The formation of a federal Labor Government in late 2007 led to much speculation about the fate of the Northern Territory Intervention. Prior to the election of the Labor Government, some political commentators had hypothesised that the Labor party was supporting the NTER legislation primarily for strategic reasons. At the time, the federal election was looming and disagreement over Indigenous Affairs policy—particularly as it related to the emotionally charged issue of child sexual abuse—could have damaged the Labor party's prospects for electoral success.67 The newly elected Labor Government
quickly demonstrated that its support for the NTER was genuine and that the policy would be continued under Labor Government management. The task-force set up by the Coalition Government to implement the NTER continued to operate after the federal election and key aspects of the Intervention, such as the income management regime, were rolled out across Aboriginal communities in the later months of 2007.68 In this
section I provide an overview of the Labor Government's adjustments to the NT Intervention, and describe their administration of the NTER legislation. The original strategies of the NTER legislation had, for the most part, been fully supported by the ALP while in opposition. The Labor Government made some minor adjustments to the policy and later incorporated the Intervention into its national 'Closing the Gap' policy framework. While the government has been more consultative and conciliatory in its approach to the NTER than the previous Coalition Government, many of the original measures of the NTER continue to form the basis of the Labor Government's policy for
67 Larissa Behrendt, "The Emergency We Had to Have," in Coercive Reconciliation. Stabilise, Normalize, Exit Aboriginal Australia, ed. Jon Altman and Melinda Hinkson (North Carlton: Arena Publications, 2007), 19.
68 For example, see Housing Department of Families, Community Services and
Indigenous Affairs, "Building Stronger Indigenous Communities. 10 December 2007," http://www.jennymacklin.fahcsia.gov.au/mediareleases/2007/Pages/indigenous_commu nities_10dec07.aspx.
Indigenous Affairs in the Northern Territory.
The parliamentary debate over the NTER legislation left little doubt that Labor was positioning itself, in the lead up to the election, as a government that would not only maintain the Intervention but would actually implement the policy more effectively. Labor party MP Jenny Macklin, the Shadow Minister for Indigenous Affairs,
summarised both the Labor party's support for the Intervention and the reforms the Labor party could deliver once installed in government. The measures supported by the Labor party included the Coalition Government's plan to ban internet pornography and alcohol—the 'rivers of grog'—from Aboriginal communities, the acquisition of five year leases over Aboriginal townships, and the development of the income management regime for recipients of income support.69 A Labor Government would improve the NT
Intervention, Macklin pledged, by adjusting the permit system to protect Aboriginal children from grog runners and paedophiles while allowing greater access for public service providers and journalists. In addition, a Labor Government would commit to greater investment in housing, community infrastructure and economic development, reinstate the Racial Discrimination Act (RDA) of 1975 which was suspended by the Coalition Government for the purposes of the NTER legislation and would commit itself to a 12 month review of progress towards the Intervention's goals.70
The administration of the NTI policy during the first months of Labor Government generally resembled the Coalition Government's original plan. The income management regime, which has been described as the NTER's 'most widely recognised measure', had been applied to 13,300 individuals by June 2008. This encompassed the residents of 53 prescribed communities on Aboriginal land and 46 town camps in major urban centres.71
Other important measures of the NTER were also implemented by the new Labor Government. In February 2008 an additional 38 Aboriginal townships became subject to
69 Parliament of Australia, "Parliamentary Debates, Hansard 7 August 2007," 68-71. 70 Ibid., 69-72.
71 Peter Yu, Marcia Ella Duncan, and Bill Gray, "Northern Territory Emergency Response. Report of the NTER Review Board," (Canberra: Attorney-General's Department, 2008), 20.
the five year leases program. This meant that a total of 64 communities came to be managed under this NTER measure with the leases for all of these communities due to expire in 2012.72 These communities were managed in accordance with the provisions
outlined in the NTER legislation which, as discussed earlier in this chapter, included the appointment of Government Business Managers (GBMs) to manage government funded social and building programs and the prohibition of alcohol and pornography. An
increased police presence was also developed in Aboriginal communities with an additional 51 police officers deployed between the announcement of the NTI and mid- 2008.73
The Labor party had mixed success when it came to adjusting the NTER in line with its pre-election commitments. For example, the ALP had expressed concern about the affect of the Howard Government's legislated changes to the permit system. These changes came into effect in February 2008 and allowed for public access to roads crossing Aboriginal land. In August 2008 the Labor Government attempted to alter the permit system to limit general public access but the legislation was defeated in the Senate and was not enacted.74 Another of the Labor party's commitments, to remove the
explicit suspension of the Racial Discrimination Act in the NTER legislation, became a long running problem for the Labor Government. I'll discuss this issue in more detail below. Some of Labor's pre-election commitments were, however, successfully incorporated into policy. These included the reinstatement of the Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) program for unemployed Aboriginal people after its abolition by the previous government, and the establishment of an
72 Community Services and Indigenous Affairs Department of Families, "Five Year Leases on Aboriginal Land,"
http://www.fahcsia.gov.au/sa/indigenous/progserv/ntresponse/about_response/housing_l and_reform/Pages/five_year_leased_aboriginal_land.aspx.
73 Yu, Duncan, and Gray, "Northern Territory Emergency Response. Report of the NTER Review Board," 25.
74 Community Services and Indigenous Affairs Department of Families, "Permit System "
http://www.fahcsia.gov.au/sa/indigenous/progserv/ntresponse/about_response/housing_l and_reform/Pages/permit_system.aspx.
independent review of the first twelve months of the Northern Territory Intervention.75
The NTER review report was published in October 2008. This report made three overarching recommendations and dozens of more specific recommendations for the continuing implementation of the NTER. The review panel drew their conclusions from a range of sources including 200 public submissions to the review and discussions with government officials and Aboriginal people from 56 communities. The review
concluded that some of the NTER measures, including those designed to reduce alcohol related violence, to increase the supply and quality of housing, to improve education and increase employment opportunities, were widely supported and uncontroversial. However, the compulsory nature of measures such as the income management regime, in conjunction with the sense that the policy held Aboriginal people solely responsible for the problems within their communities, meant that many Aboriginal people felt that the NTER was unjust. In this context the 'positive potential' of the NTER measures and been 'dampened and delayed by the manner in which they were imposed'.76 In this
context the Review made three overarching recommendations. They recommended that high levels of Aboriginal disadvantage should continue to be seen as 'a matter of urgent national significance', that the federal and NT governments engage in genuine
consultation and partnership with Aboriginal people and that the NTER be reformed to adhere to Australia's human rights obligations and to conform to the RDA.77
The government's response to the NTER review outlined the future of the NTER policy under a Labor government. A government media release in late October 2008 provided an interim response to the review. In this press release the government accepted the three main recommendations of the Review. It also committed the government to a continuation and strengthening of the NTER in order to 'protect women and children, reduce alcohol fuelled violence, promote personal responsibility and rebuild community
75 Department of Families, "Australian Government and Northern Territory
Government Response to the Report of the NTER Review Board."; Yu, Duncan, and Gray, "Northern Territory Emergency Response. Report of the NTER Review Board." 76 Ibid., 9-10.
norms'. The current stabilisation phase of the NTER would continue for a further twelve months, to the end of 2009, before transitioning to a 'long-term, development phase'. The government claimed that it had worked hard to 'reset' their relationship with
Aboriginal people to one based on genuine consultation and partnership.78 The complete
government response to the NTER review was published in May 2009 and was
presented as a joint response from the federal and NT governments. Both governments would increase funding for the NTER with the Australian Government committing to an expenditure of $807.4 million dollars over the following three years.79 Expenditure was
allocated to continue and expand programs for each of the seven NTER measures including programs in the areas of welfare reform, employment and training, law and order, health, education and housing.80
By late 2009 the shift from initial stabilisation phase to what the government has described as the long-term development phase had been completed.81 The policy had
been re-badged as 'Closing the Gap in the Northern Territory' and has referred to as such in many government reports, including bi-monthly monitoring reports.82 The renaming
of the policy was part of the development of a 2009 Council of Australian Governments (COAG) agreement between the Australian and Northern Territory governments
provided for the continuation of the NTER measures until the review of the NTER in 2011-12. 83 The piecemeal, rushed policy initiated by the Howard Government in 2007
had been transformed into a integrated policy for long-term development in the 78 Macklin, "Compulsory Income Management to Continue as Key NTER Measure.." 79 Department of Families, "Australian Government and Northern Territory
Government Response to the Report of the NTER Review Board." 80 Ibid., 3-10.
81 Macklin, "Compulsory Income Management to Continue as Key NTER Measure.." 82 Housing Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, "Closing the Gap in the Northern Territory. January 2009 to June 2009 Whole of Government Monitoring Report," (Canberra: Australian Government, 2009). 83 Council of Australian Governments (COAG), "Closing the Gap in the Northern Territory National Partnership Agreement," (Canberra2009), 4.The Closing the Gap policy was originally established at COAG in March 2008 as part of a common federal and state government commitment to achieving health equality between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians within 25 years. See: Australian Indigenous Health InfoNet, "What Is Closing the Gap?," http://www.healthinfonet.ecu.edu.au/closing-the-gap/key- facts/what-is-closing-the-gap.
Northern Territory. These adjustments to the NTER led then Shadow Minister of Indigenous Affairs Tony Abbott to claim, in September 2009, that the Labor
Government had abandoned the Intervention.84 Minister Macklin rebutted this claim and
argued that the integration of the Intervention's administration into the federal bureaucracy was part of shifting the Intervention into its sustainable development phase.85
This claim appeared to be borne out by the release of a government policy for this long- term strategy in November 2009 after six months of consultation with Aboriginal people in prescribed communities.86 This policy retained all major elements of the original
NTER but with some scope for adjustments on a case by case basis. Significantly, the policy provides the government's first thorough response to the NTER Review's recommendation to reinstate the Racial Discrimination Act. The government
acknowledged that the NTER would never achieve 'robust long-term outcomes' if its measures continued to rely on the suspension of the RDA.87 The government committed
itself to legislation that would remove the suspension of the RDA in December 2010. This would give the government time to redesign those NTER measures which might be seen as discriminatory and to ensure that these measures could be classified as 'special measures' under the terms of the RDA. Under the RDA discrimination is allowed as a 'special measure' in circumstances where that measure will benefit members of a
84 Natasha Robinson, "Intervention 'Abandoned', with No Leader. 17 September 2009," The Australian, http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/intervention-abandoned-with-no- leader/story-e6frg6po-1225775449695.
85 Ibid.
86 Housing Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, "Policy Statement: Landmark Reform to the Welfare System, Reinstatement of the Racial Discrimination Act, and Strengthening of the Northern Territory Emergency Response " (Canberra2009). For information on the consultation prior to this policy see the discussion paper and consultation report: Housing Department of Families,
Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, "Future Directions for the Northern Territory Emergency Response - Discussion Paper " (Canberra2009); Housing
Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, "Report on the Northern Territory Emergency Response Redesign Consultations " (Canberra2009). 87 Department of Families, "Policy Statement: Landmark Reform to the Welfare System, Reinstatement of the Racial Discrimination Act, and Strengthening of the Northern Territory Emergency Response ", 4.
particular race and is necessary in order to achieve the equal enjoyment of human rights. Many of the original features of the NTER, including alcohol and pornography
prohibitions, the five year leases and the income management regime are described as special measures in the 2009 policy.88 The income management regime, as the subject of
sustained critique, would be adjusted so that it applied to disengaged youth, long-term welfare payment recipients, people assessed as vulnerable by social workers and people referred by child protection authorities. The extension of this regime outside of the prescribed communities of the NTER measures would remove the racially
discriminatory nature of that measure.89
The current administration of the NTER is based on this 2009 policy, though this policy may soon be replaced by yet another iteration of the Northern Territory Intervention. As I mentioned, the original five year leases on Aboriginal communities are due to expire in 2012. In June and August of 2011 the Labor Government ran a new consultation process in Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory as part of the development of a new framework which has been called 'Stronger Futures in the Northern Territory'. In November 2011 three new bills were introduced to the Australian Parliament to establish the Stronger Futures framework. If these bills become law then many of the key measures of the NTI will be retained and some measures extended to affect more Aboriginal people. For instance, income management, government licensing and
oversight of community stores, and current alcohol management plans will all remain in place or be extended as part of the framework. The compulsory leases of Aboriginal township will not be renewed but measures in the new legislation provide the Australian Government with the power to modify Northern Territory laws to overcome
impediments to infrastructure development in Aboriginal town camps. The government has committed itself to promoting economic development and private home ownership in town camps and would presumably use the new powers for this purpose. The
Stronger Futures framework has a sunset clause, meaning it will expire in ten years time, and is scheduled to be reviewed seven years into its implementation.90 These
88 Ibid., 10-16. 89 Ibid., 6-10.
reforms will, therefore, likely have long term ramifications for Australian welfare policy, including the entrenchment of welfare quarantining as a strategy for regulating the behaviour and spending of both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal recipients of social security.
In summary, many of the essential features of the original NTER legislation remain as core features of a long term development stage of the NTER. The policy as a whole has been incorporated into a nation wide Closing the Gap policy and and will, in all
probability, soon move into a new incarnation as the Stronger Futures policy
framework. It still, however, retains many of its basic form and focus. The Labor party had flagged the suspension of the RDA as an area of concern prior to its election. The government's three year delay in reinstating the RDA suggests that the discriminatory measures of the NTI were understood by the government to be both justified and necessary to the overall strategy of the NTER. The next sections of this chapter contrast the justifications and reasons for the Intervention as given by the Coalition and Labor governments with community and scholarly criticism of the policy.