New blood needed in Indigenous body: former ATSIC chair
ABC News | 31 December 2007
A former Australian and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) chairman in Alice Springs says he wants to see more young people in the Federal Government's new Indigenous representative body.
Des Rogers was among those hand-picked by the former Howard government for the National Indigenous Council when it was set up three years ago, but was dumped because of his criminal record.
Mr Rogers says he will not be seeking selection in the new body to be named early next year.
"I think there's a lot more younger, articulate, intelligent and passionate people than me," he said.
"I think that what's needed is to grab some young people, and I think that was flawed in the ATSIC system as well.
"It was the same old people every year, or every three years, that put up their hand and [were] consequently re-elected. I think we need to give our young people a go now."
See: ABC News
Alcohol ID system to begin Feb: NT Govt
ABC News | 31 December 2007
The Northern Territory Government says it will begin rolling out the electronic ID system to Alice Springs bottle shops in February.
The system requires everyone who buys take-away alcohol to have their photo identification scanned.
It is designed to help enforce court orders and other measures like the one-cask-per-day limit in Alice Springs.
Alcohol Policy Minister Chris Burns says it is the next step in fighting the town's alcohol abuse problems.
"I told the reference group meeting that we'd be rolling that out in February," he said.
"There's a lot of training and public education that has to go on there, as well as establishing the system to make sure that it's operating effectively."
See: ABC News
Health service to stay open, intervention nurse hired
ABC News | 31 December 2007
A nurse previously deployed as part of the Commonwealth Indigenous intervention has returned to the Northern Territory to relieve a staffing shortage at the Aboriginal community of Kintore.
The Pintubi Health Service was facing closure over the Christmas-New Year period because it had only one nurse and no doctor.
Service administrator Jeff Hulcombe says contingencies have been made through the Emergency Response Taskforce, allowing it to stay open.
"We managed to get a nurse who was involved in the original health checks, not here but in the Territory to come here for that two week period from Christmas to over the New Year," he said.
"We've managed to line up a doctor but that's through our own efforts, and we've managed to secure a nurse through a recruiting agency from early January on."
See: ABC News
17 arrested over Wadeye Xmas riots
ABC News | 30 December 2007
Northern Territory Police say 17 people have now been arrested over Christmas Day riots in the Indigenous community of Wadeye, south-west of Darwin.
Hundreds of men armed with knives, machetes and spears took to the streets after a family dispute boiled over.
Extra police were sent to the community to help deal with the large number of people involved in the street battle and five of those apprehended remain in custody.
Police say more arrests are likely.
See: ABC News
Phone fault raises safety concerns in remote community
ABC News | 28 December 2007
Another Central Australian Aboriginal community says safety has been compromised because phone services have been down.
The Pintubi Health Service at Kintore in the Northern Territory, near the border with Western Australia, says technicians arrived in the community to fix a fault in the line today.
The communities of Santa Teresa, Titjikala and Finke also had phone problems prior to Christmas.
Pintubi Health Service administrator Jeff Hulcombe says he was originally told the problem could not be fixed until next week.
"But I asked them to upgrade it because we have the issue of while we don't have a doctor here, we have to communicate with district medical officers which requires them to call back to us, same with the RFDS [Royal Flying Doctor Service]," he said.
"If we can't do that in emergency situation, then we've got real issues."
A Telstra spokeswoman says the company recommends remote communities have a satellite phone as a back-up in emergencies.
See: ABC News
Wadeye Xmas riots 'shows police numbers need boosting'
ABC News | 28 December 2007
The Northern Territory Police Association says the Federal Government's intervention in Indigenous communities has failed to boost the number of police officers in the troubled community of Wadeye.
Amateur footage taken on Christmas Day shows hundreds of people armed with machetes, spears and hammers fighting in the streets.
The man who filmed the violence says it lasted for four days and only stopped yesterday when one of the town's six police officers called a meeting with community leaders.
Police Association spokesman Vince Kelly says police resources at Wadeye are still being neglected, despite the intervention.
"In terms of the intervention itself, the Northern Territory Government and the Federal Government need to sit down and commit themselves to increasing the size of the police force," he said.
"[They need to ensure] the police force has the capacity to police not just Port Keats to the level that is required, but every other community in the Territory where there's police situated."
See: ABC News
Independent review for Alice booze restrictions
ABC News | 28 December 2007
Alcohol restrictions in Alice Springs are to be independently reviewed.
The town has some of the tightest alcohol controls in Australia, including a ban on drinking in public, restrictions on certain products and limited hours for take-away sales.
The latest Licensing Commission figures show Central Australians drank more than 500,000 litres of pure alcohol last financial year.
Territory Alcohol Policy Minister Chris Burns that is 8 per cent less than in the previous 12 months.
"That shows that the strategies that have been employed in Alice Springs over the last 12 to 18 months are working," he said.
"We are having an independent evaluation commissioned to actually look in detail at that, it is pleasing but there's more to do," he said.
See: ABC News
Police move to curb Christmas violence in Wadeye
ABC News | 27 December 2007
Northern Territory police have met with community leaders in Wadeye, about 250 kilometres south-west of Darwin, in an effort to stop violence in the town.
A resident, who does not want to be named for safety reasons, has told the ABC that hundreds of people from the "Judas Priest" and "Evil Warriors" gangs took to the streets of Wadeye this week armed with rocks, spears and iron bars.
"[It] happened Christmas Day, Christmas afternoon and then again on Boxing Day," the person said.
The officer in charge at Wadeye, Sergeant Shane Taylor, says police were called to one fight that broke out near the local store yesterday, but says when they arrived, all the people involved ran away.
He says authorities then called a meeting with community elders yesterday to stop the fighting and says calm has been restored to the community.
Police say no one has been charged over the incident.
Government focus
The NT Member for Daly, Robert Knight, says government plans to shift Indigenous groups out of Wadeye back to their own country will curb community violence.
Mr Knight says the community has been troubled since its establishment in the 1930s when different Indigenous groups were brought to the town to live together.
He says this week's violence in Wadeye does not signal a failing in government initiatives.
He says the NT Government is focusing on moving the different Indigenous groups that live in Wadeye out to their own country, but says that will take some time.
"Moving people back out on country means you've got to provide accommodation, year round access and that's starting to happen," he said.
"We've got the upgrading of the Port Keats Road and the upgrading of other roads in the area and some more of housing accommodation going out there so that's going to take a little bit of time.
"But it is underway and it needs to be focused on and continued upon."
He says most people in the 2,500 strong community are helping government to reach that goal.
"There's a lot of people down there trying very, very hard to make things work. There's good people down there and they're trying to get on with their lives," he said.
"It's just a small group as it usually is in most communities around Australia that causes the most trouble and gets most of the bad publicity but very good people down there trying very hard."
See: ABC News
Govt's Indigenous welfare plan 'racist'
ABC News | 27 December 2007
The Centre for Aboriginal Policy Research (CAPR) says the Commonwealth's welfare quarantines are racist and should not be applied in north Queensland.
It says the Commonwealth must start treating Indigenous people the way it treats other Australians.
Welfare quarantines were first introduced in the Northern Territory under the Commonwealth Indigenous intervention.
CAPR director Jon Altman says the reforms planned for Cape York in the state's far north are better than those implemented in Territory, but that they still fall well short of best practice.
He says the NT intervention legislation is highly discriminatory but has been made exempt from the Racial Discrimination Act.
Mr Altman says the reforms are racist and will not fix dysfunction in Indigenous communities.
"What needs to be put in place are measures that accord with Indigenous aspirations that most importantly have provision of economic development opportunity to remote Indigenous Australians that are comparable to what are delivered to non-Indigenous Australians," he said.
"We've just got to start treating Indigenous people equitably as Australian citizens."
He says problems with Indigenous communities cannot be fixed with legislation that ignores human rights.
"Measures that contravene the Racial Discrimination Act are not acceptable, both domestically in terms of treating Indigenous people differently to non-Indigenous people, but also in terms of Australia's human right international obligations," he said.
See: ABC News
Indigenous plan needs 'huge investment' from COAG
ABC News | 27 December 2007
A research group on Aboriginal policy says a Council of Australian Governments (COAG) commitment to improve Indigenous educational outcomes will not succeed as an isolated initiative.
The COAG meeting in Melbourne last week agreed to halve the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous outcomes in 10 years.
Jon Altman from the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research says now that COAG has committed to the plan, it must be held accountable.
But he says better outcomes will not be achieved without massive investment in Indigenous housing and health.
"We can't expect Indigenous Australians facing deep backlogs and deep legacies from the past to be successful if they're not given the support that other Australians are [given] as citizens," he said.
Mr Altman agrees it is a challenge but says COAG must follow through.
"Historically we've got to be aware that we've set such targets before in Australia," he said.
"I think that it's very important to set targets but I think the challenge for governments is to be realistic about what is achievable and also to be realistic about the sorts of investments and the sorts of policy frameworks you need to meet targets once you set them."
A recent report into Indigenous well-being showed countries like New Zealand, America and Canada out-rated Australia in improvements to Aboriginal outcomes between 1990 and 2000.
Australia was highlighted as the only country on the list to have widened the gap between its Indigenous and non-Indigenous groups.
The report focused on improvements in indigenous health, education and economics.
See: ABC News
NT plans more alcohol management strategies
ABC News | 27 December 2007
The Northern Territory's Alcohol Policy Minister, Chris Burns, says further measures are needed to reduce drinking rates.
NT residents drank 80,000 more litres of pure alcohol equivalent in the last financial year than they did during the previous 12 months.
In the last six years, pure alcohol consumption increased the most in the East Arnhem and Katherine regions.
Central Australia was the only region to buck the trend in the last financial year, with 48,000 fewer litres of pure alcohol consumed.
Mr Burns says although that figure shows alcohol restrictions in Alice Springs are working, the territory-wide increase in drinking is of concern.
"Particularly when the excessive consumption of alcohol is at the root cause of a lot of the violence and anti-social behaviour we experience in the Territory," he said.
"I think we need to have a reduction in alcohol consumption or excessive alcohol consumption.
"There's no doubt about that and as a Government, we're rolling out alcohol management plans across the Territory region by region to address the issue."
Extended restrictions
The People's Alcohol Action Coalition says measures to reduce alcohol sales in Alice Springs need to be extended to other parts of the Territory.
Dr John Boffa from the People's Alcohol Action Coalition says the Commonwealth intervention has not addressed the issue and the NT Government has to act.
"To make this data publicly available makes everybody accountable and clearly they couldn't have sat on this data and not done something in the Katherine region and they won't be able to sit on this data and not do something in the East Arnhem region," he said.
"It's clearly very alarming and I think now that it's available, that's a sign of increased commitment."
See: ABC News
Wadeye police numbers 'neglected', despite intervention
ABC News | 27 December 2007
The Northern Territory Police Association says the Commonwealth intervention has failed to boost the number of officers in the troubled Top End community of Wadeye.
Amateur footage taken in the community on Christmas day shows hundreds of people armed with machetes, spears and hammers, fighting in the streets.
The man who filmed the violence says it lasted for four days and only stopped yesterday when one of the town's six police officers called a meeting with community leaders.
Police Association spokesman Vince Kelly says police resources at Wadeye are still being neglected, despite the Commonwealth intervention.
"In terms of the intervention itself, the Northern Territory Government and the Federal Government need to sit down and commit themselves to increasing the size of the police force, ensuring that police force has the capacity to police not just Port Keats to the level that it's required, but every other community in the NT where there's police situated," he said.
Territory Police have described the violence as a skirmish and say three people have been arrested.
The Superintendent responsible for Wadeye, Colin Smith, says he does not believe the community needs more police.
He says footage of the recent violence might distress some people, but that the officers had it under control.
"Most of the time we have more than enough police to deal with the day to day policing of Wadeye," he said.
"It's just when these riots get out of control is when we do require police, and we're very quick to send extra police in there."
See: ABC News
The role of porn in outback sex case
Stuff.co.nz | 21 December 2007
In the mid 1990s, Peter Danaja noticed life was changing at Maningrida, an Aboriginal community east of Darwin.
Already the children had stopped listening to their parents. They were talking of sex, ribbing each other with dirty jokes, turning their backs on ceremony and culture.
Mr Danaja, a senior community leader at Maningrida, says this coincided with the introduction of pornographic and violent movies.
Graphic sex scenes were also making their way on to commercial television stations and the years to come brought hardcore porn on pay TV.
Perhaps no one realised the impact this would have on young Aboriginal males at Maningrida.
"Nowadays kids rebel against us," Mr Danaja said in a letter read to the NT Supreme Court in Darwin this week during sentencing submissions for one of the more disturbing cases of child abuse in recent years.
An 11-year-old boy was attacked by two adults and three teenagers on three separate occasions at the coastal Arnhem Land community, between May and August last year.
During the screening of a pornographic DVD, the child was anally penetrated by both Cleaveon Cooper, then 18, and a 16-year-old before being fondled by a 15-year-old.
The juveniles cannot be named because of their ages at the time of the attacks.
Later than evening, the boy performed oral sex on Isiah Pascoe, then 19, while Cooper rubbed his penis in the area of the child's buttocks.
His 13-year-old friend - who had been laying on a mattress watching television - then attempted to penetrate the young boy.
On another occasion, possibly after police returned him to the community despite doctors finding he had gonorrhoea, the group went swimming at the Army Beach outside the town.
There he was sexually abused again by Cooper and the youngest offender.
In total the group pleaded guilty to eight sex offences, including sexual intercourse with a child under 16 and gross indecency.
A psychologist's report tendered to the court during sentencing submissions found all five offenders had a narrowly formed view of the world and lived in a community where overcrowding was rampant, particularly in the wet season, and there was "very little for young people to do".
They live in a remote corner of the territory and sometimes hunt and fish. Other times they are bored, with no jobs, easy drugs and limited schooling. English is spoken as a third or even fourth language and teenagers have little understanding of European ways nor the tools to make sense of it.
"A feeling of helplessness and frustration in the community. . . is quite palpable," the report said.
Justice Trevor Riley sentenced four of the group to a total of 32 months in prison. While acknowledging the role of pornography and other environmental factors in the lives of the offenders, he said: "These matters do not excuse or justify what took place".
The sentences ranged from 15 months for one attacker, to a good behaviour bond for another, and one month in juvenile detention for the youngest offender, who was less than two years older than his victim at the time of the attacks.
"They are each young men, they have each had a very basic formal education, their schooling has been sporadic and of little impact upon them," Justice Riley said.
"English is for each of them effectively a foreign language, they have limited understanding of European ways, they have been brought up in a remote location. . . and the psychologist regards each as having cognitive skills below their chronological age."
Justice Riley also questioned how and why pornographic material was so readily available to the group.
"The viewing of such material must provide impressionable young people with a distorted view of the world and what is not acceptable conduct," he said.
"How that (the porn) came to be there has not been explained, what impact that had upon the youthful offenders is not known to me. What cannot be doubted is that the playing of such material for young people is quite unacceptable and should not have occurred."
The case is reminiscent of those outlined in the Little Children are Sacred report, which prompted the Howard government's emergency intervention.
It found evidence of systemic child abuse fuelled by grog, pornography, poor education coupled with a breakdown in traditional values, cultural alienation and government neglect.
Child offenders, it said, were compelled to rape out of rage, confusion or despair. Their actions could also be traced back to a childhood sexualisation, where children as young as three were regularly exposed to graphic pornography.
The inquiry - which travelled 35,000km to 45 territory communities - made 97 recommendations, including a tightening of pornography laws.
"We found a lot of sexualised behaviour between children. Children acting out what they have either seen at home in overcrowded houses or through pornography being left around, magazines as well as DVDs as well as videos," said co-chair of the inquiry Pat Anderson.
"Everywhere we went, everyone complained. Both men and women complained about pornography."
Defence lawyers in the Maningrida case repeatedly pointed out their clients had a limited understanding of sex.
"When it came to matters of sex he was clueless, save that he watched porn. . . that was in essence his sex education," said Cooper's lawyer Peter Elliott.
Peggy Dwyer, who represented the youngest defendant, said: "He also spoke to me about mimicking what he saw in a DVD but not knowing really what was involved in sexual activity."
Outside the court, Mr Danaja spoke about the need for education, mentors and outside help.
"A lot of the kids are now. . . are starting to drift away from their responsibility to the cultural values that we have," he said.
See: Stuff.co.nz
Henderson backs timetable to close lifespan, education gaps
ABC News | 24 December 2007
The Northern Territory Government has supported the timetable for a federal plan to close the life expectancy gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.
Last week's Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting in Melbourne agreed to close the gap and halve the disparity in education within a decade.
In August this year, the Territory Government promised $286 million to close the gap within 20 years.
Chief Minister Paul Henderson says the Commonwealth's target is realistic.
"COAG have said within 10 years [governments will be] halving the gaps in terms of literacy and numeracy for Indigenous people," he said.
"The Territory Government has said we will close them completely over 20 years so I believe both programs are aligned together.
"I'd like to see them come in quicker but we've got to put those targets in place."
Hospital funding
Meanwhile, the Government says it is too early to know how much Commonwealth money the Territory will get to reduce elective surgery wait times.
At the COAG meeting, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd promised $50 million to drive down the wait times.
The funding is on top of $100 million announced in the election campaign.
Mr Henderson says the money will be distributed to states and territories next year.
"The Territory government will get our share of the $150 million, but we won't know what that is until the treasurers and the health ministers meet in January," he said.
"I welcome the extra commitment. It's going to make a difference here in the Northern Territory."
See: ABC News
Centrelink promises to explain welfare changes to Papunya
ABC News | 26 December 2007
Centrelink says it will return to a central Australian Aboriginal community in the new year to reassure residents about welfare changes.
Welfare quaranting began at Papunya less than a fortnight ago as part of the Commonwealth intervention in Northern Territory Aboriginal communities.
The council's vice president, Syd Anderson, says people do not understand the changes and are disappointed they have not been able to use quarantined money for Christmas shopping.
He says Centrelink staff explained the changes to people one-on-one when they should have used interpreters.
Centrelink manager Peter Doutre says interpreters are used when they are available.
He says Centrelink staff visited the community for six weeks around the time of the changes and will return early next year.
He says customers with questions about their income management arrangements should call the Centrelink Indigenous call centre in the meantime.
See: ABC News
Papunya faces 'bleak' Xmas amid welfare rules change
ABC News | 17 December 2007
Leaders in Papunya say the central Australian community is facing a bleak Christmas because people are confused about new welfare rules.
Income management was introduced in Papunya 11 days ago as part of the Commonwealth Indigenous intervention.
Papunya Council vice president Syd Anderson says residents have less welfare money this Christmas because they do not understand their work obligations under the new system.
He says it has put a dampener on the holidays.
"Last year we used to have people having their Christmas lights, decorations everywhere in the community," he said.
"Now this year it's real bleak, no Christmas enjoyment at all.
"People go to the shop expecting they are going to get quarantined money to do shopping and they come out with sad faces."
Centrelink staff were there when the new arrangements were introduced but Mr Anderson says people still do not properly understand how the new system works.
He says Centrelink staff must come back to explain their obligations.
"[They must] get interpretive people to explain ... slowly," he said.
"They just come in, they explain it real hard and get people to face one-to-one, but one-to-one people don't understand properly.
"They need interpreters on the side to help them out."
See: ABC News
Christmas Day violence erupts in Indigenous community
ABC News | 26 December 2007
Northern Territory Member for Daly Rob Knight says brewing tension in the Indigenous community of Wadeye, south-west of Darwin, erupted on Christmas Day.
Mr Knight says two gangs that rioted with spears through the town 18 months ago were also behind yesterday's disturbance.
He says there has been problems in the community since its establishment in the 1930s when different Indigenous groups were placed together by missionaries.
Mr Knight says that mix of people has a "pressure cooker" effect when the community is cut off from the rest of the Northern Territory during the wet season.
"It's a huge community and there's a lot of tensions this time of year with the roads starting to be cut off and lot of young people in the community," he said.
"About 18 months ago we had quite a bit of trouble down there and we had quite a bit of effort put in by the Northern Territory Government into finding a solution and that solution basically [is] getting people back onto their own countries."
Mr Knight says the violence is rife because people are coming off drugs and the community is isolated.
"People can't get out," he said.
"Not only the main roads but the secondary roads and tracks become soft and impassable so they can't get away from the community to go hunting or to just get away from the bubble that Port Keats sometimes becomes."
A resident in Wadeye, who does not want to be named, says the violence has been going on since Sunday.
He says police in the community are powerless.
"When you count people away on Christmas holidays and that, it doesn't do justice for the two, three or four police that are left here to control this happening every night," he said.
"Four days it has been going on and the police are totally burnt out."
The resident, a public servant, says hundreds of people have been throwing rocks, spears and iron bars since Sunday and the violence has reached crisis point.
"While everyone else in the country is enjoying a Christmas day, we are here in fear watching these people, these young punks in this community creating havoc," he said.
Before the latest incidents, the last outbreak of violence between the Judas Priest and Evil Warrior gangs was in October.
See: ABC News
'Urgent need' for alcohol reform in the NT
ABC News | 26 December 2007
The People's Alcohol Action Coalition says the latest alcohol sales figures highlight the urgent need for major reforms to reduce supply across the Northern Territory.
The Licensing Commission's latest figures show Territorians drank more than 3.1 million litres of pure alcohol last financial year, equivalent to 15 litres for every man, woman and child.
That is more than ever before, although there was a drop in Central Australia.
The Coalition's Dr John Boffa says more take-away licenses should be bought back and price benchmarks should be set to make beer the cheapest product on the market.
"Alcohol should not be sold at less than 90 cents a standard drink. That would remove all the cheap bulk alcohol," he said.
"The second thing we think is that we need to introduce at least one day a week where there are no take away sales.
"The problems are severe enough, and the crisis is big enough."
Dr Boffa says special restrictions introduced in Central Australia last year are why consumption has dropped a little in that region.
"The restrictions were put in place by the Northern Territory licensing commission prior to the intervention and prior to the dry town," he said.
"Those two measures, while they may have certain impacts are not going to be reducing the sale of pure alcohol and are not going to be preventing alcohol related harms in the way that the current restrictions are doing in Alice Springs."
Dr Boffa says alcohol restrictions associated with the federal intervention are unlikely to significantly reduce alcohol sales.
He says reducing selling hours and banning some types of liquor really works.
"We've seen a significant improvement in pure alcohol sales in the Alice Springs region, which is as we expected," he said.
"Although we have seen a reduction of 8 per cent in sales of pure alcohol in less than the 12 month period, in terms of the restrictions, we need to do a lot better than that."
"I think we've seen a continual deterioration for the Territory as a whole.
"We need to apply effective supply reduction measures across the Northern Territory as a whole and we need to strengthen the existing measures in Alice Springs."
See: ABC News
Come, the revolution
The Age | 23 December 2007
There is nothing new about Kevin Rudd's "new beginning" for Aboriginal people.
We will never know the full story of what happened in Aurukun, still less what, if anything, could have prevented it. Indeed, it is already fading from memory, as is the media storm over it - breaking, by an amazing coincidence, in the week of Kevin Rudd's first major initiative as PM at Bali - and the inevitable COAG follow-up, which will itself fade into memory, as the system continues to creak along.
As National Indigenous Times editor Chris Graham noted in Crikey, we've had "three 'new dawns' for Aboriginal people in four years, plus at least one 'new accord' and at least six 'new deals' ".
The Aurukun case is a perfect example of that. Apparently subject to equal parts error, folly and bad and worse alternatives, it combined Aboriginal issues with the other great anti-passion of our era, pedophilia, to create a perfect storm of public emotionality. And in its wake we got the newest wash-up of new beginnings.
"New beginnings" in Aboriginal policy are so well known by now that you could macro the whole argument on the keyboard. There are the "tired old dogmas", "political correctness", "fresh thinking unimpeded by political ideology" etc, etc. These serve much the same purpose as the initial outrage - promising a quick solution where there is none, so that no one has to bear the thought that the suffering and inequality will continue for some time, no matter what measures are in place.
Yet what marks every much-heralded new solution is not a radical break with the past, but rather a continuity with older solutions, usefully rebranded.
Take the example of Wadeye, which reportedly received special favoured status from former Aboriginal affairs minister Mal Brough. Based on a former Christian mission, which gathered seven tribes/clans together, it is now being extensively reconstructed with separate living areas for each clan, as a way - and one has to take these reports with a cowlick of salt - of lessening community conflict.
That may or may not be a good thing, and it may or may not be the community's wish, but is it really a bold new experiment, spurning the old dogmas? Not really. As far as development of a single Aboriginal people goes, it's a backward step, rewarding a sense of tribalism, dividing rather than uniting and synthesising. Rather than proceed to a hybrid traditional-modern society, it writes down archaic divisions in bricks and mortar.
The project acknowledges the profound cultural difference between kinship or tribal societies and modern individualistic ones - the very differences the last government scorned for years as "cultural relativism". Thus, from one angle it's enlightened, but from another it's seven new reservations-cum-culture parks.
Or consider the scheme being emphatically spruiked by Noel Pearson for family responsibility committees to oversee the money and habits of alcoholics and other addicts in Aboriginal communities.
To consist of a retired magistrate and community elders, the committees (according to Pearson) would quarantine an addict's welfare money to ensure rent payment, food purchase, school attendance and so on, and if necessary "refer them to the appropriate services".
Leaving aside rights issues, the idea of such a scheme is to enforce a higher level of passivity and control, as a means of eventually restoring individual responsibility to the person being supervised. This strategy has a rich history of failure across the world, but the core point is that it represents no real revolution in Aboriginal affairs but rather a variant of statism and tribalism. And that is a feature common to many of the initiatives in Aboriginal policy that are presented by their supporters as being in fundamental opposition - deep down, they share a commitment to enforcing passivity.
That extends all the way across to the question of an apology, which has become a counterproductive issue to rally around. Once it was delayed, the demand for it became a means by which Aborigines gave white people the power to grant them their subjectivity, which John Howard used to maximum advantage. The chief benefit of getting it now is that things can move on from the stasis that waiting for it has imposed. Indeed, recent Aboriginal political history splits pretty clearly into two periods. The essence of the first, from Wave Hill and the freedom rides of the 1960s into the 1980s, was to put white society on the defensive, morally and physically, to make it react, thus exposing its shaky morality.
Much, though not all, of the second period to date has been one of making policy - from ATSIC to neo-assimilation - that puts the emphasis on the state and its actions. The charge is, of course, grossly oversimplified. But if there is to be a new beginning, rather than variations on a theme, it will only come from reconnecting more substantially, militantly, with that earlier tradition.
To say that this is easier said than done is to understate it somewhat. It is worth saying, even from a great distance from Aboriginal society and its day-to-day problems, only because it is a simple truth of modern history that appears to have been obscured here, as policy took over from politics.
Remote communities may look unorganisable - but so did the poor of 18th-century London, the Irish in the 19th and 20th, Nepalese peasants now. History would suggest that it is only when people organise around a political project - the city of God, socialism, a nation united, sovereignty - that they undo their dysfunction at an individual level, and it matters less what that project is than that it is.
Until that revival, it seems likely that black and white relations in this country will be subject to a strange vacuum - one filled from time to time with a firestorm of rage and denunciation over this trial or that death, which flares for a moment, purging white shame, which is its only real purpose.
Guy Rundle is an Arena Publications editor.
See: The Age
Twin sex attacks show no easy option
The Australian | 20 December 2007
A good heart alone will not save indigenous children
HORRIFIC sex crimes against two young Aboriginal children in Queensland and the Northern Territory prove beyond doubt that taking the easy option on community dysfunction has failed indigenous Australia. The pack rape of a 10-year-old girl at Aurukun on Cape York, for which none of her nine confessed rapists was sent to jail, has been mirrored by the repeated sex attacks on an 11-year-old boy at Maningrida, 500km east of Darwin.
The Aurukun girl, born brain-damaged because of her mother's alcohol abuse, was ultimately failed by welfare workers who cared more about cultural sensitivities of the Stolen Generation than the prospect that sex crimes already committed against her would be repeated. The Territory boy was repeatedly sexually assaulted by two adults and three teenagers, who spent their days watching pornography and smoking marijuana. The boy was anally penetrated twice, fondled and forced to perform oral sex. He is now exhibiting behavioural problems as a result of the attacks, but is unable to return to the Maningrida community because of fears for his safety. Police believe the boy would be blamed for the punishment given to his attackers, who, unlike the Queensland rapists, were yesterday sentenced to prison, the harshest sentence being a minimum 15months' jail.
Both cases underscore concerns that there is an epidemic of child sex abuse in indigenous communities, something that was given further weight with the release of Territory statistics this week showing that between January and June there were 41 reported cases of gonorrhoea and chlamydia in children under 15, including children under five.
For already struggling communities, the way in which both offences were handled has reinforced the worst possible message, that sex crimes against children, even repeated gang attacks, will be punished at the lower end of the scale by the courts. The Maningrida case has also bolstered the impression that molesting a child is somehow a lesser offence in the Territory than raping an adult. This is because sexual crimes against children can be dealt with under Section 127 of the Criminal Code, which does not require consent to be considered but carries a maximum 25-year sentence, compared with the usual Section 192 for rape, which carries a maximum of life. While Section 127 sends a strong message that consent can never be a defence for having sex with a child, the lesser maximum penalty sends a contradictory message that it is somehow less abhorrent. Given that courts ultimately have sentencing discretion, it seems outrageous to us that sex crimes against children should carry a lesser maximum penalty.
Above all, the lenient treatment of offenders compounds the message that crimes in remote indigenous communities involving children will be treated less seriously than similar crimes elsewhere. But there can be no cultural excuse for what is taking place. The law should be applied equally to all people. Even The Age newspaper published a strong front-page story from Aurukun on Wednesday that said District Court judge Sarah Bradley had ignored local wishes for tough measures to deal with the culture of violence in the township.
The Age story acknowledges what we have consistently argued, that being soft on offenders serves only to perpetuate abuse. As Aboriginal leader Noel Pearson has written, if people are free of consequences for their actions, either good or bad, they are left disempowered. A lot of people of "good heart" have inadvertently reinforced dysfunctional behaviour across indigenous Australia by being too lenient. It may, as some indigenous leaders suggest, be time to consider greater use of tribal punishment, but the first step is to enforce existing laws properly. We must make sure that the dominant message sent out is that women and children will be protected equally, wherever they might be.
See: The Australian
Indigenous boy's assault prompts porn crackdown call
ABC News | 20 December 2007
A leader from the Northern Territory Indigenous community of Maningrida is calling on the Government to crack down on pornography use amid the shocking sexual assault of an 11-year-old boy.
Four of the five defendants have been sentenced to prison for sexually assaulting the boy.
The Supreme Court accepted when a teenager tried to have sex with the boy he was mimicking what he saw on a pornographic video.
Maningrida local Peter Dunaja says pornography has changed behaviour in the community in the last decade.
He says pornographic magazines started to come to the community in the mid-1990s.
"A lot of the kids are now ... are starting to drift away from their responsibility to the cultural values that we have," he said.
Mr Dunaja says politicians and bureaucrats need to visit the community to help address the pornography problem.
"There should be more tougher penalties, there should be more assistance," he said.
He says counsellors and sex education programs are needed in schools.
"These are the kind of things that are very hard for us, we need more counsellors, we need more bureaucrats to be able to make these decisions," he said.
"Not only that but in order for them to do that the golden rule is that they have to come and sit at a table to negotiate some of the things because each community has different priorities."
Mr Dunaja says the families of two men and three teenagers who pleaded guilty to child sex assault have reconciled with the victim's family.
See: ABC News
NT intervention head apologises for drunken soldiers
ABC News | 19 December 2007
The head of the Northern Territory intervention has apologised to the remote Central Australian community of Elliot for the drunken behaviour of two Norforce soldiers.
Major General David Chalmers says the Defence Force is investigating an incident where two soldiers deployed to the remote town on the Stuart Highway earlier this month were allegedly drunk soon after they arrived.
"Defence has a rule that no soldiers deployed on this operation will drink," he said.
"These soldiers apparently breached that rule."
Maj Gen Chalmers says he has been to Elliot and knows the town is struggling to overcome alcohol abuse and he's angry and disappointed.
"I apologise unreservedly to the Elliot community that that occurred," he said.
The men have been stood down but Maj Gen Chalmers says its a matter for Defence as to what discipline they will face.
Maj Gen Chalmers also says when Norforce was informed that a soldier deployed for the intervention in Central Australia was facing charges for assaulting his four-year-old son, he was immediately stood down.
"Up until the point he was found guilty, of course he wasn't, he was innocent of that offence that's the basis of our legal system," he said.
The soldier has since been found guilty, but Maj Gen Chalmers pointed out that Norforce is providing a logistical role.
"Norforce soldiers aren't working with children," he said.
CDEP changes
Maj Gen Charmers announced he will halt changes to welfare payments affecting Indigenous people on the Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) scheme.
He said new Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin's plan to reform CDEP rather than scrap it will affect the quarantining of welfare payments.
"If CDEP wages were retained as it stands right now then we wouldn't ... manage those wages," he said.
He says Indigenous people who have already left CDEP for other jobs will not be affected.
This is the first time Maj Gen Chalmers has fronted the media since the change of government and he recognised there has been a change of approach.
"The new Government has said that they will consult and they're very serious about that and they will require consultation and better consultation," he said.
See: ABC News
Grog ban brings hope back to Indigenous communities
ABC News | 19 December 2007
Prominent child health specialist professor Fiona Stanley has told an inquest into alcohol-related deaths in Western Australia's Kimberley region that excessive drinking is creating another stolen generation.
Three months ago, The 7.30 Report revealed the number of Aboriginal deaths caused by alcohol in the Fitzroy Crossing area, west of Broome, was close to 170 people in the past five years.
It has now revisited the tiny community, which has sought to stem the flow of alcohol by banning full and mid-strength takeaway sales for six months from its only pub.
In addition, a report commissioned by the Federal Government has made scathing claims about the running of the Indigenous-owned company, which operates the pub.
In most country towns, the sight of children playing in the streets might not seem out of the ordinary. But here in Fitzroy Crossing, it is remarkable.
It was just three months ago that this tiny community was being torn apart by grog.
"We just had over 170 deaths in the last five years, just about all of them were alcohol-related," community leader Joe Ross said.
Sick and tired of the drinking and violence, the local women's centre came up with a solution - a six-month suspension on full strength takeaway sales.
"We needed to get respite, we needed to address the volume of alcohol that was available in this community," Marninwarntikura Women's Resource Centre spokeswoman June Oscar said.
As a result of that ban, if someone wants to drink anything stronger than light beer, they can go to the pub's main bar or the nearest bottle shop, a 600-kilometre round trip.
Ms Oscar says the Women's Resource Centre has noticed a big difference in people's behaviour in just three months.
"Alcohol certainly exacerbated the level of violence and frequency of violence and therefore, women and children needing to seek refuge at the women's shelter," she said.
"We've seen a steady decline in the numbers."
The ban has been so successful that other communities are using Fitzroy Crossing as a role model.
"Before the ban, we'd have children congregating around the tourist bureau until quite late at night," Nindilingarri Health Service spokeswoman Maureen Carter said.
"Since the ban, you don't see kids hanging around out there any more. I guess they must feel safe to go home."
WA Drug and Alcohol Office spokesman Grant Akesson has seen similar results.
"We're starting to see more communities start to go down the line that Fitzroy's gone and making noise about, 'well these are our problems, these are things we want to do to address it'," he said.
Hotel hits out
Despite the apparent success on the restriction on the sale of alcohol here at Fitzroy Crossing, there are vocal opponents of it.
Unsurprisingly, the licensee of the Crossing Inn hotel is one of them.
Patrick Green says the bans have actually failed because they do not address the real problems in the town.
"I think it's easier to slap a ban on them than to deal with the real issues," he said.
Before the ban, the Crossing Inn sold the bulk of takeaway alcohol in the town. It is actually owned by Fitzroy Crossing's Indigenous community under the name Leedal.
Mr Green says unemployment is more of a problem than grog.
"Alcohol is one factor. If they've got things to do, maybe it's not a problem, but at this stage while they have free time on their hands, yes, alcohol is a problem," he said.
He also disputes claims that there is less violence in the town since the ban.
"The drop in violence is maybe because when we are reporting violence it doesn't go any further, other than other people are reporting the violence," Mr Green said.
The 7.30 Report has obtained a copy of a damning review of Leedal, which owns the inn.
It looks at the partnership between Leedal and the Federal Government-owned Indigenous Business Australia (IBA), which is aimed at providing business and employment opportunities to Aboriginal communities.
An extract from the Irving review of the IBA Fitzroy Crossing Joint Ventures reads: "If success is measured in terms of community involvement in and ownership of the outcomes of development projects, or improvements to the communities' well-being, then the Fitzroy project must be judged as having failed the community it set out to benefit."
The review also asks where the profits went.
"During the 18 years of the trust's existence, Leedal as trustee has failed to distribute any of its profits to the beneficiaries of the trust," it said.
"They have achieved nothing in the way of control over policies relating to alcohol and employment."
Tommy May is one of the Kimberley's senior traditional lawman and a respected artist, whose paintings hang in collections around the world.
Three of his nine children have died in drinking-related incidents. Since the ban, he has been painting more and not being pestered or humbugged by drunks, as it is called here.
"Better life and better sleep, be strong and healthy. No humbug in every camp," Mr May said.
Traditional law
One of the other effects of the ban has been a surge in interest in traditional law.
Elders like Harry Yungabun say there has been a reawakening of Aboriginal culture.
"It's like strengthening our traditional law. In a way, they look at themselves before what they're doing," he said.
"They weren't really much interested in our cultural side because they didn't really have nothing much to do here in Fitzroy. It's mostly drinking.
"Since this thing stopped and people started to realise what in fact the grog has done to them, then you see good result coming back from the people."
For many of Fitzroy Crossing's older people, the alcohol restrictions are a return to time when people drank less and social ties were strong.
"We live [a] better life now," Mr May said.
"For a couple of months or three months now, you can see everybody sober."
See: ABC News
STD figures outrage NT Indigenous health group
ABC News | 18 December 2007
The Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance of the Northern Territory (AMSANT) says recent figures on sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are horrific.
The figures from the Centre for Disease Control show teenagers between 15 and 19 are recording the most STDs.
AMSANT's Doctor John Patterson is outraged.
"It's just unacceptable to be having those drastic figures amongst our teenagers in this day and age," he said.
The recent report showed 870 Northern Territory teenagers between 15 and 19 presented with an STD in the six months to June this year.
Dr Patterson says child sex abuse has to stop.
"That is just unacceptable we should not be having kids of that age be contracting [STDs] and other sexual diseases now," he said.
"We've got to address those issues ASAP and it should be a priority for all those that are involved, making sure our children are safe."
Dr Patterson also says the over representation of Aboriginal people amongst that group shows safe sex messages are not reaching Indigenous children and an old cartoon character mascot might help.
"Bring back Condom Man," he said.
He says the NT Government needs to deliver safe sex messages in a way that will cross barriers of culture and language.
See: ABC News
Trachoma rates in Indigenous communities 'a disgrace'
ABC News | 19 December 2007
Trachoma remains entrenched among outback Indigenous Australian communities more than 30 years after a national program was launched to eradicate the disease, a new survey shows.
Professor Hugh Taylor has just completed a five-week survey of the Katherine region in the Northern Territory to assess the prevalence and recovery rates of the blinding eye disease.
He says the continuing high rate of trachoma in outback Indigenous communities is "a disgrace".
For instance, up to half of children in some communities have the trachoma infection.
The survey results come ahead of the latest data on trachoma prevalence around Australia by the National Trachoma Surveillance and Reporting Unit, expected this week.
Prof Taylor, head of the University of Melbourne's Centre for Eye Research Australia, worked with the late professor Fred Hollows on the National Trachoma and Eye Health Program in the late 1970s.
He says Australia is the only developed country to still have the preventable disease. And he says the lack of action means the nation is on track to becoming the last country in the world to have communities where the infection is endemic.
Trachoma, an infection caused by chlamydia trachomatis, can lead to blindness and disappeared in non-Indigenous Australians about 100 years ago.
Scarring
As well as the high prevalence of trachoma in Indigenous children, the survey found that one in 12 adults have in-turned eyelashes as a result of inflammatory trachoma as a child. These in-turned lashes rub the eye and cause blindness.
"I expect one in six of these children are on the same escalator to trachoma as these older people," Professor Taylor says.
"The Aboriginal community is a non-written culture which is visually based. To have something that takes away their vision, particularly for elders, is devastating."
The trachoma infection is mainly spread through poor hygiene and living conditions.
Affected Indigenous Australian communities are mainly located in inland and remote Western Australian, South Australia and the Northern Territory.
Professor Taylor says the extent of the disease in Queensland and north-west New South Wales is not known.
But in coastal Indigenous communities, trachoma is less common because children's faces are kept cleaner by playing and swimming in the water.
"A lack of government commitment and a lack of targeted resources on the ground" are the main impediments to eliminating the disease among Indigenous Australians, Professor Taylor says.
His research centre will begin fieldwork in its national Indigenous eye health survey next year, which he says will update the 30-year-old data collected during the Fred Hollows-led program.
He hopes results of that survey will be the catalyst for a national eradication program.
Professor Taylor says a $25 million national program over five years, based on a successful World Health Organisation (WHO) program, would eliminate the disease.
International success
In the past year, the developing nations of Morocco, Oman and Iran have assessed themselves to be trachoma-free and are now undergoing WHO certification.
He says the WHO's SAFE strategy to eliminate the condition has been successfully used in places like Morocco and can be adopted in Australia.
The four-stage program includes surgery to correct in-turned eyelashes, antibiotics to eliminate chlamydia infection, an emphasis on facial cleanliness to reduce the risk of spreading the infection between children and environmental improvements to community hygiene and living conditions.
"We know how to eliminate the disease," Prof Taylor said.
"If Morocco can eliminate trachoma in 10 years, then [Australia] should be able to."
Professor Taylor will take up the inaugural Harold Mitchell Chair of Indigenous Eye Health within Melbourne University's School of Population Health next year.
He says he hopes to meet with the Federal Government early next year to discuss a national trachoma prevention program.
See: ABC News
Rudd adds Indigenous issues to COAG agenda
ABC News | 17 December 2007
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has added Indigenous affairs to the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting, which will be held in Melbourne on Thursday.
There is already a long agenda for the meeting as Mr Rudd pushes to implement the policies he took to the election.
But he has been under pressure to also talk to his counterparts about overcoming Indigenous disadvantage.
Mr Rudd says he has decided to talk to the premiers and chief ministers about the issue.
"These are people of goodwill who want to do the right thing by Indigenous communities," he said.
"Let's face it, there are huge challenges out there.
"I'm looking forward to a very broad ranging conversation with the premiers and chief ministers on what further actions can profitably and productively and cooperatively be undertaken."
See: ABC News
Scheme aims to cut remote communities' cannabis use
ABC News | 17 December 2007
Police, Indigenous leaders and James Cook University (JCU) researchers are collaborating to reduce cannabis use in remote communities.
The first stage of the Weed It Out program will involve JCU researchers interviewing smokers to measure the extent of their use and the drug's impact.
The information will be used to help Cape York and Torres Strait communities, in far north Queensland, develop their own deterrent strategies using local languages and customs.
Associate Professor Alan Clough was involved in a similar program in Northern Territory communities where up to three-quarters of young men and a third of women smoked cannabis.
"We were able to document some positive changes, some modest positive changes in levels of cannabis use and some of the health and social consequences of those, especially the mental health consequences and we're hoping to be able to duplicate that to support this project," he said.
See: ABC News
Fiona Stanley breaks down at inquiry into Indigenous deaths
ABC News | 17 December 2007
The former Australian of the Year, Fiona Stanley, has told a Perth inquest that the high level of health problems facing Aboriginal people in the Western Australian Kimberley region is like another stolen generation.
Professor Stanley, who is also the Director of the Institute for Child Health Research, broke down while giving evidence at an inquest into 23 Aboriginal deaths in the Kimberley.
Many of the deaths were suicides linked to alcohol and drugs.
Professor Stanley detailed many of the health issues facing Aboriginal people in the region, including a high rate of foetal-alcohol syndrome.
She told the inquest living conditions have deteriorated over the past 30 years and many of the health problems could be prevented if conditions improved.
Professor Stanley also criticised government agencies for failing to implement the recommendations of several reports on the problems facing indigenous communities.
Outside the inquest, Professor Stanley said it was distressing that conditions appeared to be worsening.
"The actually physical conditions are not good," she said.
"I don't think that the housing situation, which is relatively easy to fix by the way, if you really wanted to fix it you would fix it."
See: ABC News
Rudd hears call for Racial Discrimination Act to be applied to intervention
ABC News | 17 December 2007
The Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance in the Northern Territory (AMSANT) says the previous federal government's changes to the Racial Discrimination Act were high on the agenda during discussions with the Prime Minister on the weekend.
AMSANT's chief executive Dr John Patterson was among 25 Indigenous leaders who met the Prime Minister to discuss Indigenous issues and the future of the intervention into communities.
He has welcomed Kevin Rudd's commitment to have more discussions with the group.
Dr Patterson says Community Development Employment Projects need to be retained and the Racial Discrimination Act needs to be applied to aspects of the intervention.
"With the income quarantining issue, that is obviously another issue that was raised by the group to the Prime Minister and Minister Macklin," he said.
See: ABC News
Television chief criticises intervention
ABC News | 17 December 2007
An opponent of the Indigenous intervention says she wants the Rudd Government to listen to feedback from Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory.
National Indigenous Television chief executive Pat Turner was not invited to a meeting of Indigenous leaders and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on the weekend.
She is criticising the timing of the Government review into the effectiveness of the intervention, calling for it to happen sooner rather than later.
She says the Government does not appreciate the negative impact the intervention is having on the Aboriginal community.
"I'm not going to be patient and I'm sure a lot of other Aboriginal people are not going to be patient," she said.
"We want proper changes that are constructive and are worked out in conjunction with Aboriginal people, done before the end of this next calendar year."
See: ABC News
Call for national Indigenous body to replace ATSIC
ABC News | 17 December 2007
A peak Indigenous health group is calling for the new Federal Labor Government to create a national representative body for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
The former Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission or ATSIC administered Indigenous affairs from 1990 to 2005 when it was abolished by the Howard Government.
The then Labor opposition supported the move.
But the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO) says a new representative body is urgently needed to address Indigenous issues in Australia.
The organisation wants Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to introduce a process to create a new national body at this week's Council Of Australian Governments meeting.
NACCHO says initiatives to close the gap in life expectancy between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians will fail if a representative body is not established.
Mick Adams, from NACCHO, says there is now a need for a national Indigenous body.
Dr Adams has supported a new Commonwealth commitment to meet with Northern Territory Indigenous leaders every three months, but says the plan will not address broader issues affecting Aboriginal people around Australia.
See: ABC News
My NT community faces quarantined Christmas
ABC News: Opinion | 17 December 2007
I live in the Aboriginal community of Eva Valley, in the Northern Territory.
I've got no television, but when my friend sister Olga told me we had a new Prime Minister, I was crying.
When she told me what Kevin Rudd had said, I was crying and she was crying. He said "I'm going to be Prime Minister for all Australians."
That Kevin Rudd, you can trust him. We trust him because he said he's going to be Prime Minister for all Australians.
We need the government and other organisations to help us. Now he is Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd can do something.
The first thing we need is work. We need jobs with proper pay. We want the power to help ourselves. We want to help ourselves.
Christmas is coming up. We don't know if they are going to quarantine our money and we're worried about that.
We spend money on a whole lot of things to make our kids happy. Toys. Little toys. Not big toys, but little toys.
At Christmas, we want to get bigger toys for our kids, but with that quarantining, I think they won't let us.
We won't have a right to buy those bigger things for our kids. We want the freedom to buy what we choose ourselves, not only those things they say we can buy. I'm worried about this.
We need a community vehicle to go to town to buy food, and sealed roads. Our community bus is finished, broken down. It's too old now.
We live 110 kilometres from town but we've got no vehicle to go shopping. We have to get a taxi. The price has gone up and now it's $220 in and $220 back.
We need a store in the community, to sell power cards, food, and clothes, so we don't have to go to town to shop.
Now that Kevin Rudd is Prime Minister we want him to help us. We've got things that worry us.
We're worried about quarantining, and buying presents for kids at Christmas, and we're worried that we don't have a store, or a community vehicle to go to town to buy food.
If it goes on like this, that we have none of these things, there will be trouble around the community. Husbands will get upset. Wives will get upset. Kids won't go to school on time. Everything will go wrong.
We want the government to help us, so we can help our children. We need to work together to help our children.
I dreamt a story, about that ship.
From the election, Kevin Rudd has got to be the Captain of that great big ship.
We are in his ship now and he has to take us forward. We don't look left, or right. We've got to look forward, for the future of our children.
Kevin Rudd is our Captain. That Captain has to make sure that everything is going all right on that ship. He has to look ahead for any danger. He has to be alert.
We are in his ship now and he has to take us forward, together with those other organisations. That Marion Scrymgour and Jenny Macklin, they're in that boat, too.
They're the crew, and they have to help the Captain make a safe journey.
We need a fresh start, new leadership, new everything.
Big ships are made to go forward. They don't go backwards, do they? That's what we want now, to go forward.
Rachel Willika is a Jawoyn woman. She lives at Eva Valley, one of the communities prescribed by the intervention in the Northern Territory. Her views are recorded regularly on the website Women for Wik.
See: ABC News: Opinion
Intervention soldiers 'gave alcohol to locals'
ABC News | 17 December 2007
Two soldiers deployed to the Northern Territory as part of the Commonwealth intervention have been sent home, accused of getting drunk and supplying alcohol to the locals.
The intervention was launched to try to stop what is often alcohol-fuelled abuse of Indigenous women and children.
Elliott chief executive officer Linda Keane says the soldiers went to the pub not long after arriving at the town midway between Alice Springs and Darwin earlier this month.
"The Elliott police contacted Norforce advising them of the situation and the soldiers were removed from the community the next morning," she said.
Ms Keane says the Norforce soldiers also bought take-away alcohol for the locals.
She says she is dismayed that people sent to tackle alcohol abuse and the problems it causes could be out getting drunk.
"It's very disappointing that this first meaningful visit that was to offer a service is clouded by behaviour that is, for all intents and purposes, the behaviour that we're trying to get rid of," she said.
"This community fought very hard to be placed on the list of prescribed communities and therefore be included in the intervention.
"We had very high hopes that the intervention in fact would bring good things and help the community to solve some of the local problems."
Territory police say the matter is now in the hands of the Defence Force.
The Defence Force says it is investigating whether the soldiers were drunk, but has refused to comment on the allegations they were giving away alcohol.
A Defence spokeswoman says it would be inappropriate to comment until the investigation is complete, but ca not give any indication of when that might be.
She says the soldiers may face charges under the Defence Force Discipline Act.
See: ABC News
Indigenous community gives Rudd CDEP plan
ABC News | 17 December 2007
A 14-point plan designed to retain and improve Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) has been handed to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd by Indigenous representatives from Arnhem Land.
In a preface, the plan says the quarantining of Centrelink payments has caused hardship and children have gone hungry because of the changes.
It says cutting CDEP has reduced investment in communities and business are closing.
The document was drafted by CDEP organisations and traditional owners at Yirrkala.
It calls for the community development part of the program to be focussed on and for a CDEP representative body to be set up.
Under the plan there would be better case management for people who have low motivation or reduced capacity to work.
There would be improved training and mentoring of participants and more focus on supporting business development.
Scheme welcomed
The Combined Aboriginal Organisations of the Northern Territory have welcomed the Federal Government's plans to to improve the scheme.
Coordinator Olga Havnen was among 25 people in discussion with Mr Rudd, the federal Indigenous Affairs Minister and the NT Government over the intervention in Darwin yesterday.
She says she is relieved the Government wont dismantle CDEPs.
"There were various elements to do with training, to have better linkages to the labour market," she said.
'Both the Prime Minister and Minister [Jenny] Macklin were committed to establishing a working group made up of CDEP representative organisations.
"I think that will be a very useful mechanism for getting decent deposit of changes and to getting some of this stuff back on track."
Ms Havnen also says income quarantining is both offensive and causing immense hardship across NT communities.
"Large numbers of people already use voluntary systems of Centrepay deductions to pay for things like their rent and electricity and other household essentials," she said.
"There was no undertaking given to halt the blanket quarantining. I guess we will need to wait and see what comes out of those further discussions."
See: ABC News
Are our children really sacred
Online Opinion | 14 December 2007
It is time for national laws to place Australia's first children first.
Sadly it comes as no surprise that the Queensland Department of Child Safety was directly involved in the case of the 10-year-old girl so brutally abused at the hands of young people in her community of Aurukun.
That the "justice" system then compounded the violation of this child by ignoring her right to expect that her abusers would be appropriately punished is also no surprise. We have seen this before and we will see it again unless, and until, we throw out the existing models of child protection and foster care and start again.
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The reality is that in most rural and remote areas Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children cannot count on statutory child protection authorities to protect them or to respond effectively when abuse occurs. Child protection models have been built on two assumptions that often don't operate outside of large urban cities. First, that child protection staff can get to a family and respond to critical incidents quickly and second, that within a community there will be a "supply" of well-resourced high-functioning families with whom to place a child.
Faced with this reality child protection staff make agonising decisions about when to remove a child from their family, and by implication their community, and place them in foster care a long way from home.
Placing Indigenous children in non-Indigenous foster care far removed from their community, as happened in the Aurukun case, doesn't resolve all the case issues or provide the child with all that they need. Children, all children, whatever their race or culture, want to be with their family. The best evidence and research tells us that abused children want to go home, to see their mum and dad, their brothers and sisters, their friends and peers. The child now at the centre of this latest national debate about Aboriginal children wanted to go home.
The model of foster care we operate in Australia is wrong. It is wrong for all children; it is wrong for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. It is based on a false dichotomy. That a child is either with, and raised by, their birth family or by a foster family.
SNAICC, the Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care, argues that children can and should be raised by both. There is a third way. Place children with a well supported, resourced and trained foster family to ensure children are not at risk of abuse or neglect. Set up a community visitors program and co-ordinate visits between the community and the child. Don't bounce kids around between foster care placements and home. Support foster families to raise children with the birth family - not for the birth family.
Reinforce the message that families have to raise their children well. Train the magistrates to administer the law correctly. Provide community services to heal the victims. Insist at every level, family, community and within the justice system that abuse is intolerable and will be severely punished.
On the night of the Federal election both the outgoing Prime Minister, John Howard, and the outgoing Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, Mal Brough, in their concession speeches implored the incoming government to stick with the Northern Territory (NT) intervention. It is not insignificant that the NT intervention was singled out from everything that the government had done as the one thing that must be sustained by the new government.
The newly elected Federal ALP Government has indicated that it will largely continue with the NT intervention whilst reviewing aspects including the policy to quarantine welfare payments. Now some are calling for the NT intervention to spread to Aurukun.
Aspects of the NT intervention such as changes to the land permit system, land tenure and the appointment of administrators to manage Aboriginal communities have been criticised as not relevant to child protection. The Little Children Are Sacred report, upon which the intervention was premised, made no mention of taking over the running of communities and their assets as a precursor to protecting children from abuse.
These changes make more sense, have a logic you can understand, if you happen to believe that the actual communities are dieing and cannot be sustained. Like a failed state they need someone to move in and take over the day-to-day running of everything. Not surprisingly some have described the NT intervention as an invasion and likened it to the invasion of Iraq.
The Federal ALP Government must make clear its views and intentions regarding the future of remote Aboriginal communities. That's what the NT intervention has actually been about. It must do what the Howard government would not do - publicly commit to supporting the viability and sustainability of remote Aboriginal communities. It needs to make it clear that it has no hidden agenda to sit by and watch communities wither away.
SNAICC knows who the first victims are when, through the insufferable burden of living without good quality education, housing, health, early childhood, policing, employment, transport and communication services, communities start to unravel. The first victims are the children. Children like the young girl raped and abused in Aurukun - a community living with an insufferable burden.
Ultimately the future of remote Aboriginal communities such as Aurukun is everyone's responsibility. Any debate or discussion about the future of these communities, and the many distinct Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures they represent, must not happen behind closed doors.
It is grossly unjust not to provide the basic services and infrastructure that any community needs to function well and then blame families in those communities for the dysfunction that follows. This is all quarantining welfare payments does. Supporting communities through the provision of basic infrastructure does not promote welfare dependency, it promotes human rights. The right to protection from abuse is one such human right and the right to education is another.
Calls for the new Federal Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, Jenny Macklin, to extend the NT intervention to Queensland don't go far enough. SNAICC has for decades called for national legislation to create a framework that sets outs standards for child protection, children's rights and a common approach to preventing child abuse.
Next week Jenny Macklin meets all her state and territory colleagues. She should tell them that national legislation for child protection is on its way.
See: Online Opinion
Indigenous community gives Rudd CDEP plan
ABC News | 16 December 2007
A 14-point plan designed to retain and improve Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) has been handed to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd by Indigenous representatives from Arnhem Land.
In a preface, the plan says the quarantining of Centrelink payments has caused hardship and children have gone hungry because of the changes.
It says cutting CDEP has reduced investment in communities and business are closing.
The document was drafted by CDEP organisations and traditional owners at Yirrkala.
It calls for the community development part of the program to be focussed on and for a CDEP representative body to be set up.
Under the plan there would be better case management for people who have low motivation or reduced capacity to work.
There would be improved training and mentoring of participants and more focus on supporting business development.
Scheme welcomed
The Combined Aboriginal Organisations of the Northern Territory have welcomed the Federal Government's plans to to improve the scheme.
Coordinator Olga Havnen was among 25 people in discussion with Mr Rudd, the federal Indigenous Affairs Minister and the NT Government over the intervention in Darwin yesterday.
She says she is relieved the Government wont dismantle CDEPs.
"There were various elements to do with training, to have better linkages to the labour market," she said.
'Both the Prime Minister and Minister [Jenny] Macklin were committed to establishing a working group made up of CDEP representative organisations.
"I think that will be a very useful mechanism for getting decent deposit of changes and to getting some of this stuff back on track."
Ms Havnen also says income quarantining is both offensive and causing immense hardship across NT communities.
"Large numbers of people already use voluntary systems of Centrepay deductions to pay for things like their rent and electricity and other household essentials," she said.
"There was no undertaking given to halt the blanket quarantining. I guess we will need to wait and see what comes out of those further discussions."
See: ABC News
The word is hope
Sydney Morning Herald | 16 December 2007
At the end of a week in which the only news about Aboriginal Australia was the legal system's failure to protect a 10-year-old girl gang-raped in Cape York, the scene at Redfern Town Hall on Friday was a timely antidote for despair.
It was a graduation ceremony for 16 of 27 children who had completed a remedial reading program launched this year by the Reverend Bill Crews of the Exodus Foundation. To qualify, the children, most of whom are indigenous, had to be at least two years behind their peers in reading. What that meant for many is they couldn't read at all.
"I hated books because I couldn't read and I didn't know what the words meant and I had to make it up," said Jonny Sandstrom, 10, in year 4 at Darlington Public School.
During the 18-week course, the black marks on the page suddenly started making sense. "I thought, I can finally read. I can read any book."
His favourite book is Just Annoying by Andy Griffiths. He loves reading because "I get to find out what's in the book."
Nine-year-old twins Naryma and Wasana Grovenor, from Alexandria Park Community School, also couldn't read. Now, says their mother Nadine Dixon, they always have their noses in a book - on the bus, or even, perilously once for Wasana, when walking across the road.
Nadine's pride is mixed with sadness for her 16-year-old son at home who still can't read and has dropped out of school. "He thinks he's dumb," said Nadine. "He says, 'They're getting all the help I didn't get.' But he's really proud of his sisters."
Wasana can recite a long list of favourite books, especially the Selby series about a talking dog. "I used to think books were boring."
Naryma's favourite is Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone because "there are lots of hard words to read".
She has shown phenomenal progress, says Macquarie University's Professor Kevin Wheldall, who devised the MULTILIT (Making Up Lost Time In Literacy) program with its systematic instruction in phonics, teaching children to read by sounding out words. Naryma has progressed to the standard of a 17-year-old in "phonological recoding" - the ability to sound out non-words such as "sprank" or "klube", which shows a child is able to read any unfamiliar word.
All the children who have completed the program have achieved excellent results, says Wheldall, despite some attendance problems. After 14 weeks' instruction, the first group of 18 slow-progress readers, from years 3 to 6, increased their reading accuracy by an average 15 months, reading comprehension by 14 months, word recognition by 12 months and non-word reading by 27 months.
"Some of these kids are really bright and now they're exploding [with knowledge]," says Crews, who first teamed up with Wheldall and partner Dr Robyn Beaman in 1996 when he opened a MULTILIT centre for disadvantaged children at Ashfield Uniting Church because he was "sick of burying kids" who had dropped out of school because they never learned to read. "They've just been held back by the system."
One by one on Friday, the graduating class took the stage at Redfern Town Hall and fluently read speeches they had written onto little cards for an audience of parents, teachers and assorted dignitaries, including former education minister Brendan Nelson.
"I like to read because I learn lots of interesting things," said Natalia Batticciotto, 10. Oemar Alitembokarson, 11, said he loved learning "funny words like snowbound", "blabbledabble" and "varoom" in his favourite book, Selby Snowbound. "I like reading because it's good for your education," said Diana Henry, 10.
Not one child wasn't aware of the great gift received. It was the same in Coen School in Cape York, where Aboriginal leader Noel Pearson asked Wheldall and Beaman to set up a reading program in 2005, with eager learners and spectacular results.
This year they will take the program to Aurukun, where the 10-year-old in this week's news reports was gang-raped last year by nine youths and men, who were released without penalty by a Cairns District Court judge. The social workers, judge and prosecutor who contributed to this travesty of justice should reflect on the great potential locked in children in even the most dysfunctional indigenous community, if only they are given the same basic protections expected by other Australians.
See: Sydney Morning Herald
Apology a 'bridge to respect'
Sydney Morning Herald | 16 December 2007
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has promised that his cabinet will meet in a remote Northern Territory indigenous community in the first half of next year to help build bridges with Aboriginal Australians.
Mr Rudd met 25 indigenous leaders from all over the territory in Darwin yesterday to discuss the federal intervention, which began under the Howard government.
The discussion lasted two hours - twice as long as scheduled. It canvassed the apology which the Government intends to make for the stolen generation.
The Prime Minister asked indigenous people to give feedback about the content of the apology to Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin. He said the apology was "an important part of building a bridge of respect" and it was vital to get it right.
Sources said the meeting was held in good spirit, although some of the indigenous participants said it avoided detail.
Mr Rudd will turn the 25 members from yesterday's discussion into a reference group, returning quarterly next year to continue the dialogue. He will decide early this week whether indigenous affairs will be on the agenda for the pre-Christmas meeting of the Council of Australian Governments. Queensland raised the matter for inclusion on the agenda after revelations surrounding the rape of a 10-year-old girl in Aurukun.
Northern Territory Chief Minister Paul Henderson met Mr Rudd during the Darwin visit. He said he received a commitment from the Prime Minister that the Federal Government would spend the full $1.3 billion promised by the Howard government for the intervention.
"The commitment is there from the Prime Minister - a full review after 12 months and we will work together to strengthen what is working and really bring indigenous people across the Northern Territory along with us," Mr Henderson said.
See: Sydney Morning Herald
Rudd promises to keep close eye on intervention
ABC News | 15 December 2007
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says from next year he will visit the Territory every three months to discuss issues surrounding the federal Indigenous intervention.
Mr Rudd is visiting Darwin after an official trip to Bali and East Timor and has today met with NT Chief Minister Paul Henderson and 25 Indigenous leaders from across the Territory.
The Prime Minister says the Indigenous leaders will form a special group to advise the Federal Government on Aboriginal issues.
Community visits
Mr Rudd has committed the Federal Cabinet to visiting a remote Indigenous community in the Northern Territory next year.
He says ministers and government beaurocrats need to experience the challenges the communities face first hand.
He says he will return to the Territory every three months next year to discuss Indigenous issues with them.
"We want to ensure that our overall objective of closing the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous life expectancy, Indigenous and non-Indigenous education attainments is done on a cooperative and consultative basis, so that we achieve progress together," he said.
COAG discussions
Mr Rudd has asked state premiers and chief ministers for feedback on whether Indigenous issues should be part of COAG discussions.
The next COAG meeting will be held in Melbourne on Thursday.
Mr Rudd says the Government needs to work out whether the intervention in the Northern Territory is working before any extension can be considered.
"We're prepared to back this intervention and we'll then review its effectiveness," he said.
"That I think is the appropriate way forward before looking at any other measures downstream in terms of other jurisdictions.
"And, it's far better to do this in a cooperative basis."
See: ABC News
Rudd in Darwin for intervention meeting
ABC News | 15 December 2007
Northern Territory Chief Minister Paul Henderson is preparing for his first meeting with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to talk about the future of the intervention in Aboriginal communities.
Mr Rudd and federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin are in Darwin, with Mr Henderson saying he will raise a number issues at the meeting this morning.
"I'll be seeking to have a personal relationship with the new Prime Minister, to not only move Indigenous people forward in the Northern Territory but really to improve a whole raft of issues in the Northern Territory," he said.
Mr Henderson says he also hopes to discuss ways to strengthen the NT economy.
"I think there are real opportunities for the Territory over the next 10, 20, 50 years to really become the most part of northern Australia in terms of our trade with Asia," he said.
See: ABC News
Rudd reaffirms funding pledge to NT for intervention
ABC News | 15 December 2007
Northern Territory Chief Minister Paul Henderson says Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has promised him the money pledged for the intervention into Indigenous communities will be paid in full.
The NT Government has been keen to know whether the ALP will spend the full $1.3 billion the Coalition had promised for the intervention.
Mr Henderson met with Kevin Rudd over breakfast in Darwin this morning and says he has been given that commitment.
"Also the additional money will be quarantined from Grants Commission formulas, so it really is money additional to the Northern Territory," Mr Henderson said.
Mr Henderson says no particular topic dominated this morning's discussions, which he used to stress the importance of the NT's defence bases to the Territory economy.
Mr Henderson says there will not be many changes to the intervention.
"Particularly the improvements in housing, education and health and also the policing aspects in the Northern Territory," he said.
"So the commitment is there from the Prime Minister - a full review after 12 months and we will work together to strengthen what is working and really bring Indigenous people across the Northern Territory along with us."
Mr Rudd has now moved on to meetings with selected Indigenous representatives, including the Northern and Central land councils.
See: ABC News
Indigenous Issues Now On Rudd's 'Urgent' List
AAP | 14 December 2007
As outrage over the multiple rape of a 10-year-old Aurukun girl intensified, the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, yesterday indicated he may add indigenous affairs to the already packed agenda for his inaugural premiers conference.
A Cairns judge's decision not to jail nine males who pleaded guilty to raping the girl in the remote indigenous township of Aurukun, because she "probably agreed to have sex with all of you", has appalled the public and again put the spotlight on child abuse in Aboriginal communities.
The Queensland Police Commissioner, Bob Atkinson, has said there is no need for a police crackdown on the problem.
The Queensland Premier, Anna Bligh, yesterday called for indigenous affairs to be put on the agenda for the first premiers conference since Mr Rudd became prime minister. State and territory leaders will meet Mr Rudd in Melbourne next Thursday.
Ms Bligh told ABC radio: "I do think that there needs to be a very thorough discussion between the various levels of government - including the local government - in these indigenous communities about where and how services are best provided and at what level."
Mr Rudd, who was at the UN climate change conference in Bali, said he would consider adding indigenous affairs to the meeting's agenda, which already includes health, education, climate change, business deregulation and infrastructure.
But Ms Bligh continues to resist any moves to extend the Federal Government intervention into indigenous communities in Queensland, as has been foreshadowed by the Indigenous Affairs Minister, Jenny Macklin.
"There are some services that I think it would be very difficult for the Commonwealth Government to provide because they've never provided them," Ms Bligh said.
But Ms Bligh's predecessor, Peter Beattie, called on the Federal Government to take the lead on indigenous issues.
"We need a national response that's not about victimising, it's not racist, but is actually a co-operative partnership with indigenous communities; to say, 'this is going to take a decade, but let's start now'," he said.
Mr Beattie rejected suggestions that he failed to fix the problems in indigenous communities during his nine years as Queensland's premier. "That's a simplistic interpretation of it," he said.
The Queensland Police Commissioner, Bob Atkinson, has told the State Government there is no need for a crackdown on child abuse in Aboriginal communities.
The state's Police Minister, Judy Spence, said she had discussed with Mr Atkinson whether there was more police could do. "The commissioner has consulted the police in the northern region, and the message he's got back is that they believe they are handling the caseload in Aurukun and that there's no need for a special operation at this stage," she said. "At this stage the police and I believe . that they are comfortably on top of the workload."
~aap
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WA Aboriginal Anger At Beattie Call On Welfare
The West Australian | 14 December 2007
Former Queensland premier Peter Beattie's call for the welfare of Aboriginal people to be the sole responsibility of the Federal Government has sparked anger among Aboriginal leaders in WA, who say politicians are not learning from their mistakes.
Aboriginal Legal Service chief Dennis Eggington said the Commonwealth needed to stop relying on short-term politics, such as the intervention program in the Northern Territory.
It needed to provide ongoing financial support and encouragement to the States and Territories which need to get services through to Aboriginal people.
"The Commonwealth has tried this before when they tool, over special powers for Aboriginal people in 1967, when they felt the States and Territories didn't have the best interests of Aboriginal people at heart.
"But things have gone backwards, which makes the current proposal a cop-out," Mr Eggington said.
Mr Beattie believes that too many levels of bureaucracy are involved in indigenous communities.
But Reconciliation Australia director Fred Chancy said tackling the crisis from "bureaucratic Canberra is nonsense".
He said: "Most of the essential services which are critical to Aboriginal people, including health, education, policing and prisons - human services generally - are in the hands of the State. "
Mr Chaney said the Government needed to stop pretending the crisis could be fixed without vast amounts of money.
"The reason this never works is because ... politicians slide out from under it by saying, as the previous treasurer did, `You can't solve the problem by throwing money at it'," he said.
"But I bet if his children had education difficulties, he would throw money at it.
" It's just hypocrisy."
The proposal also took a battering from Premier Alan Carpenter, who said he did not believe in a model where only the Federal Government had responsibility for indigenous communities.
"For a start in Western Australia ... there are many communities with large numbers of Aboriginal people and non-Aboriginal people and all of those people have rights and responsibilities as citizens of Western Australia and we have got responsibilities to deliver services and outcomes to those people wherever they may be," he said.
But the Premier said he was open to the idea of linking Commonwealth welfare payments to health and education performance of the recipients.
"I'm quite open to the proposition that direct government payments by way of welfare, for example, be linked to some sense of responsibility for delivering children to school, to make sure children are fed, those sort of directions," he said.
"I'm quite open to that - I believe there's great merit in that."
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Indigenous intervention in Qld won't work, leader says
ABC News | 15 December 2007
The Mayor of Palm Island in far north Queensland says she does not believe the Indigenous community would be better off under the Federal Government's control.
The handling of the rape case of a 10-year-old girl in the Cape York community of Aurukun has sparked debate over whether a Northern Territory-style intervention should be implemented in Queensland.
Palm Island major Delena Oui Foster says she would not support a Federal Government takeover of Indigenous communities in Queensland.
Ms Foster says says governments need to focus on improving social services to indigenous communities.
"I don't think it's a good idea," she said.
"I think that what really needs to happen is that we need to sit down and negotiate more for the services that are currently established in the community ... and provide a way and opportunity for them to enhance their services so they can deal with the issues on the ground.
"We have the skills and the ability to actually respond to those issues and if we're ever going to be in power and be able to control any situation in our lives, government needs to work in partnership with us and make it happen on the ground."
'Jail ministers'
Meanwhile, child protection advocate Hetty Johnston is demanding a royal commission to find out why state and federal governments continue to let children be sexually abused and neglected in Aurukun.
Yesterday the Crime and Misconduct Commission said there is no evidence to back claims that government ministers told child safety officers not to report suspected cases of child abuse to police.
Ms Johnston says anyone who interferes in the protection of children should be jailed.
"I just don't understand how we can sleep at night - how anybody, how any adult, could sleep at night," she said.
"I don't understand a minister who could give such a directive - that minister whoever that is, whoever knew, needs to be in bloody jail."
See: ABC News
Qld govt to check abuse cover-up claims
The Age | 14 December 2007
Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has ordered a fresh probe into claims that child safety workers were directed by state government ministers to hold back crucial information about abuse cases from police.
A north Queensland police officer made the claim following the gang rape of a 10-year-old girl in the Cape York indigenous community of Aurukun in far north Queensland two years ago.
A team led by the Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC) has been ordered to investigate why the Department of Child Safety took the girl from a safe foster home in Cairns and returned her to Aurukun, where she was gang-raped for a second time last year, and then failed to report the crime promptly to police.
A senior child safety officer has been sacked and two others disciplined over the incident.
Cairns-based child protection investigator Detective Sergeant David Harold told the CMC-led team that details of child safety cases were not being passed on to police.
"It got to a political level at that stage where I believe ministers got involved and certain people were told not to speak to police," Det Sgt Harold said in a transcript which formed part of the CMC report.
Health clinics also were told not to advise police of any reports they had made of abused or raped children and which had been sent to the Department of Child Safety, Det Sgt Harold said.
His claims were backed by the Queensland Police Union on Friday.
Union deputy president Denis Fitzpatrick said officers from remote Aboriginal communities had told him of a "systemic problem" with the relay of information from child safety workers to police.
"It seems amazing and remarkable to me as a police officer that an organisation that is set up with its paramount intent of looking after child safety does not relay information of child sexual and physical abuse to the police - it just defies belief," Mr Fitzpatrick told reporters in Brisbane.
Ms Bligh said she had asked the CMC to again look at the claims, which she described as "serious untested allegations".
"I have asked them to advise me of their response to these allegations," she said.
She said former child safety ministers Mike Reynolds and Desley Boyle and current minister Margaret Keech had all denied directing staff to withhold information.
Ms Bligh said staff had been repeatedly advised by all three ministers of their responsibility to inform police about child abuse.
In a July 2007 briefing note issued to child safety staff, the department's chief reminds all staff to "notify police immediately regarding allegations of harm to a child that may be a criminal offence".
Mr Fitzpatrick suggested the government may have been suffering from "a stolen generation hangover".
Queensland Liberal leader Mark McArdle said any ministers involved in directing child safety officers not to report abuse cases to police should be prosecuted.
Former federal indigenous affairs minister Mal Brough - the architect of the federal intervention in Northern Territory indigenous communities - said "literally hundreds of people" had failed to confirm suspected cases to authorities.
Mr Brough said similar federal intervention was needed in Queensland.
But his proposal was rejected by prominent indigenous leader Noel Pearson, who said a plan was under way on Cape York to link welfare to community obligations such as school attendance and the safe custody of children.
Ms Bligh said much of what was being done in the NT was "already operational here in Queensland".
The premier will meet with federal indigenous affairs minister Jenny Macklin next week and raise the issue at the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) in Melbourne.
See: The Age
Peace at last, as intervention wins over Wadeye
The Age | 14 December 2007
Two years ago gang violence made the Aboriginal community of Wadeye look like a Third World refugee camp.
"My tears are never dry," indigenous elder Theodora Narndu said at the time.
Yesterday, on the veranda of her new $300,000 house, Mrs Narndu told how the community had been transformed since the Howard government began its radical $1.5 billion indigenous intervention in the Northern Territory.
"Things are pretty good here at the moment . there's not the trouble like before, the kids are going to school, there's less problems with drinking. Buildings are going up," said Mrs Narndu, 56.
Under the intervention, $29 million has been spent on houses, government offices, power lines and other services in NT's largest Aboriginal community, 450 kilometres south-west of Darwin.
Before Mrs Narndu moved into her new house, for which she pays $68 a fortnight in rent, her old house was often so crowded she slept on the kitchen floor. When violence erupted, scores of people, including family members, would shelter there. Now, she enjoys quiet days alone on her veranda, enjoying the peace.
Occasionally violence erupts in Wadeye, but there are seven full-time police officers to call. Before there were only three.
"Looking out from here, I feel as if I know more and am ready to deal with these issues," Mrs Narndu said.
One complaint the territory's Aboriginal leaders have about the intervention is not that it has happened but that they were not consulted.
But Mrs Narndu hopes the new Labor Government in Canberra will talk with indigenous leaders about further action. Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin is in Darwin today to meet Aboriginal leaders.
Elders say few solutions proposed for Wadeye addressed the complex problems that arose from having 23 combative clan groups brought together in one community, when a Catholic mission was set up in the then Port Keats in the 1930s.
Few people here doubt the good intentions of defeated indigenous affairs minister Mal Brough, who stormed into Wadeye, population 2500, demanding that people clean up rubbish, paint their houses and send children to school.
Mrs Narndu whose clan, Kardu Diminin, owns the land around Wadeye, told The Age the answer to solving Wadeye's problems was to encourage other clans to move back to their traditional homelands.
She wants to see her six sons move out to their late father's homeland to run cattle, away from Wadeye's social problems.
Two dozen new houses are being built on homelands at Wudipuli and Nama, 45 kilometres east of Wadeye. The houses will relieve pressure in Wadeye, where an average 17 people live in each house.
See: The Australian
'Canberra should run communities'
The Australian | 15 December 2007
The Mayor of far north Queensland's largest city has called on the federal Government to intervene in the region's "disgracefully dysfunctional" indigenous communities after branding the state Government incompetent.
Cairns Mayor Kevin Byrne said he was sick of authorities "pussy-footing around on Aboriginal issues" and said indigenous affairs needed to be handled by Canberra.
"I've been involved in this stuff for a long time, and nothing's changed. Half the communities on the Cape are run by drunken incompetents," Mr Byrne said.
The conservative-leaning Mayor said Aboriginal leadership was divided and too often sent out mixed messages.
Townsville Mayor Tony Mooney said the state Government was the appropriate lead agency, but he conceded that too many resources were going to waste.
See: The Australian
Children of a different revolution
The Australian | 15 December 2007
In the largest Aboriginal township in Australia, lost amid the winding river estuaries of the Top End, a revolution is under way.
On the surface, it is a transformation caused by money and by new roads and houses -- but the 2800 people of Wadeye are in the middle of a drastic experiment that holds out a new way of living in the remote north.
Bizarrely, this new path cuts against the deepest dogmas of the "old" intervention launched by the Coalition's minister for indigenous affairs, Mal Brough, six months ago. More bizarrely still, Wadeye, a former Catholic mission close to the shoreline of the Bonaparte Gulf, defied Brough's initial reform efforts, yet became his favourite community and the place he gave the most urgent attention, support and financial largesse -- largesse now very evident on the ground.
Wadeye's problems were ingrained in its geography and social DNA: it was established in the 1930s as the home for about 23 clan groups, jammed together in such close quarters that conflicts were almost guaranteed.
After 2002, when it became the site of a Council of Australian Governments trial of new ways to deliver services to the bush, Wadeye came under the microscope, but its people already knew the reforms they wanted, and they had laid out their blueprint for the Howard government in no uncertain terms.
The plan called for at least seven separate new residential centres, distributed around a central administrative core. The idea was turned down as ridiculously costly and illogical -- but, to the amazement of the local people, the first stages of the scheme are now rising in the remote stringybark forests.
"It's a new start," says the local school's co-principal, Tobias Nganbe. "Everything's coming in new and it's a good time to be able to make use of that, and to stand up and say what we want and desire -- in every area that we've been disadvantaged."
More than $30 million has been spent on a well-targeted infrastructure program in the Wadeye region, as new bitumen roads, a large and handsome secondary school and new houses take form.
In the past 18 months, almost every house in the community has been painted and refurbished, and 48 new homes have been built. Wadeye even has a concrete-slab manufacturing plant, locally staffed, and its own workers have built 10 of the new houses. With its gleaming bright-painted buildings, the town looks more elegant than ramshackle Darwin, 400km to the northeast.
But the changes are not confined to Wadeye: the outstations around the town are being developed and made into centres for family groups. For the first time in the history of the region, the rival clans of Wadeye are beginning to live on their own land, and -- more importantly -- on the right land, the land where they belong and feel strong in spirit.
Wadeye thus becomes a crucial pilot project for remote Aboriginal society, and this is a direct result of the fierce debates the community's council had with Brough a year ago, when he confronted them with his plans for radical change, and they fought back with their own demands, many of which were echoed in elements of Brough's eventual intervention.
To widespread astonishment, Brough agreed to fund extensive new outstation housing, and two settlements inland from Wadeye, Nama and Wudapuli, are now full of new, well-designed bush homes -- 12 in each. From a handful of residents before, both now have more than 100 members of the same extended family group, the Yek Dirrangara clan.
The broad overcrowding crisis continues, with a further 70 or so houses needed to bring the occupancy rates down from the intolerable 20 people per home to a more realistic seven or eight. But with the federal Government offering a package of $800 million for Northern Territory indigenous housing, and subdivisions being cleared and planned on all sides, Wadeye's Thamarrurr Council is optimistic it will receive a further $30 million.
With new housing comes a degree of peace, social calm and the capacity for the township's key decision-makers to see their options clearly. The formidable Theodora Narndu, a senior member of the 400-strong Kardu Diminin clan on whose traditional land Wadeye stands, now has a new blue-painted house for herself and eight grandchildren.
"Since moving here," she says, "I think I have a different perspective -- I can talk about this whole place and what to do."
Her ideas are as radical as her influence is deep -- she wants to set up a lease over the town, for the benefit of her own land-holding group, and she wants all clans eventually to live on their own land, running businesses and using Wadeye as a centre.
Here is the fantastic, tangled paradox of reform in north Australia summed up in one township's rebirth. All these changes precede the federal intervention, which has yet to exert a strong hold on Wadeye. The government business manager has not moved in, the compulsory five-year lease on the township takes effect in February, and welfare quarantining is still to come.
In other words, a separate breakthrough has been staged, fuelled entirely by federal munificence, which has created the conditions for a new social order, with quieter, less crowded and stressful living conditions, rocketing school attendance and creative new employment programs.
Above all, one of the core philosophies of the June intervention, which aimed to concentrate populations in viable centres, is subtly contradicted by the Wadeye model and its focus on the dispersal of clans to their proper homes and land.
This pattern suggests the complexity of the task that lies ahead in the indigenous lands of remote Australia, as new models are devised for communities of different kinds and circumstances -- and it highlights the key watchword of every revolution's most optimistic phase: let a hundred flowers bloom.
See: The Australian
Blame game ends here
The Australian | 15 December 2007
In an article about the Aurukun rape case this week, academic Marcia Langton wrote that "it would be a fair bet that each of the adults who pleaded guilty to raping this child was receiving a government social security or Community Development Employment Program payment.
It is difficult not to draw the conclusion that dysfunctional Aboriginal behaviour is financially supported by government funding."
Langton, in her article ("Stop the abuse of children", The Australian, December 12), identified the nub of the problem in remote communities: government funds dysfunctional behaviour and there is no connection between what a person or a community does and the income they receive.
Money for nothing - passive welfare - is in the long-term corrosive.
The other explanation that has been offered for the social breakdown in remote communities is government under-investment. Anthropologist David Martin said this week that Aurukun has been "abandoned and neglected". "By any measure," Martin said, "Aurukun is hugely under-invested in by government in terms of all the things we know are essential to civil society: decent health, decent education, decent housing, decent food, law enforcement."
I agree that government investment should have been greater and must increase. However, those who attribute dysfunction in remote communities mainly to government underfunding must answer this question: For people who live in a welfare economy, can increased government service delivery compensate for the total absence of the kind of incentives and signals that in the mainstream inform people's behaviour and form their personalities into functional citizens?
I maintain that it cannot. Mainstream Australians - with jobs and mortgages - can hardly imagine what is like to live in a community where personal behaviour carries no rational consequences.
In remote communities, people's behaviour makes no difference to their circumstances; irresponsibility elicits almost no reaction from government or community.
The situation in Aurukun is the direct opposite of mainstream Australians' experience, which makes them functional, affluent people. In the mainstream, people's efforts directly determine their circumstances. They take this for granted to such an extent that it has taken them many years to understand what is missing in places such as Aurukun.
I and other Cape York people have advocated a fundamental change from unconditional to conditional welfare. There are many more dimensions to our reform agenda, but putting in place some basic, universal obligations on adults who receive income support through the social security system is key.
When everything in a person's life is provided by someone else and nothing is expected in return, you set in place an economic and social system of taking and no giving. Then you add alcohol to the mix and, later on, drugs. And you keep giving the money for free. So that recipients can pay for food, shelter and necessities, but increasingly, as addictions grow, the money is allocated to grog, drugs and gambling.
And you do this in a society where what the anthropologists call "demand sharing" is a strong part of the cultural system: people in kin relationships cannot resist sharing their consideration and possessions.
But it's not barramundi or wild honey that is shared: it is money for drinking, drug-taking and gambling. Unconditional welfare plus addictions plus demand sharing: you have all the ingredients for social disintegration and the abandonment of responsibility.
For this analysis we have been accused of blaming the victim. But, as Langton pointed out, remote indigenous people are victims of dehumanising government policies.
The worst of these policy failures is the total disconnect between income support (including CDEP), which is mainly federal, and government service delivery, which is mainly provided by the Queensland Government.
The Family Responsibilities Commission, which is the centrepiece of the social reforms that the Cape York Institute has suggested to the Australian and Queensland governments, is intended to remedy this fatal systemic flaw.
The FRC will be charged with making decisions about whether welfare recipients are fulfilling their obligations. We have recommended that four obligations be attached to welfare payments. In short:
* Each adult who receives welfare payments and is the parent or legal guardian of a child should be required to ensure that the child maintains a 100 per cent school attendance record (other than explained absences).
* All adults must not cause or allow children to be neglected or abused.
* All adults must not commit drug, alcohol, gambling or family violence offences.
* All adults must abide by conditions related to their tenancy in public housing.
Our plan provides for a retired magistrate to chair a panel in each community, including two senior elders from the community, to make the relevant decisions and hold individuals accountable to their families and especially their children.
We proposed that the Queensland Government create the FRC (the Howard government allocated funding for its operation) because this body needs to work closely with state government agencies, such as the Queensland departments of education and child safety.
Let me illustrate how the FRC is intended to work by explaining how it could have intervened in the dysfunction that led to rape of the 10-year-old Wik girl.
If the FRC had been in place before the girl returned to Aurukun from Cairns, it is possible the gang rape would not have occurred. For instance, the mother of the girl could have been referred to the FRC for failing to meet one or more of the obligations outlined above. If the girl did not have a 100 per cent school attendance rate (a reasonable assumption), or if she was unsupervised by her mother and not kept safe, then the mother would have been referred to the FRC. The issuance of a child protection order and the subsequent removal of the girl from Aurukun would also have triggered a referral of the mother to the FRC.
Assuming the mother was referred to the FRC for not meeting these obligations, the two local elders and the retired magistrate would have been able to refer the mother to support services to address her and her family's challenges, such as a program to improve her parenting skills, alcohol rehabilitation, or assistance with money management.
A case manager would also have been appointed to provide support and advice to the mother, and to assist the FRC. The FRC could also have referred the girl (reportedly intellectually impaired) to appropriate mental health services.
The FRC could also have redirected the mother's welfare payments to a responsible adult who would care for the girl. Alternatively, the FRC could have redirected the mother's welfare payments to our proposed conditional income management regime, whereby the family does not lose the benefit of its income. Rather, the FRC would determine that the welfare payments must be spent on essential expenses such as food, rent, bills, medicine and education.
The FRC would also have been able to intervene in the cases of the alleged perpetrators. The parents of the younger perpetrators would have been referred to the FRC if their boys did not have a 100 per cent school attendance rate or if they were left unsupervised and not kept safe. Likewise, the adult perpetrators would have come to the attention of the FRC if they had breached alcohol or violence laws. The FRC could have referred these parents and adults to support services.
The anticipated results of the introduction of the FRC are that local indigenous authority is rebuilt, the essential expenses of children are met, welfare payments are not spent on grog and gambling, parents take increased responsibility for their children and positive social norms are restored with regard to issues such as education, child neglect and alcohol abuse.
The first thing we need Queensland Premier Anna Bligh and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to decide on at next week's Council of Australian Governments meeting is which of their governments will legislate to establish the FRC at the first parliamentary session of the new year. There should also be a decision to prepare legislation for introduction at the first session of whichever parliament is going to have carriage of this legislation.
The Aurukun Shire Council is committed to these reforms. I look forward to the ending of the intergovernmental blame game at next week's COAG meeting so we can start tackling the problems at Aurukun.
Noel Pearson is director of the Cape York Institute for Policy and Leadership.
See: The Australian
Rudd to face indigenous heads
The Australian | 15 December 2007
Kevin Rudd will come face to face with indigenous leaders this morning as he prepares to deal personally with the "challenges" confronting the commonwealth intervention in Northern Territory communities amid the growing outrage over the gang-rape of a 10-year-old Aboriginal girl on Cape York.
After a brief visit to East Timor, the Prime Minister flew into Darwin last night under pressure to reform the intervention program after the federal and Territory governments promised to "rebuild the trust and confidence" of indigenous people.
Mr Rudd and Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin will meet Aboriginal leaders in Darwin this morning. Although insisting the meeting had been long planned, he admitted during his visit to East Timor that the intervention needed attention.
"In Opposition, we supported the intervention. We said it should continue," he said. "We understand some of the challenges it faces, and we would therefore want to, as we've indicated before, review its operation come the end of 2008."
Mr Rudd said the meeting would be with much of the Aboriginal leadership of the Northern Territory. "That has been long planned with Aboriginal leaders, and I look forward to that," he said.
Participants at the invitation-only "consultative meeting" will include representatives from the Northern and Central Land Councils, Aboriginal legal groups and indigenous health services.
The intervention, introduced by former prime minister John Howard in July, was designed to tackle child abuse and neglect in communities through measures such as compulsory health checks, the scrapping of the CDEP work-for-the-dole program, bans on alcohol and pornography and the quarantining of welfare payments to ensure the money is spent on essentials such as food and schooling rather than drink and drugs.
Labor has signalled it will modify parts of the intervention -- such as changing rather than scrapping CDEP and the permit system that regulates access to indigenous communities -- ahead of a full review of the program by next year.
In Darwin yesterday, new Territory Chief Minister Paul Henderson and Indigenous Affairs Minister Marion Scrymgour met Ms Macklin and declared the start of a "new level of co-operation" over the intervention program in remote communities. But Mr Henderson appeared to give ground on his push to scrap the rules requiring anyone buying more than $100 worth of alcohol to show identification, saying the two governments would look at ways of strengthening alcohol restrictions in the Territory.
"Discussions centred around the previous government's intervention and how to rebuild the trust and confidence of indigenous Territorians," Mr Henderson said. "We all know the only way to achieve real change is for all levels of government to work as a team -- the Territory is proud to play its part."
After cancelling a scheduled briefing with The Weekend Australian yesterday morning, Ms Macklin later refused several requests for comment and made no public comments on her planned meetings with Aboriginal leaders.
Mr Rudd's return to Australia comes as community outrage builds over the gang-rape case at Aurukun in northern Queensland, where the girl's nine male attackers escaped jail sentences.
Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson said he would fully support the Government should it choose to extend the intervention to far north Queensland, saying it was time for the nation to take action. And he said Aboriginal issues must be placed on the agenda at next week's Council of Australian Governments meeting.
"If this (the rape) happened in any other part of Australia, if it happened in any part of non-Aboriginal Australia, all of us quite rightly would be outraged," Dr Nelson said.
But Queensland Premier Anna Bligh rejected his call. "When you talk about a Northern Territory-style intervention, much of what is being done in the Northern Territory is already operational here in Queensland," Ms Bligh said.
West Australian Premier Alan Carpenter added his support to Ms Bligh's call to place indigenous issues on the agenda at nextweek's COAG meeting in Melbourne.
Mr Carpenter welcomed the push to raise indigenous child abuse at COAG, but said he would vigorously oppose any move for federal intervention inWest Australian Aboriginal communities.
Asked whether Aboriginal issues should be part of the COAG agenda, a spokesperson for Mr Henderson said he would discuss indigenous issues with thePrime Minister over the weekend.
National Indigenous Television chief executive Pat Turner yesterday confirmed she would attend this morning's meeting with a delegation from the Combined Aboriginal Organisations of the Northern Territory.
"Obviously we will be very strong on the invasion," she said.
"We are not happy about it, we are not happy about the quarantining of people's payments, we're not happy with any of it."
The Northern Land Council, represented by its new chairman, Wali Wunungmurra, will attempt to balance the views presented by the Combined Aboriginal Organisations, one of the harshest critics of the intervention.
The NLC will raise whether the quarantining of welfare would be better applied on a case-by-case basis, rather than the blanket application in every Aboriginal community.
The council will also refer to concerns over a recent scandal at Numbulwar, a community in Arnhem Land, where a contractor working for the intervention built a pit toilet on a sacred site.
Former NLC chairman Galarrwuy Yunupingu will miss the meeting because of cultural commitments in central Australia.
But the veteran land rights campaigner met Ms Macklin in Melbourne shortly after the November 24 election, when he urged her to engage local indigenous people and the Northern Territory Government, and tocontinue the thrust of the intervention.
Stephanie Bell, director of the Central Australian Aboriginal Congress health service, said she would tell both leaders that the focus on child health checks should continue.
But she remained opposed to measures relating to land tenure, such as the abolition of the permit system and compulsory acquisition of land.
Additional reporting: Tony Barrass
See: The Australian
Pack rape leads to culture of denial
The Australian | 14 December 2007
Pressure for uniform intervention is greater than ever
Like a house of cards, the claims by state and territory governments that they are serious in their efforts to tackle the problems of child abuse in remote indigenous communities have begun to tumble. The scandal surrounding the pack rape of a 10-year-old girl at Aurukun and the lenient treatment given to her attackers has shocked people around the world. Today's revelation by Tony Koch of an official cover-up strikes at the heart of the Queensland Government's credibility on the issue. The Northern Territory Government's justification for maintaining the permit system that restricts access to indigenous lands - that NT police want it - has been exposed as untrue. In Western Australian, the prosecution of five boys, aged 11 and 14, charged with sexually penetrating and indecently dealing with two boys, aged six and seven, at Kalumburu in the north of the state has been dropped because the victims cannot give credible evidence.
As federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin begins her consultations on the Howard government's controversial NT intervention, the evidence in favour of its being expanded is more pressing than ever. Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has even asked that Aboriginal affairs be added to the already crowded list of topics for discussion at next week's first COAG meeting called by Kevin Rudd. The Australian has always supported the extension of the NT intervention of welfare supervision and alcohol bans to help improve the living conditions of indigenous children. But it must be backed up with resources, both human and infrastructure.
Recent events demonstrate there is a desperate need for a complete rethink of misguided welfare policies that are doing more harm than good. We share the concerns of Aboriginal leader Noel Pearson that many welfare workers believe the notion that indigenous children being taken into care and placed with non-indigenous foster carers is "another stolen generation". We are not at all surprised that the foster carer who was forced to surrender a 10-year-old girl, who was later pack raped when left unsupervised at her indigenous community, said he found white bureaucrats to be the most dogmatic. Such dogmatic thinking ultimately underpins today's shocking revelations by Koch, that political interference stopped a wide-scale police investigation into indigenous child sex abuse on Cape York. The allegation, made by a police officer in an official interview, puts the lie to claims by Queensland Police Minister Judy Spence that there is no need for a special police investigation to crack down on child sex abuse on the Cape. It is much easier to believe Mr Pearson that the repeated rape of a 10-year-old girl at Aurukun is the "tip of the iceberg". Nine men and boys pleaded guilty to raping the young girl but none was sent to prison by Queensland District Court judge Sarah Bradley. The case, exposed by The Australian on Monday, raises serious questions about the administration of justice in indigenous communities in north Queensland.
Ms Bligh clearly agrees there is no room for different treatment of indigenous and non-indigenous offenders under the law. Lenient treatment sends the wrong message that sexual assault of children is taken less seriously in indigenous communities, encouraging more abuse. Mr Pearson is right that the only way to re-establish order and functionality in Aboriginal society is to become intolerant of abuse. Mr Pearson is right that the child-rape victim at Aurukun is really a victim of a history of judicial leniency that goes back decades and was wrong-headed about culpability and appropriate child-protection practices.
Ms Bligh has responded to publicity about the case by calling for an appeal and a review of all sentences for sex assault on Cape York. But, as The Australian reports today, the Aurukun pack rape has exposed a culture of denial and cover-up that potentially runs to the heart of Ms Bligh's Government. A full investigation must be called into claims that political interference stopped a wide-scale police investigation into child sex abuse on Cape York. Koch has exposed that reports of child sex abuse made to child-protection officers by frontline health workers were routinely not passed on to police for investigation. When a system was established by police to track down cases that had not been forwarded, "it got to a political level" and "ministers got involved and certain people were told not to speak to the police".
The claim was made by Detective Sergeant Dave Harold of the Child Protection Investigation Unit at Cairns in evidence to Queensland's Crime and Misconduct Commission. The CMC was investigating the actions of child-protection workers who failed the 10-year-old girl, who contracted venereal diseases after she was raped.
Sergeant Harold's interview paints a picture of a complete system failure when dealing with child welfare in Queensland's indigenous communities. Case workers routinely lied to police. Children were taken from the safety of foster care and returned to communities where they were at immediate risk of assault. Child-protection officers failed in their basic duty of care to vulnerable children. Medical workers who saw first-hand evidence of child abuse were left frustrated and their warnings ignored. Sergeant Harold's claim that the cover-up by welfare workers was done under instructions from their political masters cannot go untested. It points to a culture in which public officials were more interested in protecting their own skin than acting to stop the suffering of children that they knew was taking place. If true, it is further evidence that the states deserve to have matters taken out of their hands.
See: The Australian
Dad wants traditional punishment for son
The Australian | 14 December 2007
The father of a young man who sexually abused an 11-year-old boy at a Top End Aboriginal community believes his son should have faced traditional punishment instead of criminal prosecution.
Ben Pascoe told The Australian that his son, Isiah, 20, could have been exiled to a remote bush location as punishment for attacking the boy at Maningrida, 500km east of Darwin.
With his son expected to be sentenced within days, Mr Pascoe said Aboriginal punishment was more appropriate to deal with the crime than anything handed down by the Northern Territory Supreme Court.
"We have got our own court system here," he said.
In October, Isiah Pascoe and Claevon Cooper, also 20, pleaded guilty along with three teenagers to raping the boy last year.
Police began investigating the case after the boy was treated for gonorrhoea at a Darwin hospital, although prosecutors said there was no suggestion he contracted the disease from one of the accused.
The court heard that the first case of abuse occurred between April and May last year, when Cooper and one teenager had sex with the boy, and another teenager fondled his buttocks, while a pornographic DVD was played in the room. Later that day, the boy went to a nearby house where he was sexually assaulted again. On athird occasion, the boy was abused while swimming with a group of boys in the sea.
Northern Territory Supreme Court justice Trevor Riley denied Pascoe and Cooper bail, saying the maximum penalty for the offences they had committed was 16 years behind bars.
He said at the time that their sentence was "likely to be of some duration" before adjourning the case until next week.
The three teenagers were granted bail on the condition they live at Milingimbi, a small community about 100km from Maningrida, and not contact the victim. The five defendants pleaded guilty to a total of eight charges, including sexual intercourse with a child under the age of 16 and gross indecency.
Mr Pascoe, a respected western Arnhem Land indigenous leader, called for the Supreme Court to be brought "out in the bush".
"We could have dealt with the situation here a lot better," he said. "When the boys were arrested, we could have put a family conciliation effort between each group and talk about that matter before it got out of hand ... We could have punished the kids the way we want to punish them."
Mr Pascoe is related to Jackie Pascoe, who was convicted five years ago of having unlawful intercourse with his 15-year-old promised wife.
From his home in Maningrida, Mr Pascoe has been following the controversy over the nine males who escaped jail time after pleading guilty to gang-raping a girl, 10, in the Cape York Aboriginal community of Aurukun.
His opinion about the white man's legal system mirrored comments by Aurukun mayor Neville Pootchemunka, the father of one of the Cape York defendants, who said traditional punishment would have been appropriate.
Mr Pascoe said Kevin Rudd had an opportunity to improve the intervention in Aboriginal communities by consulting indigenous leaders.
"In the past 20 years, our voices and concerns have fallen on deaf ears and blind eyes," he said. "We would like to move along but only if someone is a good listener."
See: The Australian
Indigenous issues up for COAG
The Australian | 14 December 2007
Kevin Rudd will consider placing indigenous affairs on the agenda for next week's Council of Australian Governments meeting as the nation's Labor administrations struggle to determine the appropriate response to violence and social dysfunction in Aboriginal communities.
Speaking in Bali, the Prime Minister reiterated that the commonwealth would not extend the Northern Territory intervention to Queensland until it had at least assessed the effectiveness of the action.
But he agreed to consider Queensland Premier Anna Bligh's call for a proper COAG discussion.
Mr Rudd said while he was outraged by the Aurukun gang-rape case, and how it was initially handled by the Queensland authorities, the state Government had responded appropriately by ordering an appeal of the non-custodial sentences given to the nine offenders and a broader review of sex abuse cases on Cape York.
"The first responsibility we have in relation to this appalling and horrific case at Aurukun is to establish all the facts and that is why this investigation is under way," Mr Rudd said.
"I await the outcome of that investigation on the details of the case. If there are further actions necessary for the commonwealth then we will embrace those actions and implement them."
On Monday, The Australian revealed that nine males, including three adults, who gang-raped a 10-year-old girl in the Cape York community of Aurukun had escaped jail sentences after the Cairns District Court judge said the girl "probably" agreed to have sex.
The architect of the NT intervention, former Howard government indigenous affairs minister Mal Brough, yesterday called for such action to be extended nationwide and accused the Queensland, West Australian and Northern Territory governments of hampering his efforts to adopt a societal approach to the problem.
"Why are people outraged now? It's not because a 10-year-old girl was gang-raped - that happened two years ago - but because of the leniency of the sentences," Mr Brough said.
"What about getting angry in the first place about a situation that allows a child to be raped?"
Ms Bligh had earlier urged Mr Rudd to add indigenous issues to the already jammed COAG agenda, which will bring state premiers and treasurers together with Mr Rudd and his Treasurer, Wayne Swan, to discuss the implementation of Labor's federal election promises in areas such as health, education and business regulation. Ms Bligh has so far refused to bow to pressure from former premier Peter Beattie, the Queensland Opposition and others to support federal intervention and put up the COAG discussion as a compromise.
"I do think that there needs to be a very thorough discussion between the various levels of government, including the local government, in these indigenous communities about where and how services are best provided and at what level," Ms Bligh said.
"There are some services that I think would be very difficult for the commonwealth Government to provide because they've never provided them."
On Wednesday night, Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin said she wanted to meet Ms Bligh to discuss "the positive results that are coming out of the Northern Territory intervention" and they have agreed to examine possible reforms.
Mr Beattie weighed into the debate, telling ABC radio the federal Government should take "total control" of indigenous communities. "This is an international disgrace and we need a national response that's not about victimising, it's not racist, but is actually a co-operative partnership with indigenous communities," Mr Beattie said.
A spokeswoman for NSW Premier Morris Iemma would not be drawn on Mr Beattie's comments, or whether the state would support indigenous issues being placed on the agenda, saying Mr Iemma was willing to talk about anything Mr Rudd wanted.
A spokeswoman for acting South Australian Premier Kevin Foley also refused to comment on Ms Bligh's suggestion without seeing further detail, but West Australian Premier Alan Carpenter said he was more than happy to discuss the issue.
Mr Carpenter said he could offer the meeting a unique perspective through WA eyes and said indigenous child abuse was an issue of national importance. He also said he was open to suggestions that welfare payments be linked to deeds of social responsibility, a core part of the NT intervention.
Queensland Liberal leader and Opposition legal affairs spokesman Mark McArdle supported calls for a federal intervention but said it was too early to know whether the military needed to be brought in.
Queensland police yesterday ruled out launching a special police operation to tackle child abuse in Cape York, despite indigenous leader Mr Pearson saying it was under-reported.
Police Minister Judy Spence said she had consulted with Commissioner Bob Atkinson who told her police were "handling the caseload in Aurukun and that there's no need for a special operation at this stage".
See: The Australian
Safety of kids is priority
The Australian | 14 December 2007
The decision by Queensland District Court judge Sarah Bradley not to jail six juveniles and three men who had pleaded guilty to the horrific gang rape of a 10-year-old girl at the Aurukun indigenous community on Cape York raises fundamental questions about the judicial process, the treatment of Aboriginal children, and human rights issues.
It is a clear signal that, once again, Aboriginal women and girls are denied formal equality and protection through the criminal justice system.
Marcia Langton, the University of Melbourne's chairwoman of Australian indigenous studies, is right that it's time for women and children to be heard and that governments should quit playing politics with the lives of Aboriginal children, the most vulnerable members of our community.
The response by the Queensland Government to appeal against the decision, stand down the crown prosecutor and initiate a review of other sexual assault cases on Cape York indicates that it is now considering the safety of Aboriginal children who are being victimised.
Aboriginal children, like all other children, are protected by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Under the convention, states are required to protect children from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse.
In this case, the state failed to protect this child, instead returning her to the community where she was raped at age seven and again violated at 10.
For more than a decade, child-focused services across the country have been highlighted as being in desperate need. How will governments address that need for this girl and others in similar predicaments during the long term?
All the defendants pleaded guilty to rape and the defence counsel's pleas of mitigation resulted in the voice of the victim and her family being relegated to the periphery. The judge's extremely offensive comments on the issue of consent are contrary to the Queensland's Criminal Code that defines consent as including cognitive capacity and that it must be given freely and voluntarily without force, threat, intimidation or fear of bodily harm. Most important, the code provides that a child under 12 cannot give consent under any circumstances.
Queensland Attorney-General Kerry Shine has acknowledged that a child under 12 does not have the cognitive capacity to give any consent. Thus the focus on consent is centrally flawed and the appeal is warranted. The Criminal Code also provides any person who engages in "unlawful carnal knowledge" of girl under 12 may be liable to a term of life imprisonment.
The decision by the judge to sentence the three men to six months' imprisonment, with the sentence suspended for 12 months, and to place the six teenage juveniles on a 12-month probation order, without a conviction recorded, minimised completely the gravity of the offence and the long-term effects of the offence on the victim and her family.
By failing to send a clear message that this was not acceptable conduct, the judge also jeopardised the safety of other children in the community. The issue of rehabilitation and community safety were completely ignored.
Without intervention, the likelihood of nine males reoffending is high.
What has become apparent is the systemic failures and neglect this child has experienced at the hands of the Queensland child protection system. This system jeopardised her safety through decisions based on ignorance, distorted perceptions and political correctness gone mad.
Many children of the stolen generations experienced sexual abuse at the hands of non-indigenous carers. According to the non-indigenous child protection staff involved in the Aurukun case, that history somehow means that now Aboriginal children must be kept in Aboriginal communities at any costs. The reality of child sexual assault is irrelevant and subverted to a mindset that fails to recognise that the best interests of the child must mean their immediate safety comes first.
Langton's comments are timely. She argues that there has been "a metaphorical dagger sunk into the heart of the powerful, wrong-headed Aboriginal male ideology that had prevailed in indigenous affairs, policies and practices". We believe this ideology has protected Aboriginal perpetrators, who must be held accountable for the grave harm and human rights abuses they are inflicting on successive generations of Aboriginal children. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has expressed in no uncertain terms zero tolerance of sexual violence to Aboriginal children.
Other leaders must do likewise. The time for politics and political correctness is over; the silencing of Aboriginal women and children must end.
Kyllie Cripps is an indigenous postdoctoral research fellow at the Onemda VicHealth Koori health unit at the University of Melbourne. Hannah McGlade, a human rights lawyer, is an advocate for Aboriginal victims of sexual assault.
See: The Australian
PM urged to scrap system of permits
The Australian | 14 December 2007
Kevin Rudd has been urged to stick with Howard government plans to scrap permits controlling access to Aboriginal communities, with the federal Opposition saying the issue would test whether Labor's approach to indigenous affairs was not simply "Whitlam revisited".
As an Aboriginal Northern Territory Labor MP broke ranks with the party to support the end of the permits, Liberal indigenous affairs spokesman Tony Abbott said the federal Government's promise to retain the system would let down Aborigines and fail to keep "ratbags" out of remote communities.
"Maintaining the former government's abolition of the permit system would be a very good way for (Indigenous Affairs Minister) Jenny Macklin to demonstrate that this is a new and reconstituted Labor Government, not just Whitlam revisited," he said.
The Australian reported yesterday that Ms Macklin had based her support for permits on the position of the Northern Territory Police Association, even though president Vince Kelly said his members had mixed views.
Ms Macklin is due to meet Aboriginal leaders, including representatives from the Northern Land Council and women's groups, in Darwin tomorrow to discuss the progress of the intervention and the Government's apology to the Stolen Generation.
And in Darwin today, she will meet new Territory Chief Minister Paul Henderson and his Deputy and Indigenous Affairs Minister, Marion Scrymgour, both of whom oppose permit abolition.
But Alison Anderson, a central Australian Labor MP in the Territory Government, told The Australian yesterday that permits had been misused in some remote communities and should not be reintroduced. Her position puts her at odds with her own Government and federal Labor.
"We can do without it, it really makes no difference," Ms Anderson said. "I think it has been used as a tool by some people in communities to reject certain people that they disagree with or don't want out there."
Ms Macklin has pledged to reform the permit system to improve access for journalists.
Mr Abbott said unrestricted access for the media and government officials should be a minimum requirement.
See: The Australian
Indigenous land permits to remain unchanged for 6 months
ABC News | 14 December 2007
The Northern Territory Government says the permit system in Aboriginal communities will remain the same for another six months.
Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin met representatives from the Northern Territory Government and land councils in Darwin today to talk about the future of the Commonwealth's intervention in Aboriginal communities.
The Territory's Chief Minister, Paul Henderson, says an agreement has been reached with the Commonwealth to allow government officials and journalists access onto Aboriginal land without a permit.
But he says the Commonwealth will not be making the change straight away
"They're going to review a whole range of intervention measures after 12 months so we're talking June [or] July 2008," he said.
The Territory's Indigenous Affairs Minister, Marion Scrymgour, says it is appropriate to wait 12 months.
"I think we will get some good outcomes," she said.
"They are not outcomes for us. But it is about getting those outcomes so that children can sleep at night and that women can no longer have to fear the violence they have to go through every single night."
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has arrived in Darwin and will join the intervention talks when they resume tomorrow.
See: ABC News
Centrelink defends intervention's funds quarantining
ABC News | 14 December 2007
Centrelink's Indigenous intervention boss says feedback from central Australian communities has been positive over the quarantining of welfare payments.
Under the Indigenous intervention in the Northern Territory, people who live in prescribed Aboriginal areas have 50 per cent of their welfare money allocated for food and household needs.
The system will be rolled out in the Top End from next week.
Peter Doutre says criticism of the quarantining of money is unwarranted.
"Women's groups seems to be quite strongly in support of income management and we are also getting quite a bit of positive feedback from stores because they are getting a substantial amount of money into their stores for food and other essential items," he said.
See: ABC News
Court treatment of 10yo rape victim a disgrace: Beattie
ABC News: AM | 13 December 2007
TONY EASTLEY: The former Queensland premier, Peter Beattie, says the court's treatment of a young girl who was pack-raped on Cape York Peninsula is a disgrace, and the assault is just one example of problems in Indigenous communities which the new Federal Labor Government needs to tackle.
In a speech in Sydney last night, Mr Beattie warned that the states risk becoming irrelevant unless there's a constitutional convention to work out once and for all who has responsibility over what.
Simon Lauder reports.
SIMON LAUDER: As the guest speaker at a Fabian Society dinner, Peter Beattie called on the new Prime Minister to take federalism to a new level.
He told the meeting of the left-leaning think tank the gang rape of a 10-year-old girl in Aurukun is an example of problems in Indigenous communities, which are the result of two centuries of dreadful policy.
PETER BEATTIE: So what I'm saying to you is that I have a great deal of faith in Kevin Rudd. I'm in a position these days where I don't have to be generous to anybody, and I can say what I like. Because we have all Labor states and a Labor Federal Government, we have the most unique opportunity since Federation to make a real change.
SIMON LAUDER: Cape York Indigenous leader Noel Pearson would also like an end to the blame game between governments.
Mr Pearson wants a scheme where parents' income support payments are tied to child welfare to begin in time for the next school year.
He told the 7.30 Report the Commonwealth has provided the money for a trial in four communities, including Aurukun, but the State Government hasn't laid the framework.
NOEL PEARSON: And the challenge involves Queensland acting quickly to create the necessary commission and in my view the urgency of the Aurukun case really, you know, begs, begs the question as to whether Parliament in Queensland should urgently resume to create the necessary body that we need. This Family Responsibilities Commission.
SIMON LAUDER: Peter Beattie was still the premier of Queensland when the Commonwealth did its part to set up the Commission, and he says Indigenous Affairs should be the sole responsibility of the Federal Government.
PETER BEATTIE: A lot of people in Indigenous communities end up not being sure whether they go to the local council, the State or the Commonwealth on these matters.
This is an international disgrace and we need a national response that's not about victimising, it's not racist, but is actually a cooperative partnership with Indigenous communities. To say "this is going to take a decade, but let's start now."
SIMON LAUDER: Now you brought up the problems at Aurukun. That problem is because of the State run justice system, though, and the Fitzgerald Report on Cape York justice highlighted some similar problems in 2001. That happened under your watch and you didn't fix it.
PETER BEATTIE: Well, that's a simplistic interpretation of it and I understand the point. The reality is this: that we started the alcohol management plan, said we're going for some time to deal with this abuse. We said at the time this would take a generation. And I said that openly and transparently, and it will take a generation.
One thing I know, though. We're going to get better cooperation if we have a national approach. Instead of having the passing between the State and the Commonwealth, we're going to have a national approach.
TONY EASTLEY: The former Queensland premier, Peter Beattie, speaking with Simon Lauder.
See: ABC News: AM
Macklin to meet with NT leaders over Fed intervention
ABC News | 14 December 2007
New Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin will meet Northern Territory leaders today, for the first time since assuming responsibility for the Commonwealth's intervention into Indigenous communities.
Ms Macklin will sit down with new Northern Territory Chief Minister Paul Henderson and Indigenous Policy Minister Marion Scrymgour, who has at times been a harsh critic of the intervention.
She has said the more than $1 billion allocated to the intervention needs to stay, but should be redistributed.
But she has been reluctant to spell out what kind of a plan the Territory will be putting to Ms Macklin.
Ms Macklin has halted scrapping the Aboriginal work for the dole program, but is yet to say whether she will get rid of controversial new alcohol laws.
Neither side has been willing to say whether Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is likely to join them on his way back from Bali.
See: ABC News
Debt of sorrow to honour
The Australian | 13 December 2007
To many Australians, apologising to the stolen generations may seem too much like the politics of the past.
Haven't we moved on from all that to focus on practical things to improve the lives of indigenous people? In any case, doesn't the rampant child sexual abuse documented in the Northern Territory and cases such as the gang rape of a 10-year old girl in north Queensland prove that children who were taken away were saved rather than stolen?
It is worth reminding ourselves of what the debate is really about, or should be.
First, the apology which the Rudd Government has promised is not some general statement about all indigenous grievances since colonisation, but specifically concerns the forcible removal of children from their parents.
That was one of the responses recommended by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission's report on the stolen generations. Given that was released 10 years ago, it is not surprising that memories have dimmed about what it found.
The common misapprehension is that children were removed from their parents because of concern for their welfare. But that was not the primary motivation at all.
A.O. Neville, Western Australia's "chief protector" of Aboriginal children from 1915 to 1940, argued through a 1937 newspaper interview that "the pure-blooded Aboriginal was not a quick breeder. On the other hand, the half-caste was." His solution was to separate one from the other and let the Aboriginal race die out. He said their numbers in WA had fallen from 60,000 to 20,000 in the previous 60 years. "Perhaps it would take 100 years, perhaps longer, but the race was dying."
Neville's attitude was given force in a WA law that allowed any children of Aboriginal descent to be taken by force from their families and placed in institutions. It also prohibited persons of "quarter-caste" or less from associating with "natives".
Neville's was no lone voice. Northern Territory chief protector Cecil Cook saw the removal of children as the way to avoid people of mixed descent outnumbering whites in the territory in the future. "The problem of our half-castes will quickly be eliminated by the complete disappearance of the black race and the swift submergence of their progeny in the white," he said. In 1937 all governments in Australia adopted this policy of "ultimate absorption". In NSW, "for being Aboriginal" sometimes was the sole reason given in documents for taking children from parents.
The HREOC report concluded that somewhere between 10 per cent and 33 per cent of indigenous children were forcibly removed in the 60 years to 1970. Estimates of the actual numbers involved went as high as 100,000. The commission said that most indigenous families had been affected in one or more generations.
This may all be the product of a very different time. But why not acknowledge it for what it was: systematic racism implemented on a large scale and deeply offensive and harmful to indigenous people? That makes it very different from a well-intentioned welfare policy to protect children.
One view is that the children taken away were better off for the opportunities they received, including educational. Perhaps some were, but most were not. A series of reports has found that members of the stolen generations were less likely to be in stable relationships and much more likely to be drug users and to have committed crimes. A greater proportion have died in custody. They are less likely to have obtained post-school qualifications or jobs. While the racist policy may be ancient history, its effects are still with us.
An apology is not the most important issue on the indigenous affairs agenda. But John Howard's refusal to utter the sorry word, on the basis that the current generation was not responsible for the sins of the past, was interpreted, in the words of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social justice commissioner Tom Calma, as "a denial of the experiences of the stolen generations and of people's identity". In short, it is unfinished business.
New Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin sees an apology as signalling a new relationship, one based on respect and on listening to indigenous people. Consultation can be a substitute for action, particularly in Aboriginal affairs.
The Howard government acted without consulting to intervene in the NT because it saw dealing with child abuse as the first priority. As an emergency response, this was justified. But if the long and frustrating story of Aboriginal affairs has taught us anything, it is that there will be no lasting improvements until indigenous people themselves are involved in the solutions rather than having them imposed from outside.
The new Government has baulked at the recommendation of the stolen generations report for federal and state governments to set up a compensation fund. But unlike its predecessor, it has not used claims for compensation as an excuse for refusing to apologise. State governments have all made apologies through their parliaments without triggering a flood of claims.
Brendan Nelson has adopted the Howard position against an apology and it appears that Malcolm Turnbull's earlier comment that the previous government should not have allowed itself to be caught up in such semantics cost him votes in the leadership contest. But as Calma pointed out this week, there is not much real distance between Labor and the Coalition. Tony Abbott, now Opposition indigenous affairs spokesman, acknowledged in May that the forcible removal of indigenous children from their families was "a policy based on race, not reason".
"We should have known it then. We certainly know it now and we do have to atone for it."
The Opposition's ultimate attitude on this issue will be a test of whether it can move on or whether it keeps fighting old battles.
Macklin's substitute for compensation is implementing Labor's commitment to close the gap in life expectancy between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians within a generation. That policy includes interim targets to halve infant mortality and the gaps in literacy and numeracy within a decade.
Together with turning the NT intervention into worthwhile, long-term improvements, that should keep the Rudd Government fully occupied in indigenous affairs.
See: The Australian
Police split on permits
The Australian | 13 December 2007
The Rudd Government's support for permits controlling access to Aboriginal lands has been undermined, with police backing for the system now in question.
Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin last week told The Australian that the Government's rationale for retaining a permit system was based on support of it by the Northern Territory Police Association.
"We agree with the representatives of the NT Police Association that the permit system is important to child safety because it helps keep out grog and drug runners, and pedophiles," she said.
Ms Macklin repeated the claim on ABC radio yesterday. But association president Vince Kelly yesterday said he had been misquoted and the association's members had mixed views on the usefulness of the permit system.
"What I've said consistently is that (former indigenous affairs minister Mal Brough) never drew a clear line between permits and sexual abuse," he said.
"I didn't say the NT Police Association was absolutely for the permit system."
Permits control access to Aboriginal lands in the Northern Territory, under a scheme administered by the Central and Northern Land Councils. Permits apply to people who live outside a community and non-indigenous residents of communities.
Ms Macklin said Mr Kelly's quotes came from an ABC Radio interview in July about the permit system during which he said rolling it back might lead to problems.
"It does give both the police and local communities the ability to exclude certain people from the community, people who are possibly offenders in relation to sexual abuse, and physical abuse of Aboriginal women and children, but more importantly offenders in terms of running grog and running drugs into these communities," he said.
Yesterday Mr Kelly agreed that some of his members found the system useful and he pointed to an example of how officers in Wadeye, on the northwest NT coast, had forced an indigenous man from West Australia out of the community.
Other members had told him they did not agree the permit system was useful, he said.
The association had, in August, made a submission to the Senate inquiry into the legislation underpinning the federal intervention in Northern Territory Aboriginal communities that was launched to address chronic levels of child sexual abuse, he said.
"The submission we made said, 'if there's a link between child sexual abuse and permits, show us what it is'," he said.
The Howard government legislated to remove the permits from February 18. The Rudd Government has committed to retain them and will have to introduce legislation when parliament resumes in February.
Mr Kelly, who is also president of the Police Federation of Australia, hopes to hold talks with Ms Macklin over the weekend in Darwin about the policing aspects of the intervention.
"Whilst I understand the politics, what the NT Police Association are more interested in is NT Police," he said.
Mr Kelly said he also hoped to discuss resourcing for the intervention.
See: The Australian
Intervention may cross border
Sydney Morning Herald | 13 December 2007
Uproar at the treatment of a 10-year-old rape victim in remote Queensland could draw to that state elements of the indigenous intervention in the Northern Territory.
The federal Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Jenny Macklin, yesterday flagged extending the Territory intervention into Queensland, after revelations that nine youths who pleaded guilty to gang raping the girl had escaped prison.
Ms Macklin has held talks with the Queensland Premier, Anna Bligh, about ways to reduce child abuse in indigenous communities.
"I'm going to try to get to Queensland as quickly as I can to discuss the positive results that are coming out of the Northern Territory intervention," Ms Macklin told ABC radio yesterday. "What I want to do is really look at what both the Federal Government could do working with the Queensland Government to address the shocking levels of child abuse that unfortunately are still continuing in so many parts of Queensland."
Ms Bligh welcomed Ms Macklin's "enthusiasm for working very positively to fix what we can". But she played down calls for the intervention to be extended to her state. "I think it's important to understand some of the differences between the Northern Territory and Queensland," she said.
Ms Bligh said Queensland indigenous communities did not operate a permit system, there were child-safety officers stationed in places such as Cooktown and Weipa, and alcohol was restricted in most communities.
Meanwhile, the Queensland Government has bowed to public pressure and announced an independent review of all sentences for sexual offences in the Cape in the last two years.
After ordering the Director of Public Prosecutions to carry out the review, the Queensland Attorney-General, Kerry Shine, yesterday announced he had appointed a senior counsel, Peter Davis, to conduct it.
Mr Davis, who assisted Sir Laurence Street in the review of the DPP's decision not to press charges over the death in custody of a Palm Island man, Mulrunji Doomadgee, is expected to report his findings in early February.
Ms Bligh said nearly half of the 64 sentences subject to review had been handed down by the judge at the centre of the gang-rape controversy, Sarah Bradley. Judge Bradley did not send any of the gang rapists to jail because the young victim "probably agreed to have sex with all" of the offenders.
The prosecutor, Steve Carter, did not ask for prison terms because the sex was "consensual in the non-legal sense" and "a form of childish experimentation". Mr Carter was stood down on Tuesday night.
Ms Bligh promised to take "radical action" if the review revealed a broader trend of more lenient sentences for indigenous sexual offenders. "Until we have seen all of those cases, it would be premature to say this is systemic, but if those cases show that it is, I won't hesitate to take very radical action if necessary," she said.
Queensland's Crime and Misconduct Commission is overseeing an investigation into another alleged assault of an Aboriginal girl. The 12-year-old was allegedly raped after she was returned to her community despite being previously sexually abused by elders.
See: Sydney Morning Herald
Review of flawed NT policy a priority
Canberra Times | 13 December 2007
After the election of a federal Labor Government, there is a delicious interlude during which it seems that all things are possible. True believers, trade unionists and fellow travellers of all stripes revel in the anticipation of a government steeped in the principles of social justice.
Those who waited in vain for droplets of compassion to trickle down from the neo-conservative administration of John Howard look forward to a deluge of decency under the workers' government. Then realpolitik intervenes.
Among the country's perennial losers in the justice game are its original inhabitants. Indigenous Australians continue to suffer higher mortality and morbidity rates that others. They are more likely to be unemployed, imprisoned and impugned. The litany of injustices faced by Aboriginal people is altogether too familiar, and the sickening statistics no longer penetrate. Indigenous disadvantage is a given.
Aboriginal people have copped it in the neck again with the imposition of the federal intervention into indigenous affairs in the Northern Territory. Yes, further resources are desperately needed in the territory's remote communities. Yes, bans on pornography and alcohol will be widely welcomed, as will an increased police presence. And yes, surprisingly enough, parents are keen for their children to receive adequate medical care, and maximum opportunity for employment and education. They've been asking for these things for years.
But their wish-list never included the unilateral acquisition of their townships, or the emasculation of the permit system which provides them with a measure of protection against grog-runners, carpetbaggers and sexual predators. They would not have opted for the dismemberment of the Community Development Employment Projects, which help to sustain the beleaguered economies of these settlements. Nor would they have countenanced the sidelining of the Racial Discrimination Act, or the quarantining of welfare income in circumstances where individuals have not shown they have behaved irresponsibly.
Indeed, it may be that many non-indigenous Australians living in the suburbs are also wondering about the morality of suspending human rights legislation. The Racial Discrimination Act embodies Australia's commitment to the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination. It is untenable to argue that while we don't approve of racism, we will allow a government to engage in racially discriminatory policies under certain circumstances. If first principles can be sacrificed to political expediency then all is lost.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Minister for Indigenous Affairs Jenny Macklin are already hosing down expectations of early and decisive action to mitigate the ugliest aspects of the intervention. The logic behind their position that "we've got to give this a chance to work" could be applied equally to the WorkChoices legislation, or the war in Iraq.
Indigenous Australians deserve better. The most dramatic federal incursion into indigenous policy this country has ever seen must be quickly and comprehensively reviewed.
Rudd and Macklin's caucus colleagues on the ground in the territory, Warren Snowdon and Senator Trish Crossin, have expressed reservations about the intervention. In August they circulated to bush communities a newsletter committing Labor to retaining the permit system, negotiating leases over Aboriginal land and preserving the CDEP. They said also the Racial Discrimination Act must be "upheld, and not pushed to one side".
Members of the Rudd front bench will now receive the perks that come with their ministerial appointments, such as first-class travel, personal staff and help from public servants, but the party members who stuffed the letterboxes and handed out the how-to-vote-cards during the campaign will likely return to more humble occupations, with heightened expectations about what "their" government will do.
Labor's legendary light on the hill may will serve to illuminate the fact that the federal intervention involves significant human-rights violations. If the impetus for improvement does not emanate from the ministerial suites, then it may be members of the party faithful and other concerned citizens who provide the push.
The intervention was introduced amid deeply flawed analogies with overseas peacekeeping missions and natural disaster relief operations. There was no war. There was no hurricane. The conditions on many remote communities simply reflect the cumulative effect of years of neglect. The Rudd Government must act decisively to roll back the intervention and treat indigenous territorians with the dignity to which they are entitled.
Graham Ring is a National Indigenous Times writer based in Alice Springs
See: Canberra Times
Intervention on child protection should not be confined to Aboriginal communities
Australian Democrats Press Release | 12 December 2007
Queensland Democrat Senator Andrew Bartlett says the latest controversy about a child sexual assault case in Aurukun should not blind us to the fact that the failure to address shocking cases of child abuse and sexual assault of children is occurring in all parts of Australian society.
"Before the election, all political parties agreed there should be a national Royal Commission into our widespread systemic society-wide failures on child protection," Senator Bartlett said.
"Widespread, serious child abuse and assault is occurring throughout our society. Focusing outrage on a scandal in one specific case should not divert attention, awareness or action away from a wider problem which we are far too ready to pretend does not exist.
"Child protection failures are widespread and chronic in virtually all parts of Australia. Only by developing a national approach, properly involving the community as well as government, will we get the sort of change that children deserve and need," Senator Bartlett concluded.
See: Australian Democrats
Pearson calls for end to passive welfare
ABC News: 7.30 Report | 17 December 2007
ALI MOORE: The fallout from the gang rape case at Aurukun on Cape York continues with the prosecutor now stood down pending an investigation. The prosecutor Steve Carter said the case where a 10-year-old girl was raped by nine men involved what he described as consensual sex in a non legal manner. And he called those involved, quote, "very naughty". He did not recommend any of the perpetrators, aged from their teens to 26 face jail. As well as reviewing the case, the Queensland Attorney-General is appealing against the sentence and reviewing other sexual abuse cases across the cape over the past two years. Noel Pearson who comes from Cape York is among the country's most respected and influential Aboriginal leaders. He's long argued passive welfare is to blame for a complete breakdown in social norms in Aboriginal communities. He joined me from Cairns a short time ago.
Noel Pearson, the Cape York community is your community. A 10-year-old girl is gang raped in Aurukun. Is this an isolated case?
NOEL PEARSON, CAPE YORK LAND COUNCIL: This is the tip of a tragic iceberg. And it's a problem that has been going on for a long time. It's a problem that we've been trying to highlight for a long time now. And it's a problem that is not disappearing. There's nothing that we are currently doing that is decisively avoiding this kind of tragedy.
ALI MOORE: But are you suggesting when you say it's the tip of the iceberg that this sort of behaviour is considered acceptable by some in communities like Aurukun?
NOEL PEARSON: Well, it's not just Aurukun, it's across other communities in Cape York Peninsula. There are in our region 80 reported cases of child protection per month on average. Now, these are not all sexual abuse cases. They involve neglect of children as well, the vast majority involve neglect of children from malnutrition or general care, but they do also include abuse cases. We will get 80 cases reported month, 30 are substantiated, and this is an average monthly reporting level for child protection. Now, in my view, this is a crisis. And it's a crisis that the State Government has attempted to respond to through its new child safety system and through alcohol limitations and so on. But it's not a crisis that we are on top of.
ALI MOORE: Is part of the answer removing the children at risk? The girl in this case had in fact been removed but then returned to the community just before this rape happened. Is putting a child in foster care the answer?
NOEL PEARSON: It's the immediate answer, absolutely. We have got to shed any hesitation whatsoever about the notion that we should take children away from abusive situations and place them into foster care whether it be with Aboriginal families or European families. We've got to shed any kind of silly hesitation about that. The paramount issue has got to be the safety of the children and in my view that hesitation that has prevailed in child protection practice has contributed to a great deal of harm to children.
ALI MOORE: These perpetrators, these men, some of them were in fact only boys, they were teenagers. Should they have gone to jail?
NOEL PEARSON: Absolutely. There is absolutely no justification for leniency. In fact, part of the whole breakdown, the social and cultural breakdown that we see in our communities is the consequence of courts taking into account the historical and social background of Aboriginal offenders. You know, there's been in the past 30 years, there's been a tendency for the judicial system to take into account this cultural and historical background of Aboriginal offenders and therefore resulting in leniency when in fact the imperative has all along been to make sure that social norms are observed and maintained in communities. If we want to diminish in the long term the number of Aboriginal people in prison, we have got to have low tolerance of anti-social behaviour and criminal behaviour. We have got to have low tolerance to interference sexually with children. We have to have low tolerance with adults who are behaving badly and affecting sober members of the community and so on.
ALI MOORE: Partly to that end, you have a plan which really involves establishing a families commission. You've won federal funding, federal approval to trial in this four Cape York communities. When will it start?
NOEL PEARSON: We have the funding. We have approval from the previous government and the Rudd and Macklin Government have confirmed their continued support for this. So we have Commonwealth support for the program. And the program involves putting obligations on every person that receives income support from Government. And those obligations are to send your child to school, to keep your child free from abuse and neglect, to make sure that you abide by the law and to make sure that you look after your house and abide by your tenancy rules. Those are the four conditions. Now, what we need in order for this to work now and we're proposing to start the implementation of this program in January next year, in four communities, including Aurukun, four communities in the Cape are ready to go with this new approach to welfare conditionality. But what we need is state legislation, Queensland Government legislation, to create the necessary decision-making body. Now, we had Federal legislation passed by Mal Brough in July. So the Commonwealth part of the jigsaw has been put into place. The money has been put into place. The third part of the jigsaw which is the state legislation to create this body is still missing.
ALI MOORE: Premier Bligh told this program last night that in fact she'd already agreed with the Federal Government to "a family responsibilities commission." Those aspects are already in the process of legislative drafting as part of the agreement Queensland has with the Commonwealth. You don't believe that is the case?
NOEL PEARSON: Well, the problem is timing here. We had federal legislation in July. We had the money committed by the Federal Government in July. We've had six months to create this state legislation so that we can kick off in January. Our hope was that in the beginning of the school term next year those new conditions will kick in: send your kid to school, make sure they're looked after and fed and so on.
ALI MOORE: So who is derailing the process? I guess, what is the problem?
NOEL PEARSON: Well, in a sense this is the first, this is the first kind of stop the buck passing, stop the blame game problem that's confronting both the Queensland and the new Federal Government. This is the first challenge for stopping the blame game. And the challenge involves Queensland acting quickly to create the necessary commission. And in my view the urgency of the Aurukun case really, you know, begs the question as to whether Parliament in Queensland should urgently resume to create the necessary body that we need, this family responsibilities commission.
ALI MOORE: Noel Pearson, you did make the point that Kevin Rudd and the new Minister Craig Macklin have supported this plan. But before the election you labelled Kevin Rudd heartless when he refused to commit to a referendum on reconciliation. You said you had long experience of Rudd's cynicism and opportunism under the Goss Government. And you dreaded Rudd Government. Do you still?
NOEL PEARSON: My comments were about the specific issue of the renege on the constitutional amendment. But on these human questions of social tragedy involving young children, I have detected complete empathy and sympathy from both the Prime Minister and Minister for Aboriginal affairs. And I'm confident that there is solid support for the welfare reform program that we have. In my view, unless we tackle grog and welfare, the problems of this 10-year-old child at Aurukun ultimately will have no solution.
ALI MOORE: Noel Pearson, many thanks for talking to us.
NOEL PEARSON: Thank you, Ali.
See: ABC News
Researchers call for more Indigenous ranger funding
ABC News | 12 December 2007
A group of almost 30 Northern Territory researchers is calling for a major injection of funds to pay Indigenous communities to better manage natural resources.
The researchers argue for a new approach to funding environmental work in a book published by Charles Darwin University this week.
Co-author professor Bruce Campbell says the book shows more Indigenous Australians could work on their traditional lands if they were better funded to manage the environment.
"This book is all about keeping people on country. They are delivering essentially public services for the whole of Australia. They are well placed to deliver certain services, being in remote areas.
"Having people on country vastly improves their health status. Investing in natural resource management saves on health budgets and improves people health."
The authors of "Investing in Indigenous Natural Resource Management" are calling on the Federal and Territory Governments to pledge more than $100 million to make it happen.
But Professor Campbell says expanding government spending on Aboriginal ranger programs could save millions of dollars in welfare handouts and reduce the risk of exotic pest and disease outbreaks.
The researchers are also calling for private investors to recognise the potential for Aboriginal rangers to offset carbon emissions.
Professor Campbell says expanding global carbon markets represents a wonderful opportunity to improve the funding of remote rangers. He says private sector payment for environmental services will go some way to replacing Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP).
See: ABC News
Time to place Aust's first children first
ABC News | 13 December 2007
Sadly it comes as no surprise that the Queensland Department of Child Safety was directly involved in the case of the 10-year-old girl so brutally abused at the hands of young people in her community of Aurukun.
That the 'justice' system then compounded the violation of this child by ignoring her right to expect that her abusers would be appropriately punished is also of no surprise.
We have seen this before and we will see it again unless and until we throw out the existing models of child protection and foster care and start again.
The reality is that in most rural and remote areas, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children cannot count on statutory child protection authorities to protect them or to respond effectively when abuse occurs.
Child protection models have been built on two assumptions that don't often operate outside of large urban cities.
Firstly, that child protection staff can get to a family and respond to critical incidents quickly, and secondly that within a community there will be a 'supply' of well-resourced, high functioning families with whom to place a child.
Faced with this reality child protection staff make agonising decisions about when to remove a child from their family, and by implication their community, and place them in foster care a long way from home.
Placing Indigenous children in non-Aboriginal foster care far removed from their community, as happened in the Aurukun case, doesn't resolve all the case issues or provide the child with all that they need.
Children, all children, whatever their race or culture, want to be with their family.
The best evidence and research tells us that abused children want to go home, to see their mum and dad, their brothers and sisters, their friends and peers.
The child now at the centre of this latest national debate about Aboriginal children wanted to go home.
A third way
The model of foster care we operate in Australia is wrong.
It is wrong for all children, it is wrong for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.
It is based on a false dichotomy: that a child is either with and raised by their birth family or by a foster family.
SNAICC argues that children can and should be raised by both. There is a third way.
Place children with a well-supported, resourced and trained foster family to ensure children are not at risk of abuse or neglect.
Set up a community visitors program and coordinate visits between the community and the child.
Don't bounce kids around between foster care placements and home.
Support foster families to raise children with the birth family - not for the birth family.
Reinforce the message that families have to raise their children well.
Train the magistrates to administer the law correctly.
Provide community services to heal the victims. Insist at every level - family, community and within the justice system - that abuse is intolerable and will be severely punished.
Calls for the Federal Minister, Jenny Macklin, to extend the NT intervention to Queensland don't go far enough.
SNAICC has for decades called for national legislation to create a framework that sets outs standards for child protection, children's rights and a common approach to preventing child abuse.
Next week Jenny Macklin meets all her state and territory colleagues. She should tell them that national legislation for child protection is on its way.
Muriel Bamblett AM is a Yorta Yorta woman and has been national chairperson of SNAICC, Australia's national peak body for Indigenous children, for the past 10 years.
See: ABC News
Success of NT intervention will determine expansion: PM
ABC News | 13 December 2007
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says he wants to gauge the success of the Northern Territory intervention before considering an expansion of the program into Queensland or other states.
Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin has had a number of discussions with the Queensland Premier, Anna Bligh, on possible Commonwealth assistance in Cape York.
The public outcry over lenient sentences in an Aurukun child rape case has also prompted the former Queensland premier, Peter Beattie, to call for a federal takeover of Indigenous communities.
Mr Rudd says the results of the Northern Territory intervention will be evaluated after 12 months.
"Specifically the effect of that intervention in bringing down the incidence of child assault, child sexual assault and violence against children," he said.
"I await with interest the outcome of that review and that will determine our future course of action both in the territory and beyond."
See: ABC News
'Sorry' more important than compo to Stolen Generations: elder
ABC News | 13 December 2007
NAIDOC's joint Male Elder of the Year says an acknowledgment of injustice committed by the Federal Government is far more important than a compensation package for the Stolen Generations.
Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin has begun the formal process with Aboriginal groups about the form and timing of an apology from the Federal Government, but has ruled out including a compensation scheme.
The elder from Toowoomba in south-east Queensland, Jim Hagan, says some members of the Stolen Generations may seek compensation.
"The matter of compensation I think is a white man's worry - they're thinking of millions of dollars. I may be wrong, but I think that's not what the Aboriginal people are asking for," he said.
"They're asking for an apology, not just an apology as Howard was going to give them, but the word 'sorry'."
NAIDOC stands for National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee.
See: ABC News
Aurukun story a clarion call for change
ABC News | 13 December 2007
As an Aboriginal man, I am appalled by the reports of recent events in Aurukun. I am disgusted at the regular reports of serious offences of sexual violence committed against our women and children.
As an Ambassador for White Ribbon Day for several years, I have continually emphasised that sexual violence is not and has never been part of Aboriginal culture. Nor can our traditional law be relied upon to justify such behaviour.
Recent events in Aurukun appear to highlight systemic failures in the justice system in Queensland for Indigenous people across the areas of prosecution of violent and sexual offences and the protection and care for the victims of crime.
We are again forced to examine all the circumstances which allowed this travesty to occur and must continually remind ourselves that this is no isolated case.
The Queensland Government is to be commended for moving quickly to review the treatment of all instances of abuse in the courts in Cape York over the past two years.
Every Aboriginal person - woman, child and man - needs to be reminded that the justice system will apply to them, as perpetrator and will protect them as victims.
There can be nothing as debilitating to public order in a community than the indifference of those involved in upholding justice - be they police, prosecutors or judges.
It is a great tragedy that we still hear of incidents such as these given the focus and funding that has been put into Cape York in the past five years.
In November 2001, Justice Tony Fitzgerald reported to the then Premier of Queensland into "the causes, nature and extent of breaches of the law in Cape York communities, as well as the relationship between crime and substance abuse."
The report recommended that there be "acknowledgement that serious violence and abuse needs to be subjected to the full force of the law and a clear message that violence will not be tolerated."
In particular, significant resources were provided to the Cape at both the federal and state levels through the Council of Australian Governments whole-of-government trial which commenced in 2002. We must ensure that the money is impacting in communities in the intended manner.
Clarion call
As we move forward, let this latest incident not remain as just today's sensational headline - let it be a clarion call for change.
All public officers - be they the judiciary, police, prosecutors, or service deliverers dealing with health, housing, care and protection or education - must be committed to providing equality of treatment for Indigenous peoples.
Who said such officials could give up on Indigenous people and condemn them to unsafe conditions without the protection of the law?
Such failure is a breach of our international human rights obligations.
The Racial Discrimination Convention, for example, requires equal treatment in the provision of the right to security of the person and protection by their government against violence or bodily harm.
Our current approach is too heavily weighted towards intervention at the end stages of the process - when offences have been committed and communities destroyed. There has been too little time and resources devoted to community education to build a strong anti-violence culture and awareness of the law, as well as capacity building within communities to better enable them to challenge violence from within.
And there is timidity by government officials when dealing with cases of assault and sexual abuse within Indigenous communities. The Aboriginal Child Placement Principle, for example, is not an excuse for inaction.
Governments and the Indigenous community face a difficult challenge of first protecting children and victims of crime, and secondly breaking the cycle of offending behaviour.
Children and women deserve the protection of the law.
Our first commitment should be to ensure that they can live without fear for their safety.
Tom Calma is Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner.
See: ABC News
Bligh concedes failures in alcohol policy
ABC News | 13 December 2007
Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has conceded that alcohol management plans are not working in all Aboriginal communities.
The pack rape case of a 10-year-old girl on Cape York has prompted former premier Peter Beattie to call for the Federal Government to take control of Indigenous welfare.
Mr Beattie, who was responsible for introducing alcohol restrictions in Indigenous communities, now says the policy has failed.
Ms Bligh says there have been mixed results.
"There are some communities where, to be fair, there are some really important results being demonstrated, with more children going to school and less acts of violence resulting in medical attention," she said.
"However there are other communities where the system is not working and there is still alcohol getting in to those communities."
She says government responsibilities in Indigenous welfare should be discussed at COAG.
"I do think that there needs to be a very thorough discussion between the various levels of government, including the local government, in these Indigenous communities, about where and how services are best provided and at what level," she said.
"There are some services that I think it would be very difficult for the Commonwealth Government to provide because they've never provided them."
See: ABC News
Police deny Kalumburu sex charges were motivated by community pressure
ABC News | 13 December 2007
Police have rejected suggestions that they were motivated by public pressure to lay sex abuse charges against five Aboriginal boys.
The charges have been discontinued due to a lack of evidence.
The five boys, who are aged between 11 and 13, were charged in September with abusing three other younger children at the Kimberley community of Kalumburu.
But the Director of Public Prosecutions has decided not to proceed with the case because police interviews with the five boys did not provide enough evidence for a conviction.
The Deputy Police Commissioner Chris Dawson has told ABC Radio in Perth that police are trying to balance the need to protect victims while at the same time avoiding inflaming community tensions.
"They can't respond just to public pressure," he said.
"They've got to respond to the evidence and the complaints that are there to be investigated. So that's the driver is to really protect those victims whether they be children, which many of these are, or indeed adults."
Nothing wrong
The state's Attorney General Jim McGinty says there is nothing wrong with the DPP's decision to drop the sexual assault charges.
"You cannot take a case to court if you don't have the evidence," he said.
"It's the job of the DPP to weigh up that evidence and you don't have a case if you don't have sufficient evidence and therefore the case can't proceed. That is a correct approach being taken."
Victims intimidated
The Chairwoman of the Kalumburu Aboriginal Corporation, Leonie Cameron, says the community accepts it is difficult to secure a prosecution in child sex abuse cases.
Ms Cameron says many Kalumburu people are intimidated by the justice system.
"It's difficult to get a prosecution because these things have being going on for a long time, people are naturally very confused and very reticent to come forward," she said.
See: ABC News
Aurukun rape the tip of the iceberg: Pearson
ABC News | 13 December 2007
Indigenous leader Noel Pearson says authorities should not hesitate to remove abused children from their communities amid national and international condemnation over the gang rape of 10-year-old girl in Aurukun.
The fallout from the rape case is continuing and new federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin says she is now considering the possibility of extending the controversial Northern Territory Indigenous intervention into Queensland.
Queensland Crown prosecutor Steve Carter has now been stood down pending an investigation into his handling of the case.
Mr Carter said the case where a 10-year-old girl was raped by nine men involved what he described as consensual sex in a non-legal manner and he called those involved "very naughty".
He did not recommend any of the perpetrators, aged from their teens to 26, to face jail.
As well as reviewing the case, Queensland Attorney-General Kerry Shine is appealing against the sentence and reviewing other sexual abuse cases across the Cape over the past two years.
'Tragic iceberg'
Aboriginal leader and lawyer Mr Pearson, who comes from Cape York, has long argued passive welfare is to blame for a complete breakdown in social norms in Indigenous communities
Speaking on ABC TV's The 7.30 Report last night, he said the rape was not an isolated case.
"This is the tip of a tragic iceberg and it's a problem that has been going on for a long time," he said.
"It's a problem that we've been trying to highlight for a long time now and it's a problem that is not disappearing.
"There's nothing that we are currently doing that is decisively avoiding this kind of tragedy."
Mr Pearson says there are on average 80 reported cases needing child protection per month in the Cape York region, although not all are sexual abuse cases.
"They involve neglect of children as well, the vast majority involve neglect of children from malnutrition or general care, but they do also include abuse cases," he said.
"We will get 80 cases reported month - 30 are substantiated and this is an average monthly reporting level for child protection."
He says this is a crisis.
"It's a crisis that the State Government has attempted to respond to through its new child safety system and through alcohol limitations and so on, but it's not a crisis that we are on top of," he said.
Remove the children
He says part of the answer is to remove the children at risk.
"It's the immediate answer, absolutely," he said.
"We have got to shed any hesitation whatsoever about the notion that we should take children away from abusive situations and place them into foster care whether it be with Aboriginal families or European families.
"We've got to shed any kind of silly hesitation about that.
"The paramount issue has got to be the safety of the children and in my view that hesitation that has prevailed in child protection practice has contributed to a great deal of harm to children."
He says he has absolutely no doubt the perpetrators of the gang rape, some of them only teenagers, should have gone to jail.
"There is absolutely no justification for leniency," he said.
"In fact, part of the whole breakdown, the social and cultural breakdown that we see in our communities is the consequence of courts taking into account the historical and social background of Aboriginal offenders.
"In the past 30 years there's been a tendency for the judicial system to take into account this cultural and historical background of Aboriginal offenders and therefore resulting in leniency, when in fact the imperative has all along been to make sure that social norms are observed and maintained in communities.
"If we want to diminish in the long term the number of Aboriginal people in prison, we have got to have low tolerance of anti-social behaviour and criminal behaviour.
"We have got to have low tolerance to interference sexually with children. We have to have low tolerance with adults who are behaving badly and affecting sober members of the community and so on.
Families commission
He says federal funding has been granted for a plan to trial a families commission in four Cape York communities.
"We have approval from the previous government and the Rudd and Macklin government have confirmed their continued support for this, so we have Commonwealth support for the program," he said.
"The program involves putting obligations on every person that receives income support from Government.
"Those obligations are to send your child to school, to keep your child free from abuse and neglect, to make sure that you abide by the law and to make sure that you look after your house and abide by your tenancy rules - those are the four conditions.
"Now, what we need in order for this to work now and we're proposing to start the implementation of this program in January next year, in four communities, including Aurukun, four communities in the Cape are ready to go with this new approach to welfare conditionality.
"But what we need is state legislation, Queensland Government legislation, to create the necessary decision-making body.
"Now we had federal legislation passed by [former federal Indigenous Minister] Mal Brough in July.
"So the Commonwealth part of the jigsaw has been put into place. The money has been put into place. The third part of the jigsaw which is the state legislation to create this body is still missing."
Queensland Premier Anna Bligh told The 7.30 Report on Tuesday night she had already agreed with the Federal Government to "a family responsibilities commission".
Timing problems
But although aspects are already in the process of legislative drafting as part of the agreement Queensland has with the Commonwealth, Mr Pearson says there is a problem with timing.
"We had federal legislation in July. We had the money committed by the Federal Government in July. We've had six months to create this state legislation so that we can kick off in January," he said.
"Our hope was that in the beginning of the school term next year those new conditions will kick in: send your kid to school, make sure they're looked after and fed and so on."
He says the first challenge is to stop the "blame game" to make sure this plan is implemented quickly.
"In a sense this is the first kind of stop the buck passing, stop the blame game problem that's confronting both the Queensland and the new Federal Government," he said.
"This is the first challenge for stopping the blame game and the challenge involves Queensland acting quickly to create the necessary commission.
"In my view the urgency of the Aurukun case really begs the question as to whether Parliament in Queensland should urgently resume to create the necessary body that we need, this family responsibilities commission."
Rudd fears
Before the federal election, Mr Pearson labelled now Prime Minister Kevin Rudd as "heartless" when he refused to commit to a referendum on reconciliation.
Mr Pearson also said he had long experience of Mr Rudd's "cynicism and opportunism" under the Goss Government and dreaded a Rudd-lead government.
"My comments were about the specific issue of the renege on the constitutional amendment," he said.
"But on these human questions of social tragedy involving young children, I have detected complete empathy and sympathy from both the Prime Minister and Minister for Aboriginal Affairs.
"I'm confident that there is solid support for the welfare reform program that we have.
"In my view, unless we tackle grog and welfare, the problems of this 10-year-old child at Aurukun ultimately will have no solution."
See: ABC News
Push to make CDEP reforms go further
ABC News | 12 December 2007
The Northern Territory's Larrakia Nation says Commonwealth reforms to the Community Development Employment Project don't go far enough.
The Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin says a modified version of the Aboriginal work for the dole program will be made available to all Indigenous communities around Australia.
Spokeswoman Illana Eldridge says Larrakia Nation lost about 60 per cent of its workforce when CDEP was cut from urban settings this year and she wants it reinstated.
"We really need CDEP reinstated in some of the urban centres particularly here in Darwin where we have at least three sizeable town camps where there is massive unemployment amongst the residents and very few realistic programs to assist."
See: ABC News
We need the help of 20 million people up here: Letters To The Editor
12 December 2007
Multiple rapists of a little girl and no punishment in the worst of the dysfunctional
settlements here. What are the 20 million of you doing down there? There are
20,000 of us on Cape York and we need your help. You as a person, not politicians,
representatives of your race or governments.
There must be some of you with compassion and love strong and deep inside, but
with hard, thick skins to accept the daily realities of life here. Don't make excuses,
as most of the black and white people do up here. Just come and see. If you have
any education, you'll get a job. Then some of you will not go back. You'll stay and try
to help.
Rod Cordell, Lockhart River, Qld
Just what is going on?
UNDER what normal circumstances does a 10-year-old girl "consent" to have sex
with nine males? What goes through the mind of a judge when she or he "accepts"
that such a girl is "not forced"? What message does such a judge want the local and
national communities to take when allowing perpetrators to walk free from such a
crime?
Andrew McIntosh, Glenroy
Now we must say sorry
I HAVE always been a bit ambivalent about the need to say sorry to indigenous
Australians. I always thought that providing practical assistance should be a higher
priority.
Now there is a definite need to say sorry. Sorry that we are still living in an age when
seven and 10-year-old Aboriginal girls can be gang-raped by men, and the monsters
who perpetrate this heinous crime are effectively told: "Do it again and I will be very
cross with you," instead of getting 20 to 30 years behind bars. Sorry that the
traumatised girl was told, "she'll be right mate, she probably asked for it".
We should say sorry for past injustices. Then maybe these do-good, politically
correct social workers will do the right thing by the individual and not their politics,
potentially saving another girl (or boy) from the same appalling fate.
Stephen Mead, Rowville
It's all empty words
MURIEL Bamblett's speech (Opinion, 11/12) is a sad reflection of the paucity of
analysis in Aboriginal policy. It does not suggest one thing that would assist
Aboriginal people. It is filled with concepts such as "reconciliation", "sorry", "treaty",
"deep listening". These are meaningless vehicles for an Aboriginal policy class to
talk endlessly while denying that they escaped poor beginnings via an education that
gave them the skills to make their way in the world.
This is real self-determination, not some romantic idea that a collection of people
with a chip on their shoulder can, with endless public money, resurrect a long dead
world.
The damage of this thinking is being played out in Queensland, where a judge has
allowed nine men and boys to escape punishment for the rape of a 10-year-old.
Sorry, but that is irresponsible. They were guilty, they should be punished as any
other Australian citizen would be. To treat them differently is racist.
Better Ms Bamblett and her agency should help each child that comes to their
attention, without fear or favour, or the prejudice of an ideology of "cultural
separation" that has obviously clouded her judgement.
Gary Johns, president, The Bennelong Society, Brisbane, Qld
The Sydney Morning Herald
Different perspective
"Gang of nine men rape 10-year-old Mosman girl and walk free" is unthinkable as a
headline. Why are Aboriginal children's lives worth so much less, Your Honour
("PM's fury at freeing of girl's gang rapists", December 11)?
Alanna Hector North Ryde
It's little to ask for in return
"Woy Woy" is an Aboriginal term which is said to mean "much water" or "big
lagoon". Ever wonder, Mitchell Beston (Letters, December 11), why your suburb has
an Aboriginal name? Because that land, along with the rest of Australia, was
originally inhabited by Aborigines, and taken from them by force and by stealth.
You are not responsible for the crime, but you're living on the proceeds. You're not
even being asked to make that crime good - only to acknowledge that it took place.
The same applies to the stolen generation.
Rowan Savage Leichhardt
As a migrant I have some sympathy for Mitchell Beston's point of view. Yes Mitchell,
we need to move on.
But I can also see the other point of view. You cannot move on unless you have
closure on a past chapter. And as long as I benefit from the riches of this wonderful
country, I feel that I am also responsible for the wrongs done to the first people.
For my part, I would like the Prime Minister to say sorry, on my behalf, to the first
people.
Bharat Patel Warrawee
MOST TALKED ABOUT
JUSTICE DENIED
I WOULD like to offer my congratulations to The Australian for once again exposing
the appalling reality of abuse in Aboriginal communities (``Child safety failed rape
girl'', 11/12).
I have been involved in the Aboriginal health area for more than 15 years and the
biggest problem I have encountered in trying to overcome the terrible problems that
exist in Aboriginal communities has been the previously unchallenged and
aggressive views of a few Aboriginal leaders and their non-Aboriginal followers that
any ``interference'' by authorities in their ``culture'' is to be resisted.
Much of this resistance is to enable these leaders to keep their well-paid positions of
power within the current system and their non-Aboriginal followers to indulge in
cultural fantasies about noble natives and a simple, superior lifestyle that doesn't
exist.
The truth is that many Aboriginal communities are desperate, broken places where
the culture revolves around drinking and gambling and violence and abuse is rife.
Children are neglected and abused whilst family members sit around drinking and
gambling away their welfare payments.
It is usually impossible to get community members to do simple things that would
make a huge difference to their own health and that of their families, such as to
engage in personal, domestic and community hygiene. Agencies shy away from
practical interventions on issues such as this for fear of being pilloried as
paternalistic. So, instead, they treat the numerous disease consequences of living in
filthy conditions and continue with programs that are ineffective but ``culturally
secure''.
In Western Australia, there are nearly 300 discrete Aboriginal communities, almost
all of them physically and economically unsustainable. The time has come to be
realistic about the majority of these communities and to properly manage the
gradual transition to mainstream centres where there are services on hand to care
for the health and well-being of both children and adults and to ensure a good
education, employment opportunities and a safe and clean environment.
Children, no matter their race or background, all need the same basic conditions in
order to thrive and be healthy. Aboriginal kids will not lose their culture by adopting a
mainstream lifestyle _ they will actually acquire the ability to learn what true
indigenous culture is all about, instead of thinking it to be a tradition of violence,
abuse and hopelessness.
Jean Thornton
Como, WA
ONCE again, we see evidence that our legal system is totally inadequate for
handling sensitive cases of child sex abuse. We must be the laughing stock of the
Western world when the crown prosecutor describes as ``childish experimentation''
the gang-rape of a 10-year-old girl by nine males, one of whom, a 26-year-old, at the
time of sentencing already had a conviction as a child sex offender. Although the girl
acquired a sexually transmitted infection in the rape, had to be removed from the
Aurukun community (while the perpetrators remain at home) and needs
psychological treatment, it seems that the crown prosecutor involved, Steve Carter,
dismissed the offences as ``very naughty''.
There is clearly a need for drastic law reform in this country and I suggest that those
responsible for making decisions about children's lives should be experts in child
development and abuse, not merely the law. In the meantime, Carter should be
removed from office forthwith, preferably to spend time with victim support services
to witness for himself the damage caused by what he perceives as ``childish
experimentation''.
Freda Briggs
Magill, SA
MANY lawyers will know the frustrations of defending to friends and acquaintances
the vagaries of the legal system. We conscientiously point out that each case is
different; that newspaper reports give only a part of the story and often a less than
impartial account of the facts; and that the judicial system depends upon the
independent discretion of individual judges. Sometimes, though, cases come along
that make these explanations hard to maintain and difficult to accept.
Not long ago, this newspaper reported the cases from NSW of multiple gang rape
which saw release dates set for some offenders at 2032 and 2033. The stark
contrast with the recent case from Cape York is fairly obvious. It is trite to say that all
cases are different, but it seems difficult to think that these decisions sit easily
together within a coherent Australian judicial system. One or other of them must
engender a legitimate sense of grievance.
The judge's sentencing remarks, as you reported them, were extraordinary. The
idea that a 10-year-old child might give any meaningful ``consent'' to sexual activity
is both risible and offensive. As it happens, it is also contrary to section 349(3) of the
Queensland Criminal Code.
Ian Weldon
Joondalup, WA
IF the prosecution got it wrong in not demanding a tough enough sentence for nine
rapists, and the judge got it wrong for agreeing, it wasn't ill intent. It was an excess
of good intent. And that's what the problem is on the white side of black-white
relations in this country: bending over backwards to do the right thing while being
confused about what that is.
Gordon Drennan
Burton, SA
An expression of regret
FEARS of massive compensation claims or retrospective witch-hunts over Prime
Minister Kevin Rudd's intention to say ``sorry'' to indigenous Australians are ill-
informed and baseless (``Saying sorry may be costly, warns Abbott'', 10/12).
There is no chance this will happen. In law, clear legal precedent exists that saying
``sorry'' does not admit legal culpability, but rather is an expression of regret.
This issue has been tested legally for years in medical negligence cases. NSW
Health advises doctors that, ``An apology does not constitute an admission of fault
or liability and neither is it relevant to the determination of fault or liability in
connection with a matter.'' It is a sincere expression of regret that means a lot on a
human and moral level but at the same time doesn't expose the Australian
government legally.
Elizabeth Dent
Rose Bay, NSW
|
Alice council writes condolence letter to Brough
ABC News | 12 December 2007
The Alice Springs Town Council is writing to the former Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough, thanking him for instigating the intervention in the Northern Territory's Aboriginal communities.
Mr Brough lost his Queensland seat in the election on November 24.
Mayor Fran Kilgariff says the letter will express the council's sympathy and acknowledge Mr Brough's dedication to improving the welfare of Aboriginal people.
" He had a real passion for making changes. I suspect he didn't spend enough time in his electorate and he just spent so much time on an issue that I don't think was very much of a vote-winner for him in his own electorate.
"So council has decided that we would recognise the effort and the changes that he has been the instigator of here."
Ms Kilgariff says she's concerned the new Federal Labor Government won't follow through with the intervention.
"One of the worst things that could happen is that all these changes could be set in motion and then they would be either reversed or diluted because the funding or the political will is not there."
See: ABC News
Police chief to begin new intervention role
ABC News | 12 December 2007
The police commander for the southern region of the Northern Territory, Mark Coffey, says he hopes to be able to make a difference in his new role working with the Commonwealth intervention in the Northern Territory.
Commander Coffey is leaving the force this week after 22 years with Northern Territory police.
He has taken up a job as the manager of the Commonwealth's Indigenous Coordination Centre in Alice Springs and says the intervention will play a major role in his new position.
Commander Coffey says he will be coordinating the delivery of Commonwealth and NT services for Indigenous people.
"We all know that Indigenous people don't have the same quality of life as other people and that's where it will be a real challenge and I'm really looking forward to try and make some improvement in that area and hopefully with everyone working together we can make some real improvements," he said.
See: ABC News
Minister to discuss Indigenous options for Qld
ABC News | 12 December 2007
Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin says she is happy to discuss with Queensland what lessons can be learnt from the Northern Territory intervention.
Ms Macklin says she spoke to Queensland Premier Anna Bligh yesterday about the situation in Cape York Indigenous communities and the Aurukun child rape case.
A Crown prosecutor has been stood down over the case and state Attorney-General Kerry Shine is appealing against what he describes as the "extremely lenient" sentences given to the nine offenders.
He has also ordered a review of 64 other Cape York sexual assault cases.
Ms Macklin says she is keen to hold further discussions with Ms Bligh about what help the Commonwealth can provide.
"It would be very helpful for the two of us to get together as soon as possible to discuss what we have learnt from the Northern Territory intervention and what issues might be useful to be implemented in Queensland," she said.
But Queensland Premier Anna Bligh says there is no need for a Northern Territory-style intervention in Cape York Indigenous communities.
Ms Bligh says many Cape York communities are profoundly dysfunctional, but there are differences to the situation in the Northern Territory.
"The Queensland communities do not operate on a permit system," she said.
"There are full-time police officers and other agencies present in these communities already in Queensland.
"I should stress that our child protection was the subject of a commission of inquiry three years ago."
Macklin talks in NT
Meanwhile, Ms Macklin says she is planning to meet Indigenous leaders in Darwin this weekend to discuss the future of the Northern Territory intervention.
When it was in opposition Labor supported the intervention, but criticised some specific measures.
Ms Macklin says Labor still opposes the changes to the permit system for access to traditional lands, and the scrapping of the CDEP scheme.
"On Saturday I'll be having a meeting with a range of Indigenous people in the Northern Territory to begin a process of discussion and consultation with them," she said.
"They really need to be brought into this whole process in a way that unfortunately they haven't been, up to date."
See: ABC News
'No proof' Indigenous programs working in Cape York
ABC News | 12 December 2007
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Tom Calma says there is no proof intervention programs in Aboriginal communities like Aurukun are working.
Mr Calma says millions of dollars have been spent in Cape York since Council of Australian Government trials started in 2002 in a bid to improve the well-being of Indigenous people.
His comments follow public outrage at the rape of a 10-year-old girl in Aurukun and the minimal sentencing of nine males who pleaded guilty to the crime.
Mr Calma says programs developed for the community have not been evaluated.
"Aurukun was a community that has benefited from a lot of intervention from federal and state government as well as through organisations like the Cape York Institute and Bulkanan," he said.
"One must now have a look and say well let's evaluate those programs to see what has worked and what hasn't worked."
He says he believes state and federal government funding could be being wasted.
See: ABC News
Welfare quarantining accused of demoralising residents
ABC News | 11 December 2007
The manager of the Hermannsburg supermarket says the start of quarantined welfare payments in the community has been demoralising for residents.
The Federal Government recently started quarantining 50 per cent of welfare payments for people in Hermannsburg as part of the intervention in the Northern Territory.
Charlie Fletcher has been running the supermarket in Hermannsburg west of Alice Springs for about 12 years, and says he's noticed some worrying spending patterns since the introduction of welfare quarantining in the community.
Mr Fletcher says some people are spending their money allocated to the store in one hit.
"It's virtually gone back to the days when they'd get the pension check and they'd just go and spend the whole lot virtually at the one time. The best budget thing that these people have got is the ATM. They come in they pull out 50 dollars, they do their shopping, come back the next day buy another $50 or $60."
He says the new rules should not apply to all people in Hermannsburg on welfare.
"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."
See: ABC News
PM's fury at freeing of girl's gang rapists
Sydney Morning Herald | 11 December 2007
A judge came under wide attack yesterday over her decision to set free nine Aboriginal males who pleaded guilty to gang-raping a 10-year-old girl - a sentence that has spurred an appeal and a review of all recent sentences for sex crimes in Cape York.
The Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, joined a chorus of criticism of Judge Sarah Bradley's decision on the Aurukun rapists, which he said "disgusted and appalled" him. It has emerged that Judge Bradley had ordered that no conviction be recorded against six of the offenders, who were juveniles. The other three offenders had six-month jail sentences suspended for a year.
During a sentencing hearing in October Judge Bradley said: "I accept that the girl . was not forced and that she probably agreed to have sex with all of you."
The Queensland Attorney-General, Kerry Shine, announced an appeal against the sentences, and a review of all sentences for sexual offences in Cape York communities in the past two years. The Queensland Premier, Anna Bligh, said she was horrified by the leniency of the sentences and was concerned it might reflect a broader trend for remote communities.
"I am not prepared to just write this off as an unusual one-off case. I do want to satisfy myself this is not part of a broader sentencing trend that reflects a lower standard [of justice] for those communities."
Today's Australian newspaper reports that the victim in the Aurukun case is "mildly intellectually impaired". It quotes a Department of Child Safety report from last May - a month after the rape - which describes the girl having gone to a clinic seeking a pregnancy test, telling staff she was having consensual sex, and requesting condoms.
It also reports the girl had been living with a white foster family before being returned to Aurukun. Her foster father and an unnamed department official are quoted saying the department feared being accused of creating "another stolen generation" if it left her with the white family.
The Federal Government has called a summit of Aboriginal leaders in the Northern Territory to discuss the Howard government's $1.5 billion takeover of 73 remote communities. The Indigenous Affairs Minister, Jenny Macklin, plans to chair the summit, which has the support of land councils, in Darwin as early as this weekend.
The former Australian of the year Galarrwuy Yunupingu is invited. There is speculation that Mr Rudd may attend.
In one of her first acts as minister yesterday, Ms Macklin placed a moratorium on the dismantling of the work-for-the-dole Community Development Employment Program. But she declared the Government "strongly supports" the quarantining of welfare payments to reduce cash that can be spent on alcohol, drugs and gambling. She gave the go-ahead for the quarantining of such payments in 13 more communities, including violence-torn town camps in Katherine.
See: Sydney Morning Herald
NT intervention made a mess: NLC
The Age | 11 December 2007
The Howard government's intervention in Northern Territory Aboriginal communities has "created a mess" but it can be made to work, a powerful indigenous lobby group says.
The Northern Land Council (NLC) has been honoured with the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission's community award.
Accepting the award in Sydney, the NLC's new chairman Wali Wunungmurra said the organisation had fought to represent traditional Aboriginal landowners and their rights.
Mr Wunungmurra is the last surviving signatory of the 1963 bark petition, which opposed the bauxite mine at Gove and sought land rights for Arnhem Land people.
It led to the 1967 referendum, the 1976 Land Rights Act and the Mabo decision.
"Since the bark petition some major matters have gone backwards," Mr Wunungmurra said in his speech.
"For over 30 years both the commonwealth and Northern Territory governments have failed to provide equal services in Aboriginal communities - especially for education, housing, employment and police."
He said the NLC supported the federal intervention into Northern Territory Aboriginal communities as the best way to redress basic inequalities.
But Mr Wunungmurra attacked the architect of the reforms to combat child sex abuse - former indigenous affairs minister Mal Brough - saying his approach had breached commonwealth law and had "proceeded without consultation in a manner intended to polarise the community for political purposes".
"Mr Brough was ill-informed and did not listen to Aboriginal communities - instead taking his advice from elsewhere," he said.
"The result is that the reported positive outcomes of reduced crime and increased school attendance in some communities must be balanced against the fact that sacred sites have been desecrated and many Aboriginal people are confused and not supportive.
"Now we have to clean up the mess that Mr Brough left behind."
A retired Federal Court judge has also criticised the intervention.
Ron Merkel, QC, labelled the former government's intervention into Northern Territory indigenous communities as misconceived and poorly planned.
He said former prime minister John Howard and former indigenous affairs minister Mal Brough used a report into sexual abuse in indigenous communities, the Little Children are Sacred report, to justify the intervention but no evidence of sexual abuse had been exposed as a result.
"To date, I'm not aware of one sexual abuse charge that has been brought by the taskforce or as result of its activities," Mr Merkel told lawyers at the Melbourne offices of law firm Mallesons Stephen Jaques.
He said mandatory health checks had failed to uncover sexual abuse and in many cases doubled up on information already known by existing health services.
"My conclusion drawn from this ... the intervention to save the children was misconceived and poorly planned, and it raises questions about what was the purpose of the intervention," he said.
Mr Merkel was speaking at Mallesons' annual Human Rights Day Lecture.
He said the former government imposed the intervention on communities without any consultation.
"It was imposed by Mr Howard and Mr Brough from Canberra as their solution," he said.
Mr Merkel concluded that while the intentions of the government to protect children from abuse may have been genuine, the process was carried out with a lack of understanding.
"I think I can accept that aspects of the intervention - alcohol, health checks - were related to protecting the children," he said.
"But I cannot reconcile the restructure of land rights and the permit system, the takeover of Aboriginal corporations - that raises serious questions about whether ... the public has been misled abut the intervention.
"It was put forward to save the children, but seems to have been put forward for other purposes - the main underlying purpose was to mainstream indigenous Australians in the Northern Territory."
Mr Merkel said it was a "fundamental flaw" that the government had not really tried to understand the depth and complexities of the problems facing indigenous communities.
He said the intervention could be considered a fundamental breach of human rights.
The right for minorities to practice and enjoy their own culture was enshrined as the right to difference under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
"The idea of the government, by social engineering, seeking to fundamentally change Aboriginal society in this way...that is really a fundamental breach of human rights," he said.
The new federal Labor government under Prime Minister Kevin Rudd plans to keep the intervention but reject some elements of it.
Mr Rudd plans to reinstate the permit system, which regulates access to indigenous communities and was set to be abolished under existing legislation on February 18.
See: The Age
Aboriginal people need the fires of reconciliation to be relit
The Age | 11 December 2007
Self-determination must be the way forward for a marginalised people.
Today is a historic day, not only in the life of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people but in the life of this nation.
Fifteen years ago today, a prime minister, Paul Keating, in plain language and without qualification, acknowledged the basic wrongness of colonisation and its negative impact on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
He did it in the heart of an urban Aboriginal community, a site of resistance for Aboriginal Australia, and he called on non-indigenous Australia to imagine what life had become for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in colonised Australia.
It was a beginning point for reconciliation that was never realised, not even by his government.
With the recent change of government and the end of the Howard era of denialism, we have another chance at creating a new relationship between our peoples.
It's as if a fog has lifted - but it still hovers above our heads and continues to threaten Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with its toxicity.
What we remain unsure of is whether our rights to self-determination will be realised.
The bipartisan support for the Northern Territory intervention raises the question of whether, for us, there has been any change at all.
Let me be perfectly clear: our fundamental concern is for the safety of our children.
But what makes Australia most unsafe for our children is the racism and cultural abuse that the Northern Territory emergency intervention acts represent. Overriding the Racial Discrimination Act does not make our children safe.
Suspending rights and community control of Aboriginal land does not make our children safe. Disempowering our communities does not make our children safe.
If you are going to tackle the causes of abuse, you must empower people, you must build a response on the basis of people's strengths, not their weaknesses.
If people feel in control over their lives they have a greater sense of the future - beyond the next drink or the next hit or the next sniff of petrol.
That word "empowerment" is the critical one. Unlike the previous federal minister for indigenous affairs, I took seriously the recommendations of the Little Children are Sacred report concerning child abuse in the Northern Territory.
The authors of that report summarised their 97 recommendations in that one word - "empowerment".
They understood that what caused child abuse in Aboriginal communities - as well as the non-indigenous perpetrators the Government ignored in their response - was a lack of self-determination and a sense of despair about the future.
It is clear self-determination requires respectful partnerships and capacity-building processes.
Investments in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-led solutions must be made so that the community capacity can be restored.
Responses must be informed and led by local Aboriginal communities.
It is only by strengthening the capacity of families and communities to protect and nurture children that the problems will be resolved. Aboriginal ownership and control of land and access to communities are critical to success.
As visiting American trauma expert Dr Bruce Perry pointed out, indigenous communities that are empowered and able to embed culture into their programs are more likely to be effective in dealing with the impact of trans-generational trauma.
Empowerment is all about being treated as self-determining peoples and not client communities.
We need to pressure the Rudd Government to use the financial resources their predecessors committed to Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory and reshape the intervention to one run by Aboriginal communities and agencies.
We need a new approach to indigenous affairs that is human-rights based and focused on understandings of social inclusion and social investment.
Deep listening is required to heal this nation of the scourge of colonisation.
Deep listening is the way through to curing family dysfunction and child abuse by curing the causes - disconnection from culture and land and the lack of self-determination that feeds into a sense of helplessness.
If we begin with listening we can relight the fire of reconciliation.
But as a young member of my staff at VACCA reminded me - we must not only keep that fire lit, we must keep it burning.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have our many warriors for truth who keep that fire alive in our hearts every day.
Non-indigenous people have the embers of the Redfern speech and the reconciliation walks that need to be relit and not only occasionally warm your faces but become a fire in your hearts too.
Then the road to real reconciliation with its signposts of "sorry" and "treaty" can be travelled by all of us and the re-imagining of a new nation that respects and treasures the sovereignty and self-determination of its first peoples with justice and honour can begin.
Muriel Bamblett is chief executive of the Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency. This is an extract of her speech at the "Self-determination, not Invasion" forum at the Melbourne Town Hall yesterday.
See: The Age
Indigenous health expert wants change
The Australian | 11 December 2007
A member of the taskforce overseeing the commonwealth intervention in Northern Territory Aboriginal communities has welcomed the election of the Rudd Government as an opportunity to make changes to the federal action in indigenous affairs.
Bill Glasson, a former Australian Medical Association president, said he believed the new Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin was sending the right messages and a Labor-led intervention could still have a major impact.
"The things she's been saying have been good," Dr Glasson said. "Some things need to be modified. There's a tremendous opportunity to look at what we've done so far and make changes."
Members of the taskforce are expected to meet the new minister next month.
Labor has committed to continue the intervention but promised to retain the permit access system to Aboriginal communities and reinstate the Community Development Employment Projects, a scheme axed by the Howard government.
Ms Macklin said she would negotiate with the states to replicate aspects of the intervention in places other than the NT if an evaluation of the work done in the territory showed it would work elsewhere.
Dr Glasson wrote in the latest edition of The Medical Journal of Australia that there had been a sharp decrease in the physical abuse of women and children in the NT since the intervention began.
He said he only had anecdotal evidence. The Australian has heard similar anecdotal evidence that expanded alcohol bans and tougher penalties have shown a reduction in violence.
But Dr Glasson said the health crisis facing remote communities was "in some respects more devastating than anywhere else in the world".
He said renal and coronary heart disease rates among indigenous people "could well be" worse than in any other country.
The initial phase of the Northern Territory Emergency Response includes health checks to be carried out on up to 17,000 children aged 15 years and under in 73 target communities.
More than 3000 checks have already been carried out, revealing an even more disturbing picture of indigenous health than previously thought, Dr Glasson said. About 80 per cent of indigenous children had middle-ear diseases and intestinal parasites and skin infections were rife.
Dr Glasson said an absence of clean running water meant viruses and bacteria flourished, in turn contributing to devastating levels of renal and heart disease.
See: The Australian
'Ideology' drove intervention
The Australian | 11 December 2007
The Northern Territory intervention was misconceived and poorly planned and driven by an ideology that a white picket fence could be constructed in the heart of the Australian Aborigine, former federal court judge Ron Merkel said yesterday.
In a foretaste of a High Court challenge to the intervention, which he will lead, Mr Merkel said that while an intervention in Aboriginal communities was undoubtedly long overdue, the intervention crafted by the Howard government was "an exercise in social engineering".
"One of the earlier, most tragic, failures of such an exercise is the removal of indigenous children, now colloquially referred to as the stolen generation," he said.
Mr Merkel is representing traditional owner Reggie Wurridjal and the Bawinanga Aboriginal Corporation, at Maningrida, who have challenged key elements of the intervention, including the commonwealth's five-year acquisition of land and its ability to seize assets of indigenous corporations. The case is expected to be heard in March.
Speaking at law firm Mallesons Stephen Jaques in Melbourne, Mr Merkel said the intervention brought to mind the observation by US Supreme Court justice Louis D. Brandeis that "the greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning, but without understanding".
"No-one could reasonably deny an intervention is necessary," Mr Merkel said. "Child abuse ... is at unacceptable levels in indigenous communities. Domestic violence is at equally unacceptable levels.
"By any measure on the social barometer ... the indigenous communities are at the bottom of every scale in this country."
But the Howard government had ignored the recommendations of the Little Children are Sacred report, which was the catalyst for the intervention, and went well beyond child protection in framing its emergency response laws. He said it was revealing that between June and August, the purpose of the intervention shifted from child protection to dysfunction to "mainstreaming" or "normalising" remote communities.
Requiring courts to disregard Aboriginal culture in sentencing, abolishing the permit system, and seizing communally owned land attacked the pillars of Aboriginal culture and was the "heart and soul" of the intervention, he said.
He said the idea that if you squeezed an Aboriginal person hard enough out would pop a whitefella, or that "imbedded deep in every Aboriginal heart was a white picket fence", was "probably the most concerning aspect of the intervention".
He said he had "a degree of confidence" that the Rudd Government would unwind the most ideologically driven aspects of the intervention.
See: The Australian
Opal fuel is 'sniffable', expert tells inquest
ABC News | 11 December 2007
A forensic pathologist has told an inquest into the death of a 12-year-old boy at a Central Australian Aboriginal community he believes Opal is a sniffable fuel.
The boy suffocated while trying to inhale Opal at Hermannsburg, 120 kilometres west of Alice Springs in April this year.
The fuel, which does not give people a high, has been rolled out across Central Australia to help stop petrol sniffing.
Dr Terrence Sinton has told an inquest in Alice Springs the vapour from the fuel replaced the air in the boy's lungs, causing his death.
The counsel assisting the coroner, Dr Celia Kemp, told the inquest earlier today the fuel's manufacturer, BP, referred to it as "non-sniffable" on its website.
She asked Dr Sinton if it was true to say that Opal was non-sniffable.
He replied that in his opinion, it was sniffable.
The inquest will resume tomorrow.
See: ABC News
Welfare quarantining creates supermarket spending concerns
ABC News | 11 December 2007
The manager of the supermarket in the central Australian Aboriginal community of Hermannsburg says he has noticed some worrying spending patterns since the introduction of welfare quarantining.
Charlie Fletcher has been running the supermarket in Hermannsburg, west of Alice Springs, for about 12 years.
The Federal Government recently started quarantining 50 per cent of welfare payments in Hermannsburg as part of the intervention in the Northern Territory.
Mr Fletcher says some people are spending their money allocated to the store in one hit.
"It's gone virtually back to the days when people were getting their pension cheques where they'd get the pension cheque and they'd just go and spend the whole lot virtually at the one time," he said.
"The best budget thing that these people have got is the ATM, they come in they pull out $50, they do their shopping, come back the next day buy another $50 or $60."
See: ABC News
Stolen Generations apology starts today: Macklin
ABC News | 11 December 2007
The Federal Government says it will today begin the formal process of formulating an apology to the Stolen Generations.
Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin has launched a magazine to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the Bringing Them Home report in Sydney this morning.
She says she will also be meeting Indigenous leaders to start discussions on an official apology.
"What we want to do is stand together, with you, and pledge a new relationship, a new relationship that is steady, and based primarily on respect," she said.
'Sorry' needed
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Tom Calma has outlined conditions for an official apology.
Mr Calma says the election of a new federal government is a second chance for it to apologise to those who were forcibly removed from their families.
He says the apology must include the word "sorry" and be formulated in consultation with Indigenous groups. He also says it should unite rather than divide the nation.
Mr Calma says an apology by the Australian Government does not need to cover every act since colonisation.
He says its important the apology is specific to the Stolen Generations as they are the people who need closure.
"We should constrain ourselves to looking at what the Bringing Them Home report recommendations were in relation to the apology and not try and make that an apology which takes into account everything that's happened since colonisation," he said.
Mr Calma is among several Indigenous leaders meeting with Ms Macklin.
He predicts the apology could be given by May next year.
See: ABC News
Macklin, Scrymgour not commenting on remote health funding
ABC News | 11 December 2007
The Federal Government and Northern Territory Government are yet to comment on claims that a $100 million Commonwealth funding commitment to remote health is on the rocks.
The Territory's Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance raised concerns over the funding this morning.
The former Coalition government committed the $100 million to remote health in September.
The alliance's John Boffa says there are now suggestions that money was not appropriated before the federal election.
He says it is now unclear whether the new federal Labor Government will stand by the funding commitment.
Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin and NT Indigenous Policy Minister Marion Scrymgour have refused to comment on the issue at this stage.
A spokesman for Ms Scrymgour says she will not comment until she has met with her federal counterpart.
He says that meeting will take place sometime in the next week.
See: ABC News
Saying sorry may be costly, warns Abbott
News.com.au | 10 December 2007
Tony Abbott has repudiated calls by Kevin Rudd and Liberal MP Malcolm Turnbull for an apology to Aborigines, warning it could open the door to financial compensation claims.
Accusing proponents of an apology of "playing word games", Mr Abbott also rejected Mr Turnbull's suggestion that John Howard became tangled in semantics over the issue.
Speaking in his new role as the Liberals' families and indigenous affairs spokesman, Mr Abbott said symbolism was important but practical solutions were better.
Asked specifically about Mr Turnbull's remarks on the "semantics" of Mr Howard's position, he said the whole debate should have remained in the 1990s.
"Well, this whole question of a formal apology, I think the proponents, no less than the opponents, are getting hung up on semantics," Mr Abbott said.
"Because, let's face it, back in 1999 the parliament unanimously carried a resolution of profound and sincere regret about the various mistakes that had been made in terms of indigenous policy over the years.
"So who is playing word games here? This apology ... I would like to see precisely what words the incoming Government is proposing, because finding a form of words that is acceptable to everyone is going to be an extraordinarily difficult business. One of the other issues is going to be trying to find a form of words that doesn't look like it's an admission of legal liability.
"Frankly, either Kevin Rudd has reopened it by accident or (as) a sop to the Left. Either way, it's a distraction from the main issue, which is trying to ensure that indigenous people are building better lives, rather than be hung up and fixated on the past."
The former health minister, who has publicly signalled he hopes to stand as a candidate for the leadership in the future, also laughed off Liberal leader Brendan Nelson's recent remarks that Mr Abbott's new portfolio could prove the "making of him".
"Look, I think what Brendan was saying ... was that this portfolio will give people an opportunity to see a different side to my parliamentary warrior and, you know, more of the compassionate policy-maker," he said.
Mr Abbott said he intended to hold Labor to account on its promise of maintaining and perhaps extending the Northern Territory intervention to tackle sex, drug and alcohol abuse and to improve the lives of children.
"Without the practical improvements, symbolic gestures are pretty meaningless. That, I think, is going to be the big challenge for the new Government: confronting the resistance in its own ranks to the Northern Territory intervention."
Mr Abbott said the views he expressed last year in a speech calling for a "new paternalism" to tackle indigenous disadvantage were now widely accepted, though controversial at the time.
"The general acceptance of the Northern Territory intervention, except by the die-hard Left, demonstrates the far-sightedness ... of that particular speech," he said.
"I was interested to hear Jenny Macklin say the intervention could be extended to the states. It would have been almost impossible for the Howard government to extend it to the states, given the politics of an election year."
In relation to his remarks last year, when he stated some traditional Aborigines should spend more time shooting camels and less time grieving, Mr Abbott said: "It was a sort of a light-hearted remark ... which inevitably gets taken out of context.
"I mean, feral animals are a real problem in these places and why can't local people who have, if you like, a hunting tradition, usefully employ their hunting skills in a way that would actually benefit the natural environment."
See: News.com.au
Abuse On Decline In NT: Glasson
The Coorabin | 10 December 2007
Physical abuse of women and children in remote Northern Territory Aboriginal communities has declined sharply since the commonwealth takeover, a former national president of the Australian Medical Association says.
Dr Bill Glasson - a member of the federal government's NT intervention task force - said the takeover was "bearing fruit" and should have the support of everyone concerned with indigenous health.
"For instance, the introduction of strict controls over alcohol consumption had a huge impact almost immediately," Dr Glasson said in one of a series of articles about the intervention in the latest Medical Journal of Australia.
"An indigenous woman told me that, for the first time she could remember, she had had a week of sleeping peacefully.
"A sharp reduction in the physical abuse of women and children has also been seen."
Dr Glasson said the same thing was probably happening with levels of child sexual abuse, the "horror" which sparked the intervention.
Thousands of children have been health checked as part of the intervention and Dr Glasson said the findings underlined the need for the intervention to continue.
"We already knew that the children in many of these communities had very high rates of chronic diseases, but have found that the situation is even worse than the official picture," he said.
Dr Glasson said while the intervention was not perfect, it was a tremendous opportunity to restore the health of the communities.
However, the intervention was attacked as "blatantly discriminatory" and likely to fail in another journal article, written by Alex Brown, director of the Centre for Indigenous Vascular and Diabetes Research in Alice Springs, and Ngiare Brown, senior research fellow at the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research.
"Activities have been poorly coordinated, poorly planned and liable to change and backtracking," they said.
"This has fuelled confusion and paranoia, and created enormous concern about the squandering of desperately needed resources, which are being used largely to install the bureaucracy rather than provide services."
In another article five NT health professionals said while the health checks were one good thing to come from the intervention, other aspects of it were likely to prove harmful.
"In particular, its initial implementation was profoundly disempowering to many Aboriginal people in an environment where disempowerment and loss of identity lie at the root of community dysfunction," they said.
~aap
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Human Rights: Self Determination Not Intervention
Scoop | 10 December 2007
Australia's most significant and unresolved human rights issues will be discussed at a public forum on the NT Intervention and the struggle for Indigenous Peoples justice at Melbourne Town Hall tonight to mark World Human Rights Day.
Barbara Shaw, a town camp resident in Alice Springs and executive member of Tangentyere council, is travelling from the NT to speak in Melbourne and will join with local Victorian speakers to talk about the recent NT Intervention and the human rights violations for aboriginal people right across Australia.
The little children are sacred report had nothing to do with land, and the Commonwealth's legislation has nothing to do with children", said Ms Shaw. "There is not a single reference to child protection in the hundreds of pages that comprise the Commonwealth's legislative package."
"John Howard neglected us for the last 11 years, now we have no rights to anything. With the intervention there's been changes to every law; land rights law, the racial discrimination act, the social security act. Minister Brough thought he had the power to take everything off us. Now the incoming Rudd government needs to get serious about restoring our rights and removing the Intervention legislation. I'm coming to Melbourne to inform the rest of Australia about the changes, to share stories of those on the ground and talk about what we can do next."
In August the Howard government passed the 'Intervention legislation that over-rode the Racial Discrimination Act. In September Australia was one of only four countries in the world that failed to ratify the UN Declaration on Indigenous Peoples Rights because they disagreed with the phrase "self-determination". Now the newly elected Rudd government is being called on to roll back the Intervention and get serious about addressing the human rights issues that are an everyday reality for Australia's indigenous peoples.
Robbie Thorpe, Gunnai-Kurnai/Tjap-Wharrung activist, said "Until the issue of the Black GST, (Genocide Sovereignty Treaty) are resolved, Australia remains a crime scene and the relationship between aboriginal and non-aboriginal people remains a blight on humanity. The treaty business remains central. A Treaty will provide a proper legal foundation for this country to grow as an independent nation."
Dr. Jocelyn Scutt, Human Rights Lawyer said "It was obvious no member of parliament could have read, much less absorbed, the 500 pages of NT legislation when it passed through Federal Parliament in 3 days. In those circumstances, asserting that they wanted to do 'the best' for indigenous children is not credible."
"Australia must move to ratify the UN Treaty on the rights of Indigenous persons immediately. The Government should also act to ensure that the recent history is not repeated and the racial discrimination act is never again bi-passed. As the first all encompassing discrimination legislation in Australia the Racial Discrimination Act must be strengthened and it integrity maintained."
Event details:
* 6:30pm for a 7pm start of speakers, Monday 10th December
* Swanston Hall at the Melbourne Town Hall, cnr Swanston St and Collins St.
* Organised by the Alliance for Indigenous Self-Determination.
See: Scoop
Early hitches in intervention payment plan
ABC News | 10 December 2007
Centrelink says it will investigate the case of an aged pensioner who's been told part of his welfare payments will be quarantined from this week even though he doesn't live in an Aboriginal community.
Sixty-nine-year-old Lionel Egan says he's angry and frustrated that his payments are being included in the welfare reform program which was introduced by the former coalition government and comes into effect on Wednesday.
Under the plan, the Federal Government quarantines 50 per cent of welfare payments for people in areas affected by the intervention in the Northern Territory.
Mr Egan is retired and lives 12 kilometres from the Daly River community.
He says he's been told he'll lose about $200 a fortnight when the welfare reforms are introduced.
A Centrelink spokesman says he can't comment on Mr Egan's case, but says that it is being looked into by the agency.
Meanwhile, the quarantining of payments in town camps around Alice Springs will be delayed until early January. A Centrelink spokeswoman says the transient nature of the camps means there have been delays doing one on one interviews with residents.
See: ABC News
Medical Journal attacks intervention
ABC News | 10 December 2007
A peak indigenous medical body wants legislation that it says violates human rights removed from the Commonwealth intervention in Northern Territory Aboriginal communities.
The Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance of the Northern Territory is one of a number of organisations to speak out against the intervention in today's Medical Journal of Australia.
AMSANT's John Boffa says he supports some aspects of the intervention but says the decision to make the legislation exempt from the racial discrimination act was wrong and should be overturned.
"We just don't think there's anyway that discriminatory laws that remove the fundamental human rights of some Aboriginal people are likely to promote the health and well being of the community.
"That's the major thing that we would like to see happen - we would like to see the Racial Discrimination Act reinstated very quickly."
Elsewhere in the journal:
Alice Springs' Dr Peter Tait says the intervention is a "white blindfold" that continues a culture of disrespect. He has called it a belated move to fix poverty, illness and violence caused by marginalisation of Aboriginal people by previous governments. He says he doubts the intervention will be successful.
Dr Alex Brown from the Centre for Indigenous Vascular and Diabetes Research says it remains unclear how the intervention will produce safer communities. He describes the legislation as poorly defined and says it's been unfortunate to watch parliament pass such racially discriminatory laws.
Not all the articles were negative though.
Dr Bill Glasson from the Emergency Response Taskforce defended the intervention, saying it's not paternalistic to be firm about unacceptable behaviour.
'Show us the money'
The Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance of the Northern Territory is also calling on the new Federal Labor Government to honour a multi-million dollar remote health commitment made by the Howard government.
Former Indigenous affairs minister Mal Brough announced the $100 million funding package in September this year, but the alliance's John Boffa has serious doubts about whether the funding really exists.
"There's been communication from a very senior bureaucrat level that the money hasn't been appropriated," he says.
He says the $100 million is desperately needed to improve primary health services.
"There's uncertainty now and these are the sorts of things that are going to make a big difference in terms of this intervention. We don't want it to be a short term, one off thing."
Mr Boffa says the new Labor Government announced $20 million towards remote health services in November, but he says it was assumed that that money would be in addition to the $100 million committed by the coalition.
The ABC has been unable to contact the Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin for comment.
See: ABC News
Scrymgour wants intervention funding maintained
ABC News | 7 December 2007
The Northern Territory's Indigenous Policy Minister says she will lobby for the level of intervention funding to be maintained when she meets her federal counterpart next week.
Marion Scrymgour has been critical of the Coalition's intervention in NT Indigenous affairs.
But she says she will emphasise to the new Labor Indigenous Affairs Minister, Jenny Macklin, that the money for medical staff and police is welcome.
"The measures that came out of the intervention, such as the extra police, the alcohol restrictions, the ban on pornography, that we don't want to see a roll-back of those things, those things have to stay," she said.
See: ABC News
High Court challenge to NT intervention
The Age | 8 December 2007
The constitutional challenge that former indigenous affairs minister Mal Brough warned could destroy the emergency intervention in the Northern Territory is expected to go before the full bench of the High Court in March.
Traditional owner Reggie Wurridjal and the Bawinanga Aboriginal Corporation will challenge the legality of the Commonwealth's five-year acquisition of land under the intervention and question its ability to seize assets of indigenous corporations.
They will also challenge the scrapping of the permit system, which allows indigenous communities to decide who comes in and out.
The man representing the plaintiffs, retired Federal Court judge Ron Merkel, QC, told The Age he would ask why the Government pushed through the NT intervention in such haste, just months before an election.
He said the intervention had been proposed on the basis it was needed to save children from abuse. "The public accepted that, the politicians (asserted) it. And there was a general acceptance that the emergency intervention was necessary based on evidence that there was serious child abuse," he said.
But Mr Merkel said what the Government said it was going to do and what it had been doing didn't add up.
For example, the Government justified the compulsory five-year acquisition of land as a necessary first step to building more houses and tackling the overcrowding that can lead to sexual abuse, but "you don't need a five-year lease to build a house", Mr Merkel said.
Likewise, arguments in favour of the blanket quarantining of welfare payments didn't withstand analysis, Mr Merkel said
Blanket quarantines have been described as necessary to prevent responsible community members from being humbugged, but Mr Merkel said the Government could just have easily introduced a voluntary quarantine program for those worried about being hassled for money.
Mr Merkel insisted he was "in total support of an intervention to deal with child abuse, health problems, alcoholism", poor housing and pornography and to boost the police presence in the affected communities.
"But you don't need emergency legislation for any of those things," he said. "All you need is well-researched, well-resourced, well-planned programs . that are implemented in consultation and co-operation with the indigenous communities in which the programs will operate."
The Labor Government has promised to continue the intervention, but it will review the welfare quarantine and the five-year leases after a year. Some in the Labor Party are already pushing to roll these aspects back. The Government has also promised to reinstate permits and reform the work-creation program Community Development Employment Projects.
See: The Age
NT intervention failing
Adelaide Now | 10 December 2007
Doctors from across Australia have launched a high-profile attack on the Northern Territory intervention, saying it is failing indigenous people.
Writing in The Medical Journal of Australia today, the doctors criticise the intervention as disrespectful and badly thought through.
In one of a series of articles, Centre for Indigenous Vascular and Diabetes Research director, Dr Alex Brown, and Telethon Institute for Child Health Research senior research fellow, Dr Ngaire Brown, say activities under the intervention have been poorly coordinated and planned.
They say this has fuelled confusion among the indigenous community and undermined successful programs in place.
In another article, Central Australia Aboriginal Congress public health medical officer, Dr John Boffa, writes that suggestions of compulsory health checks have generated widespread fear and misinformation.
"It has taken much work to explain to Aboriginal communities that these were the same checks that were already being done," he said. He said while health checks and improved primary health had been of benefit to indigenous people, the intervention had been "profoundly disempowering".
Alice Springs GP Dr Peter Tait, in an article, says the intervention is "disrespectful of Aboriginal people and is further marginalising their leadership".
University of Adelaide senior lecturer in public health, Dr David Scrimgeour, says a lack of community engagement means the initiative is destined to fail. Former Australian Medical Association head, and member of the Northern Territory emergency response taskforce, Dr William Glasson, however, is more encouraging in his article.
He said the intervention had led to some positive outcomes. He stressed the need for a broad strategy to address health concerns. "This intervention is not going to be perfect; there will be many problems to overcome but it gives us a tremendous opportunity," he said.
Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin said she had sought advice about the impact of specific measures in the NT intervention, including health checks. "We will also be closely looking at each of the articles (in the MJA)," she said.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has promised to conduct a 12-month review of the NT laws.
See: Adelaide Now
Hope for Aboriginal Justice Agreement coordinators to help cut crime
ABC News | 7 December 2007
The Western Australian Government hopes two recently appointed Aboriginal Justice Agreement (AJA) coordinators will help reduce crime and Indigenous incarceration rates in the Kimberley, in the state's north.
The agreement is a partnership between State Government agencies and Aboriginal communities to identify and address justice issues.
Liz Kelly is returning to her home town of Derby to become the initiative's first regional coordinator for the West Kimberley.
Kununurra resident Donna Birch is the first coordinator for the East Kimberley.
Gordon Cole from the AJA hopes their appointment will result in positive changes for both the Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities.
"The three broad outcomes of the AJAs is around creating safe and sustainable communities, have a reduction in the number of victims of crime and the reduction in the over-representation of Aboriginal people in the criminal justice system," he said.
He says both women have the professional experience needed to undertake the jobs and expects Ms Kelly's local knowledge will prove an extra asset.
"If we're serious within Government about delivering for Aboriginal people then we need to get the right people in the right locations to assist and to address the issues that are impacting on people in the communities," he said.
The first Aboriginal community meeting on the agreement will be conducted on Thursday, December 6, at the Karrayilili Adult Education Centre in Fitzroy Crossing.
See: ABC News
Jabiluka mining still on the cards, company says
ABC News | 7 December 2007
The company which owns the disused Jabiluka uranium mine in Kakadu says it is keeping its options open on mining the area at some time in the future.
The chief executive of Energy Resources Australia (ERA), Chris Salisbury, says concern about climate change is fuelling already huge demand for Australian uranium.
He says Jabiluka could produce lots of money, but ERA has no plans to mine it without the consent of the traditional owners.
"The status of Jabiluka hasn't changed. Jabiluka is one of the best undeveloped resources in the world," he said.
"And we have made no secret - we would like to develop Jabiluka at some stage."
See: ABC News
Abuse thrives in fearful silence
The Australian | 7 December 2007
Bess Price sits quietly in a chair on her front veranda as her husband Dave talks.
She speaks only occasionally, adding to the stories of abuse and sorrow that both have witnessed in 28 years of marriage. Price's recollections go back further than the marriage, to when she was growing up in the Aboriginal community of Yuendumu, 290km northwest of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. But there's a block to overcome before revealing them.
"It's just really hard to talk about all these issues," she says. "We don't talk about them." She describes a concept of shame that Aboriginal people feel very strongly. It can refer to loss of esteem for their wrongdoing, and it can refer to peer group pressure and rejection for speaking out against offences. Shame can describe what happens when someone exposes the cover-up of child sexual abuse in Aboriginal communities. Violent recriminations and exile from family and friends can follow.
But Price tells of what is truly shameful. Her stories include the rapes of three young girls, all close relatives aged about seven or eight at the time they were victimised a few years ago. In one case, a girl was allegedly raped by a man whose family later argued that the rape was allowable because the young girl had the correct skin grouping or caste for marriage with the man. There was never any prosecution. The man's family won, through threats and closing of community ranks.
Many people such as Price face the primacy of initiated men and the obligations that are earned through the initiation process, obligations that can put pressure on others not to report other men for crimes. "Men stand up and say, 'How can you accuse me, I'm a man, I've been through law (traditional teaching)?"' she says. "It's got to be hammered into them you can't do that (commit abuse)."
In response to Price's comments, the chairwoman of the commonwealth intervention taskforce in the NT, Sue Gordon, has called on senior traditional law men in Aboriginal communities to fight against child abuse publicly.
"Not all Aboriginal people are involved in this insidious practice. This is something only they (the community leaders) can do collectively, if they want to be strong and stamp out child abuse," Gordon says. "(As long as) they feel it is someone else's job, the perpetrators will continue, regardless of whether they are 11-year-old boys or adult males, if it is treated as normal or as power over the defenceless young boys and girls."
Investigators have found that secrecy and unwillingness to report people has allowed what the wider society would consider to be completely abnormal to be regarded as normal. "There's a link between overall community dysfunction, social breakdown (and) cases of abuse," one senior investigator tells Inquirer. "Everything is interlinked.
"If you've got a community which is being run by standover tactics, that contributes to a situation where if a 30-year-old decides he wants to have sex with a 12-year-old, he can pretty much do it."
Another woman from a central Australian community knows well the consequences of reporting suspected child abuse. "The whole community turned against us because we had told the police and the nurse," she says. "She (the girl thought to have been a victim) was locked up in a house."
In the end, it turned out she was just another neglected child, but the act of reporting it brought the wrath of the girl's family down on the woman and her family. "It all turned back on us. The people in the community (were) abusing us and started fighting," the woman says. "It's very hard to understand unless you live in an Aboriginal community. People still look at us badly."
Now the woman has other, more serious allegations of child abuse to make but she is afraid to report them and possibly be identified. One, perhaps the most shocking, is the story of a four-year-old relative who came to stay and told her a story about playing with older boys outside a sorry camp in his community, which is the traditional mourning camp family members will sit in for weeks after a death.
"He told me that the bigger boys are taking them into the spinifex grass and doing it to the little boys," she says. "He used the word in his language for intercourse.
"This little boy came and stayed with us, he was laughing. He just laughs about it."
The woman's secrets do not end there. She describes how a 12-year-old boy is suspected in the community of abusing younger girls and how a 27-year-old man has recently taken a 15-year-old girl as his wife.
Meanwhile, Price says she wants the federal Government's intervention force in the territory to send specialised child protection officers into remote communities, believing that is the only way to turn around attitudes and to offer abuse victims some protection.
The senior child-abuse investigator who spoke to Inquirer says children are powerless if they come forward, and often are at the mercy of their abusers. The investigator says a lot of abuse involves incest. "Post-disclosure support is absolutely critical," according to the investigator.
These views have the support of Gordon, whose 2002 inquiry into child abuse in Aboriginal communities in Western Australia was a watershed. She says many of the allegations made to Inquirer mirror what she was told in WA. In the five years since then, arrests in WA have risen sharply, most recently in the Kimberley community of Kalumburu. "I put that down to the fact that there has been a multifunctional police facility in Kalumburu for some time which has both police and Department of Child Protection officers manning it," Gordon says. "Once people feel they can put trust in these officers and feel they will be protected, that is when they come forward."
The need for that kind of co-operative approach has not translated yet into sufficient information-sharing in the NT between government workers on the ground, such as police, health and youth workers, and teachers. In some cases better information-sharing would give authorities what they need to consider prosecutions. But cross-border jurisdictional barriers will soon be tackled with new laws allowing magistrates from WA, South Australia and the NT to hear cases from other jurisdictions. This will help with prosecuting offenders who move across borders to escape prosecution, and perhaps dissuade them from doing so.
Australian Crime Commission chief executive Alastair Milroy says the commission's intelligence examining indigenous crime across Australia is beginning to feed reports of suspected child abuse from all sources in Aboriginal communities into a central database to give law enforcement officers a wider range of information on which to base investigations.
But his bigger concern is the under-reporting and intimidation, often from community leaders, even though many of them have not been involved in abuse or other criminal acts. "It's the influence of certain people within some of those communities to ensure that people don't come forward and report," Milroy says.
Investigators have discovered that in some communities, health workers have been intimidated by senior men against reporting sexually transmitted infections in children and talking to police about their suspicions.
But while authorities acknowledge there is widespread underage consensual sex in Aboriginal communities, the argument that abuse is part of some Aboriginal traditional practice has not been raised in communities as an excuse to the teams of child sexual abuse investigators probing the problem.
In the past few months, Inquirer has been told about several other cases where the lack of a co-operative victim or corroborating evidence has let suspected perpetrators remain free. These stories can only be treated as unsubstantiated allegations. But such allegations come from a variety of trusted sources who cannot be named because of their part in the investigative process or because their location, community position or family relationship would identify the victims.
Perhaps the most shocking is in a community west of Alice Springs, where the parents of 12 and 13-year-old sisters allegedly traded sex with their children for alcohol from two brothers. The practice is said to have been going on for some time and is notorious in the town where it has allegedly occurred. One of the brothers is living with the 12-year-old girl.
When the case is discussed with senior people in the community, there are nods. Everyone knows and everyone waits for something to happen, it seems, but nothing does. The parents and the brothers have been reported to police. They were also reported to the ACC in July but, as one veteran NT investigator explains, such a case would be almost impossible to prove without the co-operation of a victim or one of the people inside the child sex conspiracy.
The child abuse taskforce of the NT police has not yet begun one full-fledged investigation into sexual abuse since the federal government began pouring extra interstate police and experienced NT officers into remote communities more than five months ago. There have been few case reports and it often takes months of intensive work by specialist detectives to get an admission from a victim, let alone witness statements.
One investigator looking at child sexual abuse in Aboriginal communities says it is far more complex to investigate in indigenous communities than in capital cities, where large teams of experienced investigators descend on a crime scene.
He says a crime scene in a child's room in a suburban city home might yield one semen sample, potentially enough to try a case. With chronic overcrowding in Aboriginal communities, a single mattress in a room in which an entire family lives and visitors stay can yield 10 or more semen samples.
Experienced investigators have been shocked to find high levels of suspected incest, particularly cases involving pregnancies to close relatives. Inquirer has been told of a 14-year-old girl who bore her great uncle's child in a town northwest of Alice Springs. The girl has left her family home and reportedly is in one of the Alice Springs town camps, drinking. Such a pregnancy is reported to child protection officers and police as a matter of course, but unless the girl makes an admission about the father there is little to go on. This girl made no admissions.
Many of the victims are outcasts, children whose parents have separated or disappeared on the grog, only to be left with relatives such as grandparents or aunts and uncles. The ACC recently completed an intelligence report on violence in Aboriginal communities within Alice Springs, and it reflected the way alcohol abuse, violence and neglect are interlinked.
"The violence was mainly committed in the homes, and that seems to be contributing to the neglect issue and subsequently the issue of alcohol and the actions of those that are allegedly involved in child abuse or child neglect," Milroy says.
While many guardians care for their wards, others pay them scant attention, leaving lonely children to seek comfort and attention where they can get it. It is little wonder that senior women such as Helen Kantawara in Hermannsburg, 120km west of Alice Springs, call for the commonwealth intervention to concentrate on protecting children. "That focus has got to come back," she says.
The ACC taskforce has found allegations of child abuse and violence in every one of the 97 communities its officers have visited across the country in the past 12 months.
"We seem to be getting the same consistent messages in all of the areas.," Milroy says. But he says the ACC is seeing positive signs from the territory, which he puts down to the higher level of outside governance and government influence. "Whether in fact we're seeing some sort of cultural change happening because of the repeated visits and the heightened awareness of alcohol and substance abuse and child abuse (is the question)," he says.
Even so, Gordon still describes the situation as a "powder keg waiting to go up". If the experience of her 2002 report is the benchmark, the arrests will be happening years from now. But she argues it took a willingness by traditional Aboriginal elders, men and women, to stand up and say child abuse was wrong, to make the difference.
See: The Australian
No time for dreaming
The Australian | 8 December 2007
A poisoned chalice and a perfect chance: the new Labor Government's first great domestic policy challenge is looming before Kevin Rudd in all its charged complexity.
What future now, six months and 1.5 billion well-meaning budget dollars on, for the federal intervention in the remote Aboriginal communities of the Northern Territory?
How will the Prime Minister and his Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin reshape and rebadge the "emergency response" launched with such desperate conviction by Mal Brough?
As the dust of election day settles, Rudd's options are becoming clear. The conservatives have bequeathed him the first stumbling steps towards a revolution in the north and centre. After a generation spent in pursuit of welfare and campaigns for group rights, a hinge-point in the history of Aboriginal Australia has been reached.
Rudd can opt to maintain the drastic social engineering package on trial in the desert and Top End; he can roll back its coercive bite and impact or sharpen its effects and broaden its geographic scope. On the choices he makes, and their success, depend the fate of a people, the future of remote communities and even, in the long run, the economic structure of the inland and the north.
Macklin has been receiving her departmental briefings this week, in private, and knows the inside story of the intervention and the trends and patterns across the remote Aboriginal domain. Despite strong signs that the federal taskforce's initial efforts are succeeding - school attendances in the centre are up as much as 30per cent, while gambling and domestic violence are down - the overall landscape remains sombre.
Vast sums have been poured into Aboriginal development during recent years, but they have been ineffectual. There is virtually no economic activity and most of the remote communities remain surreal fiefdoms presided over by outside administrators.
The opportunity cost of the persistent underfunding in health and education is great. Every year, the price tag for providing an adequate social and infrastructure platform in the bush increases.
The demographic picture is alarming. In many northern communities, the population will almost double during the next 30 years. Such is the prospect Macklin confronts.
One option not available to Rudd and his minister is indifference. The various interest groups in Aboriginal Australia, with their sharp agendas, are watching, as is the mainstream intelligentsia that forms one of Labor's core constituencies. It is a time of transition and of heightened tension, when old ideological divisions are in play.
Opponents of the intervention denounce it as an invasion and call for it to be wound back. Supporters see it as the last opportunity to prevent social meltdown in a damaged world.
The political struggles of recent months fuelled the differences between these two camps to a fierce crescendo, yet John Howard's departure suddenly creates the stage for a fresh compact under a new government and for redoubled efforts to change the fortunes of remote Aboriginal Australia.
This is the background, fraught with competing blueprints, yet rich in opportunity for synthesis, against which the new Labor leadership is shaping its path into the bush.
Rudd's strategy is becoming clear; it has been telegraphed by his ministerial picks and his administration's first position statements. It will be underlined by key appointments to the commanding heights of the bureaucracy in coming weeks. Its intellectual rigour and consistency will be sharply tested by the political challenges lying close ahead.
Macklin is the key choice. By opting for his established shadow minister, Rudd has also opted for Macklin's view of Aboriginal affairs, which has been substantially shaped by deep contacts with the pro-intervention Aboriginal leadership during the past six months. The new minister shares the key beliefs of the radical reform camp; she telegraphed them in uncompromising fashion in these pages last weekend. Her view is that the crisis in remote indigenous communities can be best addressed by pragmatic measures, such as restrictions on alcohol spending to control the plagues of addiction and family violence.
It is the view that lies behind the frankly coercive aspects of the intervention: the quarantining of incomes, increased policing, the requirement that communities send their children to school and the alcohol and pornography prohibitions.
The second key appointment was a negative one. By naming the territory's Warren Snowdon, a determined critic of the intervention, as Defence Science and Personnel Minister, Rudd binds this main mouthpiece of the antediluvian Left to cabinet solidarity and removes his voice from the debate.
Close parliamentary advisers on Aboriginal affairs say Rudd will keep his pledge to review the intervention's progress after a year, but when asked to do so sooner, he warns its critics that he will keep it going unchanged for two years if they continue pressing him. "There will be no change of substance from us for now, that's the message," one senior Labor figure says.
Change, however, will come soon at the top level of the public service, where the intervention's details were hatched. The great architect of the emergency response, Howard's departmental chief Peter Shergold, will step aside early next year, as will Wayne Gibbons, associate secretary at the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, and the head of the NT bureaucracy, Paul Tyrrell.
The jockeying for these key posts has begun. There has been a drastic political realignment in Darwin, with the emergence of a new Chief Minister speaking the language of co-operation, Paul Henderson. Henderson knows his term in office will be judged by his ability to provide tangible improvements in the condition of remote NT communities and he has pledged himself to this goal.
One key to the indigenous policy direction of the Rudd-Macklin era lies in the new Government's choice of Aboriginal interlocutors. Galarrwuy Yunupingu, the monarch of northeast Arnhem Land, has Macklin's ear: his message to her is one of respect for traditions and contempt for the provision of passive welfare payments to Aborigines. Alongside Yunupingu stands the University of Melbourne's Marcia Langton, a long-time believer in drastic social control measures to combat alcoholism and family violence.
Yunupingu envisages a generational reconstruction project in the territory, rechristened as the "special measure" program and buttressed by the formation of a council of traditional leaders.
Langton accepts the broad thrust of the emergency response and views it as a defensive campaign undertaken on behalf of indigenous women.
In flat contradiction to this stand, a group of more recently established Aboriginal spokespeople, marshalled by figures such as Olga Havnen and Larissa Behrendt, want the intervention stopped at once and replaced by consultation with the targeted communities.
This split in indigenous ranks, a divide over first principles rather than mere tactics, seems more profound than past disputes. It spells the end of pan-Aboriginal campaigning and may well hasten the development of different strains of indigenous identity and political programs based on region, philosophy and economic circumstance.
More immediately, it forces the Rudd Government to choose between stark alternatives: to back the realist tendency represented by Langton and Yunupingu or make concessions to the rejectionists, whose campaigns have broad support from Labor's progressive wing.
Hence Macklin's longing for an indigenous compromise and her desire for the anti-intervention campaigners to sit down with their opponents and broker a development program that may give the takeover in the NT, in its Rudd version, a softer face.
Hence, too, the temptation the new Labor team feels to modify key elements of the intervention, as it promised in the election campaign on the advice of NT Labor strategists. Rudd is thus committed to restoring aspects of the territory's community development employment programs, closed down by Brough early in the intervention.
Not even CDEP's few proponents regard this strange make-work system, which pays remote community part-time employees slightly above welfare rates, as anything more than a stop-gap.
But the true grotesquerie of the environment CDEP engenders is little understood by outsiders. A typical CDEP program is run by a highly paid white adviser and provides basic work teams fulfilling municipal and public tasks, in effect subsidising the NT Government and local councils. Many art centres rely on CDEP to pay their indigenous staff low part-time wages and thus use the program as a kind of taxpayer subsidy to keep the price of artworks competitive. False economic signals fly everywhere and create a shadow realm that barely meets the outside financial system.
CDEP, with its dependent workers, thus acts as a force to maintain poverty and deprive people of the chance to fulfil their capabilities.
The tragedy is that it is the best system so far devised and the best indigenous societies have been offered. Brough canned CDEP only when it became clear that its payments could not legally be quarantined, but this was the reform that most urgently signalled to Aboriginal communities that a new world was upon them.
Rudd and Macklin will be urged by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations teams overseeing the Northern Territory project to keep alive the most ambitious aspect of the intervention's mid-term blueprint: the promise that all jobs on communities will be paid at standard rates, with features such as career development, education and superannuation.
The second change federal Labor endorsed in mid-campaign is the retention of the permit system controlling access to communities. No reporter committed to press freedom could support access permits, which are granted by land councils, and function to ensure favourable media portraits of communities and the powerbrokers who control them.
But the NT Labor Government, despite being stuffed full of former journalists, bizarrely opposed, and still opposes, Brough's extremely limited plan to lift the permit requirement for road access and public areas in large communities.
It is salutary to bear in mind how vital permits have been in maintaining the silence over sexual abuse and violence in remote communities. Permits also limit economic initiatives from outsiders and touristic activity. The system's defenders portray them as a force protecting culture, whereas strong cultures are those in robust contact with the world and seclusion produces inevitable decline.
Prime Minister Rudd, as a political intellectual with a clear understanding of the role of free speech and truth-telling in combating closed societies, as a China hand well aware of the controls long rigidly enforced by the Beijing Government to limit movement by foreigners, will quickly see the parallels.
In the remote communities today, a controlling elite seeks to limit and control access, so as to prevent the intolerable from being seen and felt and reported to the wider world.
A masking version of reality is circulated and an oppressed class, in this case female, is maintained in fearful subjugation.
There are caricatural aspects to this summary of a complex social map, different in every tiny community, but the control system tends always to function in a similar way and to breed estrangement from the energies of the wider world. This is a straightforward moral issue for Rudd and, with his immense political capital, he can intervene in the policy debate to open up the bush while guaranteeing adequate policing and social services in communities.
Intervention, emergency, special measure: whatever the reforms in the NT are called in the Labor era, the process is set to continue. In truth, if it aims at raising remote societies to Western education and health levels, it is a project with at least a 50-year time frame. It has hardly even begun.
The commander of the emergency response, Dave Chalmers, gave an update this week on progress in the 73 target communities across the territory: 5000 health checks have been completed in 45 communities, 39 additional police have been stationed in the remote NT, 10 community stores have been licensed and 38 business managers are in place, overseeing the new order.
This is a pinprick on the surface; vast additional resources will be needed and fresh measures as yet undreamed of by policy architects if the Aboriginal societies of the centre and the north are to thrive and prosper and mesh on their own terms with the wider world.
As Labor leaders contemplate Brough's dream and seek to avoid it mutating into their own open-ended nightmare, they may want to consider far more ambitious levels of reconstruction than the conservative political order envisaged.
One key to unlocking remote Aboriginal disadvantage lies in a new description of the bush: the "failed state" model, advanced by former top NT bureaucrats Mike Dillon and Neil Westbury a year ago, explains the collapse of indigenous communities in terms of their systematic neglect and underfunding, but also in terms of the chaotic political and governance arrangements in place.
This is the far horizon of the intervention, which Rudd and Macklin will eventually have to face.
See: The Australian
Senate to block NT permits
The Australian | 8 December 2007
The Rudd Government's plan to reinstate permits to access Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory could be derailed for at least six months by a hostile Coalition-dominated Senate.
The permit system will be abolished on February 18 under the existing legislation to enact the former government's intervention in Aboriginal communities in the Territory.
Reinstating the permit system, which regulates access to communities, is likely to be one of the first agenda items for Labor when federal parliament sits in early February.
But the Coalition has control of the Senate until July and is understood to be likely to oppose measures to retain the permit system.
Due to the urgency of enacting amendments to keep permits, the policy differences could set up the first parliamentary showdown between the Government and the Opposition.
The details of the reforms and any legislation are still in the early stages of formation.
Opposition indigenous affairs spokesman Tony Abbott could not be contacted yesterday. But he is understood to be unlikely -- along with other Coalition MPs -- to back any watering down of the intervention, particularly after former prime minister John Howard implored the new Government during his concession speech to keep the intervention going.
Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin was yesterday receiving briefings from her new department.
She said Labor intended to reinstate the permit system because it believed the position of the NT Police Association. The association says the system helps to protect children from grog runners, drug dealers and pedophiles.
Permits are required for anyone visiting most NT Aboriginal lands.
Despite the possibility of a parliamentary confrontation, Labor intends to reform the permit system, in particular to give journalists easier access to report on indigenous affairs in communities.
"We propose that within the permit system, others, such as health and government officials and journalists should be given access to indigenous communities," Ms Macklin said.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social justice commissioner Tom Calma said he supported the concept of media being given long-term permits, rather than the current system of one-off permits.
Former indigenous affairs minister Mal Brough argued the permit system did not keep undesirables out of Aboriginal communities. Mr Brough, who lost his seat in the federal election implored the incoming government to continue his reforms.
See: The Australian
The impact of the intervention on NT Indigenous radio
Creative Economy | 5 December 2007
The new chair of the Australian Indigenous Communications Association, Jim Remedio, warns that the NT intervention is undermining Indigenous broadcasting, writes ELLIE RENNIE .
The appointment of managers over community councils in remote communities is in direct conflict with the licence conditions which Indigenous community licensees must adhere to, according to Jim Remedio, the new chair of the Australian Indigenous Communications Association (AICA).
Under the Broadcasting Services Act 1992, community broadcasting licensees must "continue to represent the community interest that it represented at the time when the licence was allocated" and encourage members of the community to participate in the running of the station. Under the new intervention arrangements, Managers have the power to seize assets and sell them, regardless of whether they were bought with government funds of income earned in the community. Managers also have the ability to alter funding agreements and to "desist and refrain" from specific services.
Addressing an audience of over 350 community broadcasters on the eve of the federal election, Remedio expressed grave concern that "in this environment, all sense of autonomous community control is gone." He implored upon the audience to consider how they would feel if, "having spent years building your station," all community control was taken away.
In his speech, Remedio spoke of the impact of the Northern Territory intervention on remote Indigenous broadcasters. There are 10 Indigenous community radio licensees in the prescribed area. The licence holders are the community councils of these communities. As part of the intervention, which was set in place by the Howard government in July, the government can appoint managers to run community councils.
Remedio also spoke of how the elimination of the Community Development Employment Program (CDEP) has impacted on organisations. Most community radio stations and other remote broadcasting services licensed under the Remote Indigenous Broadcasting Scheme have been reliant on CDEP to run their stations. AICA has been informed that many were facing closure due to the loss of CDEP workers. At the station where Remedio works, the Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association in Alice Springs, five CDEP positions were lost. "These positions have been lost as a direct result of the intervention to protect Aboriginal children from sexual abuse. Are you confused? So are we," said Remedio.
Members of the audience questioned Lyn Maddock, deputy chair of the Australian Communications and Media Authority, on how the regulator was planning to deal with these changes during licence renewal processes. Maddock responded that the issue had not been addressed by the former minister for communications, Senator Helen Coonan. The Labor Party has committed to reviewing parts of the intervention plan, including reinstating CDEP. .
Ellie Rennie is a CCI Research Fellow at Swinburne's Institute for Social Research. Her book, Community Media: A Global Introduction was recently published by Rowman & Littlefield.
See: Creative Economy
Rescuing the Intervention
New Matilda | 5 December 2007
One of the few theatrical highlights of Kevin Rudd's lacklustre acceptance speech was the dramatic pause after his promise to be 'a Prime Minister for Indigenous Australians' and the opportunity this presented for the true believers to explode in rapturous applause.
Rudd's first opportunity to put this noble undertaking into practice will come as his administration assumes the stewardship of the Emergency Intervention into Indigenous Affairs in the Northern Territory. On Monday former Deputy Leader, Jenny Macklin, was sworn in as Minister for Indigenous Affairs. While a Peter Garrett appointment to the portfolio would have guaranteed a high profile for the issues, the choice of Macklin comes with significant advantages. She has mastered her brief and is well placed to hit the ground running.
And there is much to do, notably the rescue of the Intervention in the face of a potentially hostile Senate. The Howard-Brough driven incursion into the Northern Territory saw the Federal Government at its most punitive and prescriptive. In an unfortunate blunder - or carefully calculated move - it was uniformed soldiers who lead the charge into the remote communities of Central Australia, ostensibly to help protect the children. Not surprisingly, many Aboriginal people were frightened and confused by the heavy-handedness of this approach.
Rudd's attitude to the Intervention has generally been one of convenient fait accompli. 'We have to give this a chance to work,' he is fond of saying. He has promised to review the Intervention after 12 months in office. However, some of his caucus colleagues closest to the action in the Northern Territory have made it very clear that they find at least some aspects of the Intervention untenable.
A newsletter prepared by Federal Labor MP for Lingiari Warren Snowdon and NT Senator Trish Crossin - and widely distributed to bush communities during the Intervention's rollout - made unequivocal statements about the importance of retaining the permit system for remote communities, upholding the Racial Discrimination Act and preserving the Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) scheme.
The permit system had long been a Brough hobby-horse, ever since he made the extraordinary and unsubstantiated claim that its abolition would somehow provide greater security for people on communities. Residents of remote communities overwhelmingly rejected the idea, along with the NT Government and the NT Police Association.
The sidelining of the Racial Discrimination Act under the intervention legislation remains a blight on Australia's human rights record. This legislation underpins Australia's obligations under the International Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD). It simply won't be a good look for the ALP - which rejoices in its pedigree as the nation's great party of social justice - to run a Federal Government under which the human rights of Indigenous Territorians are circumscribed.
One of the more obvious breaches is the unilateral quarantining of welfare benefits to Aboriginal people who live on prescribed communities. Even conservative Cape York Indigenous leader Noel Pearson envisages quarantining only as a last resort to be imposed on those individuals who are demonstrably irresponsible. The Federal Government's indiscriminate punishment of those Aboriginal people who manage their meagre income thoughtfully is a paternalistic throwback to a bygone era.
The acquisition of five-year leases over prescribed Aboriginal townships occurred automatically upon passage of the Intervention legislation. While the ALP has called for 'just terms' compensation to be paid for lands so acquired, they have been less than fulsome in their condemnation of the arbitrary nature of the legislation itself.
The previous Government's dismantling of the CDEP scheme has been the source of much grief in the Territory, amid dire warnings that land management programs and arts centres may be threatened. The Hermannsburg-based Tjuwanpa Rangers - who recently won an NT Landcare Award for their work - saw CDEP support withdrawn in late October, throwing the future of the group into doubt.
During Federal parliamentary debates on the Intervention legislation, the ALP moved amendments to retain the permit system and remove the blanket exemption of the new provisions from Part II of the Racial Discrimination Act. It is to be hoped that the party in government will reman true to first principles and take decisive action, rather than shelter behind the possibility of a notional review a year down the track
If the Racial Discrimination Act cannot be restored without amending legislation, nor the five-year leases quashed, there is still considerable scope for the incoming Rudd administration to ameliorate the worst vestiges of the Intervention through immediate administrative action. Permits, welfare quarantining and CDEP would appear to fit squarely into this category. If Rudd really is going to be a 'Prime Minister for Indigenous Australians' then he must begin work immediately.
Over to you, Minister Macklin.
See: New Matilda
Stop Invasion, Begin Development
Sydney Indy Media | 4 December 2007
We completely reject Marcia Langton's opinion that the corrupt invasion of remote Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory should continue. ['Stay with Intervention', The Australian, 29 November 2007]
The invasion must stop immediately and be replaced by a program of development assistance to these communities.
Problems in Aboriginal communities have to be addressed from within, not without.
The Aboriginal people are living on their lands and fighting for their cultural and physical survival but, because of who they are, they are denied the most basic levels of respect and services from government.
These are not bad communities; they are the victims of bad governments.
They deserve respect and their dignity.
Community leadership, organizations and social structures must be appreciated and be given capacity to identify and implement development programs.
There is absolutely no justification in the government terminating incomes and jobs; changing land tenures; removing permits or withholding housing and other services.
We demand the Rudd Government stop the invasion and sit down with Aboriginal leadership and communities.
We send a message to Marcia Langton and any other proponents of the invasion to defend their communities and Aboriginal rights, not white, racist government.
Signed
Les Malezer, Michael Mansell, Heather Sculthorpe, Larissa Behrendt, Terry O'Shane
See: Sydney Indy Media
Nelson drops Andrews from shadow ministry; demotes Abbott to Indigenous affairs
NI Times | 7 December 2007
Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson has tried to remove the cloud of Work Choices from his first shadow frontbench, dumping the man who introduced the unpopular laws, Kevin Andrews.
Mr Andrews was the biggest casualty in the opposition's frontbench shake-up, which has seen the rise of some new faces and the return of some old ones.
Howard loyalist and former Health minister Tony Abbott, who originally put his hat in the ring for the Liberal leadership, has responsibility for Families, Community services and Indigenous affairs.
Bronwyn Bishop, dumped from the Howard ministry in 2001, has been given a new lease of political life as Veterans Affairs spokeswoman.
Two barely-known Victorian MPs have been parachuted from the backbench into shadow cabinet and given responsibility for key policy areas - Greg Hunt in climate change and Tony Smith in education.
Dr Nelson believes his new frontbench, which includes six women, has the right mix to take the fight up to the Rudd government over the next three years.
"The choices that we have made are ones that combine experience with youth and energy and vision for our country," he said.
"It's extremely important that we represent an alternative government which not only has ideas but draws on the ideas of those who have served in government."
The aspirations of some have been sidelined, including former minister and Liberal moderate Chris Pyne, who ran for the party's deputy leadership.
Dr Nelson described Mr Pyne as "energetic and capable" but refused to explain why he hadn't been promoted to shadow cabinet from the outer ministry.
The 20 shadow cabinet members include former ministers Andrew Robb in foreign affairs and Nick Minchin in defence.
Junior coalition partner The Nationals retain three shadow cabinet positions but lose responsibility for the important trade portfolio.
Former Nationals minister John Cobb now joins the shadow cabinet after former Prime Minister John Howard dumped him from the ministry last year.
Former Workplace Relations minister Joe Hockey, who has acknowledged Labor's mandate to junk the Work Choice laws, has been shifted to health.
Mr Hockey's predecessor in workplace relations, Mr Andrews, has paid the biggest price for the electorate's dislike of the controversial industrial laws.
Mr Andrews - who was also behind the immigration bungle involving Gold Coast doctor Mohamed Haneef - has been dumped from the ministry and asked to put together a team to advise on federalism and constitutional reform.
Dr Nelson denied Mr Andrews was being sidelined because of his role in Work Choices, regarded as one of the key factors behind the coalition's electoral loss.
"In order to bring on new people, unfortunately, there are others that you cannot always appoint, even though you want to," he said.
Mr Smith will join deputy Liberal leader Julie Bishop - in industrial relations - in taking on Julia Gillard in her super ministry of education, employment and workplace relations.
Dr Nelson said the Coalition believed education and workplace relations were too important for one person to handle alone.
"We believe very strongly that education and workplace relations should be quite separate portfolios," he said.
"It beggars belief that education is an area that can be managed simultaneously with a major and important portfolio area such as industrial relations."
Ms Bishop's responsibilities include business, which she says will help the sector's voice be heard.
"Particularly, given the ominous signs we are already seeing from the union movement," she said.
Fellow West Australian Michael Keenan, whose home state was the one high point for the Liberals, has moved from the backbench to the junior frontbench post of shadow assistant treasurer.
Mr Keenan said he wants to ensure that Labor doesn't squander the economic legacy left by the Coalition.
"There is a lot of genuine concern about how the new government is going to (continue the) management of prosperity," he said.
Dr Nelson brushed off as nonsense questions about whether Mr Turnbull, who was made Treasury spokesman last week, or Mr Abbott, had given him an assurance they wouldn't challenge for the Liberal leadership.
Mr Turnbull lost the leadership ballot by just 45 to 42, while Mr Abbott has signalled that he sees himself as a leadership contender at some time in the future. - AAP
See: NI Times
Welfare is not the key
The Age | 7 December 2007
The remote far north Queensland Aboriginal community of Aurukun has rioted for the third time this year. On Monday, 200 people armed with spears, knives and sticks fought street battles before being subdued by tactical response police. The riot has been reported in the media as resulting from sly grog boated in from Weipa on Sunday. Aurukun is one of the four Cape York communities taking part in Noel Pearson's $48 million welfare reform program.
Pearson's collaboration with the Howard government to shift the language of public debate on Aborigines from "rights-based" to the supposed "responsibility-based" has concealed many of the day-to-day problems that lead communities like Aurukun to riot.
On July 18, Pearson's plan to alter the conditions of Aboriginal people through a carrot and stick approach to welfare was supported by then indigenous affairs minister Mal Brough with $48 million in program funding. In the same week, I said that the responses I had encountered to welfare reform proposals in Aurukun demonstrated that passive welfare was only one part of a much larger problem. The plan Pearson sent to Canberra had omitted all evidence that this was the case.
The research I collected over six months living in Aurukun while working for Pearson's Cape York Partnerships showed that Aurukun is chronically under-resourced in infrastructure and services. This is a source of major community frustration and a key factor in its social breakdown. My work suggested that a range of issues affecting community members' day-to-day lives would require attention before anything like a welfare reform program could expect to succeed.
One of these issues was chronic overcrowding in community housing, where often more than 20 family members lived in one broken-down house. I have listed numerous incidents of broken pipes flooding houses, and making them uninhabitable. There were children waiting in the mornings for 15 or more other people to use the single house shower before them, and being late to school, or absent. I recorded how families could wait for months before plumbers or builders would show up, if they showed up at all.
Many other issues of infrastructure essential to the functioning of every community in Australia are simply absent in Aurukun. There is no Centrelink officer charged with supporting people to get "real jobs". There is no AbStudy representative to respond to questions on education, and few people have home phones. There are no Department of Emergency Services officers. There is no permanent drug and alcohol counsellor tackling the grog and substance abuse epidemics. There are no permanent doctors. There is no dentist. The food trucked in is of low quality and up to four times as expensive as in Cairns. There are packs of wild dogs roaming the streets. The tiny library is open only rarely. Where Government services do exist - the school, the health clinic, the police - they are chronically under-staffed and resourced. If there was so much infrastructure missing in Sydney, there would be public insurrection.
Sadly, the Aurukun riots demonstrate the state's free licence in relation to remote Aboriginal communities. Following the January 11 riot, Aurukun went from having a police force incapable of responding to most call-outs through lack of manpower (the then sergeant in charge told me he needed 16 full-time officers, though he had only six) to overnight having teams of special forces driving endless patrols in troop carriers, in out-of-all-proportion black body armour, balaclavas and semi-automatics.
By January 13, the Aurukun airstrip went from hosting only the Royal Flying Doctor plane and the eight-seat charter, to seeing oversized police and government jets screaming in (and out). There were counsellors provided for state-service providers, unfamiliar police ethics inspectors asking questions of the community in the store, and reporters in helicopters.
A week after the January riots, there were meetings between the Aurukun Shire Council, Aurukun Clan Elders and then acting Queensland Police Minister Andrew Fraser and Queensland Communities Minister Warren Pitt. The meetings resulted in requests by Aurukun only for a permanent sports and recreation officer, some extra community funding, and better policing. It was a wretched wish list from a community used to not getting much. The community was told it would be granted. Community pacified, job done, the ministers flew out, the papers soon stopped carrying the story, the public moved on.
More than nine months later, there is still no sports and recreation officer in Aurukun, the police numbers remain nine below what the former sergeant in charge requested, and there has been a 50% drop in permanent staff at the health clinic (they're down to two permanent nurses; others fly in on temporary contracts for six weeks or so). There have been two other riots: on September 19, and December 3.
The move from "rights-based" to "responsibility-based' Aboriginal welfare policy is tying Aurukun's people into ever-tighter relations of financial control, surveillance and regulation through welfare reform, while overlooking federal and state responsibilities to provide essential infrastructure.
People in cities think that controlling Aborigines through welfare will work in their best interests, eventually. Riots such as Monday's in Aurukun appear to justify the need for fully neo-liberal interventions in Aboriginal communities' in the first place. Actually they show that welfare reform cannot work without the Government also responding to community pleas for adequate policing and housing, at the very least.
Philip Martin worked on the Welfare Reform Project in Aurukun for Noel Pearson's Cape York Partnerships between November 2006 and May 2007 as family engagement officer.
See: The Age
Intervention finder's fee row
The Australian | 7 December 2007
Doctors have attacked the Australian Medical Association amid revelations it negotiated a deal for two associated companies to be paid a $1300 "placement fee" from public funds for every doctor they help to recruit for the federal Government's indigenous intervention scheme.
The finder's fee agreement, struck in the past three weeks, is worth a maximum of $65,000 over 12 months to the two companies, both established medical workforce agencies set up by state branches of the AMA.
The deal has been criticised by other medical groups, which say the money should be spent on patients. The controversy comes less than three months after the AMA was criticised for failing to pass to the federal Health Department details of hundreds of doctors who had expressed an interest in helping the intervention.
The AMA at the time claimed privacy laws forbade it passing on the names, but its counter-argument - that it should get taxpayers' money to help run the scheme - was also criticised.
Tony Hobbs, chairman of the Australian General Practice Network, yesterday said his organisation had been offered a similar $1300-per-name deal, but had turned it down because it "was part of our core duty anyway to be improving indigenous health".
"We felt it would be better for this money to be used elsewhere - providing health services," said Dr Hobbs, who did a two-week stint near Alice Springs as part of the scheme in July, and has volunteered to do it again.
"We will continue to recruit names - it has always been our policy to ensure that any names that we have are sent direct to the department. Certainly from my own experience, there has not been a huge amount of organisational input necessary (to recruit doctors)."
Over recent days, the federal AMA has sent letters to tens of thousands of doctors nationwide, hailing the success of the intervention - and the AMA's role in recruiting nearly 75 per cent of the doctors who have taken part.
The letter, signed by AMA federal president Rosanna Capolingua, carries a tick box whereby doctors can agree to their details either to be passed to the federal Health Department, or to allow the AMA to contact them directly. But the letter makes no mention of the $1300 finder's fee - or that this will not be payable if the doctors contact the Health Department directly.
The federal AMA and one of the subsidiary companies involved, AMA Services WA, have rejected the criticisms.
"This (recruitment) takes many, many phone calls. It's not going to happen without any effort, and that effort costs money," said Kerry Gallagher, secretary-general of the federal AMA. "If you think I'm wheeling a bucket of gold down to the bank, you are quite wrong."
Mr Gallagher said that while recruiting well-informed doctors such as Dr Hobbs might not be hard, others less connected needed a much better grounding. He said the two companies recruiting doctors, AMA subsidiaries in Queensland and West Australia, had experience and expertise in such roles, and doctors preferred dealing with them rather than government.
Paul Boyatzis, executive director of the AMA WA, and chief executive of AMA Services WA, confirmed the fee was $1300 a doctor successfully recruited, up to a limit of 50 over the year of the deal. "If they (the AGPN) feel they can do it altruistically, and they feel there's no work involved, I'm more than happy for them to attempt to do it," he said.
The initial "flood" of doctors willing to take part had since dwindled and other groups, including the AGPN, had not proved themselves able to muster the numbers required, he said.
See: The Australian
Schooling key to Aboriginal welfare
The Australian | 7 December 2007
Improving Aboriginal education should be accorded special status in indigenous policy-making as it was the key to unlocking entrenched disadvantage, Treasury Secretary Ken Henry said yesterday.
But policy-makers must support this renewed emphasis on education with a range of measures including securing Aboriginal women and children from violence and providing realistic job prospects, Dr Henry said.
In a passionate address to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare conference in Canberra, Australia's key financial bureaucrat laid out a plank-by-plank platform for moving Aboriginal Australia out of poverty and disadvantage.
"Education can help transform social and economic opportunities, with particularly strong gains for those from disadvantaged backgrounds," he said.
"Higher levels of education are associated with lower rates of incarceration and increased engagement in civic life. In short, education is the key to better life opportunities and choices."
The AIHW's Australia's Welfare report launched yesterday showed just how far behind indigenous Australians remain in education.
"Retention rates for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students (40 per cent) were just over half that of non-indigenous students (76 per cent) in 2006," AIHW director Penny Albon told the conference.
"Indigenous students were also substantially less likely to meet national benchmarks in reading, writing and numeracy."
Dr Henry said he was concerned the gap in participation had not improved since 2001, and there had been no change in the performance of indigenous students since 2000.
He called for seven "platforms of development" to underpin the push to improve Aboriginal education.
"They are: one, security from violence; two, early childhood interventions; three, supportive home environments; four, access to primary health services; five, incentives in the welfare system that do not discourage engagement; six, realistic job prospects; and seven, indigenous engagement in policy development," Dr Henry said.
Treasury has long been interested in improving Aboriginal outcomes - two of Dr Henry's staff are seconded to work with Noel Pearson in Cape York.
Dr Henry said he recognised the chasm between his vision and implementation on the ground.
"In our understandable focus on compliance and accountability we have a tendency to insist on paperwork of Himalayan grandeur," he said.
"I have witnessed first hand, in several indigenous communities, how the mountains of red tape simply bury the limited administrative resources available at the local level."
Policy-makers were learning from their mistakes, he said.
"I reckon we do know this much, that program delivery must be targeted to local needs, integrated and delivered in a cost-effective and non-threatening way.
"This is important for the proper functioning of government. But it is equally vital for those people for whom the programs exist: indigenous people."
See: The Australian
Macklin's headed in the right direction
The Australian | 6 December 2007
Jenny Macklin, the Families, Housing, Community Service and Indigenous Affairs Minister, should be applauded for thinking of replicating in other parts of Australia the Northern Territory intervention instigated by the former Coalition government. She anticipates some changes and these will be closely observed by all who care about the future of Aborigines.
Macklin knows well that the drama in the NT is being played out in regional centres across the country.
As the grog is cut off in remote areas of the NT, people drift to the larger centres. The same can be observed in Fitzroy Crossing and Halls Creek in the Kimberley, and Kowanyama and Doomadgee in Cape York. The drinkers are moving to Alice Springs and Broome, and Derby, Cairns and Mount Isa. It may be possible to stabilise the situation, but it is not just drinkers who come to town; it is people in search of work and opportunity. Who can blame them? With great respect to the need for safety in remote communities, there is more to life than aspiring to be part of a women's night patrol.
This is the politicians' greatest fear: the Aborigines are coming to town. Of course, if they were sober and skilled there would not be a problem. The problem is poor behaviour, not race or culture. It is a drama that has been repeated numerous times during the past 200 years. People who are unprepared for the dominant society seek its benefits but fail to understand its secrets. While Aboriginal leaders have been at pains to have non-Aborigines understand the intimacies of Aboriginal society, there is no penalty in non-Aborigines failing to do so. The penalty for Aborigines failing to understand society is huge.
There is a race to stem the tide of human misery from remote Aboriginal society before les miserables come to town. The race is between those who want economic development in remote communities and those who want to change the incentives to work and allow people to chase work where economic development exists.
The key question facing Macklin is this: can any amount of money for economic development in a dysfunctional community with no economic base forestall the need to move to a decent job and decent facilities? I don't think so.
Each side has its problems.
People coming to town without skills cause disquiet. But these are transitional problems. Like refugees, Aborigines can be cared for and trained to participate in the real economy. Normal rules, such as compulsory school attendance for children, can be enforced.
The advocates for economic development have long-term problems. In remote Australia there are few jobs outside mining and local service delivery. Many Aborigines will not hold down such jobs while effectively they are paid to not work. In this regard, the difference between Community Development Employment Projects and work-for-the-dole schemes is semantic. Neither create jobs; they employ otherwise unemployable people. Economic development on Aboriginal land where there are no real economic drivers is the same false god as preserving culture and the sanctity of land rights: it stops people from developing.
The advice from former West Australian governor John Sanderson to the WA Labor Government, for example, is typical of those who want to keep Aborigines down on the farm. At the 2007 Garran Oration in Canberra, Sanderson berated native title as "a weak form of title for a people whose entire existence is locked up in a deep genetic and spiritual connection to the land". Sanderson wants stronger title, but does he mean commercially strong or emotionally strong?
He should be aware that emotions do not pay the rent.
Sanderson thinks it "is this form of cultural disempowerment and neglect that lies at the heart of Aboriginal despair and dysfunction. Like all victims, they are blamed for their own dysfunction and also for the necessity for the coercive laws that follow."
The real culprit is three generations of unemployment. Waiting around for another three generations to develop indigenous communities would condemn a lot of Aborigines.
Economic development may seem like a safe option, but it avoids the long-term future of Aborigines by giving the appearance of doing something. There may be some good prospects for economic development of Aboriginal land but, unless there is a clear benefit for the cost, money should not be invested in the place but in the people.
Gary Johns was a minister in the Keating government and president of the Bennelong Society. The society will hold a reassessment conference on the anniversary of the intervention in the NT on June 21.
See: The Australian
Smoking rates increasing in Indigenous communities
ABC News | 7 December 2007
The Territory's Community Services Minister says smoking rates are probably increasing in remote Indigenous communities.
Marion Scrymgour has visited Maningrida in Arnhem Land with Australian Idol runner up Jessica Mauboy as part a government anti-smoking campaign.
The minister says the national smoking rate is 17 per cent and falling, but among Indigenous Australians it's 55 per cent and increasing, despite limited incomes.
"Unfortunately in a lot of communities it is an expensive item, and yet people will still find the money to buy tobacco.
"[The high level of smoking in Aboriginal communities] correlates with the levels of chronic illnesses and diseases that we are seeing in Aboriginal communities."
Ms Scrymgour and Ms Mauboy are calling on young Territorians, especially those living in remote communties, not to start smoking
See: ABC News
Intervention blamed for rises in drunks
ABC News | 7 December 2007
The Territory Government is blaming the Commonwealth intervention for a rise in public drunkenness has probably increased since the intervention.
But the Opposition believes new figures showing Territorians are drinking more and being taken into police custody more often are a sign the Territory Government's alcohol policy has failed.
But the Health Minister Chris Burns says the figures have jumped because more people have moved into regional centres because they have lost their CDEP jobs.
"We want to see a reduction of anti-social behaviour across the Territory and that's why we are implementing alcohol management plans in a number of centres. And we are looking at the next steps in in Darwin also. It is a matter of top priority.
"But we did also warn during the Commonwealth intervention that there would be an influx of people from the bush to regional centres and towns like Darwin.
Dr Burns has also rejected the CLP's suggestion from yesterday that problem drunks need to be sent to boot camps.
"Through our alcohol courts that we have implemented in Darwin and Katherine there is capacity for courts to issue compulsory treatment orders and prohibition orders. So the primary focus is to treat these people.
"They are alcoholics. They have a severe medical condition and [we need to] rehabilitate them."
See: ABC News
No closing of Indigenous education gap
ABC News | 5 December 2007
An international student assessment reveals there's been little improvement in Indigenous performance over the last six years.
The results of the OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development international student test shows a big gap between Australia's Indigenous and non-Indigenous students.
Professor Geoff Masters from the Australian Council for Educational Resarch says the results show that the best teachers need to be encouraged to work in remote areas.
"That probably requires more incentive for teachers to address these challenges that we face in remote areas, in low socio economic areas. We have to get our best practice implemented in those places and we have to improve the resources available to schools in those areas."
He says a large percentage of Indigenous students are at risk when it comes to future prospects in the workplace and participation in adult life.
The test involved 14,000 students from around the country, including 1,000 Indigenous students.
Across the board, Northern Territory students performed below average in maths, science and literacy.
See: ABC News
Darwin bishop pushes for 'sorry'
ABC News | 5 December 2007
Darwin's Catholic Bishop says the Commonwealth should ask Aboriginal people of forgiveness.
Bishop Eugene Hurley says saying sorry has become a political hot potato, but he says true reconciliation can only come about if Australia is prepared to recognise it's history.
"If we are to enter into that process of of healing, and asking forgiveness and giving forgiveness, well then that certainly requires a genuine expression of sorrow. And in listening carefully to the Indigenous leaders, they have stressed to me how important it is for them as a group to to hear that."
Bishop Eugene Hurley was among 60 priests, teachers, principals taking part in a two day remote Catholic schools forum in Darwin this week.
Mr Hurley says some parts of the Commonwealth intervention should continue.
Mr Hurley was among 60 priests, teachers, principals taking part in a two day remote Catholic schools forum in Darwin this week and he says Catholic educators support the lift to teaching, housing, policing and health standards in remote communities.
"Aspects of the intervention were important and, in fact, crucial. Certainly the Catholic education system committed itself to working closely with the new NT Government minister for education. We are looking forward to anxiously to meeting with [new federal] Minister Macklin."
See: ABC News
High Court reserves decision on NT tidal waters
ABC News | 5 December 2007
The battle over who should control access to tidal waters for most of the Northern Territory coastline has wound up in the High Court.
The Northern Territory Government has asked the High Court to set aside a Federal Court ruling which gave control over access to the waters to traditional owners and overrode the NT Fisheries Act.
Both sides have agreed the Federal Court went too far in its reference to the Fisheries Act.
Counsel for the traditional owners Brett Walker has joined the Government in asking the High Court to make a ruling supporting the validity of the law.
But Mr Walker has not backed away from the traditional owners' rights to control access to the waters.
He has told the court there is nothing unusual in the owners of the sea bed in the intertidal zone asserting such a claim in the same way as other landowners.
The High Court has reserved its decision.
See: ABC News
Intervention sees Hermannsburg cut alcohol, gambling rates
ABC News | 6 December 2007
Residents in a remote central Australian Aboriginal community say there is less alcohol and gambling in their community since the introduction of income management.
The former federal government started quarantining 50 per cent of welfare payments for people in Hermannsburg, west of Alice Springs, last month, as part of the intervention in the Northern Territory.
A council member, Mildred Inkamala, says there are still a few drinkers in Hermannsburg, but says the problem of alcohol abuse has eased.
"We had some problems here with parents drinking, parents gambling with their monies and this intervention it changed a bit for the parents that are the drinkers and the families that gamble a lot with their money and now something has changed a bit," she said.
See: ABC News
Govt sets out plan to end Indigenous disadvantage
ABC News | 6 December 2007
Federal Treasury Secretary Ken Henry has set out a seven-point plan for addressing disadvantage within Australia's Indigenous communities.
Dr Henry has warned against passive welfare and highlighted education as a key to lifting Indigenous Australians out of poverty.
He has told a welfare conference in Canberra that there needs to be a focus on issues including security from violence, access to health services and the involvement of Indigenous people in policy development.
Dr Henry says there must also be better prospects for educated Indigenous people to secure jobs.
"Where remote locations simply cannot produce sufficient job opportunities for local people there's no point sitting around relying on miracles," he said.
"A better strategy is to ensure that people have the opportunity to move to take up work if that is what they want to do."
He says education should be given a special status by policy makers, but incentives in the welfare system are also needed.
"Indigenous disadvantage is a regrettable example of income enhancement in the form of combined welfare payments not having led to material gains in wellbeing," he said.
"Now not all welfare is passive, it has to be said, but some is and if we're to make progress, passive welfare in all its forms must be addressed."
See: ABC News
Motlop heads new Indigenous Education board
ABC News | 5 December 2007
The Northern Territory Education Minister has announced the make-up of the council that will advise her on Indigenous education.
Football coach Mark Motlop will chair the 12 member board, which also includes Wagaman Primary School Assistant Principal Gary Fry.
The council met for the first time today, just after the release of an international report showing Territory students perform badly in maths, science and literacy.
The Minister Marion Scrymgour says that needs to be turned around.
"We do have to do better in some of those results, we do need to get [better] in terms of teachers, the revitalisation of training of our local Indigenous teachers certainly."
Mr Motlop says the key priority for the Indigenous Education Advisory Board is improving Indigenous students' attendance rates, but that will take a long time.
"We really need to explore why kids aren't attending school, why they aren't reaching the benchmarks.
"I guess we'll have to delve further down and find out what these problems are, whether it's problems at home, whether it's the kids themselves."
See: ABC News
'Invasion' must end, say indigenous leaders
The Australian | 5 December 2007
A group of prominent Aboriginal leaders have called on the Rudd Government to immediately halt the federal "invasion" of the Northern Territory.
Les Malezer, Michael Mansell, Heather Sculthorpe, Larissa Behrendt, and Terry O'Shane have written a letter attacking respected Aboriginal academic Marcia Langton, who, in The Australian last week, warned Labor to stop playing short-term politics with the commonwealth's intervention in remote communities and expressed concern about moves to wind back key elements of the reforms.
In the letter they say they "completely reject Marcia Langton's opinion that the corrupt invasion of remote Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory should continue".
"The invasion must stop immediately and be replaced by a program of development assistance to these communities," they argue.
Speaking three days after the election of the Rudd Government, Professor Langton said: "There's never a good time to play short-term electoral politics with the life-and-death issues in Aboriginal communities."
But yesterday, the group of Aboriginal leaders said problems in indigenous communities had to be addressed from within. They say that Aboriginal people are living on their lands and fighting for their cultural and physical survival but, "because of who they are, they are denied the most basic levels of respect and services from government".
"These are not bad communities; they are the victims of bad governments," they say.
They add that there is no justification for the Government to withhold welfare payments and terminate jobs, change land tenures, remove permits or withhold housing services.
"We demand the Rudd Government stop the invasion and sit down with Aboriginal leadership and communities," they say.
"We send a message to Marcia Langton and any other proponents of the invasion to defend their communities and Aboriginal rights, not white, racist government."
Mr Malezer, who is chairman of the Foundation for Aboriginal and Islander Research Action, has rebuked past ALP president and Aboriginal activist Warren Mundine for urging Labor to continue the Howard government's indigenous reforms.
"He must face reality ... Howard lost the election," he said, adding that throughout Australia the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people had voted convincingly to end the "human rights abuses of the Howard government".
See: The Australian
Leaders call for intervention review
The Age | 5 December 2007
Indigenous leaders are warning the new Government to wind back parts of the Northern Territory intervention as further evidence emerges that Aboriginal Territorians are fleeing to escape its tough measures.
Community and health organisations based in Katherine have told The Age that large numbers of people from communities affected by the intervention have moved into the town.
Combined Aboriginal Organisations chief executive Olga Havnen warned the Government to stop the blanket quarantining of welfare payments. They were discriminatory, a waste of money and were causing people to leave their homes, she said.
She also said that some people shifted off the Aboriginal work program CDEP and into mainstream work-for-the-dole had been without income for several weeks because of administrative problems. This was particularly hard in communities that did not have access to organisations such as the Salvation Army that could provide food.
Intervention commander Major General Dave Chalmers said the delays in payment occurred because customers had to reapply for benefits under the new system and some had had difficulties providing enough proof of identity. But, he said, in those cases Centerlink staff had ensured people had accessed their entitlements.
The Age has also been told by a community representative in the town of Bulman that some community members had racked up large debts in the lead-up to Christmas. This was because they believed their bills were being paid under the intervention's income management arrangements, but there had been a delay in setting up these new arrangements.
Rick Fletcher, who heads the Aboriginal-controlled community association Kalano, backed Ms Havnen's claims.
Kalano wanted to "hold on to the intervention as long as we can, but the blanket approach (of treating all communities the same) is wasteful", Mr Fletcher said.
He also said that more money had to be put into rehabilitation services in places like Katherine, so they could deal with the extra people needing help as a result of the intervention.
Mr Fletcher said community workers running Kalano's night patrol had noticed "a significant increase of indigenous people in the town and around the outlying communities around Katherine, because of the intervention".
This was causing Kalano's drying-out shelters - which were already turning people away before the intervention - to come under even more pressure, he said.
Sunrise Health Services chief executive Irene Fisher said many people had moved to Katherine in the mistaken belief that they would not be caught by the intervention if they got out of the affected communities before it rolled in.
Katherine township is not affected by the intervention.
See: ABick
The Forgotten States
New Matilda | 5 December 2007
In the weeks before the election, the Northern Territory Intervention was barely spoken of, and the few other Aboriginal issues that had made the agenda were nudged to the side. The last leg of the race was all about working families, tax cuts and unionists.
The controversy and hype surrounding the NT Intervention saw other Indigenous issues take a back seat with both major Parties this year. As the country focused on the NT, the rest of Aboriginal Australia was left off the election agenda altogether.
The former Federal Government spent millions of dollars in rural Northern Territory in the name of tackling child sexual abuse in Aboriginal communities. At the same time, the States have suffered dramatic Federal funding cuts in Aboriginal affairs, despite experiencing the same problems.
Federal funding to NSW for Indigenous affairs was cut by over $30 million this year after the Northern Territory Intervention had been announced. Funding for Aboriginal housing alone was cut by $13 million and rent relief was cut by $18 million. This is despite the fact that reports on child sexual abuse in Aboriginal communities, such as the NT's Wild-Anderson Little Children are Sacred and NSW's Breaking the Silence, identify poor housing as a key factor in child sexual assault.
Thirty per cent of Australia's Aboriginal population lives in NSW, where only 12.5 per cent lives in the NT. Paul Lynch, NSW Minister for Aboriginal Affairs says, 'Eighty-five per cent of the Federal Government's Aboriginal specific programs go outside of NSW. We have 30 per cent of the population but we only get 15 per cent of the funding.'
The idea that child sexual abuse does not occur in urban areas is a myth. In NSW, the area most affected by child sexual abuse in Aboriginal communities is Sydney, followed by the Hunter, Northern and North Western r e gions.
Although the former Federal Government denied it, it is accused of taking Aboriginal funding from the States to fund the NT intervention.
Marcia Ella-Duncan, Chair of the Aboriginal Child Sexual Assault Taskforce, which carried out the Breaking the Silence report, says:
The Australian people need to be reminded that the Howard Government [had] quite strong views about Aboriginal funding for Aboriginal affairs. They espoused for many years that the greatest need is in the NT and that funding should be diverted from States to the NT. That's happened on a number of fronts; housing is the one that comes to mind.
The Breaking the Silence report, carried out by the Aboriginal Child Sexual Assault Taskforce (ACSAT), revealed statistics and evidence just as damning as those in Wild-Anderson report. It found that Aboriginal children in NSW were four times as likely to be sexually abused than non-Aboriginal children, that many cases went unreported, that sexual abuse was not understood in some communities and that victims of child sexual assault often participated in anti-social behaviour later in life.
The report was released over a year before the Little Children are Sacred report, which was supposedly the catalyst to the Federal Government's intervention in the NT. The two reports, similar at their cores, received the most dissimilar responses. The former Howard Government labeled the NT situation an emergency, and planned to spend $1.3 billion to 'tackle child sexual abuse.' But in NSW, the Howard Government cut funding by over $30 million.
Perhaps the Coalition chose to intervene in the NT simply because it could.
'There are different legislative provisions that make the kind of intervention in the NT far more problematic in NSW,' says Marcia Ella-Duncan, who chaired the ACSAT report. 'The fact that it's a Territory and that the Commonwealth has jurisdiction is really quite significant and would make some of the measures seen in the intervention in the NT not possible in NSW.'
In response to the report, the NSW Government created the NSW Interagency Plan to Tackle Child Sexual Assault in Aboriginal Communities, which adopted 88 of the 119 recommendations made by ACSAT. Although Lynch assures that the wheels are in motion, few results have been seen as yet.
The plan in theory has been received well by relevant agencies and bodies like ACSAT, however the NSW Government has hypocritically not allocated any new funding to implement the recommendations. Various bodies and figures such as ACSAT, former Attorney-General Bob Debus, Dawn Fardell and Marcia Ella-Duncan called for the NSW Government to increase funding by $20 million to $40 million a year to implement the recommendations.
Instead of the requested increase in funding, there was a massive 40 per cent funding cut from the NSW Government in Aboriginal programs this year from $49.5 million down to $29.2 million. Agencies such as the Department of Community services (DoCS) were and are still expected to make changes to accommodate the Government's recommendations with their existing funds and resources.
'I think it's appalling,' says Barry O'Farrell, leader of the NSW Liberal Party. 'There's little sense in having a report as comprehensive as Breaking the Silence, having it make specific recommendations and then denying it the funding to get on with doing the job. Then we've seen further cutbacks to Aboriginal affairs in this year's State budget. In contrast to the [former] Federal Liberal Government, we're seeing the sort of approach by the NSW Government that probably spurred the action in the NT.'
But Ella-Duncan, who ran for a NSW seat in the Senate with the Greens, says that Aboriginal affairs are not just State issues. 'The Commonwealth should have some responsibilities as well that could enhance a more effective response to Aboriginal communities, for example, in Aboriginal housing. Overcrowding seems to be a factor that contributes to child sexual assault in Aboriginal communities. The unmet housing needs in NSW should be a priority.'
Lynch of the NSW Government agrees. 'It beggar's belief that you can try to deal with child sexual assault and not deal with housing,' he says.
The Aboriginal Housing Office, which assists Indigenous Australians in NSW find appropriate and affordable housing, is one agency that has been hit hard by the funding cuts. Its director, Tom Slockee says:
The funding cuts have had a big impact on people in NSW. First, it means we won't be able to assist young women with community housing. Often, when a kid is sexually abused, they'll end up with their mothers living with their grandparents. Then you have grandparents looking after grandchildren and you get more overcrowding. Our resources at the moment are stretched to the limit.
O'Farrell does not think the $13 million fund cut in housing is the problem. 'A $13 million dollar cut in that area still doesn't account for the fact that there are DoCS [Department of Community Services] offices closed in Aboriginal communities for the lack of State funding.'
The city of Dubbo in rural NSW has some successful programs in place to deal with child sexual assault but is also stretching its resources to the limit. There were 29 charges of child sexual assault in Dubbo between July 2006 and June 2007, including Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal residents. Many more cases are believed to have gone unreported.
Dawn Fardell, the Independent Minister of Parliament for Dubbo, appealed for more funding last June to help implement recommendations of the Breaking the Silence report. Instead, funding was cut. Today, she struggles to keep programs running like the Red Cross's breakfast program, which provides a free nutritious breakfast to children.
She says that sexual abuse and the mistreatment of children is something that happens every day but often goes unreported. 'There still are a lot of children at risk. DoCS are doing a really good job - I'm not at all critical of DoCS. They really have a big workload,' she says. 'But there are never enough workers. They're doing the best they can.'
Fardell believes the Coalition's beloved baby bonus is causing problems for Dubbo.
'The baby bonus has certainly had a big effect in this area and other areas of Australia. There are little children being born for the sake of money and not for wanting a child,' she says. 'Some people should be paid the baby bonus in vouchers or it should be paid over a long period, because it's spent on drug abuse and plasma TVs in Dubbo.'
Ella-Duncan calls for a more rigorous response to reported child sexual assault. 'I read just last week that people had reported sexual assault to two agencies on three occasions and were told that there was nothing they could do. That's just not good enough. There needs to be a mandatory response. It needs to be noted and investigated automatically. We can't even get past the front desk.'
Lynch thinks the problem lies elsewhere. 'I'm not sure that a shortage of DoCS workers is the key problem. I think the key problem is the lack of reporting. The key to the entirety of the issue is the level of reporting. Child sexual assault is less reported in the Aboriginal community. We need the levels of reporting to be increased.'
Politicians will always play the blame game. The Liberals say the NSW Government is not doing enough and the NSW Labor Party says that the cases are not being reported enough. The question is, is there a culture of not reporting child sexual abuse or is the system so under-resourced that people feel it is hopeless to report a case that may never be investigated? It's a chicken-and-egg situation.
And the eggs are all being put into one basket: the Northern Territory. While the former Federal Government tried to convince Australians that it was doing something about child sexual abuse by intervening in the NT, the States have been left to fend for themselves. Perhaps the new Labor Government will spread the bread a little further.
See: New Matilda
Calls for Rudd to stop NT 'invasion'
ABC News | 5 December 2007
A group of Aboriginal people is calling on the Rudd Government to stop the intervention in Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory.
In a letter to The Australian, the group labelled the intervention an "invasion" and urged the Commonwealth to sit down with community leaders.
The Foundation for Aboriginal and Islander Research Action's Les Malezer is part of the group.
He wants Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to clarify his position on the intervention.
"Their language should be clear and it should be to say we will not violate any of the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, but we will continue to assist them," he said.
"And we will do that in discussion, not have any programs forced upon people unwillingly."
Mr Malezer says the intervention violates a number of human rights.
"Matters which deal with terminating income and jobs removing permits," he said.
He says the group, which includes human rights lobbyists and academics, wants the Prime Minister to replace the intervention with a program of development where they are in charge.
The letter also calls on the Government to sign a UN declaration that recognises the rights of Indigenous people.
The Howard government refused to sign the non-binding declaration in September this year, claiming it was not fair.
Mr Malezer says Mr Rudd must take the issue seriously.
"Next week is the international day of human rights, on the 10th of December," he said.
"We want the Government to come out with a statement on the 10th of December to say that they will support the declaration on the rights of Indigenous people in the United Nations and that they would act quickly to restore those things that have been lost over the during the last decade."
See: ABC News
Rising tide of fishermen arrive to hear landmark court ruling
Sydney Morning Herald | 5 December 2007
About 80 traditional Aboriginal land owners have attended the High Court to hear a defence of their right to fish along the Northern Territory coastline in a case that has been referred to as the water rights version of Mabo.
In a landmark native title case in March, the Federal Court granted a group of owners exclusive access to waters between high and low tides at the remote Blue Mud Bay region in north-east Arnhem Land. The ruling meant Aboriginal fishermen would be able to fish in the bulk of the Territory's coastal waters and rivers. The Northern Territory Government, which expressed concerns about the effect on commercial fishing, appealed against the decision.
The acting head of the Northern Land Council, John Christopherson, said yesterday the owners wanted to work with the commercial fishing industry and were not "kicking people out".
"People have nothing to fear," he told ABC radio. "It has taken 219-odd years for the final recognition by three judges that Aboriginal people had a prior ownership of the seas . This is probably the biggest decision since land rights itself, and for coastal communities and the people here it is of just as bigger importance."
But counsel for the NT Government, David Jackson, QC, said the Federal Court ruling went too far and had curbed the right of the public to access Australian waters.
The case resumes today.
See: Sydney Morning Herald
NLC wants assessment of intervention
ABC News | 4 December 2007
The Northern Land Council wants the Commonwealth intervention in the Northern Territory assessed now there's a change in Federal leadership.
The council's new chairman Wali Wunungmurra says there's a lot of concern about the intervention and says some elements, like the changes to Community Development Employment Projects, should be changed.
He says there should be fresh talks with the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and the Territory's new Chief Minister Paul Henderson.
"We do need changes in those grey areas and that means that Aboriginal people and Northern Territory Government as well as the Federal Government working together to work out how best way we can solve these problems."
See: ABC News
Nationals pressure Rudd to maintain NT intervention
ABC News | 4 December 2007
The new deputy leader of the National party says he will put pressure on the Labor Federal Government to continue the Indigenous intervention.
Nigel Scullion, who is also a Senator for the Northern Territory, was elected as deputy leader of the Nationals yesterday.
Senator Scullion says the Nationals will be reviewing many of its policies in the wake of the Coalition's resounding electoral defeat.
But he says he is certain the intervention into Indigenous affairs should be continued.
"We need to keep an eye on a number of ones, particularly that are peculiar to the Territory," he said.
"The intervention in the Northern Territory, Mr Rudd has said he will keep the fundamentals of that philosophy and we need to ensure that we keep on his case about that."
See: ABC News
Follow Howard line: Mundine
The Australian | 4 December 2007
Aboriginal activist Warren Mundine has expressed "great fear" that the indigenous rights agenda of the past will creep back under the influence of Labor's left wing and the Aboriginal old guard.
Mr Mundine, the former Australian Labor Party president, said he wanted Labor to pursue the Howard government's tough line on indigenous affairs and urged Kevin Rudd to apologise to the Stolen Generation soon to get it "over and done with".
Mr Mundine said the the Howard government had "set the agenda" for massive change.
"It's a radical program we have to put in place," he said. "I think we should take advantage of what the former government did. We have to build on that. The biggest fear I have is that we start to fall back into our old ways and start some of the failed policies of the past."
He said the old-guard forces would be "lining up" to reignite the old policies, which put symbolism ahead of practical solutions to disadvantage among indigenous Australians.
Mr Mundine said he wanted the Prime Minister to apologise to the Stolen Generation immediately so that Labor could move on to the "real issues" of dealing with poverty, health and education. "They are the issues we have to win the battle on," he said.
"How many ways can you say 'I'm really sorry'? I think we are trying to be too cute. We just need to do a sincere and straightforward apology and stop thinking about this massive, gorgeous language and just say it in a straightforward way.
"We just need to do it so we can then focus on moving forward, and I would love to see it in the first sitting of parliament. It would then set the tone for us to do the hard yards."
Wesley Aird, one of the Howard government's hand-picked indigenous affairs advisers, said the former government had become obsessed with the Northern Territory and remote indigenous people, and was ignoring urban and regional Aborigines.
Urging the Rudd Government to keep the National Indigenous Council, Mr Aird said urban and regional Aborigines needed urgent attention, particularly to deal with crippling levels of unemployment.
"The needs of urban people were just as important but the fixation on the Northern Territory and Cape York made it difficult for urban people to get a look in," he said. "The magnitude of the Northern Territory intervention just stretched resources and personnel."
See: The Australian
No charges for cop who killed NT rioter
Sydney Morning Herald | 4 December 2007
A policeman who fatally shot a teenager in the back during rioting at a remote Aboriginal community will not be charged, despite a coronial inquiry finding he may have committed a crime.
Constable Robert Whittington was "in a blind panic" when he "made a fatal error of judgment" and killed Robert Jongmin on October 23, 2002, Northern Territory coroner Greg Cavanagh said on Monday.
The 18-year-old was taking part in police-sanctioned fist fights between warring gang members the Judas Priest boys and Evil Warriors at the troubled community of Wadeye, about 350km south-west of Darwin.
When the fights got out of control full-scale brawling erupted, with up to 400 people wielding spears, sticks, knives, machetes and wheel braces spilling onto the community oval.
Handing down his findings in Wadeye on Monday, Mr Cavanagh said Robert Jongmin was shot by Senior Const Whittington while the teenager tried to wrestle a shotgun from another teenager, Tobias Worumbu.
The officer, who was relieving at Wadeye at the time and had only been in the community for six days, fired four bullets from his Glock pistol after Mr Worumbu's gun discharged.
Mr Cavanagh said it was likely that the last shot was the one that killed the teenager, while Mr Worumbu was shot in the arm.
Senior Const Whittington was originally charged with committing a dangerous act, but the charge was dismissed last year because the prosecution had not been brought within the required two-month period for police.
In February the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) declared the matter closed, decided not to take an appeal to the High Court.
"I find that Whittington did not intend to kill, wound or shoot the deceased," Mr Cavanagh said.
"However Whittington's decision to discharge his pistol four times in the circumstances demonstrated a serious error of judgment."
Mr Cavanagh said the officer - who was not trained to fire over long distances and was known for having a poor attitude towards authority - had clearly breached one of the four fundamental safety principles for discharging weapons, namely to be sure of your target.
"There was simply no justification whatsoever for Whittington's decision to continue firing his pistol," he said.
"Whittington discharged his pistol four times because he acted under considerable stress and was probably in a blind panic at that time.
"I report to the Commissioner of Police and Director of public Prosecution that (a crime) ... may have been committed which caused serious actual danger to the life, health and safety of Robert Jongmin and Tobias Worumbu."
But DPP director Richard Coates said the case remained closed.
"The coroner is just saying what he is obliged to say under the Coroner's Act," he told AAP.
"He has done that and we adopted a similar view when we laid the original charges against Mr Whittington and that matter has been through the courts and the courts have dismissed the charge."
Mr Coates said the decision to dismiss the charge was upheld by the court of appeal.
"In these circumstances it is not possible to re-lay the charge," he said.
Also in his findings, Mr Cavanagh slammed the practice of police-sanctioned fist fights.
"Police should not have assisted and supervised public fighting as a means of dispute resolution. Not only does it perpetuate a culture of violence but it is also illegal," he said.
See: Sydney Morning Herald
7 arrested in alcohol crackdown in town camps
ABC News | 3 December 2007
Northern Territory police say they have arrested seven people during a crackdown on drinking in Alice Springs town camps.
It has been illegal to have alcohol in the camps since mid-September under the Commonwealth's intervention.
Police targeted several camps and the nearby community of Amoonguna over three nights with patrols and breath-testing stations.
Superintendent Sean Parnell says police have tipped out 285 litres of alcohol during the blitz.
"We're hoping it makes an improvement," he said.
"It's only obviously one of a number of measures we're implementing and in addition to that there's a whole of community effort, a whole of government effort, things like the income quarantining, which will have an impact - that kicks in shortly.
"All these things together hopefully will be able to stem some of that flow of alcohol and reduce the ensuing violence."
See: ABC News
NT intervention policy may expand into other states
Brisbane Times | 1 December 2007
The new Labor government will seek to expand the Northern Territory invervention policy to other states, incoming indigenous affairs minister Jenny Macklin says.
She plans to negotiate with other states and territories to improve the plight of indigenous Australians affected by drugs, alcohol abuse, domestic abuse and child sex abuse, The Weekend Australian reported.
Ms Macklin said she had ordered her department to collect data on the progress of the NT intervention, which was introduced by the outgoing Howard government, to provide a 12-month review.
"As the indigenous affairs minister, I'm actually the indigenous affairs minister for all indigenous people in Australia," she said.
"It's very important that we support the indigenous people in the Northern Territory, but same applies for the people who live in all the major cities - there's a lot of indigenous people everywhere."
See: Brisbane Times
Indigenous expectations flying high
The Age | 1 December 2007
An end to the 17-year life expectancy gap between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians within a generation; an apology over the Stolen Generations; and an end to alcohol problems and sexual abuse of children in indigenous communities.
The expectations on the Government make Bob Hawke's "no child will live in poverty by 1990" pledge look like a walk in the park. Labor's commitment to get rid of the indigenous life expectancy gap and halve the gap in mortality rates between indigenous and non-indigenous children within a decade have led to high hopes for improvements in Aboriginal health.
Expectations surrounding the Northern Territory intervention will be even tougher for the new Government to measure up to.
It will be expected to follow through with the intervention's promise to get rid of child sexual abuse and violence in territory communities. But it will also come under pressure to wind back the more controversial parts. Critics want to get rid of the five-year takeover of communities. They also want Labor to reintroduce the permit system and bring back the Aboriginal work-for-the-dole program CDEP, scrapped by the Howard government.
The director of Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation, Gary Highland, says many people expect the Government to respond to the Bringing Them Home report on the Stolen Generations - which include a call for compensation. But the most eagerly awaited action is arguably the most simple: an apology.
That apology will earn the Government a lot of trust early on, says Mr Highland. It may even ease the pressure to achieve rapid results in more difficult policy areas.
And they will be enormously difficult.
But incoming Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin said this week she did not mind benchmarks because otherwise it was difficult to get anything done.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Tom Calma is adamant the life expectancy gaps can be closed. It will require substantial funding - around $460 million a year - and attacking social issues such as poor housing and education.
Still, the NT intervention has led to information being collected on housing and health, a good start towards developing programs to meet those needs, he said.
Not all expectations will be met.
Labor has not promised compensation to the Stolen Generations and Mr Rudd told 3AW this week that an apology was unlikely to lead to compensation claims.
And hopes that the old CDEP scheme is to be reinstated are likely to be dashed.
Ms Macklin says she is not interested in bringing back the scheme, which saw some on CDEP payments for life. She wants to use CDEP to get people into training and positions with companies.
And while the Government has promised to review the five-year takeovers of communities, there is no guarantee communities will go back into indigenous hands.
If the review showed the arrangements were helping to improve housing, they were likely to stay in place, she said.
See: The Age
National Aboriginal Alliance welcomes Jenny Macklin to ministerial post
ENIAR | 2 December 2007
Media Release - The National Aboriginal Alliance welcomes the appointment of Jenny Macklin as Indigenous Affairs Minister but calls on Prime Minister elect Kevin Rudd to directly involve himself in dealing with Aboriginal issues, Spokesman Michael Mansell said today.
Mr Mansell said, "The meeting of over 120 people in Alice Springs some months ago to establish the Alliance were desperate for some national leadership to bring a change from the Howard approach. We believe Jenny Macklin can give that leadership provided Mr Rudd becomes heavily involved in dumping the NT Emergency laws, saying "sorry" and offering compensation, and establishing a representative Aboriginal voice at the national level.
We also seek a review of the various processes for returning lands to Aboriginal people. Native title is essential. However the means by which native title is achieved has caused division and unnecessary trauma.
The first thing we urge Mrs Macklin to do is broaden out her consultation with Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders from the hand-picked group of John Howard. The policies of blaming the victims, so long the theme of the Howard years, must be abandoned by the Rudd government. New ideas based on involvement of Aboriginal people can bring about the desired change. Mrs Macklin and Mr Rudd must recognise that Aboriginal culture is not a hurdle but a valuable asset in seeking results.
Our people suffered badly under Howard. Politicisation of funding humiliated our people, and Shared Responsibility Agreements made our people more dependent, not less. The Howard/Brough era also created tremendous uncertainty for small Aboriginal communities. The dignity of Aboriginal people had been undermined by the aggressive Howard/Brough style of "their way or no way".
Aboriginal people will be looking for statements and actions from Mr Rudd and Mrs Macklin to indicate things are going to be different from the dark and traumatic Howard years. The test will be whether Howard policies are to be followed or dumped.
We believe the Macklin appointment is a sound one".
Michael Mansell
See: ENIAR
Rioters threaten police with baseball bats
ABC News | 2 December 2007
Northern Territory police officers used capsicum spray at the remote community of Ngukurr last night when they found themselves surrounded by 200 people, some of them wielding baseball bats.
Police say the riot had been brewing since a man was hit with a beer bottle on Friday night.
Sergeant Jamie Cairncross says only two officers were stationed at the community, which is about 250 kilometres south-east of Katherine, but an extra eight have been sent to back them up.
He says the officers were left with no choice but to use the force available to them.
"One of the officers was approached by a man with a baseball bat who was approximately two to three metres away, swinging it above his head, so the officers had to deploy capsicum spray to prevent these people from assaulting them."
Police have arrested people from both sides and plan to interview them today
See: ABC News
Indigenous royalty payments fuelling drinking, violence: police
ABC News | 2 December 2007
The Northern Territory's deputy police commissioner, Bruce Wernham, has called for a rethink of the way royalty payments are made to Aboriginal groups after an outbreak of violence in Tennant Creek.
Commissioner Wernham says bulk payments of royalties contribute to binge drinking and violence in Indigenous communities and make policing dangerous and difficult.
Tennant Creek police received 84 reports of alcohol-fuelled violence last Thursday and Friday after a royalty payment was made to local Indigenous groups.
Commissioner Wernham says the system needs to change.
"Our concerns are that on a single occasion a huge amount of money goes to a community and over time the results have been all too predictable," he said.
"It's a tragic thing that payments with the potential to do so much good for a community seem to end in absolute misery."
Christmas hampers
Detective Senior Sergeant Megan Rowe says alcohol-filled Christmas hampers also contributed to the violence.
"There's more people in town doing their shopping, royalties have just been paid and also there's been an upsurge in the availability of Christmas hampers coming from interstate," she said.
"They're getting delivered into Tennant Creek and those hampers include alcohol."
An emergency ban was placed on most types of takeaway alcohol after the surge in violence.
Until midday on Monday only light and mid-strength beer and bottled wine will be available for takeaway purchase in Tennant Creek.
See: ABC News
Swings and roundabouts of indigenous fortune
Sydney Morning Herald | 1 December 2007
Labor is being warned to avoid the classic policy pitfalls of new governments, writes Joel Gibson.
A week is not normally a long time in indigenous politics, but this was no normal week.
The barnstorming minister Mal Brough went first, the victim of a double-figure swing against him in his Queensland seat of Longman. Work Choices did it, was the consensus. Wayne Gibbons, his hard-headed lieutenant and the country's most senior indigenous affairs bureaucrat, retired soon after. Then it was John Howard's turn, after four days of counting, leaving Peter Shergold, the secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, as the sole remnant of the cabal that engineered the radical intervention in Northern Territory indigenous communities.
Meanwhile, in the territory, Labor's fiercest critic of the intervention was elevated to deputy leader after the resignation of its chief minister, Clare Martin. Marion Scrymgour, now the most senior indigenous politician in Australian history, has called what is happening there a circus and "the black kids' Tampa".
As tectonic plates moved in Canberra and Darwin, the tremors flowed through to the Aboriginal leadership. Noel Pearson, frustrated by Labor preference deals with the Greens at the state and federal levels that could limit the economic potential of Cape York and incensed at Kevin Rudd's wavering commitment to a referendum, launched an extraordinary election eve attack on "the heartless snake" that is Labor. The respected but recently marginalised academic Mick Dodson assumed the chair of Reconciliation Australia, ready to play a central role again in indigenous policy debates. Rudd said Professor Lowitja O'Donoghue, who was moved to tears by the emergency measures, would be consulted about the wording of an apology to the stolen generations. And at the Northern Land Council, which has been more supportive of the intervention than other organisations in the Top End, the chairman, John Daly, and the chief executive, Norman Fry, resigned.
The future of the Howard Government-selected National Indigenous Council is now unclear. Already, there are reports that Greg Roche, previously an assistant secretary in indigenous affairs, has been instructed to start developing a new representative indigenous body - a highly symbolic first move by a new government, and one that preceded the appointment of its new minister, Jenny Macklin.
The party's national vice-president, Linda Burney, expects the voices in the ear of the new minister to be more varied than those that informed the Howard Government, even if Pearson is one of them.
"The spectrum of Aboriginal leaders that Howard and Brough spoke to was incredibly narrow and they only spoke to people who told them what they wanted to hear," she says.
Macklin, who is considered a policy wonk and a good listener but not a standout media performer, says she will expand that base and favour evidence-based policy aimed at economic development and children. But will she be able to effect change as the blustering Brough did? Since the former army captain declared the sexual abuse of indigenous children a national emergency in June, $1.3 billion has been earmarked for it, 73 indigenous communities in the territory have been surveyed, hundreds of Centrelink staff deployed to manage the quarantining of welfare payments, 12 health check teams sent to examine almost 4500 Aboriginal children, 41 extra police stationed throughout the territory, and 37 senior bureaucrats appointed on $40,000 bonuses as administrators of communities.
One in four of 17,000 children in the territory has received a basic health check. Of those, one in four has needed a referral for further treatment, including 12 who had a hole in the heart that might not otherwise have been discovered.
Gordon says health teams have checked about 55 per cent of children in the communities visited so far, a figure critics say represents those least at risk. Ear and tooth diseases and skin infections requiring immediate treatment were discovered in 20 per cent of these children.
The Australian Medical Association president, Rosanna Capolingua, has urged the new government to extend the health checks Australiawide, to all indigenous children.
But in terms of stamping out sexual abuse, the results are inconclusive. An increased police presence may be acting as a deterrent, but it cannot be said that there are fewer child abusers in those communities. No charges have been laid.
Brough and supporters of the intervention, such as the central Australian MP Alison Anderson, say women in particular have been grateful for the increased police presence and health services. But election polling in remote booths suggests the majority of Aboriginal Territorians have rejected the sum of the intervention, perhaps buoyed by Labor's policy to reverse the changes to the permit system and Community Development Employment Projects. Even at Yirrkala, in Arnhem Land, home to recent intervention convert Galarrwuy Yunupingu, the Country Liberal Party received just two votes out of 266. In Pearson's Hope Vale booth, Labor won 49 per cent to the Liberal Party's 17 per cent, almost halving the conservatives' 2004 vote.
The Herald has reported a wave of refugees sleeping rough in South Australian towns such as Coober Pedy to escape the welfare quarantining and grog bans. This week, the Mayor of Cairns, Kevin Byrne, said a noticeable rise in itinerant Aborigines was proving "corrosive to tourism" there. Some had come from the Territory, while others were escaping the alcohol management plans pioneered by Pearson on Cape York, he said.
Macklin met her new department mandarins yesterday to discuss how to deal with these side effects of the intervention, but a review will not be brought forward from June despite the lobbying of Labor figures such as Senator Trish Crossin. It will focus on whether all Aborigines, be they war veterans or drug addicts, community leaders or humbuggers, will continue to have half of their welfare payments quarantined.
Olga Havnen, from the Combined Aboriginal Organisations, says the blanket application of this rule fails to reward Aboriginal families who take responsibility. Burney has pointed to the example of Geoff Shaw, who served in Borneo and Vietnam and will have half of his war veteran's pension converted to store credits simply because he is an Aborigine living in the Northern Territory.
"Six years in the army, three bloody years fighting on behalf of this country," he told the ABC. "I got recognition by being given a pension by veterans affairs, and here this man comes along and wants to take it away from me."
The greatest danger now, says the former Coalition Aboriginal affairs minister Fred Chaney, is "the 'start again' syndrome which affects almost every new government and minister".
"Rather than build on areas of success we reorganise. What better way to avoid responsibility now than by damning the past, reorganising, and cherish the thought that continuing failure will not be apparent until you have departed?" he told the National Press Club in July in his role as a director of Reconciliation Australia.
"I've been a minister for Aboriginal affairs, and I've known all of the others over nearly 40 years. I, like them, have been disappointed at how little was achieved of the things I set out to do. But over those years, a great deal has been learned about what works in delivering better outcomes on the ground, in education, employment, health and housing."
What works, he said, is partnerships between government, indigenous people and the private sector; a bottom-up approach to decision-making; good governance; and government support.
"If we don't start to apply those learnings," he warned, "we'll continue starting from scratch with every new minister."
See: Sydney Morning Herald
Reform Indigenous intervention, Labor told
ABC News | 1 December 2007
The new chairman of the Northern Land Council (NLC) is calling for changes to the Commonwealth-led intervention into Indigenous affairs, to restore power to Aboriginal people.
East Arnhem land traditional owner Wali Wunungmurra says he will meet the new federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin in Canberra next week to discuss this issue.
Mr Wunungmurra told the Stateline program that the intervention unfairly differentiated Aboriginal people from the rest of the Australian population for purely political purposes.
"Federal Government imposed on the Northern Territory Aboriginal people ... it differentiated Aboriginal people from the rest of the country," he said.
"We were being picked here for some sort of political stunt or political game."
The new Labor Government has flagged a reinstatement of CDEP and the permit system, which were removed under the Howard government's intervention.
See: ABC News
Elder attacks Nelson over 'sorry' position
ABC News | 1 December 2007
An Aboriginal elder says Malcolm Turnbull would have made a better leader of the Liberal Party because he would have said 'sorry'.
New Liberal leader Brendan Nelson has said he sees no need to say sorry to the Stolen Generations - but the man who challenged him for the leadership, Mr Turnbull, had indicated he supported Labor's plans to say sorry.
Lowitja O'Donoghue is a prominent member of the Stolen Generations.
She says the stance of the new Opposition Leader indicates a party that is out of touch.
"I'm just really upset that Brendan Nelson gets up against Malcolm Turnbull who was prepared to say sorry," she said.
"It says something about the Liberal Party."
See: ABC News
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