Discriminatory laws in the Northern Territory

It’s tempting to think that Australia has overcome its racist past, but there are still discriminatory laws affecting Aboriginal people in this country. Nowhere is more affected than the Northern Territory where Aboriginal people make up almost 30% of the population.

Incredibly, situations similar to what you see in the film "A Better Way" are really happening to Aboriginal people living in the NT.

'Close the Gap' and 'Closing the Gap'

It's a shameful fact that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have a life expectancy that ranges from 10 to 17 years less than other Australians.

In 2005, the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC, now the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC)) released the Social Justice Report, in which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, Tom Calma, called for Australian governments to commit to achieving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and life expectation equality within 25 years.

In an effort to highlight this inequality between Indigenous and non-Indigenous health in Australia, a campaign to Close the Gap for Indigenous Health Equality was launched in 2007.

More than 40 Indigenous and non-Indigenous organisations support the campaign, and more than 130,000 Australians have signed the Close the Gap pledge, which calls on the Australian Government to:

develop a comprehensive National Action Plan with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and their representative bodies
increase Indigenous community participation and control in the delivery of health services
address the critical social issues of housing, education and self-determination.

In 2007 the Rudd Labor Government started talking about ‘closing the gap’ in reference to addressing broader socio-economic disadvantage, particularly in Aboriginal health, education and employment. Subsequently the federal, state and territory governments’ Council of Australian Governments (COAG) also endorsed a number of policies to address Aboriginal disadvantage under the term ‘Closing the Gap’.

Far reaching in their scope and requiring substantial changes in the way governments do business, it will be some time before their affects are felt. What the evidence does suggest is that there are significant deficiencies with a number of proposed strategies and that progress will be limited unless the wider social and cultural determinants of health are addressed. You can read more in this paper, From ‘Close The Gap’ to the Rudd Government’s ‘closing the gap on Indigenous disadvantage’: what gap are we closing?

While the federal and some state governments have signed the Close the Gap Statement of Intent, there are few concrete results from these stated intentions. There is no evidence-based long-term National Action Plan, and we are yet to see government departments working collectively to address the social and cultural factors of health and developing real partnerships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Among other things, the Statement of Intent commits signatories to work in genuine partnership with Aboriginal people to:

develop a long-term plan of action that is evidence-based, targeted to need, and capable of addressing the existing inequities in health services
work collectively to systematically address the social determinants that impact on achieving health equality for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

So far the Australian, Victorian, Queensland and Western Australian Governments, Oppositions, and community partners have signed the Close The Gap Statement of Intent and there will shortly be more. Significant and welcome increases in funding have also occurred.

Some of the discriminatory legislation and policies that make us angry

For more information, download these fact sheets. They explain some of the ways Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory experience discrimination every day, as well as suggestions for a better way:

Why can the Government can do this?

The Federal Government was able to march in and take over because the NT is a territory rather than a state.

Unlike in the states in Australia (i.e. Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia), the Federal Government can intervene and override any legislation in the territories (i.e. the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory), because it has far greater powers in the territories than it can constitutionally exercise in the states. This is why it was possible to roll out the Emergency Response in the Northern Territory.

In fact the Northern Territory Government had been neglecting Aboriginal people for decades and depriving them of essential services. See, for example, these two case studies from the Institute for Cultural Survival on education discrimination in the Northern Territory:

What you can do

ANTaR has joined many other human rights and Aboriginal justice organisations in speaking up about these unfair laws and policies. Our dissent has made a difference, but there is still a long way to go.

Stay informed about what's going on in the Northern Territory. You can do this by becoming an ANTaR Advocate for Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory. By becoming an Advocate we'll keep you up-to-date with the latest news in the NT and let you know when your action is needed.