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Former Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough has revealed the NT intervention was masterminded in only 48 hours. |
An intervention in 48 hours: Brough
Issue 155 - 16 Jun 2008
BRISBANE, June 17 2008: THE architect of the federal intervention in the Northern Territory says that “bugger all” would have changed in the Top End if it weren’t for the fast action of himself and former Prime Minister John Howard.
Former Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough said it took just 48 hours for the Howard government to formulate the policy to combat child sexual abuse in 73 ‘prescribed’ Aboriginal communities.
But Brough also added it would have been "inhuman" not to have acted quickly.
It is almost 12 months since the Howard Government announced the intervention – just days after the Little Children are Sacred report was released to Parliament.
Just one of the many reports detailing the damaging effects of child abuse in Indigenous communities released over the space of a decade, the intervention was finally launched just months out from last year’s federal election.
Brough says the Commonwealth had no choice but to act after so long because the Territory Government was dragging its feet.
Brough defended the initiative’s hasty creation, stating that the nuts and bolts of the intervention stemmed from over two years of intense consultation with Aboriginal communities.
"Kununurra is where the whole issue of welfare reform came from, the school attendance and people saying treat us like white fellas not black fellas, treat us all the same, demand the same standards, all of these experiences on the ground, sitting in the dirt talking to people all came to life in what it actually took to fix the place," he told the ABC recently.
Brough remains convinced nothing would have been done if the Howard government didn’t ‘step-in’ on the eve of the 2007 federal election, citing yet another Indigenous child abuse report, this time coming form South Australia’s APY Lands.
"I'll guarantee you that if John Howard and myself had not acted on that report in the way we did, there would be bugger all change in the Territory today."
"I'll take you to the South Australian Mulligan report which was released just a few weeks ago which stated 141 children in the APY lands have been sexually abused. What's happened? Nothing."
 
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