It appears that the Northern Territory intervention is being abandoned by the ALP.
Yesterday, the ALP were trumpeting a new age of cooperation between states over health care over $150 million. That's right, healthcare in Australia is cheap.
But now, the intervention, which was aimed to counter such unfortunate incidents as the 10 yo girl being pack raped 'with consent,' looks like being abandoned amid the jubilation. Zindy S D Nielsen's fairy is watching.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Cold, Heartless ALP Fail Basic Administration mk 2
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Rudd urged to save Northern Territory intervention
By Patricia Karvelas
THE chairwoman of the Northern Territory intervention taskforce has demanded the Rudd Government show leadership and commit to accelerating the takeover of Territory indigenous communities, amid fears the project will stall under Labor.
Sue Gordon, the Perth Children's Court magistrate who chairs the Government's intervention committee, said Labor had not given the taskforce any direction for the next six months and she feared the Territory Government would back away from the project.
Dr Gordon said she would ask Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin, who meets the entire Territory Indigenous Intervention Taskforce for the first time on Thursday, to spell out how the takeover would proceed in the critical areas of health and employment.
"What we want to know is the direction the Government is taking," Dr Gordon said.
"As the chairperson of the taskforce, I want to know: Do they have a plan for this next six months? Do we continue as we are? Do they have any new ideas?
"Everyone wants to know what is happening following the health checks; what is the next phase? That is what the Government will have to be looking at. There's not much point doing health checks and then no follow-up."
Dr Gordon's call came as South Australian Premier Mike Rann talked up the benefits of intervention in remote indigenous communities.
Writing in The Australian today, Mr Rann says his decision to intervene in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara lands in the northwest of his state had brought benefits to the communities, despite being initially unpopular.
"Our intervention was simply about one thing: saving the lives of young Anangu," Mr Rann writes. "We were concerned about a spate of suicides and an epidemic of petrol sniffing robbing young people of any hope for a better and brighter future."
However, he says his state's approach was founded on the "involvement" of Aboriginal people and was collaborative.
"That is the difference between our approach and that of the Howard government in the Northern Territory," he says.
Commonwealth and state treasurers, who met yesterday in Brisbane, said they needed to calculate exactly how much public money was spent on indigenous people and where it was used.
Although each jurisdiction knows how much it has spent on its own indigenous services - such as Aboriginal health and housing - little was known about what use indigenous communities made of mainstream services.
The treasurers agreed to develop a new reporting system for all spending in indigenous communities.
Dr Gordon said the gaping hole in the intervention was the lack of mental health workers on the ground.
She expressed concern that the Territory Government would move away from the intervention and urged Ms Macklin to make the Territory Government co-operate.
"We are still operating as normal but the community people on the ground need to know what the next phases are," she said.
"I personally expect Ms Macklin to take the leadership role with the Territory because if the federal Government is going to spend a lot of taxpayers' money, they need to know the NT Government is serious and there needs to be regular meetings so we all know we are operating off the same page."
Ms Macklin said she looked forward to her first meeting with the Northern Territory Emergency Taskforce and wanted to hear about the progress on the ground.
"The Government is committed to the Northern Territory intervention in the interests of reducing child abuse and improving the living conditions of Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory," she said.
NT Indigenous Affairs Minister Marion Scrymgour, the nation's highest elected Aboriginal politician in government, said the Territory Government was fully committed to working "in partnership" with the commonwealth to address problems in remote Aboriginal communities.
The incoming Labor government has promised, despite some criticism from inside the party, to press ahead with the intervention, reviewing its progress after 12 months.
However, Labor will change some aspects of the intervention program, including modifying rather than abolishing the CDEP Aboriginal work-for-the-dole scheme and reinstating the permit system that regulates non-indigenous access to Aboriginal communities.
As of Friday, the intervention had made its presence felt across all of the Northern Territory, with survey teams having visited all 73 "prescribed communities" over the past six months.
There have been 5688 child health checks undertaken in 48 communities, with checks resuming on January 28 in other communities.
Thirty eight government business managers have started work, overseeing 61 communities, and 47 additional police have been deployed (made up of 33 interstate officers and 14 Territory police).
To help with changes to welfare in remote communities, 27 Community Employment Brokers are now in place in 46 communities, and 23 community stores have been licensed.
Income management, or welfare quarantining, began at the Territory's largest community of Wadeye yesterday, about 350km southwest of Darwin, bringing to 25 the number of communities and town camps where the restrictions are now in place.
Mr Rudd is committed to the thrust of the bans on alcohol and pornography applied by John Howard earlier last year after the Little Children are Sacred report.
Additional reporting: Ashleigh Wilson, AAP
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