Northern Territory Emergence Response (NTER)—"The Intervention"

In August 2006 the Northern Territory government commissioned research into allegations of serious sexual abuse of children in Aboriginal communities. An inquiry was established to find better ways to protect Aboriginal children from sexual abuse. On 15 June 2007 the commission released its report, called 'Little Children are Sacred'.

Less than a fortnight after its publication, on 23 June 2007, the federal government staged a massive intervention in the Northern Territory where the commission had collected its data. They called it the 'Northern Territory Emergence Response (NTER)'. Indigenous and non-Indigenous people however were quick in labeling it 'the intervention'.

Intervention changes and critique

Legislation passed by both major parties (Labour and Liberal)

• removed the permit system for access to Aboriginal land,
• abolished Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP),
• subjected Aboriginal children to be taught in a language they don't speak for the first four hours at school,
• quarantined 50% of welfare payments,
• suspended the Racial Discrimination Act (RDA),
• expected Aboriginal people to lease property to the government in return for basic services,
• compulsorily acquired Aboriginal land and
• subjected Aboriginal children to mandatory health checks.

Critics of the 'invasion' point out that the word 'child' or 'children' does not appear once in the hundreds of pages of the legislative documents and that it was impossible to draft them in the short time between the report's publication and the intervention's announcement.

Others suspect that the intervention was part of "a real tradition in Australian culture of blaming the victim when it comes to Indigenous people" [1]. "People want to do something so they jump in and make all sorts of top-down decisions. But this 'solution' compounds the problem and sends a very powerful message to Indigenous people which says that 'you are no good, you can't sort out your problems, you need us to do it'." If reiterated many times, Aboriginal people take on this victim position voluntarily.

The abolishment of CDEP saw many Aboriginal communities lose their youth and increased levels of drinking [6]. Many enthusiastic local young workers were left waiting for work while external contractors were brought in to do the work.

Everywhere we went, everyone complained. Both men and women complained about pornography. —Pat Anderson, co-author of the 'Little Children are Sacred' report [3]

No real consultation with Aboriginal people

One of the main points of critique of the Northern Territory Intervention is that the government did not properly consult with Aboriginal people. It reminds Indigenous people of politics of the mission days when almost every aspect of their lives was spelt out by non-Indigenous bureaucrats.

Alastair Nicholson, a former Family Court Chief Justice, says that the government "has not held proper consultations with the Aboriginal community as this [Will They Be Heard] Report amply demonstrates."[9] He quotes an Elder from the Aboriginal community of Utopia as saying:

We feel here that the intervention offers us absolutely nothing, excepting to compound the feeling of being second class citizens. The only thing that we have gained out of the intervention is the police. —Utopia Elder [9]

"Shopping with a ration card"

One measure of the Northern Territory Intervention was to issue so-called 'Basics Cards'. To prevent Aboriginal people from spending their money on alcohol and junk food half of their income was quarantined and only available through the Basics Card. This card was accepted at food outlets and should work similarly to an bank ATM card—in theory.

Here's the first-hand experience as presented by Bev Manton, Chairperson of the NSW Aboriginal Land Council [13].

"Shopping with a ration card in the NT roughly consists of the following scenario: You enter one of the few stores in town where your ration card is accepted, completely unaware of the balance remaining, and with no easy way of checking that balance.

"You can choose any item in the store, but without an idea of the balance, one tends to select the cheaper, less healthy products to avoid the shame of returning those items to the shelf when you go to pay.

"Fresh foods, including red meat, vegetables and fruit can only be bought in very small quantities (if they're even provided); they're just too expensive.

"You then head to the checkout and wait in line, but when you go to pay for the shopping, there's not enough credit on your card. As the murmurs and whispers grow in volume behind you, you're directed to another aisle down the end of the supermarket, which has been set aside for 'you guys.'

It's at this point the knock-out punch comes as you're told you can't afford about one-quarter of what you need to feed the family."

"In places like Camel Camp, only 250kms north-east of Alice Springs, there's simply nowhere to access decent fresh food. There's limited access to health care, no roads - only tracks, and the living conditions are unfathomable to most Australians.

"Out here, the so-called 'Basics Card' is utterly useless."

It's a degrading, humiliating and pride-sapping emotional whipping of the highest order. —Bev Manton, Chairperson of the NSW Aboriginal Land Council, about using the Basics Card [13]

Did the intervention succeed?

Six months after the intervention began [2]

• 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.

According to Dr Djiniyini Gondarra, an Elder from the Djirrikaymirr people, the intervention has failed to improve health and had, in fact, intensified depression and loss of hope amongst Aboriginal people [8].

The doctors were on $5,000 a week. —Ali Cobby Eckermann, Aboriginal poet [6]

Ali also mentioned that consultants were paid $300,000 to consult with 12 communities, but their results were not used in any way.

After 12 months [4],

• 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, a fact contrasting with official government reports of improved health food and drink purchases [10].

As intervention measures last, people find alternative ways to access prohibited items. This challenges a central tenet of income management—that mandatory restrictions can modify people's spending habits.

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 driving up the number of homeless people. On any given night up to 500 people slept rough in 2010 [12]. This comes at a price—Darwin City Council is able to confiscate and destroy their belongings and fine them.

This monster – intervention – needs to be destroyed and buried. —Dr Djiniyini Gondarra, Aboriginal Elder [8]

You cannot drive change into a community and unload it off the back of a truck. That is the lesson of the Intervention. —NTER Review Report, 13 October 2008, p58

Northern Territory Intervention timeline

1. 2006

    

   15 May: An ABCTV Lateline program reports on the abuse of Aboriginal children in NT communities.

   22 June: In response to the Lateline program the Chief Minister of the NT announces the government will establish an inquiry into child sexual abuse in NT Aboriginal communities.

2. 2007

    

   16 June: Little Children Are Sacred report is presented to the NT Parliament.

   21 June: Howard government introduces the NTER.

   24 November: Kevin Rudd becomes Prime Minister.

3. 2008

    

   31 March: Tom Calma, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, releases his Ten Point Action Plan proposal as a way forward for the Australian Government's NTER.

   21 June: One year since the NTER began. Jenny Macklin, Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FAHCSIA), announces a new $17.6 million trial over three years. Parents who fail to enroll their children or get them to school regularly will have their income support payments suspended until they fulfil their obligations.

   24 July: Rudd Government announces BasicsCard to manage the income of all Aboriginal Centrelink recipients in the NT.

   8 September: Centrelink begins distributing BasicsCard in the NT.

   13 October: NTER Review Board provides independent review of the first 12 months of the NT Intervention to the Australian Government.

4. 2009

    

   3 April: Australia supports UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Declaration states that, among other rights, all Aboriginal people have the right to self-determination. The NTER has not given Aboriginal people their right to self-determination. In fact, the Government has told Aboriginal people how to run aspects of their lives.

   21 May: Federal and NT governments respond to the NTER Review Board recommendations.

   25 May: Federal Government announces proposal to compulsorily acquire Alice Springs town camps.

   June–August: Consultations and workshops run by FaHCSIA with Aboriginal people in the NT about future directions of the NTER.

   21 June: Two years since the NTER began. Protests against the NTER held around Australia.

   3 July: Australian Productivity Commission report reiterates two key points: 1) the need for reliable statistics measuring the effects of government measures, and 2) the importance of community ownership of projects and close consultation between community and government.

   The things that work generally work because of co-operative approaches between government and communities. —Australian Productivity Commissioner

   14 July: People from the Ampilatwatja community walk off their land in protest against the NTER ensuring they are no longer subject to the NTER legislation. In August they seek refugee status from the UN as people displaced from their country.

   27 August: UN Rapporteur's statement on the NTER released.

   1 November: The Australian government misses the self-imposed deadline to reinstate the Racial Discrimination Act in Northern Territory Aboriginal communities.

   It is a simple matter to restore the RDA. Where the [Indigenous Affairs] Minister [Jenny Macklin] appears to be stuck is in trying to find a way to reconcile her desire to over-ride the fundamental human rights of Aboriginal Australians in the NT through compulsory welfare quarantining and mandatory leases with our international obligations not to discriminate on the basis of race. —Rachel Siewert, Greens senator [4]

5. 2010

    

   24 February: The final report of the UN's special rapporteur on Indigenous rights, Professor James Anaya, finds the intervention limits the rights and freedoms of Indigenous people in breach of Australia's international obligations.

   21 June: The government is able to re-instate the Racial Discrimination Act by extending compulsory income management nationwide. The administration is estimated to cost taxpayers $350 to $400 million dollars over the next four years, or about $4,000 a person a year [11]. Reports indicate that people under income management feel "severely demoralised" [11].

   Re-instating the RDA restores dignity and helps Indigenous Australians to take ownership of their lives and to drive change in the NT. —Jenny Macklin, Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister [11]

   A look at the on-the-ground impacts of the [compulsory income management] policies on Aboriginal people in the NT shows that this is anything but the case. —Rachel Siewert, Greens Community Services spokesperson [11]

Intervention resources

There is a growing number of resources on the Northern Territory intervention developing in Australia.

Out of respect for Aboriginal culture I use Indigenous sources as much as possible.
[1] 'When hearing the message is critical', NIT 14/5/2009 p.31 [2] 'Sea of black faces bound for Canberra', Koori Mail 417, p.7 [3] 'Innocence lost', Koori Mail 417, p.22 [4] 'Intervention protests as deadline missed', Koori Mail 463 p.7 [5] 'NT intervention review needed', Koori Mail 467 p.23 [6] 'Deadly Voices: An Intervention', Sydney Writers Festival, event 240, 23/5/2010 [7] Koori Mail 476 p.35 [8] 'Legal action warning over NT intervention', Koori Mail 477 p.18 [9] australiansall.com.au/archive/post/will-they-be-heard/, accessed 4/7/2010 [10] 'Curbs not working - research', Koori Mail 477 p.18 [11] 'Concern aplenty as welfare reformed', Koori Mail 479 p.8 [12] 'Dinner with the Long Grassers', Koori Mail 481 p.57 [13] 'Perpetuating neglect', Koori Mail 482 p.25 Main timeline source: www.antar.org.au/abetterway/about/events