'Stronger Futures' bill introduced into Federal Parliament
The Federal Government has formally moved to end the Northern Territory Intervention by introducing the ‘Stronger Futures in the Northern Territory' bill into Parliament.
Indigenous Health Minister Warren Snowden says the legislation will repeal the current Intervention, but that's not likely to happen until sometime next year.
Alcohol reforms
Mr Snowden says alcohol laws in place under the Intervention will be expanded by the new legislation.
Warren Snowden:
Penalties for grog-running will be strengthened. So, there will be minimum standards applying to alcohol management plans and the Commonwealth can talk to the Northern Territory Government about appointed assessors to review licenses where trading practices are linked to substantial alcohol-related to harm to Aboriginal people.
Voice ends.
The Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin (pictured: front page) says alcoholics could have their welfare payments quarantined under the new measures proposed.
Territory police will be able to refer people suffering from alcohol-related problems to income management.
Under the proposal, Ms Macklin will also have the power to sign off on local alcohol management plans.
Jenny Macklin:
It will contain issues around the time alcohol might be able to be sold, times of day or days of the week, the level of alcohol that could be sold, so it might ban spirits for example.
Voice ends.
Education measures
The legislation will also expand a program which links school attendance to welfare payments in the Northern Territory, and this has attracted a significant amount of criticism.
The Improving School Enrolment and Attendance through Welfare Reform Measure (SEAM) policy has already been trialed in parts of the Territory and Queensland, but will be expanded to more communities.
The measures will see parents, social workers, school and Centrelink staff meeting to discuss ways to tackle issues leading to a child's truancy from school.
Federal Education Minister Peter Garrett says the school attendance in the Northern Territory still has to be improved.
Peter Garrett:
What we want to do is make sure that, in this particular instance, by gathering the family, and the school and social workers together for a family conference, we actually put specific and very direct influence on the parents to make sure they understand how important it is that their kids actually do attend school.
Voice ends.
Intervention critics slam Government
A number of critics of the Intervention policies have spoken out against the proposed education measures.
An Indigenous policy expert is warning that the new phase could end up putting the parents of truanting school children in jail.
Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research spokesperson Professor Jon Altman warns against the measures, saying the reasons for truancy may be too complex to solve with welfare quarantine.
Jon Altman:
There is a strongly ideological construct that governments, if you like, can use income management to modify people's behaviour. Whether that will, in fact, work is still to be proven. I think what we need is a suite of measures to encourage kids to go to school. You cannot deliver standard education, if you like, for an imagined life in mainstream Australia in these remote places and expect the students to be attentive.
Voice ends.
Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation (ANTaR) have also attacked the Government.
ANTaR National Director Jacqueline Phillips says it's a missed opportunity to build partnerships with Indigenous communities.
Ms Phillips says while the group supports the proposals to create additional ranger positions and traineeships in communities, there is little evidence these measures will increase school attendance across the Territory.
Jacqueline Phillips:
I think the Government really side-steps what are the key educational challenges facing communities which the Government in partnership with communities needs to address. Until we address the problems with the education system, kids aren't going to want to go to school and parents are going to have an uphill battle on their hands to get them there. I don't see how this policy is going to support parents in that objective.
Voice ends.
Australia Greens spokesperson on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander issues, Senator Rachel Siewert, says extending ineffective measures is a waste of money.
Senator Siewart says punishing parents by cutting income support flies in the face of existing knowledge and opinion, including that of the Government's own departments.
Rachel Siewart:
There needs to be better programs into link parents to schools, better ways to encourage parent participation in school decision-making, they talked about mentoring programs, and we've also heard people talking about making sure education is culturally-appropriate, that they need to be dealing with the underlying causes alienation from school. Those are the sorts of things that need to be addressed and, as usual, the Government is taking a punitive approach rather than actually genuinely listening to what the community is saying and genuinely working with community in partnership.
Voice ends.
Paddy Gibson of the Stop the Intervention Collective Sydney is urging for more Indigenous involvement in schools to increase attendance in remote communities.
Mr Gibson says the Federal Government's proposed new measures to reduce truancy by cutting parents' welfare contradict community wishes.
Mr Gibson says problems within NT schools and communities must be fixed first.
Paddy Gibson:
In all the consultation meetings that we have records of, people made the point very clearly that what was needed in terms of schools properly engaging with students in those schools was more Aboriginal control over the process of education, Aboriginal input into the design of curriculum, the reinstatement of bilingual education programs which have been cut out of Northern Territory schools, investment in Aboriginal teaching and other support staff in the schools, and bringing the schools up to a standard that other Australians take for granted.
Voice ends.
Calls to consider cultural reasons for truancy
An Aboriginal community member from Kalkarindji in the Northern Territory, Maurie Japarta Ryan, says the new hardline approach to school attendance will do little to address the deeper problems behind truancy rates.
Mr Ryan says there are many cultural reasons why children sometimes don't attend school.
Maurie Japarta Ryan:
There's a lot of factors that affect why children don't go to school. You have business, you have ceremony, you have deaths, interstate - that they've got to go to, and other things that happen. You got to look at each area individually and find out what's going on. You just don't shoot from your mouth from a community not in the Territory.
Voice ends.
Anti-Northern Territory Intervention campaigner Barbara Shaw (pictured) also says there could be a number of reasons why a child misses school for extended periods, other than a lack of parents' will to send them there.
Ms Shaw, an outspoken critic of the Intervention who resides in Alice Springs, has urged the Federal Government to consider cultural and health grounds as well as language difficulties as some of the explanations that may need to be addressed.
Barbara Shaw:
When you're looking at the communication between the children - the students and staff - there is that lack of Aboriginal staff in remote communities. There is the language barrier when English is the third or fourth language for an Aboriginal child.
Voice ends.
Click here to listen to the full interview with Barbara Shaw in mp3 format
The SEAM reforms will affect 17 remote and urban communities in the Territory - Yirrkala, Maningrida, Galiwin'ku, Ngukurr, Numbulwar, Umbakumba, Angurugu, Gapuwiyak, Gunbalanya, Milingimbi, Lajamanu and Yuendumu, the townships of Alyangula and Nhulunbuy, Alice Springs, Tennant Creek and remaining schools in Katherine.
Hermannsburg, Katherine, Tiwi Islands, Wadeye and Wallace Rockhole are currently trialling the policies.
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