ANDERSON: We need to give this opportunity to people, for people to travel on this journey with the Government to make sure that the future looks great for the next generation.
SARA EVERINGHAM: Des Rogers expects the Rudd Government will consult with those on the ground affected by the intervention.
He hopes more Aboriginal men will stand up and become part of the journey.
DES ROGERS: I strongly believe that we shouldn't be just focusing on the negatives. There's a lot of positives that can come out of this and there's a lot of money, a lot of resources being put towards it and we as Aboriginal people shouldn't be sitting on the other side of the fence. We should be at the table, we should be participating in this and we should be assisting the Government in getting it right and I'm hopeful that we can do that.
ELIZABETH JACKSON: Sara Everingham with that report and you've been listening to a Current Affairs Special.
See: ABC News: PM
Intervention to blame for staff shortages: Health Service
ABC News | 3 January 2008
A remote Northern Territory health service says the Commonwealth intervention in Aboriginal communities has made it more difficult to attract and keep permanent medical staff.
The Pintubi Homelands Health Service at Kintore says it will be using locum doctors and nurses to keep the clinic open until permanent staff start in mid-February.
Service administrator Jeff Hulcombe says while the intervention has helped expose more medical staff to Aboriginal health, it has had a down-side.
"It's certainly also raised the bar of what the expectations of nursing and medical staff want in terms of conditions of service," he said.
"I've got pressure from our normal nursing staff to try and match the conditions that the intervention medical people are under and we simply can't do that because our budget doesn't allow it."
See: ABC News
Police may change restraint tactics after deaths in custody
ABC News | 2 January 2008
Northern Territory police say they will use other methods for restraining people if investigations into two recent deaths in custody find that changes are needed.
A Palmerston man died yesterday while being loaded into a caged truck and another man died last week after struggling with police at Royal Darwin Hospital.
Police say man who died after he was restrained was drunk.
Police say they went to the 52-year-old man's home in Driver after getting a report of a disturbance.
Assistant Commissioner Mark McAdie says the man struggled with officers and then stopped breathing when he was being loaded into the back of a caged truck.
He has expressed his condolences to the man's family and says the matter is being investigated.
"Part of the purpose of a coronial investigation is to determine whether or not the actions taken by all the parties concerned were appropriate and whether there needs to be a change," he said.
"If the investigation leads us to the conclusion there needs to be change in our methodology, we will do that."
Mr McAdie says reports are being prepared for the coroner and the officers involved will remain on duty.
"The members involved in both cases are no doubt suffering themselves from the consequences of both of these incidents," he said.
"We have no reason to believe that our members did anything but behave in the most professional and appropriate manner in the circumstances, not withstanding the tragic outcome."
He says the deaths are being investigated but there is no indication officers acted inappropriately.
"Any single death looks bad enough, but having this coincidence of a number of deaths in a fairly short span of time does look bad," he said.
"At this point in time, there's no reason to believe it's no more than a coincidence, remembering that each of these incidents arises from the actions of the other people that essentially forces us to take action."
See: ABC News
News Archive
|
|
