Firstly, get ones mind out of limiting this issue to 'sexual abuse' which has an automatic exclusion of women whom then claim 'victim' status...this is about creating an enviroment for childs security and well being which keeps the child in a state of 'happiness' in which all children thrive and become wonderful and capable adults...

In terms of numbers, psychological abuse overwhelms, and women predominate...and as bad or even worse than 'one-off' sexual abuse...each badly traumatized child should be properly investigated to find the true cause and consequences connected with it...this is the only way to end this destructive cycle that starts with children whom then become adults and propergate the same damage...(eg sexual abuse in churches...these children told their parents but were told to shut up...now that is even more traumatizing especially when force back to the priests)

Why more talk, consultations etc...what were these bodies and people doing all this time...each day more children are broken...a happy child is one that in energetic and expresses with spontaneous play and curiosity of their world...look at our world and how many children do we see quietly sitting in prams withdrawn...

I agree that immediate action is needed...police on the ground first then medical teams is a good start...the next is harder...a child cannot be removed from their own culture and people...so its going to be a carefully balanced act to prevent damage while ensuring the adults 'do right' to the children to bring them up as 'aboringinals'...at least for one generation...then these children as adults should take over their own destiny...at least the numbers are limited and they most live in the open so it makes the job easier...and we must ensure the destructive among us are not allowed to influence the outcome to the action we are taking...we owe them that...

Sam

Most people who live in the Northern territory know these problems have been going on for years and years. It is such a complex situation and I agree with the way John Howard is tackling it. Most people who live and work in the Northern Territory are saying, it's about time this happened.

Jocelynne, the fact that you are a human rights lawyer is strong evidence that you are also a hypocrite. Those who preach from the comfort of a cushy job and damn those who attempt to take positive, grass roots action to address a problem as just as culpable as the perpetrators of any crime.

The Federal government has (finally) taken decisive action on an issue that has been allowed to fester for too long, mainly because of the black armband view of history that has stopped less corageous people from taking a stand against what is a national disgrace. As Noel Pearson has stated (more elqoently than me), the road to a rebuilding of aboriginal self-respect, pride and lifestyle is to engage with so-called 'white' Australia, rather than disengage from it. While this solution may be a little heavy handed, it is necessary to try to curb practices that are completely out of control and abhorent to all members of society, irrespective of race.

I applaud the gov't for finally taking a stand and doing something. I think you will find that the majority of Australians will also stand behind the gov't on this matter.

A couple of reasons why the Government is doing something about it:

1. any Government would after reading that report (note Rudd's immediate agreement with the policy, albeit with reservations about the detail)

2. it's an election year, and Howard needs a wedge issue

3. Mal Brough is ambitious

4. the Government needed to seize on something (anything!) because people have stopped listening to them

Although many people seem to be supporting strong action in this area, I wouldn't feel confident that Howard's electoral chances will improve as a consequence of his late-in-the-day interest in Aboriginal affairs. I think that people are perfectly capable of recognising that both 1. something needed to be done and it doesn't matter who does it really, and 2. Howard's time is up.

Frankly I think it's great that Howard and Brough are setting the agenda for the Rudd Government. There are a lot of other issues the incoming government could and should tackle.

Noel Pearson seems to make a lot more sense than Jocelynes typical cynical Howard hating views. No one denies this situation is tragic and complex. Jocelyne attacks the Howard ignoring the fact that State Labour and Liberal parties have buried this issue for decades.

Mr Howards plan is no quick fix. As one who has worked with the indigneous people I can only applaud any efforts to protect the numerous children who are at risk.

People like Jocelyne who pull out the race card should be ashamed of her lack of concern for the ones most at risk. To simply equate it with abuse among the non indigneous community is deceitful at best. No one would want to protect child abusers no matter what their colour.

No doubt with ACT's pornography industry shareholders rubbing their hands together many will oppose Mr Howard's measures. Hopefully his ban on pornography will spread to the white community which in turn will save many white kids from abuse also.

I dont think it matters whether it is an election year or not, or who votes for who. The bottom line is something drastic needed to happen. It's all gone on for too long. John Howard has done something about it. People will scream if he does somthing and scream if he doesn't, either way he will be criticised.

Just another conspicuous compassion junky with absolutely no answer to the problem. Jocelynne's big idea is to embrace some stupid idealogical claptrap of the UN; the world's greatest body of do-nothing bureaucratic totalitarians. In other words, Jocelynne is happy with nothing being done, despite all the rhetoric at the beginning of her article. She starts off agreeing that what's happening in Aboriginal communities is terrible but then her true colours shine through illuminating her emptiness. The aim is not to prevent abuse in Aboriginal communities, but to prevent a new "Tampa" for the Howard government.
Jocelynne should try putting substance ahead of ideology for once, and stop getting in the way of real human beings who actually care for people in the real sense of the word.

I have just finished reading the report, It appears to me the Howard and Brough are ignoring nearly all of the reports recommendations.

Of course something needs to be done and quickly, that something should be to implement these recommendations.

"We have a 20-year history of six-month programs"
Gunbalunya resident. (from the report)

I hope this isn't another six month program but alas it seems like it is Mal Brough has already said so.

Unfortunately John Howard has a track record on politically motivated actions close to elections, I sure hope I'm wrong but this appears to be another one.

Connections – When heavy handedness or force is unsustainable for civic life?

We, Australia, entered the Vietnam War following America with ideas of modernisation through Eugene Rostows ‘three stages development’ to economic growth. This was a lethal Top Down approach. It was Ho Chi Minh (who out smarted us) – demonstrating the value of true “civic engagement” (as he set-up hospitals in under ground tunnels), emancipating the cohesiveness, and empowering the capacity of villagers, through Community Health.

Australia went into the Iraq War without a DEVELOPMENT PLAN. The focus was to force a “clean up” inside Iraq, using the military. We made it worse for Iraq’s children, women and their families at ground level. We displaced good community leaders as our suspicion of them, divided their communities, creating additional cultural uncertainty and mayhem.

Unlike Iraq, we know more about our own social, economic and historically-political problems in Australian society, yet where is the evidence?

After 25 years or more of collecting data on Indigenous cultural development, a number of Royal Commissions and the Reconciliation strategy…. Ad Hoc infrastructure delivery…who believes we can rely on the police and a cultural approach from the military.

GET A GRIP!

Cape York has 25-28% unemployment. This is deprivation.

This statistic alone impacts WHOLE families and WHOLE communities at ALL individual levels.

TAFE, New Skills Micro-Enterprise Development. Full Time employment,
Roads – Connecting Communities
Long-term – Community Housing
Health (Alma Ata) is urgently required by all rural communities
Infrastructure – building trust (social and human capital) by building capacity and local cohesiveness at ALL ground levels.

No one can do anything without the a proper resource infrastructure.

We need to look comparatively at what is working, where and recognise WHY it is working…and build on it...

Australia needs to 'get real' - acknowledge a “cross-cultural” approach through SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT.

The is not the first time we have heard this urgent call for HELP and CHANGE in Australia. Why aint we doing better?

In the 1978 UN Children’s Declaration it was recognised that to HELP Children we must also SUPPORT their MOTHERS.

http://www.miacat.com/

I suspect that some of Howard's enthusiasm for taking drastic control over aboriginal territories is to open these up for easy exploration by his mining buddies. Current world reserves of high grade uranium (that which can be used at an energy profit by current nuclear technology) amount to less than 30 years supply at CURRENT USE RATES. That means that there will be nothing to fuel the world's imagined expanded nuclear industry unless more is found. This explains why uranium prices are currently going through the roof. I am sure that Howard sees this as a win-win situation and so has jumped in boots-and-all without considering the true costs or effectiveness of what he has proposed to solve this humanitarian crisis.

I'm extremely happy that action rather than talk is finally taking place. Like pretty much everyone else I know it's primarily an election ploy. Reports like the "Little children are sacred" report have been popping up for a long time now. This is not new info. So in light of that, I don't think it's time for the states to play politics with this. The issue is too serious.

I agree with much of Jocelyn’s article. She’s right to be cynical. And I only hope the Australian people follow her lead come election time. But I think for now we all need to put our cynicism aside and start talking about practical and real measures for addressing Australia’s ‘third world’. And Howard’s election ploy may just kick start some robust debate and some real action.

I found the wording of "put an end to the abusive practice of sexual exploitation of Indigenous children by non-Indigenous Australians - particularly men from mining communities in the Northern Territory, along with the Indigenous men who are implicated in this reprehensible conduct."

That's the first time that I'd seen the suggestion that the majority of the problem of child sexual abuse in indigenous communities was perpetrated by men from mining communities. If so then why are the parents of the kids so afraid to speak out about it. Why are others suggesting that the kids are most at risk in overcrowded living conditions - are some miners bunking down in already overcrowded indiginous homes?

Looks like spin to me. My understanding is that the problems are the result of some fairly serious social conditions within some indiginous communities including overcrowding, boredom, alcoholism etc. Trying to blame miners will hardly help find a fix to the issues.

The real question is about the usefullness of Howards measures in fixing the causes of abuse.

R0bert

I agree entirely with Dr Scott. There has to be a hidden agenda with the Howard decision.
I think that this jack boot style will not help but will do untold damage to Aboriginal mental health and self esteem. It is questionable if any relationship between "white" Australia and "black" Australia will recover.
Alcoholism is an addiction, what is going to happen when addicts cannot get their fix of alcohol? Where is the social and medical backup.
Before sending in the "troops", why didn't somebody think to send in the many extra needed Social/ Education/ Health workers to work with the Elders, and then, back-up from the police to enforce child protection.
Education and health, proper housing and sanitation should be the number 1 priority.
For their self esteem aboriginal males should be made to work for their government payments.
I truely believe that there are many things the Government could/ should have done before they rode rough shod over our Aborigines.
I am not questioning the fact that there needs to be loads of work done to help the Aborigines but without their input and their efforts to help themselves it is a waste of time. White paternalism is a waste of time.

Dr Scutt provides a fresh breath of air. I particularly agree with Dr Scutt's comment: 'Women around Australia have fought for training of medical practitioners to ensure their sensitivity to the consequences of sexual abuse and the needs of women raped, exploited and abused. When minority age and race are added into the mix, the need for training and sensitivity is multiplied.'

I worked as Deputy Shire Clerk in an aboriginal community council for 3 years. I quickly realised that the key to successful health and community developmemt outcomes is achieved through consultation and respect.

Women Aboriginal health workers played an instrumental role in the sensitive and prompt treatment of health care in the community - from infant care to care for seniors. They had status and their participation was integral to impressive solutions to the prevailing crisis. Aboriginal Police, similarly had an important role in dealing with or liasing with Health Workers and Police over domestic violence.

The role of training Aboriginal health care workers and police was never mentioned by Howard or Abbott. Their Hurrican Katrina exercise with battle ready troops and police stands next to no chance of detecting the hidden scars of abuse from scared and close knit communities terrified of the consequences of resistance and co-operation.

Imposing drastic measures will make good TV footage for Howard's re-election campaign, but little else. The funds for this fiasco could have been far better spent on empowering and stregthening local communities to improve living community standards against agreed performance benchmarks.

Winning hearts and minds is more effectively achieved through education and consultation than force. Community solutions evolve through discussions at school, community meetings, sporting sponsorships and in music, dance and drama. This way, everyone can feel part of the solution. Unfortunately, that's not Howard's way

The sexual molestation of children is awful, however it is just one sub-set of the much broader and damaging child neglect that is endemic in some families and communities, black and white.

Typically, feminists want to concentrate on sex because they can then drop into the familiar groove of women good and men bad. In so doing they are just as responsible as cynical politicians and bureaucrats for the continuation of the epidemic of child neglect that is Australia's shame.

There are many diverse interests who would like to hamper and preferably de-rail action on child neglect, from advertisers of junk food through to the men and women who 'train' children for their own gratification.

If we are not to lose our direction on this and our insistence for sustained change we must never forget that the real target is child neglect. Rubbery terms like molestation only serve to hijack informed debate and mislead the public. There are already legal definitions of child neglect and of 'children in need of care' that the author and respondents could draw from to keep the debate on course.

I fervently hope that John Howard's interest in child neglect is real, which I think it is, though of course there will always be spin in politics. On the other hand prior to Howard's announcement there was no action from the opposition to take the initiative on child neglect, yet they were as aware of the problems as the government.

The danger as I see it is that the opponents of change will again succeed in frustrating change by playing the old racism and discrimination cards.

Quick Response - by all means engage in education and consultation (it doesn't seem to have worked over the past 30 years, but it does sound all touchy-feely and no doubt makes you feel all compassionate and progressive), in the meantime let people who actually care about the plight of Aboriginal children do something meaningful to save them.

bozzie:

With all due respect, without education and consultation you can apply as many bandaids as you like but the wounds will never heal. So perhaps you should take a less sarcastic and dismissive tone in your posts. I agree that action needs to be taken now, but education and consultation need to be a part of ANYTHING that's done, and for you to apply a mocking tone is unhelpful and childish. Also to imply people who don't agree with you don't care about the plight of Aboriginals just goes further to show your intellectual immaturity. Or was your last post just an excuse to get stuck into those damned 'bleeding heart liberal lefties'?

Spot on article Dr Scutt,
Your contribution serves to illustrate the bigotry and ignorance of many opinions to this welcome critique of John Howards hypocritical response to the 'Children are sacred' report.

Even the most one-eyed anti-Aboriginal observer who watches the video footage of TV coverage must surely register third world conditions of unacceptable poverty, overcrowded accomodation and overall deprivation of Indigenous Australians when compared to urban dwellers.

I have lived in the Northern Territory for over 50 years during which time I have visited most Aboriginal Settlements, made many good friends amongst the Aboriginal people and am proud to have a Tribal connection. I have also battled white bureaucracy and fought for Aboriginal rights including Land Rights.

Sure, it's time something was done after so many reports but lets not cloud the issue by an emotional focus on Child Sexual Abuse and alcoholism while ignoring all the other recommendations in the report and critically examining the negligence of Howard's regime in respect to the quality of life of Aboriginal remote area residents.

Of course this is another of Howards dishonest manipulation of an emotional event in his desperation to hold onto power.

For me it represents a rallying cry to get rid his corrupt regime which has ignored previous recommendations during his eleven years in office when his lack of action has contributed to Aboriginal infant mortality, inadequate health and education for Indigenous Australians and living conditions which have given rise to the present crisis

I only regret that he will not have to answer in a court of law for his crimes against humanity. He shares responsibility with G.W. Bush and Tony Blair for over 700000 deaths in Iraq...They hanged Saddam Hussein and sentenced others of his regime to hang for less.

"Something must be done" we need to "stop talking and start acting". I am sure we will hear more, along with criticising any critic as a do nothing no goodnik tree hugging lesbian etc .h

That has always seemed to me to be the sort of half-arsed solution - don't do something well considered and planned, for God sakes just do somtheing even if it won't and can't work.

It is legitimate to criticise what will be another failed attempt at "solving the Aboriginal problem." It is the same "problem" we have been trying to "solve" for 200 years. We used to just kill them now we kill them with "kindness".

Sending in the troops to sort out the pesky natives may resonate to the racist ratbags who inhabit our mariginal electorates but it is a Black and Gold bandaid for a deep arterial bleed.

Why is the Government treating its own citizens like they are in Sumatra, dropping aid on them, sending medical teams and the like ?At least when they dropped aid in Sumatra they consulted with the locals and asked them for their involvement and support.

American Indians have casinos, our natives have isolated communities with no jobs, businesses or prospects of anything other than make work solutions. Seems to me the real problem is we have been paying people to sit around in places where there is simply no future.

The writer a human rights lawyer? When does she start to practise? Out from the depths creep the critics. The critics who scream if drug dealers get caught, who would rather see little children go on suffering for years rather than see their own dirty ideology ignored.
Go check to see if Hicks is being treated nicely mate and leave Howard to do his duty.
Or go find a proper job!

Politicians slow to act

The Federal Government is rightly being criticised for being slow in taking any action, let alone the draconian step of sending in the troops, to limit sexual abuse of children in Aboriginal communities.

Three years ago, A Fatal Conjunction: Two Laws Two Cultures by Joan Kimm [ISBN 1 86287 509 X The Federation Press, Sydney, 2004] reported on the “tolerated violence” of a girl-child being “prepared” by several men for her promised marriage to a man possibly 50 years older than she was at the time. My review of the book for the United Nations Association of Australia’s national publication, Unity, was sent to all federal MPs and Senators, and to many state politicians in all states and territories.

Joan Kimm is meticulous and unflinching in setting out the routine patterns of traditional violence and abuse as dealt with by two sets of laws: traditional Aboriginal law and the law of the general population. She illustrates how Australian courts have often given more weight to a defence of cultural or traditional behaviour than to the suffering of women including girls


It is ironic that Australia should lecture other countries about human rights when, as far as Aboriginal communities are concerned, it has ignored or even breached several international conventions to which it is party including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Ian Mathews
Garran, ACT


Ian Mathews AM, 4 Stone Place, Garran, ACT 2503 ph 6282 4025 former editor of UNity, and former editor of The Canberra Times. <ian.mathews7@bigpond.com>

Jocelyn

Given there are a number of posters here who have decided the issue is all the fault of 'feminists', I can only assume who JH and MB have been hanging out with prior to the announcement of these measures, and after they've finished with the Indigenous communities, whose children they are next targeting to 'rescue'.

RObert

Years ago I worked for an Australian company that sent workers to a remote area in Asia for several months at a time while an engineering project was taking place.

One of the workers told me that they would acquire a 'pay wife' while they were there. The villagers would bring young girls who would live with the foreign workers for several months ... cooking, cleaning for, and sleeping with the workers, for a sum to be paid to the father.

Liz, I can accept the idea that some of the problem of sexual abuse may be from miners but pretty much everything I've heard on the topic suggests that most of the harm is associated with social issues within the communities. Real issues which need addressing.

What I've heard about the issue may be wrong - I'll be interested to see what others have to say about that.

What does concern me is the idea that attention get shifted from the real issues. If miners are the problem then that needs to be made clear at all levels but I suspect they are a fringe issue.

The real debate should be about the best means to turn around the social ills within the communities. I tend to favor the empowerment model more than the interventionist model but have not seen how that can work without a strong core group within each community.

I was just listening to a segment on Ch 10 about changes at Cherburg (not sure of the spelling) and the work that has been done there in recent years to stem the tide of sexual abuse and DV. Apparently a group within the community who said "Enough is enough" and started working to change things. For that to work the community had to own the problem.

I'm hoping that Howards strategy works to give a breathing space to put in place better long term solutions.

R0bert

After struggling through the maze of sophistry and cant, I think I've got the gist, i.e. that the shameful abuse of children in indigenous communities in N.T. is wholly and solely Howard's fault (dating back to his stint as Fraser's Treasurer) and his plan is a cynical election ploy and an abuse of human rights.

But I'm sure she really does care.

This is a most revealing article and very well put together. There would be few if any people who would not want this issue addressed in any communities. however, to go in without the requisite good manners to talk with those immediately responsible for the day to day running of these communities is grossly arrogant and exceedingly invasive of their privacy and neglects the need that the people on the ground will have for the cooperation of these people once they get there. We have seen what can happen when Aboriginal people have their self-esteem and ability to decide their own destiny taken away. What has the Government learned from the past 200 years - anything? It is the use of the right instruments against the wrong people in the wrong way.
This has John Howard all over the national and international press - and that is the way he likes it. There is no such thing as bad publicity for this Government or this Prime Minister, as we have seen before in the lead up to an election.
I for one am disappointed with the methods being proposed, the lack of consultation with any significant other party that ought ot have been involved and with the prospect that this will be yet another failed attempt because the people involved were not brought on board with the proposed solution. It is heaping disrespect upon neglect.

Well Howard and Brough have cobbled their action together quickly on the back of an envelope. Bush Week started on 23 June and lasts til 23 July. Bush Week is the opportunity for Territorians to go bush. The Army and Police can sweep through empty townships.

On my brief visit to the Territory I was surprised to realise that the wet is so severe that construction work ceases, that is unknown in southern Australia. I realised that building tradesmen slow down in the wet, aborigines come to Darwin to escape the monotony of the bush.

After hearing about that doctors haven't been sourced and reading that examination of each child and appropriate blood tests would cost $904 and each doctor would cost $4000 per week.

Then there is the little matter of accommodation, most communities house their visiting whites in shipping containers.

Wasn't the big scandal last year in central australia the allegations of a white man abusing small children driving a car with commonwealth number plates.

I agree with the posters who said that this is a land grab, pure and simple, to allow more uranium mining, resumption of pastoral leases and really rich people to build holiday houses in pristine locations. And I wouldn't be surprised if the net effect of removal of the permit system allows alcohol to be sold in aboriginal land.

Aboriginal children would be better served by retention of CDEP or similar employment projects, provision of nutritious school lunches, provision of health care to the same standard as available in white Australia. This action is a serious erosion of Aboriginal civil liberties.

We as a nation, need to start to stop treating the Indigeneous with COTTON gloves. We also need for people to get off the POOR CONDITIONS, bandwagon.Does anyone out there seriously think builders go and build housing for these people in disrepair?. Are we mistreating these people because of a lack of health care?. Hell, i cant get hold of a doctor and i live in a city, not the outback! Personally, I pray these measures achieve more than election clout. I hope the teams come to some conclusion on how to solve the problem. However, I fear that the end result is a pack up and go home one. What these people nedd is a way to create employment for their communities. The training and assistance to make the ventures work and provide a continuance of income and employment for themselves. There is NO point in De-Alcoholising/ detoxing, these peoples then leaving them with nothing to take over the ddays for them. As for the UN., keep them out of our country please, every place they go to comes apartand gets diddled. As for your comments on atsic jocelyn, they were a failed enterprise, good ridance to it too. The Aboriginal communities have been waiting for help for years,instead of being so negative about it, try putting forth something thats constructive. Who knows, you may even come up with something that can be taken onboard by the goverment, whoever they maybe in the near future. So many educated, so many dont care. When was the last time Jocelyn spent time on an Aboriginal reserve? She speaks loud, one wonders if it for the money though!

So many opinions expressed here with little or no experience of Aboriginal people and communities. Putting the boot into blackfellas under the guise of "compassion" reaches a new low.
Congratulations all!

I have to support Howard and his plan this time. Nothing has worked in the past and state governments have also failed.

Getting the grog out of Aboriginal communities will be a godsend. I live in an area where there is a large indigenous community and many of the indigenous are embarrassed witnessing their own disgracing themselves on the grog.

It is not pleasant to witness drunks masturbating in shop doors, urinating and defecating in the main streets. These drunk parents are frequenting the pubs and leaving the kids to fend for themselves and get into mischief.

Whether Howard's plan is politically motivated or not, implementing drastic measures is now urgent if we want to see indigenous kids achieving to their full capacity.

The intellectual rhetoric on land grab etc. must take a back seat for now.

Howard's plan is good news for indigenous communities.

The article provides some important points about the problems with Howard's program. For starters, it is a hastily-built package that lacks the consideration that a response of this scale requires.

No consultation with doctors, psychologists, public service, Aborigines, etc. leads to an initiative that does not adress the overwhelming social issues. Does it deal with alcohol and drug addiction? Does it deal with the attitudes of white workers in the area? No. It is more concerned with taking away land rights.

Howard says that this plan will cost tens of millions. Is it practical to put his measures into place without spending the resources to train and employ the specialist workers required to deal with sexual abuse, Aboriginal concerns, health care, etc. Howard's plan has been estimated to have been undercosted by 3-4 billion dollars [http://theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21969739-601,00.html]. This is not an efficient solution.

The issue of indigenous self-determination is also a tricky one. Undoubtedly Howard has marked the end of 'allowing' Aborigines to maintain individual privileges. What is the new role of Aboriginals under such a plan? As the article mentioned, it is important not to treat all affected by the legislation as sexual offenders...

Does this mean we should do nothing? No. But it doesn't mean we should accept every proposal that comes to mind.

The news this morning indicated that some aboriginal communities have been terrorised by Mr. Howard's charge. Mr. Howard likens the situation in aboriginal communities to a storm like Katrina. Except abuse in aboriginal communities has been reported for years; and has been officially reported to the Federal Government several times.

Mr. Howard is reported to have said “…Why now? Because if we had held back after the release of the Wild-Anderson report, we would have stood condemned, and rightly so.” Quoted from today’s Sydney Morning Herald.
If that is the case he already stands condemned,as he had not acted much earlier.

A very carefully planned response utilising aboriginal leaders and aboriginal communities, State and Territory leaders, psychologists, social workers and medical staff would have been a better start.
The emphasis being on utilisng people within aboriginal communities who have a knowledge of how particular communities operate and have the trust of their peers.

As it now stands aboriginal communities have been terrorized

Mulrunji couldnt trust police.
Why should Aboriginal people in the NT trust police?
These reports are decades, if not a century or more old.
What have the politicians and police been doing all these years?

If we didn’t already know that you’re a Labor insider, Jocelyn Scutt, we could tell from the snide message in your first eleven words…hence your partisan diatribe.
You pay lip service only to the plight and the terror of the Aboriginal women and children.
No fault to Labor at all…… none to Fraser ( Labor’s new best friend , eaten away with envy and hatred)….all the blame to Howard as treasurer then and PM now ….what a sick joke you are.

It’s frauds like you and the rest of the 'look at me' Left …those who get their feel-good from masquerading as champions of the oppressed, while keeping them uneducated and oppressed, who are to blame for things getting to this stage.
Demonising Howard was always your main game, making it impossible for him to do what he wanted to do to help, without being called racist….he wanted to fix up all these problems and said so…practical reconciliation.. remember?…. but your lot sneered and called him racist…you just wanted the show business…the empty apology…bridge-walking etc….all for your own self- aggrandizement.
Everyone knows ATSIC was dysfunctional and unworkable …plagued by nepotism and standover tactics by some.
Your skepticism about the troops must be due to your ignorance of the army assistance program(AACAP), a Howard government initiative, whereby the army personnel have, every year since 1996, set up camp in aboriginal settlements, and built roads, houses and airstrips… provided health care …taught aboriginal people how to maintain things…taught young aboriginals skills for trades ….a different place every year…asking the locals what they need and then providing it.
So ….many of the Aboriginal people are very familiar with the army, and get on very well with them.
They will only be fearful if people like you make them so.
Your Labor has always specialized in theatrical flourishes and empty symbolism…the big handout, then look away… policies that failed the indigenous people.
Your promotion of the UN shows your insincerity…we all know they are useless…see Rwanda, Darfur, Iraq etc.

I'm in two minds.

I am happy, that after years of neglect, SOMETHING is being done. The problem is entrenched, and we need desisive action to save it.

However, I worry that Howard is running into this unprepared, unqualified and without a clue what he is doing. Some of his plans (such as a compusary medical examination of all children) is impractical and unlikely to be able to be properly implemented. His plan to fly in extra police may work in the short term, but the NT gov't has tried for years to get extra police to remote communities without success.

But more I am worried that no plans, drastic or otherwise have be released to hack into the massive economic and social disadvantage that indigenous Australians find themselves in.

I've travelled a bit in outback WA, and people in remote communities have nothing. No education, medical or recreational facilities. No infastructure that I took for granted. Nothing.

We need a comprehensive plan to help erase the social dispartity of indigenous communities.

Sucessive Australian governments have failed these people. Right wing. Left wing. Both sides have failed to fix this problem.

So now that we are starting to get around to doing something, lets bloody well do it right, and not pretend that quick fixes are magic bullets.

Excellent article. I lived in Alice Springs and worked for Community Development from 1965-1989 and have maintained an interest in developments since that time. Since Howard has been PM, the advances that occurred previously have disappeared since he has withdrawn funding from health, services, substance abuse treatment and employment opportunities. This regression has escalated since MB took over.

This 6 month military invasion and occupation of the NT is an election ploy and a land grab so the government and the mines can take over the land where there are uranium deposits. Howard doesn't care about improving conditions for the aboriginals, it's just another Tampa, designed to get the racists on side. I see some in this forum have been taken in by his latest pre-election ploy. He has no intention of funding services to improve the situation. If he gets re-elected he will continue to withdraw funds and services. Meanwhile, I feel sick, knowing the fear the aboriginal women would be feeling, and why they're taking their children to the sand hills. The women thought they'd get help, instead Howard is determined to destroy all aboriginals and their culture.

The opposition to Howard and Brough's intervention has not been about the protection of children from Domestic Violence and sexual abuse or the misuse of Welfare entitlements, buying grog, drugs and gambling but the unilateral and arrogant way they went about it's implementation; The accusation against the Martin Government that they weren't acting quickly enough so the Federal Government had to intervene as a cheap point scoring backhander.

So far the action has raised fears amongst some communities that their children will be taken away in a repeat of past practices, unnecessarily raising apprehension amongst people who have no reason to believe otherwise given the lack of community consultation.

There is also well founded suspicion that this is a political exercise similar to the Tampa fiasco only utilising the Army instead of the Navy .
If anything is to be salvaged from this expensive operation, Howard must include all relevent players and resist the urge to play politics.

To succeed, he must reverse existing policies depriving remote communities from infrastructure, training, health facilities upgrade and education facilities equal to those of other Australians.
To start with providing adequate housing, community members must be employed building their own homes with qualified supervision.

People are less likely to trash homes they have built themselves.
The proposed punitive actions should not be forced on families and communities which are not dysfunctional.

I totally agree with you Maracas, the opposition is indeed because of Howard's unilateral and arrogant, and ill-thought out but and invasive implementation. Like you, I was aghast at the cheap point scoring abuse of Claire Martin. She's been begging for help and funding for years and received nothing from him.

Then he initiates his invasion and occupation the same way he, Bush and Blair invaded and occupied Iraq, as you say, using the army instead of the Navy. Totally inexcusable. Of course the communities are fearful of another generation of stolen children. Further, Howard has no intention of including the relevant players. He isn't doing this to improve the situation, only to try to play the race card in order to try to get the prejudiced to vote for him in the coming election.

I fully agree with your suggestions for improvement, he needs to reverse his policies and provide funding for infrastructure, training, health and education for there to be an improvement, but he won't come up with the funding for any of that because he doesn't want to improve the situation, only to buy votes.

Sadly, all communities in the NT are going to be subjected to military invasion and occupation. I've been communicating with several of my friends who are still working in the field and in the settlements and they've said the fear and unrest in the communities is rampant. They have said that they are also fearful for the members of the community. They expect high handed tactics, against the members of the community and even against themselves for supporting the fearful aboriginals.

People are less likely to trash homes they have built themselves.
The proposed punitive actions should not be forced on families and communities which are not dysfunctional.

It strikes me as very ironic that the same Premiers and state governments that the current federal government demeans and discounts, when they cry out about shortfalls in funding for education, policing and health, are now expected to donate police to this suddenly perceived crisis in aboriginal health and safety in the Northern Territory.

And the compliant responses of the state premiers, except in the case of the WA Premier, have been puzzling to me. In another time, place and context, might the others have been called Uncle Toms?

There are so many vectors of analysis with the issue that Dr Scutt has raised, and many have been addressed here, that it's hard to know where to begin.

The 'pollie' in me (which I've been trying to exorcise) says that Howard at 8 points down on the two party prefered had to do something drastic. He might not lose the election, but it may be close. Too close as John is a Menzies man. He wants a Lib dynasty.

What better way to get shift the media agenda from the AWA's, which Rudd was winning, back on to one of the lefts home ground. There's no votes in this for Howard but it moves the spotlight away from the AWA's.

I also can't be so cynical and say that direct and firm action needs to be taken to stamp out sexual violence against all women and children. I can't remember the last time the army was called in for a domestic issue - Cyclone Tracy or was it the Newcastle earthquake?

That's unusual and normally there would be an axtraordinary meeting of heads of state to discuss troop movements, although this is somewhat attenuated by NT being effectively under Commonwealth control.

Howard has had 12 budgets to address problems in the NT, SA and NSW but he has done nothing. Now it's 'Call in the Army' and he's throwing money at the problem. Hmmm. This is an intergenrational problem. I wonder if he will (or Costello) still keep funding it in 4 years time if he wins the next election?

Cheryl aka Malcolm King

We are forever demanding that the various layers of government work together to get results, yet now that it is happening there are some who call for a return to political brinkmanship. What credibility do such critics have when the lives and freedom of the most vulnerable members of the community are at stake? If the major political parties can rise above petty politics in this then so should those who ought know better than to risk undermining this landmark initiative.

Some castigate politicians on both sides for not consulting more with indigenous leaders and advocates. Of course such critics are pretending that consultation on implementation will not happen, despite clear evidence to the contrary. In any event, we are talking about action by governments with a clear mandate to protect and advance the wellbeing of citizens. Such roles and priorities are not new, they are fundamental.

The way some critics are talking they would have us believe that the democratically elected government has to make excuses and seek approval before taking action to protect its children.

What is forgotten is that some at least of those who claim to represent indigenous interests and some of the indigenous leaders themselves are part of the problem. Over thirty years the reports of government auditors have been scathing about the fraud, misappropriation and wastage of the billions of taxpayer dollars allocated to indigenous needs.

Critics of the present initiatives by government are less than honest in pretending that such huge sums were never granted, or that indigenous leaders were not involved, or that the money was 'wasted' by government when these funds were requested, controlled and expended by (and on) indigenous leaders, indigenous consultants and experts and those uniquely sensitive to indigenous issues (a quality that has always been a pre-requisite for employment with agencies administering indigenous policy and delivery of services).

It is pleasing that there is broad consensus on urgent action to help indigenous children. Many of the children at risk may not be alive to see the outcome if the ponderous consultation process recommended by some critics is accepted.

"What better way to get shift the media agenda from the AWA's, which Rudd was winning, back on to one of the lefts home ground. There's no votes in this for Howard but it moves the spotlight away from the AWA's."

Too true Cheryl. Last week we were all workers voting on IR. This week we're all Aussies who care about Aboriginal kids voting on a race-related issue.

To understand the architecture of John Howard’s policy you need to know the architects. You also need to recognize that several important steps have been taken over the past decade to arrive at this emerging blueprint for a new Aboriginal Destiny.

The Federal Government’s refusal to say Sorry ended Reconciliation;
The Government’s 10-point Plan undermined Native Title;
This was followed by denial of the Indigenous Right to Self-Determination;
The Abolishment of ATSIC;
The assault on Indigenous Self-Management and Autonomy;
The isolation of Indigenous leaders who do not support Assimilation;
The cultivation of a New Conservative, Pragmatism
And finally, a plan to change communal ownership of Aboriginal Lands.

There is no artistry!

The proposal is as racially malevolent as it is democratically shrewd.

Non-aboriginal Australia, by and large, would seem to find any notion of indigenous malcontent intolerable, probably because it flies in the face of its unquestioned sovereign integrity.

A brief slice of modern Australian history: The 1865 enactment of Queensland’s Industrial and Reformatory Schools Act was established specifically for children under fifteen who were neglected or convicted of an offence. A neglected child was defined as any child who wandered about; frequented any public place; slept in the open air; had no home or settled place of abode; dwelt with a reputed thief or drunkard; was supported wholly or in part by charity; or any child born of an aboriginal or half-caste mother. Without a warrant, a constable was empowered to arrest any aboriginal child and a court composed of two or more Justices could order the child to be removed from his or her mother and placed in an industrial or reformatory school, including registered missions.

Let us strike, for argument's sake, aboriginal or half-caste mother and insert 'church-going' parent. That is, any child under fifteen born of a church-going parent can be arrested and removed from their parents and placed into an industrial or reform school, which serves to process the explicitly despicable 'church-going' characteristics out of the child. Not quite as ineradicable as aboriginality, but hopefully sufficient to illustrate the point.

The 1897 Queensland Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act, established reserves (geographically isolated enclaves) to which Aboriginal people were forcibly removed by designated Aboriginal Protectors; civil servants, police and missionaries. Purporting to protect them from the ravages of European immorality and disease, reserves effectively operated to separate Aboriginal people from colonial consolidation and also to limit the reproduction of part-Aboriginal offspring, the so-called ‘half-caste menace’, which was seen at the time as a threat to an ‘ideal’ white Australia.

Prime Minister Howard's proposal effectively steals the next generation of aborigines, through the military establishment of homeland refuges, from the politically expedient removal of intergenerationally abused parents.

As I said on another thread on this topic, while there are some major differences between this tawdry pre-election effort at 'wedge' politics and the Tampa issue from the last Federal election, what they have in common is that they both appeal to the pervasive and implicit racism of the majority of the Australian electorate.

The Rodent knows this, as does Harry Potter. Anybody who's taken in by the Rodent's newfound concern for Aboriginal people is either a racist or a fool, or both.

Of course we need to nurture Aboriginal children and protect them from harm, but I very much doubt that sending in the cops and soldiers in a hastily planned stunt is going to achieve this in any lasting way. Both the timing of this sudden emergency (after 11 years of Howard indifference - or indeed hostility - to Indigenous issues) and its linking to Land Rights should be seen for what they are: cynical political ploys that once again appeal to latent Australian racism in the lead-up to a Federal election.

Is that dog-whistling I hear? From some of the comments here, it seems to be pretty effective.

If you don't know Howard by now you never will.His record on children,health,education and indigenous Australians is there for all to see. Whats this all about? Howard cares about nothing and no one and never has.Look at his statements and voting record since he entered parliament. This is a humiliating episode in Australian history for all involved. I agree with Rainier and anyone else who has no first hand experience butt out.
In my opinion this is a hugely complex issue requiring buckets of compassion,effort,time,money,motivation,commitment and understanding of an order not possible from this insular and immature government.It requires strength of character and nurturing to overcome the broken hearts and despair in our indigenous fellow Australians.
Howard has used and preyed upon the weakest and most vulnerable in Australia to advance his adgenda of staying in power.
There are no winners from such a cynical approach to governance and responsibility towards people, particularly those that do not have our access, skills or advantages. Those with mental health problems, forced to live on the streets, might also be taken into consideration.
However in all of this sorry and sickening political grandstanding Rudd has failed to show anymore character and leadership than Howard or Beazley. He has adopted the small target approach.Watch as his ratings, rightly, go down.
Bruce Haigh

I am a welded on ALP member have always been one, I sometimes fear the left of my party more than this Government.
And the further left of Labors left? my personal boogy man!
Why? do not judge a human on his/her bank account , not on the IQ having a brain and using it are two different things.
Real children women and yes adults suffered last night, not just in the northern territory.
But in Aboriginal community's Australia wide, yes in white community's too, but not in the massive numbers ,not neglected for so many decades.
Noel Pearson offers hope the thread author offers nothing but more pain for real people.
I question not that we are acting but why it took us so long, I question the very lefts once claim that all people should be treated as equals, nothing less is acceptable for this saved no longer left, lefty still.
And election night is still goodbye John Howard night for me, but he has won some respect for this very late action.
Nothing matters more than ending this nightmare.

This whole issue has been politised by the Prime Minister, the author of the report Rex`Wild QC has been reported as being critical of the Prime Minister's knee jerk reaction. Rex Wild is reported in The Age today(http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/pms-got-it-wrong-on-abuse-plan/2007/06/28/1182624002936.html) a suggesting a subtle approach. This matter will be still being dealt with well and truly after Mr. Howard has retired from politics.
Hopefully this is a lesson to governments of all persausions that where infrastructure is allowed to languish that social dysfunction can be an outcome.

This whole issue has been politised by the Prime Minister, the author of the report Rex`Wild QC has been reported as being critical of the Prime Minister's knee jerk reaction. Rex Wild is reported in The Age today(http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/pms-got-it-wrong-on-abuse-plan/2007/06/28/1182624002936.html) as suggesting a subtle approach. This matter will be still being dealt with well and truly after Mr. Howard has retired from politics.
Hopefully this is a lesson to governments of all persausions, that where infrastructure is allowed to languish, that social dysfunction can be an outcome.

Howard said that he will govern for "all of us" (but not them) a point taken up by Dr Scutt when she asks, "His message was not to 'them'. It was to us. Why?"

Howard was prepared to speak to the nation, but not to the people who will be directly affected by his actions because they are merely objects of policy. Howard's message to "us" is also a dog whistle - heavy-handedness and a contempt of rights hidden behind compassionate exterior.

Howard has yet to explain why it is necessary to remove political, social and legal rights that the rest of Australia takes for granted in order to improve the lives of people in these communituies . All we get as a justification is the slogan of a "national emergency".

Howard is speaking to us very cleverly because he can play both sides of the street: a dog whistle to those who are antagonistic towards the aboriginal community and who want to see more order imposed on "them"; and then he can shelter in the humanitarian ideal and accuse anyone of opposing any element of his plan as being destructive and heartless. Its true, he is a very clever politician

While in the more educated city, what Howard has done seemingly for our Aborigines, could be called grabbing an opportunity, in the bush it is called coming in on the grouter, which does not leave such leaders in small towns very popular.

Nevertheless, the job has been left far too long, and while fixing it, the Howard government must take an equal share of the blame for why it was not previousy done.

In fact, one could truly wish it was someone other than John Howard who is out to do the fixing, who unfortunately with his so often 'I' rather than a more sincere 'we' expression sadly makes it seem he desires most of the credit.

It is so interesting that as problems become seemingly unsurmountable in Iraq, we have the only two leaders in the world who gave national support for the US attack on the unfortunate country, still appear cocksure enough to try and ensure success on a different political wavelength - Howard's much closer to home

Rainier, you are right, that is Howard's blueprint for Aboriginal Destiny. He'll then re-establish the 1865 and 1897 legislation as Neil outlined, steal the next generation and destroy aboriginal culture, legislated genocide.

Yes, CJ, Howard is appealing to racists and fools. If Howard cared about the aboriginal problem he would have taken appropriate action 8 years ago when he received the original report. Instead he buried it, further reports and pleas by aboriginal leaders each year and continued to slash services and funding. Then just before the election, he institutes a 'shock and awe' military invasion and occupation of the NT.

If Howard was interested aboriginal problems he would have listened to aboriginal leaders and increased funding for health, education, social welfare services instead of slashing it. Yes, Bruce, Howard is again preying on the weakest and most vulnerable. As Ant said, Rex Wild QC has been critical, aghast that Howard has taken this draconian and malevolent action. As Jocelynne said, how would we feel if our neighbourhoods were invaded by the feds and military in a shock and awe operation.

Belly, I'm afraid I disagree with you about Noel Pearson. He not only doesn't understand the NT bush aboriginal culture, he looks down on them as well as the Murries and Koories. He's an 'uncle Tom' who has deserted his people and is promoting assimilation and cultural genocide. Bruce, give Rudd a chance. He had to support action, even though it's 9 years too late and the wrong type of action. You will be hearing more from the ALP when the time is right, a push for increased aboriginal health, education and social welfare services and funding and rejection of Howard's land grab plan. Howard has done an Iraq 'shock and awe' to play the race card in his wedge political ploy but has no plans to improve the aboriginal situation, just to grab the land and destroy the weak and vulnerable in his quest for continued power. He's gone too far this time. All but the fools and racists will see through this 'black children overboard' spin

I read the first paragraph of this article then closed the window. Unbelievable how anybody can be so supportive of child sexual abuse.

More evidence that the government, regardless of which party hold office, needs to get out of the culture management business. Completely out. The Aborigine should be the sole caretakers of their culture and communities and have representation with state and federal legislators. High time Australia abolished the multicultural and Indigenous Affairs. An Aboriginal community should be treated as any other community and receive the same degree of services with out exception.