Antinuclear

Tony Fitzgerald, former NT Anti Racial Discrimination Commissioner, condemned Norther Territory Intervention

The central recommendation made by the Anti Discrimination Commission was:

The Northern Territory Emergency Response in its present form should be scrapped and transformed from a quick fix, law and order plan into a range of long term initiatives aimed at overcoming remote Indigenous disadvantage and raising indigenous quality of life. 

Tony Fitzgerald – an unlikely Territorian hero Crikey, April 1, 2012 – , by Bob Gosford  – he quotes Patrick Dodson:  “…….Tony was the NT Anti Racial Discrimination Commissioner from 2002 until his passing in 2009.

As Commissioner, Tony was passionate about the need to promote a fair and just society that was free from racial discrimination and inequality…. the report from that review, the Little Children are Sacred Report, became the catalyst for the Howard Government to initiate the Northern Territory National Emergency Response.

Tony was highly critical of the Commonwealth Government’s Emergency Response to Aboriginal communities. He was particularly appalled at the intervention’s suspension of the Racial Discrimination Act, which since its enactment in 1975 has been important in ensuring the protection of all Australians from racial discrimination…. Characterised as a special measure, and with minimal consultation with affected communities, the Government claimed that this would be a short lived exercise that would bring stability to Aboriginal Communities, properly house and educate all Aboriginal Territorians and improve their well-being.

Under this guise, the federal Government compulsorily acquired land, took control over Aboriginal communities and imposed an administrative and statutory management regime over the day to day lives of Aboriginal people in a way that would be unthinkable were this to apply to other citizens of Australia…. Tony Fitzgerald was among those who immediately recognised the Intervention for what it was – a cynical, political strategy to deliver the final assimilation of Aboriginal people and the destruction of their political, social rights and even their hard earned property rights under the 1976 Land Rights Act….

In the Anti Discrimination Commission’s submission to the Review of the Intervention in 2008, which was chaired by Peter Yu, Tony described the Intervention in the following terms.

The take-over, or Northern Territory Emergency Response, was conceived in Canberra without discussion with the NT government or the affected communities. The Northern Territory Emergency Response was coercive, heavy handed and designed on the run with limited planning as a short-term response to enable the commonwealth to obtain control, stabilise, normalise and exit.

Although styled as an “emergency” government response to the 97 recommendations of the “Little Children are Sacred” report, the Northern Territory Emergency Response ignored those recommendations and it is common knowledge that the government ignored the dysfunction, disadvantage and disorder prevailing in remote communities for the last 40 years.

The central recommendation made by the Anti Discrimination Commission was:

The Northern Territory Emergency Response in its present form should be scrapped and transformed from a quick fix, law and order plan into a range of long term initiatives aimed at overcoming remote Indigenous disadvantage and raising indigenous quality of life. The initiatives are required in the broad areas of (locally delivered) housing, health and education, and may take generations to build and deliver. There is no indication yet that government is willing to commit to the level of sustained local engagement required to effect change…..

Five years on, and the intervention for many Aboriginal Territorians still hangs like a veil of exclusion from the same rights and privileges’ available to every other citizen of this country.

 

The proposed Stronger Futures Legislation, which is currently being debated in the Senate, would see the intervention extended for another 10 years.

Yet again, without adequate consultation it seems, the Federal Government seeks to impose a set of measures that would punish rather than encourage and assist Aboriginal people to find meaningful, long term solutions to issues….. http://blogs.crikey.com.au/northern/2012/04/01/tony-fitzgerald-an-unlikely-territorian-hero/

April 2, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | aboriginal issues, history, Northern Territory