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Fact vs Fiction: The truth behind a bandaid solution
Thursday, 26 July 2007
The truth behind a bandaid solution
Issue 134, July 26, 2007: A special NIT guide to help you sift through the facts from the fiction in the Howard government's 'national emergency' intervention.
THE FICTION:
"Firstly in relation to alcohol the intention is to introduce widespread alcohol restrictions on Northern Territory Aboriginal land for six months. We'll ban the sale, the possession, the transportation, the consumption and (introduce the) broader monitoring of take away sales across the Northern Territory."
- John Howard, press conference, June 21, 2007.
THE FACTS:
NO BANS on alcohol have been instituted by the federal government since the intervention announcement.
In fact, within days of the announcement, the federal government's position had changed markedly.
In a media release issued by Mal Brough on June 25, it was now up to the NT government "... to develop a comprehensive plan to tackle the 'rivers of grog'."
The immediate ban on "the sale, the possession, the transportation [and] the consumption" of alcohol on Aboriginal land instead became a ban "in prescribed areas, excepting wet canteens operating with the approval of the Taskforce that have strict alcohol management practices and that do not allow take away sales".
THE FICTION:
"The measures include introducing compulsory health checks for all Aboriginal children...."
- Mal Brough, press release, June 25, 2007.
THE FACTS:
IT TOOK the federal government more than a week to realise what most people knew immediately - compulsory sexual health checks of Aboriginal children would constitute assault under the law. By late June, Minister for Health, Tony Abbott finally conceded that health checks would be not be compulsory.
THE FICTION:
The aim of the health checks was to "...identify and treat health problems and any effects of abuse."
- Mal Brough, press release, June 25, 2007.
THE FACTS:
IN addition to being voluntary, the health checks that have been conducted do not look for signs of sexual abuse - they are a standard medical health check that all Australian children routinely undergo.
THE FICTION:
"We will bear the cost of medical examinations of all indigenous children in the Northern Territory under the age of 16 and we'll provide the resources to deal with any follow up medical treatment that will be needed."
- John Howard, press conference, June 21, 2007.
THE FACTS:
At the time of press, government sources revealed that just 250 voluntary health checks had been conducted, while no Aboriginal child had been referred to any medical specialist.
THE FICTION:
"WE'RE going to enforce school attendance by linking income support and family assistance payments to school attendance for all people living on Aboriginal land." - John Howard, June 21 press conference
THE FACTS:
SCHOOL children returned to NT schools this week after the end of term 2 break.
Government sources confirmed there has been no reported increase in school attendance.
In addition to this, as the federal government well knows, many Northern Territory Aboriginal communities have substantially more children of compulsory school age than they have available school places.
In Wadeye, for example, there are around 1,000 school age children but spots at the local primary school for just over 300 children.
There remains no high school in Wadeye - while a facility has recently been built, no funding has been provided to operate it.
The situation is mirrored in Maningrida in the Territory's north, where the number of school aged children vastly outweighs the number of available places in the school.
The federal government (along with the NT government) is currently being sued by the community of Wadeye for discriminatory school funding practices.
In addition to this, the communities of Tiwi, Daly River and Santa Teresa are watching the outcome of the Wadeye case, with a view to launching a class action.
The failure to provide anything like adequate schooling for Northern Territory Aboriginal children is irrefutably a legacy of 27 years of Country Liberal Party governance, seven years of ALP government neglect, and ongoing federal government ambivalence.
In addition to this, while the federal government can rightly blame the NT government for under-spending on remote NT schools, it was the Commonwealth in 2004-05 that underspent its Indigenous education budget by at least $182 million.
THE FICTION:
"We'll be ensuring that meals are provided for children at school with parents paying for the meals." - John Howard, June 21 press conference.
THE FACTS:
Not a single meal has been delivered to a single child at a single school in the Northern Territory as a result of the NT intervention.
Many schools already provide meals to children - black and white - in NT schools, but no additional schools have begun providing meals as a result of the government intervention.
NT government sources told NIT they were not aware of any plans to provide school meals for children in the Territory.
THE FICTION:
"The Australian Government will, in prescribed communities, improve housing stock." - Mal Brough, press release, June 25.
THE FACTS:
NT government sources have told NIT that the only emergency housing currently being planned in remote Indigenous communities is temporary accommodation for Commonwealth officials moved into the Territory as a result of the intervention.
In addition to this, on July 1, Brough admitted that he had underspent the federal government's Indigenous housing program budget by an estimated 20 percent, or $60 million.
Under the Howard government, a $2.3 billion gap in Indigenous housing around the nation has been ignored since it was identified by ATSIC at the turn of the century. That's despite the government delivering budget surpluses over the same period of more than $50 billion.
The gap in public Indigenous housing continues to grow - in the Northern Territory alone it is now estimated at around $2 billion.
THE FICTION:
"The Commonwealth Government will take control of townships through five year leases to ensure that property and public housing can be improved."
- John Howard, press conference, June 21, 2007.
THE FACTS:
THE Commonwealth government has always had the capacity to ensure public housing and property can be improved, through the simple provision of tied grants. Instead, it hands out untied grants to the Territory (and to other state governments), in addition to grossly underfunding Indigenous public housing.
THE FICTION:
"We're going to ban the possession of x-rated pornography in the proscribed areas."
- John Howard, press conference, June 21, 2007.
THE FACTS:
FIVE weeks on, the federal government remains silent about how it intends to achieve a ban on pornography on Aboriginal land.
NT government officials have repeatedly raised the issue with taskforce members, but claim they have received no response.
THE FICTION:
"... we're going to check all publicly funded computers for evidence of the storage of pornography."
- John Howard, press conference, June 21, 2007.
THE FACTS:
NT government officials told NIT this week that no computers anywhere in the Territory have so far been checked for pornography, nor were officials aware of any plans via the taskforce to begin checks.
THE FICTION:
"Law and order will be a central focus of the measures I've announced. There will be an immediate increase in policing levels, they're manifestly inadequate."
- John Howard, press conference, June 21, 2007.
THE FACTS:
IN THE five weeks since Brough and Howard announced their intervention, the NT police force has been boosted by a total of 10.
That represents an "immediate increase" in NT policing of less than one percent, or one additional police officer for every 7.4 communities that have been identified for intervention.
All of the officers are from the Australian Federal Police, however none of them speak any Aboriginal languages and all of them required a week's training in NT laws before they could be sworn in as NT special constables.
Despite the training, each of the AFP officers must be accompanied by an NT officer, because of their unfamiliarity with the NT criminal code.
The officers are on a six week rotation, which means their replacements also must spend a week being trained in NT laws before joining NT police.
THE FICTION:
"NT Police have also received a commitment of 11 members from Queensland Police. Two Queensland Police members travelled to Darwin earlier this week to meet with NT Police members responsible for the Operation. NSW Police have also committed 11 members to the Operation."
- Mal Brough, press release, June 25, 2007.
THE FACTS:
AT THE time of press, the police from NSW and Queensland have not arrived nor were NT government officials aware of a possible arrival date.
THE FICTION:
"They had the report for eight weeks before they released it and then having released it, she said that she was going to take another six weeks to indicate the response and I got a very general letter today saying well we've had a look and we are getting ready to say something about it and we'll happy to talk to you. Well I don't think that's a government that regards this as an urgent problem, I don't think it's a government that sees it with any sense of crisis or emergency, that's in a sense a metaphor for the inaction of the Northern Territory Government. That's why we've acted."
- John Howard, press conference, June 21, 2007.
THE FACTS:
THE Howard government irrefutably has the worse record in the country in responding to reports on Indigenous violence.
In 2001, for example, then Justice Minister Amanda Vanstone finally released a report called 'Violence in Indigenous Communities' after suppressing it for 18 months.
THE FICTION:
"I should indicate that if necessary Parliament will be convened during the winter break for a special session to deal with the legislation that will be needed to give effect to the announcements I've made."
- John Howard, June 21 press conference
"If required, a special sitting of Parliament in July will consider legislation to implement the Australian Government measures."
- Mal Brough, press release, June 25, 2007.
THE FACTS:
PARLIAMENT resumes in a fortnight. No special sitting was ever called.
SEE ALSO: Missing in action: Still no sign of jet-setting Johnnie.
SEE ALSO: No progress on stamping out porn in NT's black towns.
SEE ALSO: Charge of the Band-Aid Brigade.
Related Links
http://www.nit.com.au/News/story.aspx?id=12165
http://www.nit.com.au/News/story.aspx?id=12164
http://www.nit.com.au/News/story.aspx?id=11797
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