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THE PERFECT STORM: A never-ending story
Issue 193 - 21 Jan 2010
ISSUE 193, January 21, 2010: One of Mick Gooda's biggest headaches will undoubtedly be the Northern Territory intervention, an albatross of a government policy that will undoubtedly dominate the headlines in 2010.
Launched in 2007 as part of a failed Howard government re-election stunt, the billion dollar intervention lumbers on today under the Rudd government despite a mountain of evidence showing it's failing, international condemnation, and an election promise Labor would make it comply with the Racial Discrimination Act.
More than two years into Rudd's term, we're all still waiting.
Last year, the federal government's own report found the intervention had led to a rise in assaults, suicides, and anaemia rates among children.
There's the United Nations, which has branded the intervention racist and pointed out that it is in breach of several UN conventions to which Australia is a signatory.
The jailing rates of child sex offenders has also shown no significant increase, and school attendance has dropped throughout Aboriginal communities during the course of the intervention.
And notwithstanding frenetic bureaucratic activity, no single house has yet to be built under the policy, despite the provision of almost $700 million in federal funding.
Construction of the first intervention homes is due to be completed late in 2010, but don't be surprised if there's a delay - the projects are already months behind schedule.
When the houses are finally unveiled, expect to see revelations in the media about the size of housing, which the Rudd government has been quietly reducing from three and four bedroom homes to one and two bedroom units, to try and hide the exorbitant blow-out in construction costs under the intervention housing plan, while still delivering on the promise of 750 new homes.
On a positive note, we will see construction of at least one house this year as a result of the intervention, but it won't be by the Rudd government.
Elders from the community of Ampilatwatja, 280 kilometres north east of Alice Springs, walked off into the scrub in protest at the intervention in mid-2009.
They remain camped several kilometres outside the town and have begun construction of a kit home donated by a South Australian company (with assembly help provided by several unions), which they plan to use as the first stage of building a new community free of government control.
They hope to begin construction on the home on February 1, and complete it by February 14, meaning they will have constructed their own dwelling in two weeks, while a multi-million government program flounders for two and a half years and constructs none.
That's one reason not to expect Jenny Macklin to show up to the opening of the Ampilatwatja house.
The other is that she has steadfastly refused to meet with the elders to speak to them directly about their concerns since they walked out.
That doesn't look like changing much in 2010, and nor does the intervention. Watch this space.
SEE ALSO: A town like Alice...
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Related Links
http://www.nit.com.au/news/story.aspx?id=19261
http://www.nit.com.au/news/story.aspx?id=19260
http://www.nit.com.au/news/story.aspx?id=19259
 
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