Almost a week since the Little Children are Sacred report & the Federal government is taking over. I was hoping that another thread would be started here on this enormously important issue, where the subject could be discussed in more depth than here. Also, after listening to comments from Noel Pearson & opinions from so many others in the media on the plight of aboriginal children in the NT, frankly I feel out of my depth in even suggesting that one approach might be preferable than another. Particularly as many of us had always supported self determination for aboriginal people.
Feedback from anyone with more knowledge about the situation would be much appreciated.:
I'm seizing control, says PM
June 22, 2007/SMH
Time to act ... a child in Wadeye, where many children live in tents, too scared to return home because of violence.
Photo: Terry Trewin
THE Prime Minister has cited a "national emergency" to justify a radical takeover of indigenous affairs that will give the Federal Government control over almost every aspect of Aboriginal life in the Northern Territory.
The unprecedented seizure of federal control will involve draconian measures - including bans on alcohol sales and cuts to welfare payments - to tackle an epidemic of child sexual abuse in the territory. The scale of the problem was revealed in a report released last week, and John Howard challenged the states yesterday to follow his sweeping changes to tackle the crisis.
"We are dealing with children of the tenderest age who have been exposed to the most terrible abuse from the time of their birth, virtually," Mr Howard said. "Any semblance of maintaining the innocence of childhood is a myth in so many of these communities and we feel very strongly that action of this kind is needed."
Parliament is likely to be recalled from its winter break next month to deal with the necessary legislative changes.
These include alcohol bans for six months on indigenous land; bans on pornography; compulsory health checks for all children under 16; a Government takeover of some townships for five years; quarantining up to half of people's welfare payments for up to a year to stop money being spent on drugs and alcohol; and withholding welfare payments if children are not sent to school.
Customary law will be scrapped as a mitigating factor in sentencing and bail decisions.
Each state has been asked to send 10 police officers to the territory to help implement the measures. Military personnel are also likely to be brought in.
The Australian Medical Association will oversee the system of health checks.
The announcement came less than a week after the release of the Little Children are Sacred report, which found no community was free of people preying on children. Mr Howard said the Federal Government had been forced to act because the Northern Territory had not acted swiftly or strongly enough.
"It is interventionist, it does push aside the role of the territory to some degree, I accept that," he said. "But what matters more, the constitutional niceties or the care and protection of young children? We believe the latter is overwhelmingly more important."
The Chief Minister of the Northern Territory, Clare Martin, dismissed Mr Howard's accusation as "utter rubbish".
"If you read the report you will find that many of the recommendations build on things that we are currently doing in the areas of alcohol, education and certainly we will continue to do that," she said. "So to say that this Government was sitting on its hands about this issue, well, we weren't."
Ms Martin, who has been under pressure over her handling of indigenous issues, was handed the report six weeks ago and said her Government would take until August to announce a detailed response to its 97 recommendations.
Ms Martin said she suggested 12 months ago that the Federal Government link family assistance payments to school attendance and was "frustrated" that she did not get a response.
The Federal Opposition offered immediate support for the plan. It said a bipartisan approach was the best way to tackle the child abuse crisis.
The Federal Government's National Indigenous Council supported the measures.
"The nation cannot avert its eyes and close its ears to the abuse and violence being suffered every day by children, women and men in our communities," the council said.
The council's chairwoman, Sue Gordon, will chair a taskforce overseeing the changes the Federal Government is proposing.
A leading academic on indigenous policy, Jon Altman, the director of the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research at the Australian National University, said the Federal Government had failed to deal with underlying problems in Aboriginal communities, such as unemployment.
"Rather than addressing those underlying issues, and they are complex and will take years to address, we are seeing a knee-jerk reaction and blame-shifting onto the Northern Territory Government," Professor Altman said.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/06/21/1182019286734.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1
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Dutchy
