Human rights and the Northern Territory intervention

The suspension of the Racial Discrimination Act involved a direct attack on the meagre rights and freedoms of Indigenous people and should never have been countenanced. However, it was the essential plank that enabled the intervention to proceed. Almost all of the measures associated with the intervention involved direct racial discrimination and breaches of the human rights of the Aboriginal citizens involved.

It is noteworthy that in the presence of a bill of rights most of the objectionable aspects of the legislation, and much of the legislation underpinning that social policy, would have been liable to be struck down. A bill of rights would thus have acted as a real protection against the unwarranted seizure of power that has been involved.

However by cloaking itself in the guise of child protection, the government could brand those who opposed it as being in favour of child abuse. Because it controlled both houses of parliament it could also override the protection afforded by the Racial Discrimination Act, something that it could never have done if those rights had been enshrined in the constitution.

The power to restrict payment of social security benefits because a person lives in particular areas of the Northern Territory was clearly aimed at forcing Indigenous people to live in selected town areas that the government determined, rather than where the people themselves determined.

Sadly the present government has continued with this strategy. Such measures are intolerable in a democratic society and would never be tolerated in the broader Australian community.

Similarly, benefits may be withdrawn in the event of unsatisfactory school attendance. Again this would be unacceptable in the wider community. Further, it involves a complete lack of appreciation of Indigenous culture, which does not necessarily involve a child living with the birth parents.

Wholesale compulsory acquisition of land for unstated purposes is another measure that would not be tolerated by the Australian community as a whole.

The situation was exacerbated by the then government’s (and the present government’s) inability or failure to give any sufficient explanation as to why all of these measures were necessary to protect the children.

I think that as time passes it becomes clear that the intervention was an exercise in social engineering to destroy Aboriginal culture and Aboriginal attachment to their traditional lands and to force Aboriginal people into suburban agglomerations to adopt a white lifestyle.

From the point of view of the then opposition, now government, one of the most shameful aspects of this affair was its failure to oppose the legislation. In government it has not abandoned the intervention, although several of its aspects have been alleviated in a cosmetic way.

The intervention has proved to be a costly failure in the object of protecting Indigenous children. None of the recommendations of the original report that sparked the intervention have been put into effect. The plight of Aboriginal children remains serious, despite countless reports and other interventions.

The Rudd government had promised to reinstate the Racial Discrimination Act, yet the deeply flawed legislation to reinstate it will not take effect until 31 December this year. It is flawed because it attempts to preserve many of the racist and discriminatory aspects of the intervention.