Greens MPs

Last Thursday (Oct 9th), a large number of police participated in a raid of the Kunoth town camp in Alice Springs. Officers jumped over fences to enter the camp, displayed rifles, pushed and abused residents and trained a laser on the chest of one man.

Police claimed they were looking for weapons, following a tip off from the fire brigade that there were guns in a car that drove back to the camp. A miniature toy gun was later found on the dashboard of the car.

The folks over at GetUp have put together a petition to the Government for the upcoming review of the NT Intervention:

We are one year on from the inception of the NT Intervention, and today is a day we should not be celebrating. It has been a long year for those in the NT communities of this paternalistic, top down approach that will make future generations ashamed.

This legislation was a knee-jerk reaction that seemed designed purely to gain election bounce for the Coalition (made even more ludicrous by the recent admission from former Minister Mal Brough that the whole plan was thought up in one 48 hour session), but it was the Rudd Government's decision to stay the course that has been most disappointing. Frankly, we expected better.

I welcome today's release of the 2007 Social Justice Report by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Tom Calma – it is an influential and pivotal document which I expect will have a major impact on the upcoming review of the Northern Territory Intervention.

Post-apology, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has asked us to "embrace the possibility of new solutions to enduring problems where old approaches have failed," asserting that the mistakes of Indigenous policy of the past won't be repeated. His Government, however, is persisting in the ill thought-out and ideologically driven Northern Territory Intervention - despite a promise to pursue evidence-based policy.

The NT Intervention is racially discriminatory, which is why the previous government had to exempt it from the Racial Discrimination Act. It takes away Aboriginal land and quarantines people's money without cause, forcing them to use 'ration' cards. Hasn't this approach already failed? Aren't we simply repeating the mistakes of the past?

Australian Greens Senators Bob Brown & Rachel Siewert speak at the Convergence on Canberra rally. 

The Government's current top-down approach in the Northern Territory simply will not succeed. But John Howard doesn't seem to want to listen.

Join groups around Australia and the world on November 17th - an International Day of Action on the NT Invasion.

Community organisations looking to help out in Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory are likely to think twice once they learn that Mal Brough is giving himself the power to seize their assets and appoint spies to their governing boards.

In an extraordinary admission yesterday during the debate on the NT Intervention Bills, the Government confirmed it is giving itself the powers to direct any community service providers in prescribed areas and seize or give away their assets. These are astonishing powers for the government to wield. Caring organisations providing services in prescribed Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory will not want to risk their limited assets.

It is obvious from the Senate Inquiry held on Friday that the NT Intervention Bills are fundamentally flawed.

The Australian Greens tabled a dissenting report on the inquiry in the senate this evening which highlights serious problems with the legislation behind the government's NT plan.