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In June, Prime Minister John Howard and Minister for Indigenous Affairs Mal Brough announced their emergency intervention into the Northern Territory. A new study has found that the key elements of the intervention had not yet been implemented. |
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Four months later and key elements of intervention haven't been implemented: study
Issue 141 - 01 Nov 2007
CANBERRA, November 8, 2007: An informal survey of the federal government's Indigenous intervention in the Northern Territory has found key elements have not been implemented four months after it began.
A Canberra academic says consultations with five NT Indigenous communities last month showed the government's response had not lived up to its declaration of a national emergency.
Professor Jon Altman of the Australian National University (ANU) presented the findings yesterday at a conference in Canberra.
The research found there had been no sexual abuse referrals from any of the five communities and no computers had yet been audited for pornography.
The alcohol management regime had not changed in three of the five communities, and alcohol consumption had not been reduced in three cases.
Income had not been quarantined by November 1 in four communities, and in the same places Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) had not been abolished as mandated.
There was a greater police presence in two locations and school attendance had improved in three.
Intervention measures which had been achieved in all five communities were voluntary health checks, appointment of a government business manager and the building of new houses for intervention staff.
New houses for Aboriginal residents had not been built in four of the cases.
Prof Altman, who is director of ANU's Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, said the findings suggested the intervention had been unsuccessful because it was unrealistic and unworkable.
"The very patchiness of this matrix, which would probably get more patchy if it was extended to 73 communities, suggests that the national emergency rhetoric might not be matched by a national emergency response," his speaking notes said.
Prof Altman would not identify the communities surveyed because of possible retribution, except to say three are in central Australia and two in the Top End. - AAP
 
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