Marlene Hodder
I wish to submit the following personal views on the Northern Territory Emergency Response
Personal Credentials
I have been a resident of Central Australia for the past 22 ½ years and am a qualified Community Welfare Worker. My working experience with Aboriginal people has included South Sydney Community Aid Redfern NSW, Mornington Island Dance Teams in Melbourne and Sydney and touring southern states, Mornington Shire Council (formerly the Mornington Island Community Council) Gununa Qld, Urapuntja Health Service Utopia NT, Tangentyere Council Alice Springs NT, Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankynytjatjara Council SA, Pitjantjatjara Council Alice Springs NT, and Yuendumu Old People's Programme NT.
I currently work voluntarily for the Intervention Rollback Action Group which operates from Alice Springs.
Working Experience
My vast experience with Aboriginal people, both professionally and socially, confirms my intrinsic sense that the imposition of the Northern Territory Emergency Response on Northern Territory "prescribed areas" is doomed to fail. Resources are being wasted, community organisations that people have struggled to set up and operate are being undermined, communities that have been under funded for many years are seeing money being wasted on bureaucrats and their infrastructure instead of being spent where the need most is – in health, education, employment, housing.
For any social programme or social change to succeed, the people who are being expected to accept that change need to be closely and genuinely involved in the process. This means that Aboriginal consultation processes have to be understood and acknowledged; communications have to be appropriate and respectful.
What is working?
I have been involved with the Intervention Rollback Action Group since its formation almost a year ago. We have conducted surveys at Centrelink in Alice Springs (twice), in Tennant Creek (twice), at Mutitjulu and at Titjikala. We have carried out recorded interviews with several individuals and community members and informal interviews with people from many bush communities and town camps in both Tennant Creek and Alice Springs.
In the main people are uninformed or confused about why the Intervention has happened or, indeed, about all the aspects. Aboriginal people feel even more disempowered and demoralised by having their people continually demonised in the media and their living areas marked with offensive large blue and white signs relating to Alcohol and Pornography. Welfare quarantining (income management) is making life very difficult for many people. Whilst some say that there is less "humbug" for them, many have difficulty in physically meeting Centrelink's requirements whilst having less resources to assist with transport.
With summer months approaching again, trudging and queuing in 40 degree heat will be a further imposition on people who mostly have to walk long distances or depend on the goodness of others for assistance.
Store Licencing
The validity of Minister Jenny Macklin's Stores Report is questionable. A starting point is needed by which to gauge changes in purchasing habits: there is no benchmark. Many store managers have not been in place very long and don't know community buying habits and, indeed, cannot know the store or community history. Questions that need to be asked are: where did people shop prior to income management - in the community or elsewhere? How many extra people are now in the community or visit the community due to intervention including personnel, government workers, contractors etc? (Statistics at mid-May 2008 show that there are 810 federal public servants in 72 Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory, plus 52 government business managers.) The government's Stores Report is not scientific evidence that income management is improving Aboriginal people's lives.
Income management needs to be voluntary for those who request it, or only imposed on people or families who have been assessed as needing assistance. Managing people's money for them on a long term basis is not sustainable. Community based programmes need to be in place to provide information in budgeting, money management and so on and to help families who are in financial difficulty.
Community education centres or resource centres are the best avenues to provide education on nutrition, money matters, environmental issues etc.
Improvement in nutrition
Recent findings show that anemia is on the increase so the supposed increase in purchase of good food is questionable. Recent scientific surveys (Utopia and Desert Knowledge) show that people living in homeland communities, on their own land with access to bush tucker, are considerably healthier than the general Aboriginal community. This is holistic wellbeing.
Five year leases
Land is home, spirit, security, wellbeing. The imposed 5 year leases have caused untold anxiety and stress to many Aboriginal people. Long-fought for rights are now being eroded. The taking of land is still a puzzle as to how it relates to protecting children.
Suspension of the Racial Discrimination Act
Any idea that suspending the Racial Discrimination Act in order to impose the intervention and thus improve Aboriginal people's lives is proving to be totally erroneous. That this country can continue to have this Act suspended (despite Labor's pre-election promise of reinstatement) is an indictment on us all.
Suspending the Racial Discrimination Act affects our standing in the international community.
On the ground, the setting aside of the Racial Discrimination Act has led to an increase in blatant racism (see: Unforeseen Consequences).
Statutory Rights
Statutory Rights have been taken away. Community assets are vulnerable. People do not understand their rights or, indeed, know if they now have any rights over buildings and assets.
Unforeseen Consequences
Racism
I have personally witnessed many examples of racism, as have all members of our Intervention Rollback Action Group, in Central Australia. To the close surveillance of families as they shop, to segregated queues in supermarkets and Centrelink, to offhand treatment, to Aboriginal people being ignored as they wait for service, to groups of Aboriginal people being told to move on if they stand and chat whereas non-Aboriginal groups are allowed to congregate, the range is broad. Aboriginal people feel demeaned. It is "shame job" when there is not enough money on their store card and their shopping trolley is still half full. They see people smirking at them. One woman in her anguish told the queue observing her embarrassment: "Please don't laugh at me".
No group of people deserves to be treated this way.
Anxiety
People are confused, anxious. There was little understanding in the main as to why the intervention was happening. Understanding bureaucracy is now more difficult with the issues with welfare quarantining – money not always being available, store cards being late, understanding the systems is difficult. People don't have easy access to telephones or transport. Having to travel long distances or continually line up at Centrelink is stressful. Communications are difficult. Imported Centrelink workers and other government workers are often culturally ignorant and do not understand Aboriginal ways of doing business.
Conflict amongst families
Families are angry. Those living on a prescribed area are having their income managed whilst other family members living just down the road but in town are not. It seems unfair and is causing conflict.
Viable Communities
Research has shown that Aboriginal people living on outstations or dispersed communities are healthier physically and mentally. Some lateral or creative thinking need to take place (and this will require community input) to ascertain how such living areas can be supported and maintained to continue to provide healthy living.
CDEP needs to be reintroduced as a means of maintaining communities but also as an avenue for training and transition to real jobs. The intervention's practice of bringing in contractors for carry out housing maintenance at great expense ($147 per hour for trades people and $252 per hour for supervisors) is totally exorbitant. In some instances flying workers in from interstate on a 2 weeks on 1 week off arrangement is also outrageous. Can we start from the basis that there are many skilled Aboriginal people out there already – education assistants, health workers, office workers, trades people. Can we alter the mindset and work from the basis that Aboriginal people CAN and look at ways of enabling their engagement to happen?
Local Aboriginal people should be employed in schools. They are invaluable as support for children moving through the education system, they are essential in two-way learning, they are a reference point for non-Aboriginal people coping with the stresses of working in another culture. Local people should be encouraged and enabled to follow a career path wherever possible. Local people should be the ones providing school meals, old people's services, child care workers, council workers, night patrols, environmental management (caring for country), shop employees, office workers, vehicle repairs and maintenance, solar or power plant repairs and maintenance, road maintenance, health provision (health workers, health education and so on). The scope is huge. Local businesses such as tourism and bush tucker harvesting could be viable. Local art centres already are.
What progress has there been in improving the safety and well-being of Indigenous children?
It is not easy to gauge the progress in improving the safety and well-being of Indigenous children. Some children I know absorb the stress and concern of their parents and carers in having to deal with the imposition of welfare quarantining, the increase in racism which also targets children and in having to deal with the impact of the intervention on families. Children have to function within their families and within their culture. Women's centres need to be adequately resourced, as do community education centres which can provide whole-of-family support for the community, safe houses (where the community identifies a need), policing, appropriate early childhood education, child care for working parents and so on. Support needs to be provided for cultural maintenance. Employment needs to be managed within the community context to cater for cultural obligations such as ceremony business, sorry business etc. Not everyone wants to work 9-5, 5 days a week, especially when the temperature is over 40 degrees.
Will the suite of measures deliver the intended results?
There cannot be a 'suite of measures': one size does not fit all. Communities differ, cultural groups differ, community needs differ. It is unfortunate that the government is taking advice from so-called 'high profile Indigenous people' when really these are 'high flying business people' who happen to be Aboriginal. These "leaders" cannot with any cultural integrity speak for others. This includes Galwurruy Yunupingu, Noel Pearson and Warren Mundine. It is a hard task the government has before it to repair the damage already inflicted on Northern Territory communities and Aboriginal people. The effort has to be made to really listen to the people on the ground. They have the answers. Bureaucrats need to move out of their cultural comfort zone, think outside the square and learn to listen.
Will NTER lay the basis for a sustainable and better future for residents of remote communities and town camps in the NT?
No, not in its present form.
What alternative measures should be considered?
The intervention needs to STOP. A huge amount of money has been wasted and is still being wasted on continuing the intervention. Very little has filtered down to improving the lives of Aboriginal people.
The Racial Discrimination Act needs to be reinstated.
A truly representative body of Indigenous people needs to be set up as soon as possible. Aboriginal voices in the Northern Territory have been almost totally silenced with the imposition of the Intervention and the abolition of community councils on the introduction of the Shire system of local governance. Mainstream media is biased and is adding to the stereotyping of Aboriginal people. The Minister needs to stop consulting so-called 'leaders' and depending on bureaucrats for her policy advice.
A true method of community consultation needs to be carried with appropriate interpreters in order to assess what programmes had been working successfully prior to the intervention and, using a community development process, properly assess community needs. Adequate funding needs to be provided for successful programmes, not spasmodic or ad hoc funding as happened over the past decade. Community organisations and programmes need to be accountable without extreme bureaucratic requirements devised in Canberra.
CDEP, despite its flaws, needs to be reintroduced as quickly as possible. It is a form of employment which suits many individuals' and communities' needs. Managed properly CDEP can lead to further training and employment enhancement. Many communities are suffering with the removal of CDEP, and people are offended by having to work for the dole and then have half of their money quarantined.
Are there other ways of working that would better address the circumstances facing remote communities and town camps?
Yes – see previous observations and the following comments.
Summary
The Intervention Rollback Action Group based in Alice Springs has carried out extensive surveys with Aboriginal people from prescribed areas regarding their understanding of and the effects of the NTER Intervention. This information has already been submitted separately to the Review Board.
I would like to submit opinions from various people.
Dr Sue Gordon, the taskforce chairwoman (in relation to welfare quarantining) said that after 12 months the "one size fits all" approach needs adjustment. "My own view is that those people who can manage their money shouldn't be (income managed)."
Major General Dave Chalmers, head of the Commonwealth intervention taskforce, (NT Local Government Association meeting, 17 April 2008) said the Federal Government underestimates cross-cultural communication in its dealings with Aboriginal people. "Communities are inundated by local government, Territory Government, Federal Government well meaning people coming and sadly a lot of that is lost because people come from essentially a different cultural background."
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd (15 December 2007): "There are many controversial matters, I accept that. We want to ensure our overall objective ... is done on a co-operative and consultative basis, so we achieve progress together."
Family Court chief justice Alastair Nicholson (Lionel Murphy memorial lecture, Sydney, 29 November 2007) said that parts of the federal intervention were based on flawed assumptions about Aboriginal society. (The government is yet to respond to the issues raised in Mr Nicholson's address.)
Northern Territory's Anti-discrimination Commissioner Tony Fitzgerald (Charles Darwin University, 25 January 2008) said that quarantining of Indigenous people's welfare payments is a racist act and that only way to eliminate racism is by having laws that respect all of society. On 20 June 2008 Commissioner Fitzgerald called for the abandonment of the Federal intervention and the legislation underpinning it to be repealed.
Deputy Chief Minister Marion Scrymgour (NT Parliamentary Committee hearing June 2008) confirmed the overall number of referrals to child protection authorities was no different from any other year despite the intervention and a small increase in the number of child protection officers on the ground.
CFMEU, National Bi-annual Conference Sydney, 22 February 2008: Motion "That the CFMEU demand the immediate repeal of the Northern Territory Emergency Response Legislation; we further demand that Federal, State and Territory Governments sit down and enter into respectful dialogue with Aboriginal people in their communities and then act alongside and in support of Aboriginal people in keeping with the "Little Children are Sacred" report."
Mick Dodson, Canberra 21 November 2007: "What troubles me most is the racial discrimination and the incapacity of the media to be outraged by this. Why are we ready to allow this to happen?"
Uniting Church in Australia Northern Synod, annual Synod meeting 20 September-3 October 2007: "The Northern Synod calls on the Australian Government to enter into a real partnership with indigenous people in the Northern Territory by enacting legislation that upholds human rights, affirms self-determination and enhances the capacity of individuals and communities to contribute to solving issues of concern within their own lives.
"Therefore we believe that the Government should
- repeal the NT Emergency Response Act 2007; and
- start afresh through consultative processes to develop a range of responses that directly address the recommendations of the 'Little Children are Sacred' Report."
Visiting academic Dr Irene Watson (addressing the Maori Centre of Research Excellence, 9 June 2008): "There was a certain symbolism in saying sorry, it was a very emotional event, but it's empty. I think it legitimizes many things, including the intervention. No one is talking about it any more. Rudd gets the thumbs up (to continue) the intervention. While the intervention has been sold as a human rights issue, fundamental indigenous rights are being eroded at the same time.
"Many leaders are unwilling to speak up when there was millions of dollars at stake to provide access for their people to health and housing initiatives."
Dr Rob Roseby and Dr Andrew White, NT pediatricians, 16 June 2008: "To improve ear health, governments should support existing health services to provide comprehensive, continuous and high quality primary care programs focused on prevention of chronic ear disease and hearing impairment in young children … And what was needed for dental health was dental services – not checks."
Minister Jenny Macklin, media statement, 14 September 2007: "A Federal Labor Government would endorse Australia becoming a signatory to the International Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples."
Marlene Hodder
15 August 2008