RADICAL reforms for the Northern Territory's Aboriginal people are tipped to pass the Senate on Wednesday - today.
The latest update today at 10.16am AEST is: The Australian government says it will accept the recommendations of an inquiry into its intervention in Northern Territory indigenous communities to stop child sex abuse.
But it says there is no need to make amendments to the legislation.
Two amendments to delay the bills failed to win government or opposition support overnight Tuesday, and the bills are still being debated by the Senate.
----------------
I came across this opinion piece written by Fred Chaney, director of Reconciliation Australia. He was also minister for Aboriginal affairs in the Fraser government. I thought it was worth posting. It is an edited extract from the Vincent Lingiari lecture delivered at Charles Darwin University on Saturday.
August 15, 2007
Australia has the wealth to help its indigenous people, but this is the wrong way to do it, writes Fred Chaney.
FORTY years ago, 90 per cent of voters gave very clear support to the idea of equality for indigenous fellow citizens. The response to the referendum anniversary tells me that Australians of today want no less. But we are in a crisis that won't be resolved in the months before a federal election, not at the political level anyway. Nobody's listening at this stage of the cycle and people's moral compasses have been conveniently put to one side.
In the past I have asked for a comprehensive national response to the evils of child abuse and I strongly support urgent intervention. But I live in hope that there is a moral compass giving direction to the federal intervention in the Northern Territory.
I am making what might be seen as heroic assumptions about the goodwill and bona fides of the Government and the Opposition in what they are doing and supporting. Many others will find it difficult, if not impossible, to make that same assumption.
But let me make my own feelings on the matter clear. I am shocked at the extent to which the legislation, rushed through the Parliament last week, is contemptuous of Aboriginal property rights and of the principle of non-discrimination; authorises an absurd and unattainable level of micro-management of Aboriginal lives far beyond the capacity of the federal bureaucracy that would permit the notorious protector, Mr Neville, to ride again; provides for desert dwellers to be forced into towns, as they were once emptied out of the cattle stations in the 1960s with devastating social effects; and could see successful communities and families returned to dependence, crushing the engagement that is essential to making progress.
My hope is that away from the hysteria of the election campaign, in a calmer post-election atmosphere, whoever is in government will not use this legislation to create a new regime of injustice and inevitable failure. I am assuming no considered government would be so careless of basic human rights as to use the legislation in that way.
Just before the tabling last week of the Northern Territory National Emergency Response Bill, Reconciliation Australia called on the Government to make public its evaluation of the intervention so far and clarify which aspects of the bill were needed to protect indigenous children. We asked that all non-urgent aspects of the legislation be extracted and delayed to allow for respectful consultation and communication with the affected communities.
The answers, while complex, are now known. We have learned from past successes and failures. Those learning’s are being repeated by a range of reputable, knowledgeable people who cannot be dismissed as ideological, out of touch or driven by agendas. They place evidence over passion, hard-headedness over experimentation, consistent hard work over silver bullets.
You can read the multitude of reports that underpin the thinking — the most recent and, I think, very convincing and helpful being Little Children Are Sacred, the report of Pat Anderson and Rex Wild that set the scene for the Government's actions a few weeks ago.
Pediatrician Professor Fiona Stanley says: "Measures that exclude the views and involvement of Aborigines will serve only to further diminish their capacity, exacerbate marginalisation and add to the damage in these vulnerable communities." She emphasises the need to address the complex causes and not just "the appalling manifestations of disadvantage and dysfunction".
The Catholic Bishops say that effective solutions cannot be imposed from above and they've backed the need for long-term, adequate funding.
The Anderson/Wild report concludes: "There needs to be a radical change in the way government and non-government organisations consult, engage with and support Aboriginal people."
Noel Pearson made a similar point in relation to the new legislation when he said: "The difference between disaster and success will depend on whether Brough and Howard will engage with … the traditional leaders of the NT on a way forward."
The chorus of advice from diverse sources reflects the findings of research Reconciliation Australia and the Australian National University have been conducting around the ingredients of effective indigenous governance. The findings are similar to those documented by researchers in the United States and Canada and elsewhere when they've looked deeply for actual evidence of what works in overturning disadvantage in indigenous communities.
The reality is that we have all the tools we need to be striving for much more than simply making Aboriginal children safe, important a starting point as that must be.
At this stage in our history, we have the prosperity. Australians will tolerate extra spending when they're confident that it will yield results, when stories of despair are balanced with stories of hope and success, when policy is based on evidence of what works.
The Aboriginal communities in the frame, desperately needy communities, will work with government if they are provided with this vision of success. Civil order is a prerequisite for a community to be healthy, happy and successful. But so too is hope.
Let's be upfront and learn from our mistakes — centralised, imposed programs delivered from Canberra or state/territory capitals have not delivered the success we must now expect.
This Government and the next, of whichever political persuasion, will be judged on the extent to which the intervention in the NT is backed by a comprehensive, national commitment to deal with social circumstances that underlie the horrors of sexual violence.
This is the time, a time of unprecedented prosperity when we have tens of billions of dollars of Government surpluses and the sale of public assets. If we cannot now commit to dealing with this matter once and for all, we never will.
Other interesting pieces of news in relation to this piece of legislation are:
Australian Education Union Says Government's New Intervention Legislation Fails Children
| 