| Will they come with guns? The military invasion of the Northern Territory Aboriginal communities |
[28 Oct 2007|01:04pm] |
I went to hear Rachel Willika, Olga Havnen, Raelene and Aunty Eileen (Eileen Cummings) speak on the impact of the Howard government’s Northern Territory Emergency Intervention into Aboriginal communities. The government’s given reason for this emergency action was the release of “Little Children are Sacred” report which was an inquiry headed by Rex Wild and Pat Anderson (an Alwayarr woman and well known community activist). The “Little Children are Sacred” report did not find anything that Aboriginal women did not already know, which was that child sexual abuse was serious, widespread and grossly under reported. Aboriginal women have never been silent or passive about this problem. Throughout the Northern Territory region Aboriginal women have been setting up safe houses, forming night patrols, lobbying for alcohol bans etc. And they have received little or no money or recognition for their work.
Every time the government and the media draw attention to the social dysfunction of many disadvantaged Aboriginal communities, they fail to mention the amazing capacity of indigenous women in the face of the onslaught of poverty, degradation, alcohol and drug abuse, battery, sexual assault and child sexual abuse. Aboriginal women refuse to let any of this keep them down and they continue to work towards keeping their culture strong, keeping women strong and holding Women’s Law.
The “Little Children are Sacred” report came out with 97 recommendations and stressed that a long-term plan with community consultation was necessary in dealing with the extensive problems present in families in Aboriginal communities. The report concluded that the breakdown of traditional Aboriginal culture and society was largely responsible for the widespread abuse and identified alcohol abuse as the gravest and growing threat to the safety of children. It also identified the protection of women and children, lack of formal education and poor and overcrowded housing as key issues.
Six weeks after the release of the report the government introduced 600 pages of legislation ostensibly to deal with the problem of child sexual abuse in Aboriginal communities. There is no possible way that 600 pages of legislation could be drafted in just six weeks. Most, if not all, of this legislation was drawn up before the report was released. And in all of the 600 pages of legislation there is not one single mention of children. The legislation in no way reflects the findings or the recommendations of the report. The government has had to suspend the Discrimination Act in order to do this.
When the legislation was passed Olga Havnen, an Aboriginal civil rights activist put together a slide show presentation of the impacts of the emergency act. I have now seen the slide show twice. Once in a room in Sydney crowded with 500 women (there were very few men) and presented by Olga, and again in the Blue Mountains presented by Sara Blazey, a white solicitor with a background in community legal services (particularly for women and children, dealing with domestic violence, sexual assault, child abuse etc). Both times I was horrified by what the legislation means for remote Aboriginal communities. Sara called this legislation ‘apartheid’ and I agree. Most of the information in this post is quoted from Sara Blazey's summary of the legislation and its potential impact. Olga said that she was being asked by many Aboriginal people why the government was doing this and she had no other answer than the truth. Because you’re black, because you’re Aboriginal.
Essentially, the legislation involves:
- The immediate takeover of 60 communities in the Northern Territory
- Scrapping of the permit system
- Appointment of business managers to take over the running of communities
- More police to be sent in to the communities within the following 10 days
- Compulsory health checks
- Army to go in to support medical teams
- Wide spread alcohol restrictions
- Quarantining of 50% of welfare payments
- Scrapping of the CDEP (Community Development Employment Program)
- Enforcing school attendance
- Ban on pornography
Five Year Leases and the Lifting of Permit System
The Federal government has taken five year leases to take control over the prescribed communities. Native Title is suspended. Freehold remains with the traditional owners but control is with the minister who has the right to decide who lives in the community and has the discretion whether of not to pay rent. There has been a partial suspension of the permit system. Because you know the Aboriginal missions worked so well last time.
Justification
Control is needed to implement strategies to combat child sexual assault. Five year leases are needed to allow infrastructure improvements such as the building of schools, medical centres and housing. There needs to be unhindered access to the communities to enforce and implement the measures.
Comment
No where in the “Little Children are Sacred” or any other report has the take over of land or suspension of permits been recommended as a strategy for dealing with child abuse. There is a provision in existing legislation to grant leases and there is no evidence to suggest the provision of services or improvement of infrastructure is impeded by community control. Permits allow the community to control access and ban perpertrators and those who break alcohol bans. The lifting of restrictions allows easier access by those people. There is no evidence to suggest the permit scheme hinders police, Government personnel or other workers coming into the communities.
Appointment of Business Managers and Governance Powers
Managers appointed to run communities and programs. These managers are being paid $160 000 pa. They are from financial management backgrounds and will be largely recruited from the private sector. There are powers to alter funding agreements with no requirement of consent or consultation.
Justification
Control is needed to ensure rapid change.
Comment
This takeover undermines local community leadership that is essential to ensure the success of strategies to deal with child abuse. The importance of consulting and working with the local communities was considered to be essential in “Little Children are Sacred”.
Compulsory Income Management
The Government now takes 50% of welfare benefits from everyone who was living in the prescribed areas on the implementation date. The income is quarantined and can only be spent on items considered essential. There is no right of appeal. The measures apply even if people move out of prescribed areas.
Justification
This level of control is needed to stop money being spent on alcohol and ensure the needs of children are being met. It is based on the Cape York Project.
Comment
The measures apply across the community irrespective of whether there are child abuse concerns. There is no evidence these measures have any impact on child protection issues. The Cape York Project is run with community involvement and support and there is yet to be any assessment of its level of success. There are no supporting programs to help people with financial management. Nor programs to aid with drug and alcohol addiction etc.
CDEP (Community Development Employment Program) Reforms
The CDEP scheme provides jobs for 8000 Aboriginal people in the town comps and remote communities across the Northern Territory. The Government has decided to make some of these jobs full or part-time council positions, some jobs are hoped to be transferred to the private sector but the overwhelming majority of these jobs will disappear and Aboriginal people will be forced into Work for the Dole programs.
The CDEP scheme is to be phased out by June 2008. Participants will be transferred to income support. Some community programs will be funded through other sources.
Justification
The Government received legal advice that the income management proposals could not be applied to CDEP income.
Comment
The CDEP scheme has never been a preferable model in place of permanently funded employment. Some jobs have been converted to permanent positions which has been welcomed as a step in the right direction. However the Government has not announced a comprehensive plan to deal with the very high levels of unemployment. Some community programs will fold if they are not provided with alternative funding.
Alcohol and Pornography Ban
There is now a ban on alcohol and the possession of pornography in prescribed communities. Large fines, up to $74,000 and sentences of imprisonment can be imposed.
Justification
Alcohol abuse is identified as one of the main contributing factors to child sexual abuse and family violence. The widespread availability and use of pornography creates a culture of ‘normality’ for abusive acts.
Comment
Many, especially women, welcome measures to restrict alcohol and pornography in Aboriginal communities. However Olga believes that penalizing users is not as productive as dealing with supply. She argues that police target the source of illegal drugs in order to deal with use and that this was a more sensible approach. Women in Aboriginal communities have been at the forefront of campaigning for alcohol bans for decades. They have set up night patrols and won battles that saw the pubs close on payment day. Although many women see the alcohol bans as a good thing there are serious concerns about imposing ridiculous $74,000 fines for possession. And the casual imprisonment of Aboriginal peoples is a contributing factor of the widespread social dysfunction. There is no funding for treatment and rehabilitation programs which have been identified time and time again as essential to deal with chronic alcohol and drug abuse in the communities.
Increase Police Presence
There was an immediate increase in police using interstate and Federal police to supplement NT police.
Justification
Police resources need to be increased to control levels of violence and investigate child sexual assault.
Comment
Many in the community, especially women, have welcomed an increased police presence. However, there has been little by the way of backup resources to ensure the protection and safety of those who disclose abuse or violence to the police. There needs to be a permanent police presence not a temporary presence of drafted in officers. There needs to be specialised training in domestic violence and sexual assault.
Education
100% of social security benefits can be withheld from parents of children who do not attend school.
Justification
There are very high truancy rates amongst Aboriginal children. Keeping children in school has been identified as one of the essential strategies in combating the cycle of disadvantage and poverty that contributes to child sexual assault.
Comment
The withholding of benefits from parents is a very simplistic, culturally inappropriate response to truancy. This scheme fails to recognise children are cared for by a wide circle of family. There are no proposals to deal with major issues of lack of teachers – some schools stand empty for lack of staff. It has been estimated that an extra $79 million per year is required to expand teacher numbers and a further $295 million is required for infrastructure. It has been clearly identified that many children in the communities find school off putting and have little incentive to attend. Innovative programs to encourage school attendance have been very successful. No funding has been made available to expand these programs. How can Aboriginal women send their kids to school when there are no schools to send them to???
Health
A major part of the intervention involve mass medical checks, using the army (that’s right- the army- a bunch of murdering rapists are going to help prevent child abuse) to support medical teams.
Justification
Initially the intervention was to examine for signs of abuse. This changed and it was announced there would only be non-intimate checks.
Comment
There was little thought given as to how the health checks would assist disclosures of sexual abuse. Child protection experts pointed out that any evidence found may well be inadmissible in court for failing to follow forensic protocols. There were no procedures in place for ensuring the safety of anyone making a disclosure. There was no clarity as to how alleged perpetrators would be dealt with, just an assumption they would be handed over to be dealt with by the NT jurisdiction. This means virtually nothing as conviction rates for child sexual abuse in Australia is between 3 and 5%. Sick but true. The use of the army caused fear in the community with rumours that they were there to remove children. Health and lack of services was identified as a major issue in the report. 99% of Aboriginal communities have no substance abuse services. 99% of communities have no dental services. The cost of bringing essential services such as housing, water, and sewerage up to standard in NT is $700 million. Life expectancy of an Aboriginal person is 17 less years than other Australians. The initial intervention plan contained no proposals for comprehensive funding of these services and needs.
What has been the outcome of the intervention?
The cost of the intervention will be $587 million in the first year.
Over half of this money pays the wages of the white business managers and the public service positions!!!!!!!!!!!
The cost of administering the income management scheme is $88 million.
There have been over 2000 medical checks on children.
Medical checks found multiple health problems so the Federal Government announced $100 million to be provided to deal with this.
There have been only a handful if disclosures of sexual abuse.
No one has bee arrested in respect of child sexual assault offences.
There has been difficulty in recruiting enough doctors to carry out medical checks. These ‘volunteer’ doctors are getting paid $600 a day. They want $1200 per day.
Many people have moved out of their communities and left the Territory in fear that their children will be removed.
What community action now?
It is vital a response to the urgent problem of child sexual assault should not fail. The intervention in its current form will, for the reasons outlined above. The Aboriginal communities, leaders and community workers of the NT have asked for support in lobbying for an appropriate response. This can involve:
- Educating our communities about the real implications of the intervention. Please distribute this information via blog/email/in person. DON'T BE SILENT.
- Lobbying Federal politicians of all parties: Contact details here
- Continually consulting with NT communities about the most appropriate support
- Acknowledging child sexual assault is not an Aboriginal problem but merely increases in disadvantaged communities and exacerbated by the breakdown of the traditional culture and society
- Call for the implementation of the 97 recommendations of “Little Children are Sacred”
- Call for the implementation of the Emergency Response and Development Plan proposed by the Combined Aboriginal Organisations of the Northern Territory
- Call for the implementation of the 12 point action plan proposed by the Australia Childhood Foundation to develop a national response to child abuse
If you live in Australia and you do nothing about what the government is doing in the Northern Territory, then I consider you to be an active racist. Doing nothing IS AN ACTION of agreement. Don't be silent. Refuse to allow the government to destroy the Northern Territory communites and steal their land again. Write letters, blog, protest, call politicians. Please do what it takes to stop the government from killing more kids.
Further Information
Women for Wik: http://www.womenforwik.org
Australians for Native Title and Reconcilliation: http://www.antar.org.au
Little Children are Sacred Report: http://womenforwik.org/pdfs/bipacsa_final_report.pdf
Emergency Response and Development – Combined Aboriginal Organisations of the Northern Territory: http://womenforwik.org/pdfs/CAO_report_8_july.pdf
“Aboriginal Women have Answers Themselves” Report of the Balgo Women’s Law Camp: http://womenforwik.org/pdfs/BalgoWomensLawCamp100907.pdf
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