Here’s a copy of the letter which I emailed to the leader of the Australian Labor Party, Kevin Rudd, on 28 June.
Dear Kevin,
I am writing because I’m very concerned about the government’s plan for the NT Indigenous communities, and the fact that the Labor party has thrown its support behind the plan. While I agree it’s very important to take action to improve the health and safety of Aboriginal people, I strongly disagree with the use of a heavy-handed approach without community consultation.
It is very worrying when one section of our community is singled out for treatment which wouldn’t be legal or tolerated when applied to other segments of the community. You have supported the government’s proposal to mandate reporting of abuse, linking welfare payments to requirements other Australians aren’t expected to meet, and most frighteningly of all, using military force to do it. If the government attempted to do such things to other communities in Australia – whether white or Indigenous – those communities would not stand for it.
I call on you to withdraw your support for the government’s plans for dealing with the health and safety crisis facing Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory, and elsewhere in Australia. The military should not be involved, nor should we place requirements on Aboriginal people which aren’t expected of other Australians. You must demand that the government instead take immediate action to find non-invasive ways to help these communities.
I urge you to consider the many success stories in indigenous health which demonstrate progress is best made when the communities are engaged and the programs are adequately funded. Here’s a link: http://www.antar.org.au/success.
We need a workable solution based on engagement with the affected communities.
I commend you for the ALP’s commitment to achieving health equality for Indigenous Australians within a generation, with a promised $261.4 million to fund it. The fact that Aboriginal life expectancy is so much lower than other Australians is a national disgrace. I agree that immediate action is needed, but it shouldn’t come with a military presence and the loss of Aboriginal people’s rights.
Thank you.
And here’s the response I received by email this morning:
Dear Sarah
Thank you for your email about the Federal Government’s intervention in the Northern Territory and for sending the link. I understand your deep concerns and can assure you that Labor is looking very closely at all these important issues.
Labor believes that the safety of children is paramount and has given in-principle, bipartisan support to this initiative.
Ampe Akelyernemane Meke Mekarle: Little Children are Sacred, the Northern Territory report on child abuse detailed disturbing levels of child abuse in Indigenous communities. It is incumbent on all levels of government and all sides of politics to make preventing this abuse a national priority.
The Federal Government is still developing detailed plans for the measures they are implementing. We have asked to receive regular briefings from the Federal Government to ensure it accords with best-practise in health, policing, child protection and community engagement.
We will provide a detailed response to the Federal Government’s measures when any proposed legislation has been drafted and is made available. The Government has advised that this may be several weeks away. The test that Labor will apply to this legislation is whether it helps to make children safe.
Federal Labor believes that we need both an urgent and long-term approach to secure the safety and well-being of children at risk. We have to back positive community leadership and put in place the building blocks for a more sustainable future in remote areas.
Federal Labor has already made a number of commitments to long term initiatives to improve the lives of Indigenous Australians:
* to close the Indigenous life expectancy gap in a generation and halve the Indigenous child mortality gap in ten years
* $261 million for comprehensive coverage of Indigenous child and maternal health, parenting support, early learning and intensive support for literacy and numeracy
* $30 million to provide an extra 200 teachers for the at least 2,000 Aboriginal children who are not enrolled in school – at all – in remote Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory
* to rapidly recruit more Indigenous officers in the Australian Federal Police under a $200 million Australian Federal Policing plan
* $15.7 million towards social and emotional well-being through more Bringing Them Home counsellors and link up services, particularly in remote areas
We are working hard on developing further proposals in partnership with Indigenous Australians that will make a lasting difference in the Northern Territory, and across Australia.
Thank you again for your contribution to this tremendously important issue.
Kind regards,
Kevin Rudd
Federal Labor Leader
The letter doesn’t address my concerns about the proposed discriminatory treatment of Aboriginal people, although it acknowledges the importance of implementing socially appropriate action to help Indigenous communities.
A report in The Age newspaper today quotes the co-author of a report entitled Ladies talking in Tennant Creek as saying their report into the levels of domestic violence and abuse in Tennant Creek’s town camps, published three years ago, was ignored by both the territory and federal governments.
It’s worth mentioning the years of government inactivity on this issue to highlight that the government’s treatment of this issue as an urgent crisis which has just been thrust upon us is disingenous and risks making a delicate situation worse by rushing the response.
Having mentioned the long gestation of this problem in the face of government inactivity, the more important issue to focus on what is being done now, and what should be done now.
The government’s “crisis” action and subsequent media spotlight on Aboriginal affairs in the Northern Territory is bringing light to a long neglected issue, but it risks confirming stereotypes about Aboriginal people and allowing discriminatory government action.
It’s much more likely now that news outlets will pick up stories relating to violence in Aboriginal communities, like the one published in The Age today detailing one incident in south east Queensland which saw a woman and a child murdered and three children injured.
Would the story have gotten that prominent a run if the incident hadn’t taken place in an Aboriginal community?
According to a Melbourne University professor interviewed by the ABC, the rates of child sex abuse in the Northern Territory are less than in suburban Australia.
“Professor Peter Botsman says figures from the Commonwealth’s ’2004/2005 Child Protection Report’ show the level of abuse in the Territory’s remote Indigenous communities is five times less than in Victoria.”
He says the reaction to the situation in the Northern Territory is driven by prejudice.He doesn’t say, however, how those figures he quotes were gathered. It seems to me that we can assume that abuse is much less likely to be reported in remote Aboriginal communities where there isn’t a trusted police or health service to report to. Some of these communities are reporting that they have NO police or health service in their communities at all. But I do think we need to be very wary of allowing racism or prejudice, or the fact that the drastic measures being proposed by the government are being applied to communities so very far away from us here in the city, to allow us to accept the government’s actions.
It worries me that the government seems to be pretending that it’s right to take drastic measures against people in remote areas of the Northern Territory, while not applying those same drastic measures in suburban Australia. Alcohol and drug abuse, domestic violence and neglect of children happens in communities across Australia, and it’s just wrong to try to introduce measures such as mandatory reporting of abuse, mandatory health checks on children, or welfare penalties in remote parts of the Northern Territory, when they wouldn’t be applied to the wider community.
I note also that I’ve received no response from John Howard’s office in relation to the letter I sent to him on this issue.
