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NT "racist" intervention turns one amid protests

26 June 2008 - Racist, draconian and insulting were just some of the words protesters used to describe the federal government's Northern Territory intervention on the first anniversary of the controversial reforms.

Most importantly, however, they called it a failure.

Thousands of Australians gathered in capital cities, as well as Alice Springs, to mark the 12 months since the Howard government announced its unprecedented emergency intervention.

A slightly-modified Labor version has continued the intervention since the coalition lost the November federal election.

Traditional owner Vince Forrester, from the community of Mutitjulu in the shadow of Uluru, warned that tourists would be banned from climbing Uluru in protest over the intervention.

"We've got to take some affirmative action to stop this racist piece of legislation," he said.

"We're going to throw a big rock on top of the tourist industry ... We will close the climb and no one will climb Uluru ever again - no one."

Mr Forrester told a gathering of about 300 people at Redfern in Sydney that life had simply become harder.

Quarantining welfare funds now meant his people had to shop in Alice Springs.

"It's a five or six hour drive away ... so much for building up our own economic base in our own communities," he said.

"Every Aboriginal man is now tainted with a brush, they have emasculated us, they have said we are all woman bashers, we are all alcoholics, we are all child abusers...

"The government says it is spending a lot of money - it's not getting to us, it's going to the bureaucrats."

Lyle Cooper, president of Darwin's Bagot community, said Aboriginals across Australia were living in third world conditions.

"Something has to give out of this intervention," Mr Cooper said.

"(The government) tells us how to live, how to eat, where to shop and how to act."

Aboriginal leaders who marched in Queensland called on Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to scrap the intervention - and start talking.

"Mr Rudd should put $1 billion on the table and work with Aboriginal political leaders and lay down strategies and programs which will alleviate problems," said Murri leader and Aboriginal Rights Coalition spokesman Sam Watson.

In Darwin, a small gathering of 40 protesters heard from NAAJA (North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency) chairman Norman George.

"It has set Indigenous people back decades. They have been stripped of their rights and are being controlled by the government," he said. - AAP

Source: National Indigenous Times

Further information: NT Intervention issues page - includes news index and external links

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