Just one year after the federal government’s apology to Indigenous Australians, it is again under attack for abusing their basic rights. Aboriginal people from Alice Springs have appealed to the United Nations, claiming that the Northern Territory Intervention violates international human rights law.
The Intervention was launched in 2007, after a government report found widespread child sexual abuse in remote communities. Declaring a state of emergency, the government suspended the Racial Discrimination Act, quarantined income for residents in prescribed areas, and began compulsory land leases for many Aboriginal titles. The Intervention continues to affect over 70 per cent of Indigenous people in the Northern Territory.
A government-commissioned review published last year found that the Intervention was making “definite gains” in reducing alcohol-related violence and improving housing and health care.
But the group from Alice Springs claims that the Intervention is racist.
The group’s legal representative, George Newhouse, says: “It is all about control and decapitating Indigenous self-governance in this country.”
The legal challenge focuses on the policy of compulsory income management. Barbara Shaw, who is leading the group, says: “We’re only allowed to buy certain things- food, clothes and other essential things. We can buy a car or a mobile phone but not phone credit, or get the car fixed. If people go interstate, they can’t get access to their income.”
“I hope it will be repealed, and done in a better way where you got Aboriginal involvement and not just the white man making decisions for Aboriginal people,” she says.
Community leaders say that Indigenous opinion on the Intervention is divided.
Mick Dodson, Yawuru elder and Australian of the Year 2009, says Indigenous women seem to favour the Intervention more than men, because income quarantining has lessened the impact of alcohol and substance abuse on women and children.
But the Intervention will fail in the long term, says Mr. Dodson, because the Indigenous community was never involved in the decision-making process. “This is an initiative that has come from outside and has been imposed upon them. That, of course, is a fundamental anathema to any sense of the right to self-determination.”
Theappeal has been forced to the United Nations, says Mr. Newhouse, because since Racial Discrimination Act has been repealed, there is no way to fight the Intervention within Australia.
The federal government has committed to bringing the Intervention within the Racial Discrimination Act, says a Department of Indigenous Affairs spokesperson. But Race Commissioner Tom Calma says they have waited too long. “That’s not good enough to wait for so long to be able to right a wrong and to allow all citizens of Australia to enjoy the same level of protections.”
In December, he says, many parents were unable to buy Christmas presents for their children, because income management made it difficult for them to save and they were only allowed buy things at certain stores.
He says: “That’s a very, very sad situation- and this is what happens when people think they know what’s best for other people.”
Mr. Calma says those affected by the Intervention do not have the same rights as other Australians.
“The key thing is we wouldn’t do it that way for any other citizen of Australia, but the government sees fit to do it to Aboriginal people in the NT, in over 73 discreet communities,” he says.
The group from Alice Springs hopes a UN judgment will embarrass Australia into rolling back the Intervention.
Mr. Newhouse says: “The UN can’t force Australia to do anything, but it can make a series of recommendations, which is what we’ve asked them to do. That would be quite embarrassing for a first world nation, particularly at a time when we have a President of the US who referred in his inaugural speech to the discrimination his father experienced.”
“It’s time to end the Intervention,” he says, “and really focus on the long-term needs of Indigenous Australia. At that point, I think the true meaning of the apology will come to the fore.”
A Department of Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA) spokesperson responded: “We are determined to improve the safety and wellbeing of children in remote NT communities and make real in-roads towards closing the gap.” Consultations with communities will begin “shortly”, said the spokesperson.
The UN Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is currently considering the complaint, and is expected to make a decision by early March.
The Intervention was launched in 2007, after a government report found widespread child sexual abuse in remote communities. Declaring a state of emergency, the government suspended the Racial Discrimination Act, quarantined income for residents in prescribed areas, and began compulsory land leases for many Aboriginal titles. The Intervention continues to affect over 70 per cent of Indigenous people in the Northern Territory.
A government-commissioned review published last year found that the Intervention was making “definite gains” in reducing alcohol-related violence and improving housing and health care.
But the group from Alice Springs claims that the Intervention is racist.
The group’s legal representative, George Newhouse, says: “It is all about control and decapitating Indigenous self-governance in this country.”
The legal challenge focuses on the policy of compulsory income management. Barbara Shaw, who is leading the group, says: “We’re only allowed to buy certain things- food, clothes and other essential things. We can buy a car or a mobile phone but not phone credit, or get the car fixed. If people go interstate, they can’t get access to their income.”
“I hope it will be repealed, and done in a better way where you got Aboriginal involvement and not just the white man making decisions for Aboriginal people,” she says.
Community leaders say that Indigenous opinion on the Intervention is divided.
Mick Dodson, Yawuru elder and Australian of the Year 2009, says Indigenous women seem to favour the Intervention more than men, because income quarantining has lessened the impact of alcohol and substance abuse on women and children.
But the Intervention will fail in the long term, says Mr. Dodson, because the Indigenous community was never involved in the decision-making process. “This is an initiative that has come from outside and has been imposed upon them. That, of course, is a fundamental anathema to any sense of the right to self-determination.”
Theappeal has been forced to the United Nations, says Mr. Newhouse, because since Racial Discrimination Act has been repealed, there is no way to fight the Intervention within Australia.
The federal government has committed to bringing the Intervention within the Racial Discrimination Act, says a Department of Indigenous Affairs spokesperson. But Race Commissioner Tom Calma says they have waited too long. “That’s not good enough to wait for so long to be able to right a wrong and to allow all citizens of Australia to enjoy the same level of protections.”
In December, he says, many parents were unable to buy Christmas presents for their children, because income management made it difficult for them to save and they were only allowed buy things at certain stores.
He says: “That’s a very, very sad situation- and this is what happens when people think they know what’s best for other people.”
Mr. Calma says those affected by the Intervention do not have the same rights as other Australians.
“The key thing is we wouldn’t do it that way for any other citizen of Australia, but the government sees fit to do it to Aboriginal people in the NT, in over 73 discreet communities,” he says.
The group from Alice Springs hopes a UN judgment will embarrass Australia into rolling back the Intervention.
Mr. Newhouse says: “The UN can’t force Australia to do anything, but it can make a series of recommendations, which is what we’ve asked them to do. That would be quite embarrassing for a first world nation, particularly at a time when we have a President of the US who referred in his inaugural speech to the discrimination his father experienced.”
“It’s time to end the Intervention,” he says, “and really focus on the long-term needs of Indigenous Australia. At that point, I think the true meaning of the apology will come to the fore.”
A Department of Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA) spokesperson responded: “We are determined to improve the safety and wellbeing of children in remote NT communities and make real in-roads towards closing the gap.” Consultations with communities will begin “shortly”, said the spokesperson.
The UN Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is currently considering the complaint, and is expected to make a decision by early March.
