The Australian Federal Government promotes the values of anti-discrimination and cultural diversity, however, these values have not translated into reality for Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory.

While ANTaR welcomed legislation to improve racial discrimination protections in June 2010, we remain concerned that this legislation does not go far enough. The Racial Discrimination Act has only been partially reinstated and many of the most coercive aspects of the NTER (including 5 years leases) will remain unchanged.

Laws such as compulsory income quarantining and the forced leasing of Aboriginal land in return for basic services, together with policies that label Aboriginal people in the NT as dysfunctional and incapable of taking responsibility and control of their own lives, are overtly discriminatory and have received international condemnation.

ANTaR has created the 'A Better Way' campaign because, quite simply, we know there is a better way to tackle Aboriginal disadvantage.

Let’s start by listening to Aboriginal people to find out what measures will improve their communities. Let’s assess what works in Aboriginal communities and use those successes to inspire other communities. And let’s enable Aboriginal people to make choices about their lives rather than imposing "solutions" upon them.

What's this campaign about?

On 21 June 2007, in response to a report released by the NT Government a week earlier (on 15 June 2007), Australia's then-Prime Minister John Howard announced dramatic changes to the way Aboriginal people in 73 specific communities in the Northern Territory would be treated.

The changes were known as the Northern Territory Emergency Response (NTER), or “the Intervention”.

The Ampe Akelyernemane Meke Mekarle 'Little Children are Sacred' report confirmed what many Aboriginal people had been saying for a long time: that years of government mismanagement and neglect had inevitably led to a range of social issues including the neglect of, and in some cases abuse of, children. The report also demonstrated efforts by communities to develop their own strategies to overcome these issues.

The reforms announced by Howard were rash and ill-conceived, and they ignored what has already been shown to work. No consideration was given to the fact that Aboriginal communities in the NT are diverse. What may work in my community may not work in yours, and the same can be said for Aboriginal communities.

"No matter how good the framework, no matter how much money is available, you cannot drive change into a community and unload it off the back of a truck. That is the lesson of the Intervention." NTER Review Board, 30 September 2008

In order to push through some of the more discriminatory measures of the NTER in the affected 73 remote communities, outstations and town camps (known as the prescribed communities), the Government had to suspend the Racial Discrimination Act (RDA) – an outright admission that its policies were race-based.

For these communities the suspension of the RDA remains the subject of a heated debate about 'special measures'. According to FaHCSIA's website "[s]pecial measures are measures that help people of a particular race to enjoy their human rights equally with others".

The concept of "special measures" in the RDA comes from the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination.

Special measures are supposed to enable governments to make special laws to protect the people who need it most.

The problem is that this is absolutely NOT what is happening in the NT.

When Kevin Rudd replaced John Howard as Prime Minister in November 2007, many people in Australia assumed the coercive and discriminatory NTER measures would be reversed.

However, even after a review of the policies, which recommended changes to the NTER, discriminatory policies such as compulsory income quarantining have continued on the entirely untested assumption that they "help to protect children and make communities safer".

Isolated on the basis of race

The Government's own independent Review has shown that these policies have had many negative effects.

The Review stated that:

"Experiences of racial discrimination and humiliation as a result of the NTER were told with such passion and such regularity that the Board felt compelled to advise the Minister for Indigenous Affairs during the course of the Review that such widespread Aboriginal hostility to the Australian Government's actions should be regarded as a matter for serious concern. There is intense hurt and anger at being isolated on the basis of race and subjected to collective measures that would never be applied to other Australians. The Intervention was received with a sense of betrayal and disbelief. Resistance to its imposition undercut the potential effectiveness of its substantive measures." NTER Review Board, 30 September 2008

The NTER has also been accompanied by other significant changes to Aboriginal policies introduced by both the Federal and NT governments, many of which are similarly discriminatory and not based on evidence.

What we've done so far

ANTaR has been working on the NTER since it began. Read about ANTaR's position and actions in relation to the NTER.

A Better Way: what Aboriginal leaders are saying

Many Aboriginal leaders have consistently suggested a better way for working with issues in NT Aboriginal communities. Some suggestions have been acknowledged by the Government but few have been acted on in the way the authors hoped or intended. Read about what Aboriginal leaders have suggested is a better way.

Significant events of the NTER

The NTER has unfolded over a period of a few years. Read about the key events that have got us to where we are now.