Northern Territory Emergency Response: Report of the NTER

NORTHERN TERRITORY EMERGENCY RESPONSE REPORT OF THE NTER REVIEW BOARD October 2008 i © Commonwealth of Australia 2008 This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced by any process without prior written permission from the Commonwealth available from Commonwealth Copyright Administration, Attorney-General’s Department. Requests and inquiries concerning reproduction and rights should be addressed to: Commonwealth Copyright Administration Attorney-General’s Department Robert Garran Offices, National Circuit Canberra ACT 2600 or posted at www.ag.gov.au/cca First published October 2008. Produced by the Australian Government. Disclaimer The opinions, comments and /or analysis expressed in this document are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs or the Australian Government Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, and cannot be taken in any way as expressions of government policy. ii JENNY MACKLIN MP Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs Dear Minister The Board would like to present our report reviewing the Northern Territory Emergency Response, in accordance with our Terms of Reference, issued on 6 June 2008. We thank you for the privilege of undertaking the review and offer our report in the sincere hope that it will assist the Australian Government to improve the safety and wellbeing of Aboriginal children and families living in remote communities and town camps in the Northern Territory. Yours faithfully Peter Yu Marcia Ella Duncan Bill Gray 30 September 2008 iii NORTHERN TERRITORY EMERGENCY RESPONSE REVIEW BOARD REPORT 5 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 6 FOREWORD 7 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 9 SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS 12 CHAPTER 1 Introduction 1.1 Methodology 16 1.2 Demographic context 17 1.3 Social and cultural setting 19 CHAPTER 2 Assessment of key elements Introduction 20 2.1 Measure 1: Welfare reform and employment 20 2.2 Measure 2: Law and order 24 2.3 Measure 3: Enhancing education 29 2.4 Measure 4: Supporting families 32 2.5 Measure 5: Improving child and family health 36 2.6. Measure 6: Housing and land reform 39 2.7 Measure 7: Coordination 43 CHAPTER 3 Sustainability and the way ahead Introduction 46 3.1 Human rights and the Intervention 46 3.2 Re-engagement and communication 47 3.3 Funding and fiscal reform 50 3.4 Governance, agreement making and capacity building 54 CONCLUSION 58 APPENDIX 59 ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS 129 6 NORTHERN TERRITORY EMERGENCY RESPONSE REVIEW BOARD REPORT Acknowledgments The NTER Review Board would like to acknowledge and thank a number people for their patience, participation and support during the course of the review. We thank the Hon Paul Henderson MLA, the Northern Territory Chief Minister, and Dr Jeff Harmer, Secretary of the Australian Government Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, for ensuring the Board had the necessary access, support and resources to fulfil our responsibilities. The Board particularly thanks all members of the Expert Reference Group for their advice. Further, the Board thanks David Allen, Howard Pedersen and the consultants who provided valuable advice to the Board—especially John Taylor, Bob Searle and Cliff Walsh. The Board also acknowledges the contribution of our researchers, Laura Beacroft, Michael O’Donnell, Terri Libesman, Daryl Higgins and Damien O’Leary. The Board would also like to thank members of the Secretariat from both the Australian and Northern Territory Governments for their professionalism and dedication to the task. The Board in particular acknowledges and thanks all the Aboriginal people from the communities we met and who made time to talk with us. 7 Foreword On the morning of 13 February 2008 the nation We acknowledge and say sorry for the hurt, heard an historic speech by the Prime Minister, the pain and suffering caused by Aboriginal males Hon Kevin Rudd—it was the Apology to Australia’s to our wives, to our children, to our mothers, to Indigenous peoples. our grandmothers, to our granddaughters, to our aunties, to our nieces and to our sisters ... We also The response by the majority of Australians, of acknowledge that we need the love and support all backgrounds and beliefs, was profound. It drew of our Aboriginal women to help us move forward. tears: tears of happiness and relief. It gave hope. It was warmly received, accepted and responded to The statement was courageous and took the by Indigenous communities. Review Board to the heart of the issue that drove the construction and implementation of the For many it led on to a personal reflection on their Northern Territory Emergency Response (NTER). own relationships with husband, wife, children, family Child abuse and neglect are intensely emotional and friends. It stimulated thought about how we had matters. The damage done is severe. The urge to done things in the past, and how we might do them act to protect children—to secure their safety and better in the future, at a private level. As a nation, it wellbeing—is the essence of being human. stimulated us to think in the same manner. To reflect on the past and to look forward: where to from here? The Inteyerrkwe Statement signifies the very serious manner in which the men at the health The precise question is how can the spirit and summit heard and accepted the national apology intention of the apology become manifest in the by the Prime Minister. It caused them to reflect. lives of all Australians. How will the relationship They saw the need for a specific apology by between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians Aboriginal men to Aboriginal women. It is an be defined in the future? affirmation of their values and respect for women. On the day he spoke, Prime Minister Rudd was It is part of the way forward. presented with a glass coolamon. Within it was a One thing is very clear to the Review Board: message: ‘We have a new covenant between our the way forward from the Intervention can not peoples—that we will do all we can to make sure our be based on a return to ‘business as usual’. Both children are carried forward, loved and nurtured Aboriginal people and the Australian Government and able to live a full life.’ want a new relationship. As Muriel Bamblett, Chair of the Secretariat National The most fundamental quality defining that Aboriginal and Islander Child Care, explained: relationship must be trust. And for that to occur The use of a coolamon to carry this message at the community level in the Northern Territory was significant because coolamons were often there must be an active re-engagement with the used to carry newborn children in Aboriginal community by government. As we report, one of communities. Now it is the carrier of the future the impacts of the NTER was to fracture an already for Indigenous and non-Indigenous children tenuous relationship with government. alike, in response to the apology for the carrying During July and most of August 2008 the away of indigenous children from their families, Review Board travelled the Northern Territory. communities and country. We are no strangers to Aboriginal community life in The renovation of relationships where there has its great diversity throughout Australia, yet in the been deep hurt is not accomplished by words alone. conduct of this review we felt deeply privileged to But they form the first, necessary, step. gain an insight into a part of the nation’s life that few others experience. In undertaking our work, one of the Review Board’s first acts was to accept an invitation to attend the We were warmly welcomed. People opened their Central Australian Aboriginal male health summit at hearts revealing their grief, anger and stories of Ross River, near Alice Springs. It was an appropriate trauma, placing the Intervention as an episode within place to start our community consultations. At the longer history of their communities. the summit nearly 400 Aboriginal men settled People spoke about the position they occupy within the Inteyerrkwe Statement, an apology from the Australian nation. How much a part of our nation men to women for past violence and abuse. they felt. How shocked they were by an Intervention In part the statement read: 8 NORTHERN TERRITORY EMERGENCY RESPONSE REVIEW BOARD REPORT Foreword (cont.) that approached them as though they were alien and Accumulated neglect by governments over repugnant to the rest of the country. How they were 30 years has resulted in situations within some singled out for special treatment. remote communities that could benefit from the same disciplined, professional approach that In all communities the importance of customary Australia brings to international programs of law and language, the strength of kinship ties and reconstruction and community development. responsibilities, were evident. We saw, not for the first time, the appallingly overcrowded housing that That is not limited to providing the hardware of a no other Australians would tolerate. Most people healthy community: adequate housing, infrastructure deal day to day with the ravages of alcohol and and schools. It requires the building of effective cannabis abuse, violence, poor health and plain social and civil institutions that express the values poverty. The rate of death means that sorry business and beliefs of the community. It requires investment is an ever present part of community life. in local skills and capacities and leadership. Essentially, it is about growing both the skeletal Experiences of racial discrimination and humiliation structure and the soft tissue of a community. as a result of the NTER were told with such passion and such regularity that the Board felt If it is to work, community development must be compelled to advise the Minister for Indigenous led by the community and partnered by government.

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