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 none have been acted on in the way the authors hoped or intended.

Statement by Aboriginal Elders from the Northern Territory

Statement by Aboriginal Elders of 7 February 2011 (PDF 343k)

Statement on the NT Intervention by Eminent Australians

Statement by Eminent Australians February 2011 (PDF 57k).

Statement by Aboriginal Legal Services and Aboriginal Peak Organisations of the Northern Territory

Media Statement by Aboriginal Legal Services and Aboriginal Peak Organisations of the NT renew calls for the NT Intervention to be overhauled 10 November 2010 (PDF 76k)

Recommendations from the Little Children are Sacred report

The Little Children are Sacred report was produced between August 2006 and June 2007, after a Board of Inquiry into the Protection of Aboriginal Children from Sexual Abuse (BIPACSA).

The Inquiry came about as a response by the NT Government to a number of media stories that indicated a child sexual abuse problem in some Aboriginal communities in the NT.

The report was presented to Parliament on 15 June 2007 and recommended 97 actions to be taken by governments to prevent child abuse in Aboriginal communities in the NT.

The Board of Inquiry stated that there are no simple fixes:

"Our conservative estimate is that it will take at least 15 years ...".

It also noted that some recommendations could be acted upon promptly:

"What is required is a determined, coordinated effort to break the cycle [of child abuse] and provide the necessary strength, power and appropriate support and services to local communities, so they can lead themselves out of the malaise: in a word, empowerment!" Little Children are Sacred report

The Howard Government did indeed take prompt action, however it was not action that was empowering to Aboriginal people.

To learn more about the report you can go to the Northern Territory Government website on the Inquiry.

Recommendations from the Combined Aboriginal Organisations of the NT

The Combined Aboriginal Organisations of the NT – made up of Aboriginal organisations in Darwin, Alice Springs, Tennant Creek and Katherine, and community sector organisations from across the country – developed a proposal in response to the Government's NTER. It was released in August 2007, three weeks after the announcement of the NTER.

The proposal makes 68 recommendations and also states that the Government's response "should build on the knowledge base already available to Government, starting with the recommendations of the Little Children are Sacred Report."

Download the proposal (PDF).

Recommendations from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner

In early 2008 the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission’s (HREOC) (now the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC)) Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, Tom Calma, proposed alternative measures to the NTER in the form of a Ten Point Action Plan.

The Ten Point Action Plan for modifying the NT intervention includes:

Note: last updated 27 October 2009

Notes:
¹ The Federal Government has committed to legislation that will reinstate the Racial Discrimination Act, but the Act has not yet been reinstated.
² Just terms compensation is now to be provided by the Government but consent from traditional owners to compulsory acquisition is not mandatory.
³ CDEP was reinstated on 30 June 2008. The income management scheme is still compulsory and inconsistent with human rights legislation.
⁴ A major review of the NTER was conducted in late 2008 but many of its significant recommendations have not yet been acted upon.

Recommendations from the NTER Review

The NTER Review was established to conduct an independent and transparent review of the NTER and was led by Aboriginal experts. It is a balanced and independent view of the NTER over the first year. The report was provided to the Federal Government in October 2008.

One of the recommendations to come out of the report stated that governments must engage with Aboriginal people to find solutions to the issue of child abuse and related community problems:

"There is a strong sense of injustice that Aboriginal people and their culture have been seen as exclusively responsible for problems within their communities that have arisen from decades of cumulative neglect by governments in failing to provide the most basic standards of health, housing, education and ancillary services enjoyed by the wider Australian community. Support for the positive potential of NTER measures has been dampened and delayed by the manner in which they were imposed.

The Intervention diminished its own effectiveness through its failure to engage constructively with the Aboriginal people it was intended to help."

The review goes on to say that:

"[S]ustainable improvements in the safety and wellbeing of children and families in remote communities will only be achieved through partnerships between community and government. Durable partnerships are based on mutual respect. They also require structural support. The Board considers that place-based agreements – whether regional or local – can provide a framework for more effective community development and the coordination of government services."

To find out more and read the report go to the NTER website.

Open letter from PAPA to Jenny Macklin MP

The Prescribed Area People’s Alliance (PAPA) is a group of Aboriginal people from communities affected by the NTER. In February 2009 the Alliance published an open letter containing their demands for changes to the NTER:

• Repeal of the Northern Territory Intervention laws
• Immediate reinstatement of the Racial Discrimination Act and the NT Anti-Discrimination Act
• That you organise a series of day long meetings across the NT before March 21, 2009 to come and listen to all Aboriginal woman who want to meet with you.
• Funding for housing and essential services for all communities without having to sign leases
• Provide us with a list of all of your advisors on the Intervention
• Provide access to all evidence provided to you from advisors regarding the NT Intervention
• Immediately remove all Government Business Managers and resource properly funded Aboriginal community councils
• Endorse and implement the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People
• Stop the promotion of genocide. By the UN Genocide Convention, one definition of genocide is; Conditions of life set to destroy the group in whole or in part.

Read the full letter on the Stop The Intervention Collective website.