Northern Territory Intervention

I have just realised after looking over some of my previous posts I haven't actually mentioned the Northern Territory Intervention which is probably one of the most significant things to happen over here in the last 10 years.

Most of us in New Zealand may remember hearing about the child sexual abuse in Aboriginal Communities back in 2006 as it made the News quite a bit in NZ and people were horrified by the research that came out at the time.  Basically in 2006, after investigative journalists reported on ABCTV Lateline Program that sexual abuse of Aboriginal children in NT communities was widespread, the Northern Territory Federal Government commissioned research here into the problem. That research report was known as the 'Little Children are Sacred' report and you can read the full report by clicking on it.

Within two weeks after the report was released in 2007 the Federal Government staged a massive intervention in the Northern Territory called the 'Northern Territory Emergence Response (NTER)' or 'The Intervention' as it's known by the locals. The legislation Northern Territory National Emergency Response Act 2007 was passed by both major parties (Labour and Liberal) and the $587 million package included:

* Subjecting Aboriginal children to mandatory health checks. It saw doctors and the army rolled into all Communities in the first few weeks after the Law was introduced. A GP gives his enlightening account two years later, here.

* Deployment of additional police to affected communities.

* New restrictions on the sale & consumption of alcohol and kava

* Pornography filters on publicly funded computers. Pornography ban throughout the NT.

* Removal of customary law and cultural practice considerations from bail applications and sentencing within criminal proceedings (outlawing of 'payback' and other practices. NT now has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world).

* Removal of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 

* Quarantining of a proportion of welfare benefits to all recipients in the designated Communities and of all benefits of those who neglect their children. 50% of payments go on a 'Basics Card' for food, (can not buy alcohol/cigarettes). This was initially just for Aboriginal people on welfare but after much protest it was extended to all those on welfare payments in the NT.

* The abolition of the Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) 

* Expected Aboriginal people to lease property to the government in return for basic services

* Aboriginal children to go to school for at least 4 hours a day (in order to learn English in Western schools)

* Commonwealth funding for provision of community services

These signs feature on the main highways and outside communities around the NT



Used to buy groceries with - works like an eftpos card

The Law was introduced in such a hurry and with no consultation with Aboriginal Communities, to address something which is not a new issue (as the research points out) in a Federal election year. Not only is it a 'race-based' Law, that basically says all Aboriginal people are guilty and need fixing, it also seems to take away more from them than it gives them.  The Australian Human Rights Commission has also opposed the Law, particularly the removal of The Racial Discrimination Act which it introduced. It ended up being reinstated in the NT in 2010 as a result. There also is still a lot of debate as to whether the Law has made any real difference over the last past 5 years for the purpose of which it was created for, that being to deal with the abuse of children in Aboriginal Communities.

Reports since its introduction have shown that:

6 months after the intervention began:

- no new charges had been laid in connection with child sexual abuse,

- no new community-based services to ensure the safety of children had been established,

- $88 million had been spent on bureaucrats to control Aboriginal welfare payments.

One year after the intervention began:

- convictions for child sex abuse were just a few cases higher than before the intervention,

- reports of substance abuse were rising,

- school attendance remained static,

- sales of junk food and tobacco had rebounded strongly and returned to historic levels.

As intervention measures last, people find alternative ways to access prohibited items.

Now, after 5 years since the intervention:

The rate of suicide among Aboriginal girls has "greatly increased" since the intervention was launched.  Girls accounted for 40% of all Aboriginal suicides of children under 17 years, a rate which is "the most in the Western world".

Prior to the intervention the suicide rate was "significantly lower" and in 1980 it was zero.

NT Intervention creep is a term used to describe Aboriginal people who flee from their smaller communities, which are covered by the intervention, into the larger cities such as Darwin or Alice Springs, driving up the number of homeless people.

Intervention creep comes at a price—Darwin City Council is able to confiscate and destroy their belongings and fine them. In Alice Springs, Aboriginal locals blame people escaping the intervention for a significant increase of lawlessness, drunkenness and violence, and putting more stress on the already overcrowded town camps.

http://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/politics/northern-territory-intervention.html


So it's unclear if the 'Intervention' has achieved much in the way of any meaningful change and opinion around here is mixed. Most of the Health Professionals and the Police I have spoken to seem to think that its made no real difference and they still see high numbers of violence, child abuse and drunkenness, despite the Government often reporting otherwise.  Most of those kids subjected to mandatory health checks when the intervention first begun are still waiting 5 years later for the hearing or dental treatment that GP's referred them for. Evidenced by the fact, 90-95% of Aboriginal inmates at Darwin Correctional Centre have hearing loss.  Also as I have already blogged previously, with the Mandatory Reporting of under-aged sex now required by health professionals, it has also created other issues of untreated STI's, teenage pregnancies with no pre-natal care and increased levels of fetal alcohol syndrome babies being born.  Despite all this, there is even talk about extending the Intervention even further (probably evidence in itself that it's not working in its current form), though it's hard to know if all the talk is not just because we are again in a Federal election year.

One thing is clear, the government here don't seem to consult Aboriginal People in rushing these Laws through.  Also clear, NZ is light years ahead with our indigenous grievances, indigenous education, indigenous health, and other legislation, despite us trying to manage our own on-going child abuse shame.