(Tja, wie leest er dan ook een Nederlandse krant over Australische zaken?! ;-))
Govt to control 60 NT indigenous areas
Thursday Jun 21 19:03 AEST
Prime Minister John Howard has announced a six month ban on alcohol in indigenous communities across the Northern Territory. (AAP)
Alcohol and pornography will be banned in indigenous communities in the Northern Territory as part of unprecedented federal intervention aimed at stamping out widespread child abuse.
The commonwealth seized control of 60 Northern Territory Aboriginal communities as Prime Minister John Howard declared the problem of child abuse a "national emergency".
He also announced an increase in police numbers, compulsory health checks for Aboriginal children and changes to the permit system which restricts non-Aboriginal access to indigenous land.
Mr Howard said he was intervening because of the NT government's failure to act on evidence of systemic child abuse, the sex trade and juvenile prostitution in Aboriginal communities, as spelt out in a damning report last week.
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The federal government will override territory laws to deal with the crisis and, if necessary, recall parliament in the winter break to push through laws, including reforms to ensure welfare money is spent on essentials like food, instead of drugs and alcohol.
Mr Howard said the measures represented a "dramatic and significant commonwealth intervention" in the territory, but he was unapologetic.
"We are dealing with children of the tenderest age who have been exposed to the most terrible abuse from the time of their birth, virtually," he said.
"It is interventionist, it does push aside the role of the territory to some degree - I accept that. But what matters more: the constitutional niceties, or the care and protection of young children?"
Mr Howard challenged Western Australia, NSW and Queensland - where the federal government does not have the power to intervene - to implement the same measures to tackle child abuse.
"I'm asking them to do what we have said we will do, and we will co-operate with them."
The sale, possession, transportation and consumption of alcohol will be banned across the indigenous communities for six months, except in designated "wet" canteens.
Possession of X-rated pornography will be banned and all publicly-funded computers searched for evidence of stored pornography.
Fifty per cent of welfare payments through Centrelink to parents of children in affected areas will be quarantined to prevent all their money being spent on alcohol.
"Effectively, the arrangements will be that, that 50 per cent can only be used for the purchase of food and other essentials," Mr Howard said.
The commonwealth will also make welfare payments dependent on children attending school.
The federal government will further take control of Aboriginal townships through five-year leases to improve property and public housing, Mr Howard said, adding that compensation would be forthcoming if required.
The government will also marshal work-for-the-dole participants to clean up Aboriginal communities.
Mr Howard said there would be a meeting next Thursday of the intergovernmental committee on the Australian Crime Commission.
"At the meeting our minister will ask the ministerial council to formally refer this issue to the Australian Crime Commission to allow the crime commission to locate and identify perpetrators of sexual abuse of indigenous children in other areas of Australia."
Mr Howard said the measures will cost "tens of millions of dollars".
The response will be overseen by a taskforce of eminent Australians, led by Magistrate Sue Gordon, chair of the National Indigenous Council and author of the 2002 Gordon Report into Aboriginal child abuse in Western Australia.
Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough said the government was also prepared to enlist the armed services to support the police and provide equipment and vehicles.
He said Canberra was taking control in communities to remove protection for the paedophiles, drug runners and alcohol sellers.
"What we will be sidelining is the strong men and those people who are actually working against the interests of their people," Mr Brough told ABC Radio.
NT Chief Minister Clare Martin said she was happy to work with the federal government but dismissed as "utter rubbish" suggestions her government had been slow to act.
Greens leader Bob Brown said appalling evidence of neglect and abuse has been in the public arena for years but the Howard government had failed to act until now, several months before an election.
Democrats leader Lyn Allison condemned the move as "an outrageous authoritarian crackdown".
Aboriginal lawyer Michael Mansell said the government's actions were an "immoral abuse of power" and aimed at taking over Aborigines' lives.
Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd said Labor would do whatever it could to work with the government to address the abuse crisis.
