| Media Release
Tuesday 27/Oct/2009 (1441 hrs CST) NTER - Changes Overdue MEDIA RELEASE
Tuesday 27 October 2009
NTER – CHANGES OVERDUE
Twelve months have passed since the NTER Review Board released its report and recognised the damage caused by lack of consultation, racial discrimination and humiliation that Aboriginal people have suffered since the initialisation of the NTER.
The North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA) in conjunction with Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation is now urgently calling upon the Government to take action to adopt the recommendations of the review and to respect Australia’s human rights obligations and conform with the Racial Discrimination Act.
NAAJA Chairperson Norman George “Twelve months on and Aboriginal people are still dealing with the same problems. From the outset what we have seen as a result of this intervention is not protecting children and making communities safe and creating a better future for Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory but simply discrimination and taking away Aboriginal peoples rights to make day to day decisions on their lives”.
The implementation of income management is still a major concern to communities. At the individual and family level, many people are deeply offended and upset about the compulsory, blanket nature of the quarantining.
We have experienced Aboriginal people feeling that their self worth has deteriorated and income management to be an insulting and degrading experience. Some Aboriginal people feel they have returned to a previous welfare system.
In NAAJA’S experience, there is a desperate need for additional culturally appropriate treatment and rehabilitation services. Unfortunately there has been little or no funding for these kinds of programs which could be piloted, trailed and independently evaluated.
There is no evidence to support the sweeping contention that violence and child abuse are rife in Aboriginal communities as compared to the rest of Australia. NAAJA has not experienced a rise in what are properly described as child sexual abuse matters. We have seen an increase in prosecutions of sexual offences involving consensual teenage relationships.
There has been very little increases in children and family services or specialist child protection workers or programs for victims and perpetrators of abuse.
There have only been a small number of new houses built in remote communities. A majority of the houses being built on the remote communities are for the government agency staff and not for local Aboriginal people.
On the ground in the remote communities the overwhelming feedback from communities is of confusion, fear and uncertainty, and increasingly one of anger and the discriminatory nature of the intervention.
NAAJA Chairperson Norman George “We call on the Australian Government to restore The Racial Discrimination Act 1975 by making NT Emergency Response (NTER) requirements ‘non-discriminatory’ under the RDA as opposed to ‘special measures’.
Ends
For further information please contact: Norman George 0488592553 Back |
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