Chief amongst those powers was the control over access to grog.

Brough told the House of Representatives that:

“The authors of the Little Children are Sacred report described alcohol abuse as the ‘gravest and fastest growing threat to the safety of Aboriginal children‘.

…

To dry up the lethal rivers of grog, this bill will enable the government to introduce a general ban on people having, selling, transporting and drinking alcohol in prescribed areas. At the same time, our measures apply tougher penalties on people who are benefiting from supplying or selling grog to these communities.”

The primary anti-grog measure introduced by Brough was contained in section 12 of the NTNER Act – which replaced the previous regime in section 75 of the NT’s Liquor Act of offenses and penalties relating to “restricted areas” with a regime relating to “prescribed areas“.

Brough’s “prescribed areas” expanded the area subject to the alcohol bans by several orders of magnitude to include all Aboriginal freehold land in the NT – about 42% of the Territory landmass.

And, as I explained in Crikey back in 2007 in relation to another contentious part of the NTNER legislation, the Devil would always be in the detail.

And Vince Kelly, now President of the Police Federation of Australia and in 2007, as he remains, also President of the NT Police Association, told the SBS program Living Black just prior to the introduction of Brough’s “tough on grog-runners” legislation:

VO: But only days away from the ban coming into effect, Northern Territory Police may not be ready to tackle this latest Government plan.

VINCE KELLY: I do envisage difficulties with prosecutions because of the way legislation is drafted. There has been limited training or no training provided to the NT Police on the practical implications of the legislative changes that are coming about because of federal legislation. So all these difficulties will flow through, ultimately, to prosecution.

In March this year the NT News reported that one particularly useless part of the NTNER legislation would be scrapped:

Under a rule introduced by the previous federal government, anyone who spends more than $100 on takeaway alcohol must have their ID recorded and say where they plan to drink it. NT Licensing Minister Kon Vatskalis yesterday said the law was “a waste of time, a waste of paper and a waste of ink”. He said he had discussed it with Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin and he expected the laws to be removed “soon”. “The Minister agreed with me that it was not the brightest idea of the intervention,” he said. The scheme was said to be an attempt to stop grog-runners but it doesn’t stop anyone buying booze – or taking it to alcohol-free communities.

Almost two years after the introduction of the NTNER scheme current Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin was asked about the effectiveness of the NTNER legislation in stopping the “rivers of grog”.

As Macklin told journalists at a press conference in Melbourne on the 5th of August 2009:

“…certainly all the evidence shows that that particular measure has not been effective. That said, I just want to reiterate how critical it is that we have strong alcohol controls on the supply of alcohol…one of the things that we have to do to control and reduce that violence is to see stronger alcohol controls.”

And, as the Fairfax Press reported last Friday, the rivers of grog are apparently flowing faster and wider than before:

“In the communities targeted by the intervention…there was a 34 per cent increase in alcohol-related crime, the report, titled Closing the Gap in the Northern Territory, said.

The last spike could be due to the criminalisation of alcohol possession in some remote communities. The Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Jenny Macklin, attributes the increases to higher police numbers.”

“An increased police presence in remote Northern Territory communities, particularly in places that previously had limited or no police, has resulted in more reporting in a number of offences, including violence, alcohol and child abuse,” a spokeswoman said.

For some time The Northern Myth has been aware that several NT Magistrates have been less than pleased that their sentencing options with regard to grog-running – particularly for serious and repeat offenders – have been seriously compromised by the supposedly tougher regime instituted by Brough and maintained by Macklin.

The Northern Myth also understands that many police – particularly those in remote areas that have to deal with grog-runners face-to-face on a daily basis – are particularly pissed off at this situation – they know that if they get a repeat offender “bang to rights” that they will only face a fine at most when the matter is dealt with by the Courts..

Before September 2007 a prison sentence was available as a sentencing option for a Magistrate dealing with a person convicted of a basic “restricted area” offence under the Liquor Act – an option increasingly attractive in respect of repeat or particularly serious offenders.

Since then, under the “prescribed area” provisions of the NTNER-modified Liquor Act, the maximum penalty available is a fine.

A prison sentence can now only be imposed for an aggravated version of the basic offence that relates to “transporting” more than 1,350 millilitres of pure alcohol with the intention to supply.

The pre-existing regime under the NT Liquor Act, at section 124A, always allowed (and still does) for Police officers to state or “aver” that seized grog was alcohol.

But there is no equivalent averment provision in the NTNER Act in respect of the 1,350 millilitres of pure alcohol situation.

The consequence of this is that if Police seize enough grog to trigger an aggravated offence and charge accordingly they will have to chemically analyse each item if the defendant opts to go to hearing.

The Northern Myth understands that the NT Police Forensic Lab in Darwin is not geared up to conduct such testing, and would have to send the seized alcohol interstate for testing.

The practical result of this snafu is that the vast majority of charges – including those that would clearly be classed as aggravated “grog-running” offences – are now processed by the Courts as basic “prescribed area” offences, and the only sentencing option is a fine.

Three weeks ago Marie Nudjulu stood before Court at the troubled community of Wadeye charged with a number of “prescribed area” offences.

The Northern Myth has seen the Court Transcript of Proceedings against Ms Nudjulu.

The Prosecutor read the following facts – admitted by Ms Nudjulu’s Defence counsel – into the public record:

Your Honour, the facts are that approximately 5:55 am on Thursday, 10 September 2009, Marie Nudjulu, the defendant, was the rear passenger in a green Holden Vectra sedan, registration: 536 888, driving to Wadeye from Darwin.

The defendant was travelling with Sebastian Cumpuda(?) and Terrence Parmbuck both rear passengers and Matthew Cumpuda driving. At that the defendant’s vehicle was stopped by police in the vicinity of Woodyculdiya Outstation turn off from Port Keats Road. The search of the vehicle apprehended nine bottles of spirits and 29 unopened 375 ml of cans of Victoria Beer on the floor at the defendant’s feet.

When asked who owned the unopened 29 cans of 375 ml of beer the defendant replied, ‘The VB is mine, I bought it for myself’, the two unopened 700 ml bottles of Bundaberg rum were located at the feet of the defendant were claimed by the co-offender Terrence Parmbuck. The remaining bottle of spirits was claimed by the co-defendant Sebastian Cumpuda.

The vehicle was seized and conveyed to Daly River Police Station. Both the defendant and co-offender, Parmbuck, were conveyed to the residence of Wadeye in a marked police vehicle. The defendant was advised she will receive a summons in relation to the matter.

At the time of the offences the whole of the Daly River land trust area is a prescribed area under the Liquor Act as amended by the Northern Territory National Emergency Response Act. The defendant was not the holder of a liquor permit in order to provide a lawful excuse for the liquor in question.

According to the transcript Ms Nudjulu had previous convictions for possession of alcohol contrary to the Liquor Act – and was currently subject to a suspended sentence. This meant that, in ordinary circumstances under the previous regime, she would be a prime candidate for a custodial sentence.

But, as Stipendiary Magistrate Melanie Little told the Court:

“Her Honour: Well she…I mean this just demonstrates how this legislation is not completely – look at this lady’s record, it’s inevitable she would have gone to gaol for this offence, absolutely inevitable, $2200 maximum penalty now. I wonder – I don’t understand Canberra, it just totally bewilders me.

…

Her Honour: Look at the record, look at it. How many, look, one, two – this is now her fourth bring liquor and she was on a suspended sentence. I wonder – it just – it seems to have accelerated and the message is out, isn’t it, there’s absolutely no deterrence anymore.”

And in sentencing Ms Nudjulu, Magistrate Little made her views on the practical effects of the NTER Act modifications to the NT Liquor Act clear as possible:

Her Honour: Ms Nudjulu, on 10 September you were in a car at 6 o’clock and the police stopped the car and there was other people there and quite a lot of alcohol was found. You said that 29 of those cans were beer, 29 375 ml cans of beer were yours, and you pleaded to guilty to bringing liquor into the community. The liquor and the vehicle was seized. You had no permit to have alcohol here. You said you bought it for yourself and you were in the – what’s called a prescribed area.

We used to call them restricted areas and the penalties were very significant, Ms Nudjulu, and as I mentioned had they been – under the old penalties and old regime you would be looking at a period of imprisonment today. The maximum penalty today is $2200 and I take that into account.

I take into account that you were told to keep out of trouble. This offence is not punishable by imprisonment so it’s not a breaching offence. I take into account that this now the fourth bring liquor, plus you’ve got other offences on your record. So it’s clear to me that you’re not taking any notice whatsoever of the rules, Ms Nudjulu.

I accept you have been trouble for some time since I put you on that suspended sentence, and I take that into account. You pleaded guilty the very first time in court so I take that into account as well. It’s not a small amount of alcohol, having said that it’s certainly not at the – completely at the upper end, but I take that maximum penalty to – to mean that – well I know that it covers all offences, control liquor, possess liquor, bring liquor, and I regard bringing liquor is at the upper end of the types of offences that are covered by the maximum penalty.

You’re convicted and fined $400, $40 levy, 28 days to pay. You’ll get a piece of paper explaining how to pay that money and – and how to get more to pay if you need that extra time. (emphasis added)

Canberra – weak as piss on grog and grog runners in the NT.

Readers will know that I have borrowed the name for this blog – The Northern Myth – from a favourite book of mine of the same name published in 1965 and written by the distinguished agricultural scientist and economist Dr Bruce R. Davidson.

Davidson was a man well before his time and of whom many of the current boosters of the mantra of “develop the north” should take notice.

He was highly sceptical of the overblown claims being made by politicians, commentators and other boosters in the 1950’s and 1960’s of the potential of the north as an unburdened paradise for broad-scale agricultural development.

Davidson’s The Northern Myth presents a brutally clinical assessment – based on good science and thoroughly researched economics – of the prospects for many areas of agricultural and pastoral development across the top one-third of the Australian continent.

Parts of Davidson’s book are of course somewhat dated – but I’m sure that Davidson would be just as sceptical of some of the current claims being made – by the same classes of people – about the apparently bountiful future of agriculture in the north.

The most well-known of the failed experiments in northern broad-acre farming in the Top End was the Humpty Doo rice farm project.

The good folk at the Litchfield Shire Council provide this useful snapshot of the rice project – and of the mood of the time that is strikingly similar to some current views:

Rice grown at Humpty Doo was going to feed the starving millions in Asia. The Northern Territory could become the world’s food bowl – and the post-war world desperately needed food. With new skills, new markets, big money, and big ideas, northern development would become a reality, not just a hollow cliché. Certainly there had been failures before, the optimists admitted. But things were different now, they reasoned. Past failures were attributed to bad luck, bad judgment, inadequate capital investment, and similar reasons. Now, all these limitations and reasons for failure could be swept aside by a new wave of large scale capital development. And the Territory’s coastal plains would at last live up to all the hopes which had been held for them since explorer John McDouall Stuart in 1862 said of the area “it could be the finest colony under the Crown – capable of growing any and every thing.”

It didn’t quite turn out that way.

Suddenly, in the 1950s, the area became the focus for national ambitions to develop the north. The spectacular failure of these ambitions made the name “Humpty Doo” part of Australian folk lore.

In 1954 the junior Menzies government Minister Harold Holt infected the American mega-millionaire Alan Chase with enthusiasm for rice growing at Humpty Doo. Chase formed a grand plan for planting half a million acres to make the NT the world’s biggest rice producer. Chase declared that the Territory would be a food bulwark against communism. “Hunger in Asia breeds communism, and I believe that we have here the means of removing that hunger.” A specially commissioned film, “The Miracle of Humpty Doo” was produced and widely shown.

Chase formed a company Territory Rice which began experiments and plantings. By 1959 there were 5,500 acres under cultivation. It was proposed that the rice growing area would be subdivided in to 400 small farms, with housing and townships.

Magpie geese got the blame, but there were many more fundamental reasons – the project was always undercapitalised; no allowance had been made for rainfall and sunshine variability; soils were poor and drainage unsuitable; costs were high and poorly controlled; and marketing was never properly organised.

A few years later the land-clearing bug was still afoot in the Top End.

This excerpt comes from the NT Government’s Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Environment report, Land Clearing in the Northern Territory, written by E.J. Hosking in 2002:

In 1967 the first large-scale clearing project occurred in the Northern Territory on Tipperary station by the Tipperary Land Corporation (TLC) and at the time was believed to be the one of the biggest single agricultural projects in the world (NT News, 24/07/1967). The scheme planned for 79,000 ha to be cleared over 5 years, however, poor management, seasons and trying to do too much too soon eventually sent the Texan-based company broke (Mollah, 1980). Not learning from these mistakes, the Agricultural Development Corporation (ADC) undertook a similar feat in the early 1970s on Willeroo Station. An estimated 48,600 ha was recorded as cleared, with only 16,000 ha ever being farmed (Fisher, 1977).

With self Government in 1978, the NT launched the Agricultural Development and Marketing Authority (ADMA) in 1981/82. This Authority assisted private cropping developments (Sturtz, 2000) that helped establish the NT horticultural industry, and resulted in further clearing on Tipperary station in 1988/89 and development of the Douglas Daly research farms.

The Senate Environment, Communications and the Arts Committee is currently having a close look at forestry and mining operations on the Tiwi Islands just off the coast from Darwin. The Committee was scheduled to submit it’s report by Monday 26th October but there is no sign of the report at the Committee’s website and it has yet to be tabled in Parliament.

I’d heard a few weeks ago that the Committee would not make that deadline, in part due to the sheer complexity of the matters it has been charged with investigating, and also because there is a fair likelihood of separate reports from the Committee members.

You can see the Committee’s Terms of Reference here.

I’ve previously examined the mess that is left of the Tiwi Forestry operations here and here.

Most recently I looked at the predictable failure of the MIS schemes promoted by Great Southern Plantations, the operators of the large-scale Acacia mangium plantations on the Tiwi Islands that have been left to rot after its collapse in May this year.

It is clear, to me at least, that the collapse of the forestry operations on the Tiwi islands represents not just a failure of an ambitious agricultural scheme but also a failure of good corporate governance and highlights the need to conduct appropriate risk, economic and environmental analyses of the overall project – particularly in environmentally and culturally sensitive areas.

And it is not just in Australia that the Tiwi Forestry operations have drawn attention.

In late September Verlyn Klinkenborg editorialised in the New York Times and pointed to the broader impacts of the collapse of the forestry scheme on the islands:

…this is not just another forestry project gone awry — 75,000 acres of bankrupt monoculture where there used to be native tropical woodland…What’s left behind is a sense of desolation and distrust. I talked with several Tiwi Islanders — over a dinner of mud crab, local barramundi, local mussels and magpie goose — and it was clear that many of them doubted the good faith not only of Great Southern and the Northern Territory government but also their own Tiwi Land Council, which had encouraged the partnership

...

The question that night at dinner wasn’t just the economic loss involved — the loss of jobs and royalties and individual investments. It was the meaning of this failure, its demoralizing effect on a people who have been striving to find a way toward economic self-determination. Like traditional owners on the mainland, the Tiwi have had to struggle with the cruel vicissitudes of Australian policy toward its aboriginal population — everything from the brutality of official racism to the confused tolerance that has come in more recent times with cultural and political empowerment.

Apart from the social fallout from the failure of the arrangements between the Tiwi Land Council and Great Southern Plantations there are the very real questions about what will happen to the trees in the ground – will they be left to rot or is at least some part of the project capable of being salvaged?

On 16th May 2009 Administrators were appointed to Great Southern Group. Subsequently, on 18 May 2009 McGrathNicol were appointed Receivers and Managers of Great Southern Limited and certain subsidiaries of Great Southern.

In September McGrathNicol issued Circulars to Investors advising that the Tiwi Island forestry schemes (which consisted of a large number of tree-plots leased by small investors) would be unfunded after 30 September.

On 2 October McGrathNicol issued a further Circular to Investors in the Tiwi Leases, advising that:

The Tiwi Island operations are commercially unviable. The operating costs and capital expenditure requirements are extremely high. As we have been without funding for the Tiwi Island operations from 30 September 2009, we have commenced cessation of these operations. We also wrote to the landlords, the Tiwi Land Council, on 30 September 2009 advising that we will not be accepting any liability for the lease costs from 30 September 2009.

On 1 October 2009 the Tiwi Land Council terminated all head leases on the Tiwi Islands, relying on a clause contained in the head leases which entitled the landlord to terminate in the event of the insolvency of GSMAL.

In June the Tiwi Land Council had told the ABC that it needed a total of $120 million in order to:

…make the forestry plantations on the Tiwi Islands viable following the collapse of Great Southern Plantations…the land council’s Cyril Kalippa says he has asked the Federal Government for help because Great Southern’s account estimates show substantial money will need to be found to keep it going. “We need about $80 million for the next three years – that’s for the wages and the things that we need to operate the forest. “And also we need $40 million to extend the wharf or the jetty so that 50 tonne ships can come in and pick up the chip wood.”

Apart from the huge sums to keep the trees in the ground and alive – and the money to rebuild a ruined jetty – there remain very real questions about the viability of the whole scheme and who might front the large sums of money in a very tight market to a project with a troubled past and a far from certain future.

In early October The Australian reported that the Tiwi Land Council was optimistic that the project was still viable:

Despite the withdrawal of support from a banking consortium last month, Tiwi Land Council chief executive John Hicks said global demand for woodchips indicated the scheme was “clearly a viable operation”. “We have got it debt-free,” Mr Hicks said. “And it has a minimal rate of return of between 15 and 30 per cent.” The plantations will be harvested on decade-long cycles and landowners now have title to all fixed assets, including the camp headquarters, sewerage farm, port infrastructure, and airstrips. The TLC estimates it will need $80m to manage the plantation to maturity in 2013 and fix the Melville Island wharf so the trees can be exported.

Mr Hicks said at least 15 private investors had indicated they were prepared to support the group in the run-up to the first harvest in 2013. Mr Hicks said the 20 staff on the operation had been retained and that the plant had the potential to create 660 jobs in associated industries.

The controversial venture has already fallen victim to a cyclone and Great Southern was last year ordered to pay $4m for breaching environmental guidelines.

On 2nd October – the same day that McGrathNicols described the Tiwi Forestry project as “commercially unviable”, Dr Judith Ajani gave evidence to the Senate Committee’s Inquiry at Hearings in Canberra.

Dr Ajani is an economist specialising in forest and plantation research at the Fenner School at the ANU, where she has worked since 1996.  She is the author of ‘The Forest Wars‘ (MUP 2007) and is well placed to comment on the Tiwi forestry schemes.

Dr Ajani’s evidence to the Senate Committee centred on her assessments of the short-term propsects of Australia’s woodchip production and exports, the likely demand for the low-grade woodchips from the Tiwi Islands over the period 2010 to 2014 and the looming glut in supply caused by the rapidly increasing supply of plantation hardwood chips from plantations planted under the MIS schemes.

This is a glut that Dr Ajani says will require Australia to double the volume of sales into a flat market (Japan) where we export up to eighty-five per cent of out chips and where we  already supply about one-third of their intake – and that this will commence as soon as early in 2010.

Responding to questions from Greens Senator Rachel Siewert, Dr Ajani told the Committee that:

Dr. Ajani: What we have at the moment, and it is the really crucial issue here, is a very big volume of hardwood chip resources coming on stream from [Australian] plantations and we also have the native forest resource hanging in there as a continuing significant supplier of hardwood chips.

…

So what we are looking at here is Australia’s plantation chip resource increasing from our current level of production of around 4 million cubic metres per annum—that is the volume of that resource that we export currently from hardwood plantations—to around 14 million cubic metres per annum by 2010-2014. Native forest resources in there at the moment are supplying around 5½ million cubic metres. We have inevitably some very big resource volumes coming on stream very quickly. Some people might say that this is not a glut situation. I think they are not being open in their assessment of the reality here.

…

…with a glut we have a problem that happens in any commodity industry. Lower quality resources are the ones that always struggle to get market share and, in particular, to get market share at the price they expect.

…

…the Tiwi Islands chips using Acacia mangium are of a lower quality. They are of a lower quality, according to Great Southern plantations, because they have a lower pulp yield—in other words, you need more wood to make the same volume of pulp—and they are of a lower quality in terms of the additional costs that are required with respect to bleaching for paper production. That is information that Great Southern itself presented.

NT Labor Senator Trish Crossin asked Dr Ajani how the Tiwi might deal with their very real practical problems – they have trees in the ground that will cost a lot to maintain before they can be harvested and sold into an uncertain market:

Dr. Ajani: …it is a complicated problem…the Tiwi Island issue is embedded in a much bigger problem, which is the plantation MIS arrangements as a whole. The first job is to contain the problem. It is not just for the Tiwi islanders but also Australia wide—that is, in my view we should terminate the plantation MIS arrangements, because the last thing we want is greater havoc being played because we have more investment going into these operations while we are facing the market as I have described. The issue you raise is: what then happens to the trees?

…

…given the information that Great Southern itself provided some time ago and given the market conditions, there should be a great care about further expanding the plantation estate.

Liberal Senator Ian McDonald, in previous governments a Minister that provided no small measure of support for the plantation industry in general and MIS schemes in particular, asked a number of forceful questions of Dr Ajani, concluding with a question that revealed his belligerence and inability to comprehend her evidence:

Senator IAN MACDONALD—Chair, I am at a loss to understand the evidence Dr Ajani is giving.

Chair of the Committee is the Liberal Senator for South Australia, Simon Birmingham asked Dr Adjani about the prospects of the world hardwood chip market.

CHAIR— Dr Ajani, is the global hardwood chip market still growing?

Dr Ajani—The global hardwood chip market is largely flat…The trade figures are largely flat. The current downturn also is not presented in this graph on page 4. I do not see the hardwood chip trade globally recovering to such an extent that the wood volumes that we have coming on stream, virtually immediately, are going to be cleared easily and without putting pressure on the price.

Dr Ajani—…We are seeing globally a very strong separation of wood into wood products—paper and sawn timber—and the actual production trends of those products. In other words, what we are seeing globally are resource saving technologies coming through such that the strong growth in wood products is not flowing through to strong growth in wood input.

CHAIR—Recycling technologies and so on are substituting for plantation and native woodchips—is that your contention?

Dr Ajani—Yes. The main play here in the paper market is the role of recycled paper dampening the demand for wood despite strong growth in paper consumption.

Senator McDonald returned for one last unsuccessful shot at Dr. Ajani:

Senator IAN MACDONALD—What is your concern about the Tiwi Islands, from the Tiwi Islanders’ point of view?

Dr Ajani—I think they have a product which is not well placed in the play that is going to unfold over the next few years as our hardwood plantation resource comes onto the market.

In short, it seems that the Tiwi have been landed with a white elephant of monumental proportions – large swathes of pristine, high conservation-value tropical forest have been stripped and burned – or sold off in curious deals that have only made a loss to date.

The Tiwi have now been forced to go cap-in-hand for money from a cautious market and Governments that, understandably, have little inclination to throw good money after bad for a resource of dubious sustainability and diminishing value.

Many think that Tiwi Forestry is just another Northern Myth – an ambitious but poorly-researched and managed scheme that will – if it has not already – see large tracts of precious tropical forest land laid to waste for no good end.

As I indicated above, the Tiwi Islands forestry case is complex and I have only just touched the surface here.

I don’t expect everyone to agree with me – so if you have a view contrary to mine please register, and leave a (hopefully constructive) comment.

Similarly if you feel you may have something to add to or support my comments then please do the same.

You can read some background material (from a blog run by the NT Environment Centre in Darwin) here.

And I’d encourage you to read the Submissions and Transcripts of Evidence given to the Senate Committee at the Committee’s website here.

Thanks for taking the time to get this far!!

Perhaps McDermott could have looked at the NT, where more traditional policing methods – like the use of the “three point hold” also known as “‘ground stabilisation’ or ‘take-down’ – has been implicated in a number of recent deaths.

Yesterday ABC Darwin reported that NT Police officer Acting Sergeant Bradley Fox had been charged with aggravated assault in relation to an incident at the Royal Darwin Hospital in December 2007 that ended with the death of the well-regarded film-maker Bob Plasto.

Bob Plasto

The ABC’s Obituary to Bob Plasto records that:

After leaving the ABC in 1980, Bob founded his own film production company and went on to become an internationally renowned film-maker, making more than 75 films in 35 years. His work included films about Islamic fundamentalism, Pine Gap, the Coniston killings and Aboriginal land rights. Bob was the first independent film producer to enter post-revolution Iran. His exclusive story from this visit, In the Name of God won the United States’ highest award for an independent documentary, the Alfred I Dupont Award in 1986. Iran – Behind the Veil won Best Documentary at the New York Film Festival, the film lauded for capturing a myriad of telling scenes, despite the tight Government control which followed the crew at every turn…Bob was also a poet who wrote more than 500 poems. He retired from film-making in August.

His funeral was held at Darwin’s Uniting Church on December 31. He is survived by three daughters, Jacqueline, Georgina and Rune Al-ith and one son, Tyge.

NT Coroner Greg Cavanagh recently conducted a joint inquiry into two deaths – including Plasto’s – because:

The circumstances of the deaths were investigated at the one inquest because of common factors and an overlap of issues. Both deaths were at least contributed to by injuries sustained after the police used force involving restraining the men in a prone position. Both men were large men who suffered from pre-existing heart conditions. An issue arises in both cases as to whether the deaths were caused by ‘positional asphyxia’,

According to his report into Plasto’s death NT Coroner Greg Cavanagh, on 22 December 2007, NT Police attended at Knuckey Street in central Darwin, where they found Plasto, who was:

“…shaking and sweating and speaking incoherently [and that they] believed…needed urgent medical assistance due to his mental state.”

Plasto was taken to the Royal Darwin Hospital emergency department, where he was examined by a doctor shortly after 4pm, who, according to the Coroner, reported that:

“…he was “pleasant and cooperative.” He was sweaty. She recorded “no insight into current state but does say he will do whatever I think he needs to get better.”

Plasto was then “sectioned” by a Dr Cromarty. At that point, responsibility for, and custody of, Plasto transferred from the NT Police to the Royal Darwin Hospital as an involuntary patient.

Dr Cromarty told Nurse Rebecca Weir that the Deceased was “acutely psychotic and he needed psych reg [psychiatric registrar] assessment”. Dr Cromarty said she spoke to a police officer (Fox) shortly after 4.30pm and told him that she had sectioned the Deceased. She also told him that she was concerned that the Deceased was psychotic.

Plasto remained at the emergency department – as did several NT Police officers including Acting Sergeant Bradley Fox – waiting for the psychiatric registrar to assess him.

During that time:

“The Deceased often talked to himself. The people who heard him speak could not make sense of what the Deceased was saying. He was highly agitated. He was standing up, sitting down and walking in and out of the Oleander room.”

…

“The Deceased, who was a chain smoker, repeatedly asked…for a smoke…The longer the Deceased was waiting at the hospital, the more agitated he became.”

Shortly before 6pm Plasto moved towards the external doors of the emergency ward, repeatedly stating that he wanted to have a smoke and “I want to go and get some air”, “I want to have fresh air.”, “I want to go outside. I want to go outside.”

Some Police officers tried to convince Plasto to stay inside, Acting Sergeant Bradley Fox was more abrupt, telling him to “Get back in the room”, “You’re not free to go just yet. You’re going to have to wait a little bit longer”.

The situation then escalated rapidly with Acting Sergeant Bradley Fox effecting what is known in police parlance as a “takedown”.

“Very shortly, six or seven men including all four police officers became involved in the restraint of the Deceased. Whilst on the ground, Fox and ACPO Eric Morrison applied significant weight to the Deceased’s upper torso. At one point, Fox was using his pectoral area to lie forward on the Deceased’s left shoulder. At some stage, Fox’s right knee was also used to push down the Deceased’s left scapula trying to effect a ‘3 point hold’. The Deceased was resisting and pushing up with his right hand. Acting Sergeant Fox says that he was using all his physical strength and weight. He described the intensity of the struggle as a ten out of ten. He said it was possibly the hardest apprehension in that manner he had ever undertaken. ACPO Morrison was putting his left knee on the Deceased’s right pectoral. Fox also held the Deceased’s head down with his left knee.”

Dr Cromarty attended the scene:

She saw the Deceased restrained face down on the floor with several police members lying across him and others restraining his arms and legs…Dr Cromarty says that as she tried to approach the Deceased, Fox put his knee on the Deceased’s head, and she heard the head smack onto the floor. She and Dr Lai Heng Foong leant down and clustered around the Deceased’s head and told the Deceased to relax, and that she would try to get the police off him. Dr Cromarty was concerned as the Deceased appeared to struggle less and his face was becoming quite red.

Dr Lai Heng Foong, the lead registrar in charge of the emergency ward:

“…heard screaming from the flight deck and came running to the ambulance bay. Dr Foong shouted at the police in a very loud voice to back off a bit and “ease off the pressure”, “let us talk to him”. She remembers very clearly seeing Fox place what appeared to be his whole weight on the Deceased’s head so his face was completely crushed into the floor. Dr Foong saw the Deceased trying to move his body and lift his head, she believed, in order to breathe and talk. She observed that Fox’s knee was on top of his head whilst the Deceased was turning red and later blue.”

“And do you remember now seeing blood come from the Deceased’s nose while he was on the ground?—I’ll never forget it, yes, I do. And why will you never forget it?—Because this is a patient that was scheduled and supposed to be protected by the hospital and he was being restrained with excessive force, compromising his ability to breathe and, despite my pleas, there was no easing of the pressure put on his face.”

Dr Clarissa Oh said that she saw Fox apply a knee to the Deceased’s head when it was about 15 cm above the ground. Dr Oh saw that when Fox put his knee on the Deceased’s head, it hit the ground, and she heard a significant thud.

…

“Dr Cromarty, Dr Foong and Dr Oh all saw the Deceased begin to turn blue, and that shortly after that he stopped struggling. Dr Cromarty and Dr Foong shouted at the police that he was turning blue and that they had to get off him. Dr Foong said nothing happened and she again had to say: “Guys let go of him. He’s getting blue”.

Therese De Groot said she saw a police officer (Fox) with his knee on the Deceased’s head and heard a thump at least once. Nurse Natasha Roberts heard the Deceased say quite loudly words to the effect of: “Can I get up? Sorry, let me get up”.

Plasto was transferred into the Intensive Care Unit but never recovered consciousness and died 6 days later.

NT Coroner Greg Cavanagh was scathing of the conduct of the NT Police officers:

“In my view the conduct of the police in this matter involved a litany of serious errors and misjudgements that led to the tragic and unnecessary death of the Deceased.

The Police Custody Manual and the Police General Order relating to Transport of Persons in Custody require a police officer apprehending a person apparently suffering from a mental illness to notify a hospital Emergency Department that they are attending with the person. This was not done.

More seriously, the Deceased was not taken directly to Royal Darwin hospital. Instead, he was taken to the police station where he was kept in the back of a caged vehicle for 16 minutes. That conduct is unacceptable. The Deceased was not a prisoner. He was not a suspect. He was not, as Fox described the Deceased during his interviews to investigating police a “person of interest”. He was a person who was a potential patient. The only power the police had under section 163 was to apprehend him and take him to a medical practitioner or an authorised psychiatrist for the purposes of an assessment under s 33.

…

In my view the decision to use force against the Deceased was not necessary and the police did not apply the minimum use of force.

I accept that the Deceased said on more than one occasion in a loud voice that he wanted to go outside to get some fresh air or he wanted to have a smoke…All four police officers were in close proximity to the Deceased at that time he said those words. I do not accept that not a single police officer heard the Deceased say those words or words to that effect. It is telling that none of the police asked the Deceased why he wanted to go outside. That is either because the Deceased had told them why he wanted to go outside or it did not occur to the police to engage in any dialogue with him.

There is no cogent evidence that the Deceased was intending to flee or escape or attempt to hurt himself.

…

I also find that if force was required to be used against the Deceased, the force actually used on the Deceased was unnecessary and excessive…I accept the evidence of the civilian witnesses that Fox applied his knee to the Deceased’s head when it was lifted about 15 cm above the ground causing the Deceased’s head to hit the floor. Fox’s conduct was not in accordance with the training provided by the NT police.

…

In making the decision to use force, the police members failed to take into account that the Deceased was mentally ill, that he was in a distressed condition and was in an agitated and anxious state after an unnecessarily prolonged wait at the hospital.”

Coroner Cavanagh also blasted the training provided to NT Police in dealing with the mentally ill:

“The training received by operational police about dealing with the mentally ill was clearly inadequate. Sergeant Hansen…acknowledged that the NT police were not given any specific training on negotiation or ‘tactical disengagement’ or communications with mentally ill people.

Bronwyn Hendry, the Director of Mental Health in the NT, gave evidence of the training received by NT police and security guards in relation to mentally ill people. She regarded that training as inadequate.”

Acting Sergeant Brad Fox remains on duty.

He has been summonsed to appear in the Darwin Magistrates Court on 9 November.

Coroner Cavanagh made the following recommendations:

1 – The NT Police Custody Manual be amended to provide that members must take any apparently mentally ill or disturbed person apprehended under s 163 of the Mental Health and Related Services Act by the most direct practical route and as quickly as possible for the an assessment.

2 – The NT Police Custody Manual, the Police General Orders and the Memorandum of Understanding dated June 2002 offer no clear guidance to operational police in relation to the handover of patients by police to hospital and should be revised.

3 – That Northern Territory Police ensure operational police are trained and retrained using reality based training techniques in relation to: “to the use of the prone restraint; risk factors; warning signs of a rapid onset of serious injury or death which can potentially occur in connection with certain restraint positions when subjects are in the prone position; prevention strategies; the monitoring of a subject person’s health if practical during and certainly immediately after the subjects are in the restraint positions.

4 – The Northern Territory Police should ensure that all members are trained and re-trained in strategies to deal with mentally ill persons.

5 – The Northern Territory Police should amend the General Order on Transport of Persons in Custody, and Part 6 of the Custody Manual – Mentally Ill Persons to include step-by-step instructions for police members on exercising the power of immediate apprehension for the purposes of a mental health assessment.

6 – The Northern Territory Police should amend clause 6.1.2 of the Police Custody Manual…so that Clause reflect that where legal advice is sought by a member and it is not possible to obtain that advice before the end of the member’s shift, the member should be interviewed as soon as reasonably practicable thereafter.

7 – That the legislature consider amending section 34 of the Mental Health and Related Services Act to clarify police powers and responsibilities after a section 34 recommendation has been made.

I’ve written about the NT Ombudsman’s annual reports and the small glimpses that they provide into the various instances of misconduct by the NT Police before here – noting that her annual reports to the NT Parliament only document those matters that come to her by way of formal complaint.

The point that I made then – that Carolyn Richards’ reports into NT Police misconduct present convincing support for the need for an independent authority to investigate allegations of misconduct by NT Police and public officials – are only bolstered by the instances of appalling conduct of NT Police revealed in her latest report.

You can see all of the NT Ombudsman’s annual reports here.

The chapters on NT Police misconduct make for fascinating reading, and there is little to suggest that NT Police conduct, and the quality, supervision and investigation of that conduct, has improved over time.

As Carolyn Richards told the local ABC in Darwin, past NT Police recruiting and training policies may be making no small contribution to these issues:

“…a lack of senior officers in the police force could be a reason why there have been some serious breaches of police duty of care for people in custody. “Because of the influx of new recruitments into the police and because there was a five year delay prior to 2001 where [there] were no police recruitments, we are now in the situation where we’ve got all these young officers out on the beat with six months training.”

The Northern Territory’s Acting Police Commissioner, Bruce Wernham, said: “All new police recruits undergo thorough and intensive training prior to operating under full supervision as probationary constables. “I note the ombudsman’s comments with regards to increased recruiting causing more complaints against less experienced police. “However, I am not aware of any evidence to specifically support this.”

The material in this post comes from just one of the case notes of complaints against NT police documented in the 2008-2009 annual report to the local Parliament of the NT Ombudsman, Carolyn Richards.

Some of the comments made by the unnamed Police Officer in the unidentified NT watchhouse to a prisoner being processed included:

“shut your face.”

“dumb f**k”,

“f**king loser”

“d**khead over there”

“… no brain”

“f**king retard.”

The case note, headed “No brains” detailed the treatment meted out by NT Police to a complainant who was arrested:

“…for breaking and entering. This person had fallen asleep outside the premises, due to being highly intoxicated, and was arrested at the scene. A complaint was subsequently lodged relating to his treatment whilst at the watch-house.”

Even before he made it to the cells he was getting the full benefit of the cop’s limited vocabulary:

“The complainant could be heard mumbling something whilst he was seated on the bench, although it was not discernable as to what was said. One of the attending officers responded with “shut your face.” Further comments made to or about the complainant within the next 30 minutes included, “dumb f**k”, “f**king loser”, “d**khead over there”, “… no brain”, “he’s from CSI, one of our smart criminals who breaks and enters and then collapses outside the scene” and “f**king retard.” There were several officers present during the comments, not one of them suggesting they were wrong or inappropriate.”

And it just doesn’t get any better – for the poor guy in the cell or the cop with the potty mouth.

Further examination of the audio and footage from the watchhouse cameras revealed this tasty little incident:

“…the duty officer was eating a piece of toast. He was pointing to the toast and then himself and later pointed to another breakfast behind the counter. In the officer’s statement he claimed he was indicating to the complainant that his breakfast was behind the counter. However on viewing the video it appeared the duty officer ate the complainant’s toast that was sitting with the complainant’s weetbix. He then went to a box sitting on the bin containing breakfast rubbish and took out a white bag with toast and a carton of milk. The duty officer then poured the milk on the weetbix and brought this, along with the toast in the white bag, to the complainant. It was concerning that the duty officer provided the complainant with toast and milk which appeared to have been taken from rubbish sitting on the bin.”

And thanks to the watchhouse cameras we now know that:

In addition to the inappropriate comments identified above the duty officer was heard and observed making the following statements to or about the complainant:

• “stupid f**king idiot”

• “make things quite clear, …, if you wanna f**kin’ play up I’ll make things hard for you”

• “god, he f**king stinks”

• “didn’t bang head for too long coz it hurt” one officer apparently mocking the complainant to another officer

• Two officers were joking about the complainant hitting his head against the cell door because he

wasn’t given a blanket. One officer stating that the complainant had said he would jump in the air

and land on his head killing himself. The officer then stating “go ahead, do it.” The other officer

stating “make sure you do it in front of the cameras”

• “piece of s**t that he is”

• After the officer established that the complainant was dialling his wife whom he had a domestic

violence order against, the officer said “get back in your f**king cell you spastic”; “you’ve got a

domestic violence order that says you are not allowed to contact her, you f**king wanker. You’re

not allowed to approach her, you’re not allowed to contact her directly or indirectly you f**king

wanker”

• “how about you shut the f**k up”

• “spastic c**t” whispered by officer

And what was the sanction meted out to the officer?

Here again from the NT Ombudsman’s annual report:

It was determined that some of the conduct was highly inappropriate for police officers and in breach of the NT Police Code of Conduct and Ethics and General Orders. The JRC recommended that the officers receive managerial guidance in relation to appropriate conduct when dealing with detainees. The JRC noted that it had already been recommended that the officers receive formal counselling.

The investigation also revealed that appropriate entries were not made into the watch-house log or offender journal.

Great – “counselling” and “managerial guidance” – no mention of the slap on the wrist, an apology to the complainant or any action against those other officers who, by their silent acquiescence, condoned their brother officer’s conduct.

As Glen Dooley of the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA) , which provides legal services and representation across the Top End of the NT, told the local ABC:

“…there should be tougher sanctions and more transparency.

“If we had a field officer and that field officer started calling that client a dumb whatever, a whatever loser and a whatever retard and then served them some food out of one of our garbage bins, that person would be sacked on the spot,” he said.

“The report here recommends the officers receive managerial guidance in relation to food hygiene and appropriate conduct when dealing with detainees. That’s limp to me.”

For the benefit of those members of the NT Police reading this who may have forgotten what it says – and for the rest of us who have most likely never seen it before – here is the NT Police Statement of Ethics:

STATEMENT OF ETHICS

Each member of the Police Force is to act in a manner which:

- upholds the rule of law;

- preserves the individual’s rights and freedoms;

- places integrity above all;

- seeks to improve quality of life throughout the community through involvement with the community;

- strives to attain maximum citizen confidence and satisfaction;

- strives at all times for professional excellence;

- strives to maximise the effectiveness of available human and other resources; and

- tempers authority with common sense, discretion and sensitivity

Any bids on how many of those points have been contravened here – all of them? – or none?

Have any thoughts about the effectiveness of the current investigative process for complaints against NT Police?

Your thoughts please!

Predictably the Bolter has picked this up and Australia’s blog with the most hits, and perhaps the least sense, has attracted the usual raft of ill-informed comments.

The Northern Myth isn’t familiar with the work of Mark Hughes, but Helen Hughes is a familiar conservative commentator with an interesting twist on matters indigenous and who has recently turned her attention to remote Aboriginal education in the NT.

And not without some controversy.

As reported by the National Indigenous Times in April 2008, Hughes wrote an opinion piece, published in The Australian, that drew on examples from one small north-east Arnhem Land homeland, drawing the following very general analysis from that meagre dataset:

“There are about 10,000 of these illiterate non-numerate teenagers who have been going to school … What is the government of the NT going to do about these 10,000 children?”

But [then] NT Deputy Chief Minister Marion Scrymgour has dismissed her findings and says the claims are “absolutely insulting and offensive”.

“I just find it astounding that she bases a report and a generalisation across the Northern Territory Aboriginal communities based on one small homeland centre that she has visited,” she said. Ms Scrymgour said Prof Hughes had left out “some fundamental pieces of information” and denied the government was providing misleading figures on education standards in the bush.

Nadine Williams, NT president of the Australian Education Union, said Prof Hughes needed to “stop generalising”.

“It would be helpful if Helen Hughes had ever been to some of the places she’s talking about,” she said.

Anyway, now it seems that Hughes and her research assistants are at it again.

In their opinion piece of last Friday, the Hughes’ say that, due to the NT Education Department’s training requirements for remote-based teachers:

Homeland Learning Centres lose eight weeks – almost 25 per cent of the school year – while their staff attend courses for the first and last weeks of each term.

Taking that statement on face value you would think that in each of the hundreds of small homeland schools across the NT students spend two months of each school year sitting in classrooms without teachers.

Fortunately for the students the Hughes’s version of events is at some considerable distance from reality.

It is true that at the top and tail of each term that a bunch of teachers from all over the NT – from homeland and “mainstream” schools – go off for professional development training.

But not all teachers go for that training at the same time. Depending on demand, individual needs or other factors some go several times a year, some perhaps once or twice.

And relief teachers and local Aboriginal team teachers are rostered on to fill the gaps.

How do I know this?

I asked a couple of the teachers here at Yirrkala where I’m staying with family while working on my Aboriginal bird knowledge book project.

The second line of attack that the Hughes’ make – on remote community festivals – suffers the same problem – a few facts and a dose of reality mug their story of apparent bureaucratic indulgence and neglect of the best interests of remote students.

The Hughes’s say that:

The limited school year is further eroded by cultural festivals and sports events regularly scheduled during school hours.

The commonwealth government is a serious offender with its Community Festivals for Education Engagement program. Under this program, 13 indigenous festivals are being held this year…all are held during term time rather than during school holidays.
…
As in previous years, the successful Garma Festival ran this year during the school term in August. Many children lost up to two weeks’ schooling. It would take little effort to reschedule next year’s Garma dates to the July school holidays. Financial sponsors of the festival, including the commonwealth and Northern Territory governments and high-profile private companies, should ensure this change is made.

Being in Yirrkala, just down the road from the Garma festival site at Gulkula, I was curious about the reference to the “many children” that apparently lost up to a fortnight of valuable schooling because of their attendance at Garma.

As the very informative Garma Festival website notes, the festival ran from 7 to 11 August this year – that is Friday through Tuesday.

I asked the organisers of the Garma Festival, the Yothu Yindi Foundation, about the Hughes’ claims.

The CEO of the Yothu Yindi Foundation, Alan James, told me that:

Garma formally starts at 4pm on Friday afternoon. The forums all finish by 4pm Monday afternoon – resulting in one school day “lost”.

Garma is not part of the Federal Government’s “Community Festivals for Education Engagement” program.

The music and multimedia training programs are integral parts of Garma and these operate in consultation and engagement with schools and other educational institutions and provides credits towards VET accreditation, so it is very much a part of formal schooling.

And in relation to the Hughes’ demand that Garma be moved to the June school holidays, Alan James said that:

Garma is strategically linked to a number of other events that are held in the Top End of the NT in and around August. Cooperation between Garma and the organisers of other large events is essential to ensure that logistical bottlenecks – on a national and local scale – are avoided where possible.

August kicks off with the week-long Darwin Cup Festival, then the three core days of Garma (with an extra couple of days for the tourists) the next weekend, followed by the Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Awards in Darwin the following week. The fortnight of the Darwin Festival follows.

The other important consideration – bearing in mind that the more than 2,500 people attending Garma are camping in tents – is that August is the driest time of year – the last thing we want is for Garma to be rained out.

As the Hughes’ should know – but apparently didn’t bother to find out for themselves – one of the most successful events at Garma is the Garma Miwatj Youth Forum, a cooperative venture with Anglicare NT.

As Ann Buxton, Executive Manager for the Youth, Family and Remote area programs at Anglicare NT, told the Senate Select Committee on Regional and Remote Indigenous Communities Inquiry at Hearings in Darwin in May this year:

Over the past four years Anglicare, in conjunction with the Yothu Yindi Foundation, started the Garma Miwatj Youth Forum, which runs parallel to the annual Garma Festival.

We bring together about 250 young people from communities in the regions and it has become a key event.

We promote youth leadership, do a lot of skills development work, and look at issues that young people are experiencing.
Garma has become an important event. It is a little event compared with the overall festival but it helps to give young people in that region a role.

For some time many elders have been interested in supporting young people, getting them engaged in processes, and putting some positive energy into some of the issues that they are dealing with. This forum, which has become important, also brings together about 40 organisations from around that region to help get it off the ground.

It is a great event.

A great event indeed – a bit of training, mentoring, skills development, community support and engagement and lots of positive energy and maybe a fair bit of fun.

Perhaps that is what so bothers the Hughes’ – the idea that a few kids might “lose” a day of school while they do the hard yards at Garma and have some fun while they are at it.

But in the apparently joyless world of the Hughes’ vision of remote education that would represent an abject failure by governments of their core responsibilities to school-children.

There is more – much more – that I could say about the Hughes’ opinion piece – including that their comments about the Central Desert Shire’s policy of only supporting cultural and sporting events held during school holidays was old news and the quotes attributed to the Shire CEO, Rowan Foley and the Shire President, Norbert Patrick, are cast in the present tense.

If the Hughes’ had done some basic research- like having a look at the Council Minutes for the Meeting of 30 September or reading this ABC News report – they would have found out that Foley was stood down as CEO at that meeting.

“Motion 3 was amended to the following: “Whereas the Central Desert Shire has recently suffered the resignation and loss of key personnel attributable to the management style of the CEO, and there have been various complaints lodged relating to the conduct of the CEO and Council management, the Council resolves to direct that the CEO step down on pay for the time being and that LGANT be approached for assistance in resolving the crisis that has developed”. Moved: Councillor Bruce Finter. Seconded: Councillor Ned Hargreaves.”

Sounds to me very much like a Council in crisis management mode.

Makes the Hughes’ call of “Three cheers for the Central Desert Shire!” sound just a bit hollow – particularly when you consider that one of the two organisations to be funded by the Commonwealth’s Community Festivals for Education Engagement 2009 – the Ti-Tree school, according to the information on the Commonwealth website, held it’s festival from Tuesday October 13 to Thursday October 15.

In term time.

And the local governing authority with responsibility for municipal services at Ti-Tree is…you guessed it, the Central Desert Shire.

Wadeye township

I’ve written here recently about the fantastic (in the original sense of that word) approach that The Australian and its dwindling number of northern correspondents take to just about anything to do with Aboriginal affairs here in the NT.

This past weekend The Weekend Australian continued this dubious tradition when it ran this piece from its northern correspondent, Nicolas Rothwell.

Rothwell examines apparently new economic and governance developments at the troubled remote township of Wadeye, in the west of the NT’s Top End.

And Rothwell, after many years in the NT, has apparently finally realised what anyone with any experience in remote Australia would have found out a long time ago – that Wadeye, like most small townships in the NT, and elsewhere – is a town that is “mostly ordered and peaceful”.

If you take the assertions in Rothwells piece at face value you would think that the good citizens of Wadeye had turned their backs on all forms of Australian mainstream governance and were boldly charting a course of their own, free from the controls imposed by Australian governments at all levels.

As Rothwell says:

“…what bureaucracy gives, it can also take away. Not only did the federal intervention of mid-2007 sweep through Wadeye; the Thamarrurr local council was wound up as the Northern Territory unveiled its new regional shires. The council, though, gave birth to a new Thamarrurr Development Corporation, which was bolstered by strong support from the Rudd government. The upshot of this administrative upheaval was a deepened desire among the Wadeye leadership group to pursue their own path.
…
“The idea aims to assert control over their own region and in time to supplant the long-established Northern Land Council, which is widely seen as a moribund arm of the Territory Labor Party. “We will set up our own council,” Nganbe says bluntly. TDC’s Berto says: “There’s a lot of people here not happy with the NLC and its complete lack of service, and its standing in the way of progress. We want to set the political agenda from the ground.”

And notwithstanding the brief reference to “strong support” from the Rudd government, Rothwell reckons that the people of Wadeye:

“…don’t like the deal on offer from mainstream Australia’s authorities. They want to keep their own culture, they want economic development and they want it on their own terms, under their control.”

What Rothwell is of course talking about here is localised Aboriginal self-determination, an aspiration that he has frequently, and as recently as six weeks ago, condemned to the dustbin of Australian political history:

“For some time it has been clear Aboriginal self-determination has had its day.”

Due credit should be given to the good citizens of Wadeye for getting their act together in what are incredibly difficult circumstances. By all accounts they have established a range of business enterprises that will provide real jobs and offer economic opportunities to locals.

Rothwell implies that the people of Wadeye have achieved these successes in spite of the bureaucratic and administrative barriers set up by governments at every turn. But it may be that a few inconvenient facts – for Rothwell’s thesis at least – might explain a somewhat different basis for some of Wadeye’s recent successes.

The bureaucracies that Rothwell says have taken so much from the people of Wadeye with one hand have been very busy giving bucketloads of money to the recently-established Thamarrurr Development Corporation Ltd (the TDC) with the other.

The TDC is a non-profit commercial operation limited by guarantee with no shareholders – just members that represent the 20 clan groups of the Wadeye region.

In the 2008/2009 round of funding for the Indigenous Heritage Program announced on 7 July 2008, the TDC was given two grants to a total of $62,704 for “the investigation and management of cultural heritage” of the Thamarrurr region.

On 8 October 2008 Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin announced that TDC would receive $500,000 as “an establishment grant to deliver a range of business services” to the Wadeye region.

At it’s meeting of 10 February 2009, the Victoria Daly Shire Council (the Council), the local government body that replaced Thamarrurr’s predessor, the Thamarrurr Regional Council, passed the following Motion:

“That Council agrees to lease for one dollar ($1.00) to Thamarrurr Development Corporation for the period from the 10th of February 2009 to the 7th of December 2009 all non – fixed assets.”

At the following meeting on 7 April 2009, the Council, in the course of the Confirmation of the Minutes of the previous meeting, amended that Motion:

“The minutes of the ordinary meeting, item (8) TDC were amended with a further dot point
added, saying that if all the above conditions were met the vehicles would then be sold to the TDC for the sum of $1.00. The minutes were  then taken as read and accepted as a true record of the Meeting.”

The value of the assets leased to the TDC for $1, according to the Report provided to Council, was $760,073.

According to the same report, the insured value of the vehicles to be sold to Tharmarrurr upon it meeting Council’s conditions was $482,273.

You can read the Minutes of Council meetings and the Report from Council staff for yourself here.

On 4 March 2009, by joint press release Minister Macklin and Member for Lingiari, Warren Snowdon announced that TDC would receive a total of $650,000 to provide painting services and the purchase of civil construction machinery.

On 11 June 2009, in another joint press release, Snowdon and Macklin announced that TDC would receive a total of $1.422 million to purchase a mobile concrete batching plant and to provide accommodation for “key staff” at Wadeye.

As the ABC reported last month, the Thamarrurr Association, (also based at Wadeye but a separate entity to the TDC) following representations from then NT Indigenous Policy Minister Alison Anderson, received a $250,000 grant from the NT government in circumstances yet to be fully explained:

“Ms Anderson secured $250,000 of taxpayer funds for a corporation run by the powerful Yunupingu family in Arnhem Land, including Galarrwuy Yunupingu. The only other organisation to get $250,000 for community consultation is the Thamarrur Association at Wadeye, which has never declared an income before. The Government has not announced the payments and is yet to explain how the companies were selected. It says the money will pay for consultation on the Working Futures policy to help the Government get its service delivery right.”

I’ve not yet been able establish any direct connection between the TDC and the Thamarrurr Association – other than that they both do the same kind of business in the same small town.

On my back-of the-envelope reckoning the TDC has received control over $760,000 worth of assets for the bargain basement price of a single dollar from their local Council and, including the grant to the Thamarrurr Association, close enough to $3.5 million from the NT and Federal governments.

Not bad for a group that Rothwell says, “…don’t like the deal on offer from mainstream Australia.”

And what of the assertions in Rothwell’s article by TDC’s John Berto of the Northern Land Council’s “…complete lack of service, and its standing in the way of progress” at Wadeye?

John Berto should know all about the NLC and service delivery at Wadeye. After all, he had been a long-term employee of the NLC and for a period up to late 2006 he was the NLC’s Deputy CEO.

But Rothwell and Berto would also be aware of the benefits to the Traditional Owners of the Wadeye region (and beyond) resulting from the NLC’s negotiations on their behalf over the Blacktip gas plant and pipeline.

The deal negotiated by the NLC has given, and will provide into the future, significant economic and social benefits to the traditional owners and residents of the Wadeye region.

Indeed, there is every appearance that Rothwell consciously excluded these well-known and readily available facts from his piece because they did not support his oft-repeated spurious claims about the NLC. I found all of the material noted above after about ten minutes of searching on the web and a bit of scurrying about in the backblocks of various websites.

Rothwell ends his piece with a dubious comparison between Longreach in far-western Queensland and Wadeye, implying that Wadeye should be accorded the same services, government support and facilities as Longreach.

Longreach is a service centre in a region with a long history of extensive & highly productive mining, pastoral and agricultural activity. It is also has roads that lead from somewhere to somewhere else.

Wadeye services only itself and a few small homelands. It is at the wrong end of a long and rough road in a region with no history of pastoral, agricultural or any other significant development – apart from the above-mentioned Blacktip gas project.

Pity about those annoying facts getting in the way of a fantastic story.

Declaration: Bob Gosford has worked for the Northern Land Council as a legal advisor, most recently in 2008. He had no involvement in matters at Wadeye apart from a single meeting with an early version of the Thamarrurr council in about 2000.

Image from Getup

This a guest post from John Greatorex who worked as a teacher at Galiwin’ku on Elcho island off the coast of Arnhem Land for 27 years. He now is a part-time teacher of the Yolngu studies at a Darwin University.

He has now resigned from teaching to work with his Yolngu families on projects of importance to them – including the wonderful Arnhem Weavers group – you can find out more about the Arnhem Weavers and the food co-operative project they have recently started at their website.

Recently I was profoundly moved when I heard Richard Downs, an Alwayarra elder, seek refugee status for his people whose homelands are in the central east of the Northern Territory, Australia.

The Alyawarra were refusing to accept the impositions of the Federal Government through the Northern Territory Emergency Response (NTER), and as part of their action they have requested the United Nations (UN) register their people under the international refugee convention as internally displaced persons.

The ABC reported (26 August 2009):

“Mr Downs says people of the Alyawarra Nation have been left with no choice because the federal intervention in the Northern Territory has taken away their rights.” “We’ve got no say at all,” he said. “We feel like an outcast in our community, refugees in our own country.”

This was followed the next by another report on the ABC where Richard Downs said:

“We no longer have any rights to exist as humans in our own country and are outcasts in our own community”

On the 3rd September Richard Downs wrote:

“Your government’s so-called measures under the intervention go far beyond this [protecting women] to take away our dignity, our self esteem, and land control, disempowerment, human and indigenous rights.“… Your system is about creating divisions, hate and racism and control over people who are already struggling under oppression.”

When I read these statements I thought: “These people are making a stand in a climate of constant and negative stereotyping by governments and media; a difficult step for anyone.”

The Alyawarra, by refusing to be redefined, are taking active steps to take control of their lives.

Don’t we all want to be in control of our lives?

I would like to tell two stories which I hope will provide insight into why homelands are of crucial and critical importance to their traditional custodians.

The following stories attempt to represent what I have heard and learnt from Aboriginal mentors in east Arnhemland over several decades.

Not only does it make common sense, but it has been clearly demonstrated that the happiest and healthiest people in any society are those who are able to control the most important aspects of their lives.

Control over our lives is proportional to how we feel about ourselves, how society sees us, and our status within society.

In the Northern Territory the people with the least control over their lives are the First Nations peoples.

Disturbingly, recent Australian and NT Government policies, including the NTER, have further stripped away at Aboriginal people’s rights to control their lives in the Northern Territory. Traditional (nation) estates on which ‘prescribed’ communities are located have been compulsorily acquired by governments without negotiation.

Every Black Territorian living on ‘Aboriginal’ land receiving Centrelink or other welfare payments is compulsorily ‘Income-Managed’ (including old-age pensioners).

Black Territorians are negatively stereotyped as child abusers and alcoholics, poor school attendees and perpetrators of domestic violence.

Recently-announced policies now envisage forcing families off their custodial estates (away from their homes) into ‘growth towns’ for the convenience of government bureaucracies.

Public statements that redefine all Black Territorians in a negative way can only have a negative and debilitating impact. While governments, supported by the media, continue to negatively stereotype all Black Territorians, the health and well-being of these peoples will continue to decline.

In east Arnhemland where the Yolngu peoples live, and where I have spent much of the past 30 years, I can say for a fact:

“…there are homelands where school attendance is higher than anywhere else in Australia; where children are safer than in white towns and centres and where substance abuse and youth suicide are non-existent.”

So what is it that is so important and special about homelands for their traditional custodians and that underpins such successful outcomes?

The following two stories may provide some insight into these questions.

Story One.

Recently the Yolngu Studies lecturer, Yingiya Guyula, delivered the last class for the semester. He spoke about the first contact between his families and White settlers.

He told how fear of Whiteman first entered the lives of his families after his grandfather was shot by cattlemen. Before this incident his families had heard reports from further south that White men were scalping Black men; just like his families were skinning crocodiles.

Now they had to be ever vigilant and wary. They could no longer live peacefully, safely travel and hunt on their custodial estates; lands they had inhabited since the beginning of time.

Towards the end of the class a student added to Yingiya’s story.

She explained that when the Elcho Island missionaries called the twenty or so Yolngu nations to ‘the Light’, they didn’t understand. These missionaries failed to recognise the existence of strong and complex governance structures, where nation boundaries, established alliances and political structures were understood and respected.

By calling these diverse peoples into the Elcho Island mission, and onto the land of one nation, the missionaries were disempowering all the non-landowners.

She explained it like this.

“We Yolngu people are connected to our ancestral estates like a tree is rooted deeply into the soil. When the roots of a tree and the soil recognise each other, the roots will grow ever deeper and stronger, and the tree grows strong and bears good fruit.”

“The missionaries pulled us up by the roots and placed us in the mission and onto soil that was foreign. Our roots could not grow into the mission soil, that soil does not recognise us, and our roots do not recognise that soil. Our roots would only stay in the surface soil. A tree may stay alive on unfamiliar and alien soil, but it will not find nourishment, it will be stunted and will not bear good fruit. We can be only strong and independent on our homelands; not in the mission; not in the “town”.

Story Two.

In 1984, with the best of intentions, the Northern Territory Government developed a constitution for the community council on Elcho Island. The new constitution made provision for members to represent the 20 or so nations who lived on the mission (in 2009 residents still use the term mission).

An old man and I were talking one day. He had been elected chairman of the council. He described how he felt in conflict, he did not feel comfortable talking about the land where the mission stood, it wasn’t his land. He understood why some council members didn’t attend council meetings. He explained that it was disrespectful for non-landowners to discuss the mission land. So how could the council work?

I could see what he was saying. I grew up on a family owned farm. We would have been very upset if the government had decided that our neighbours had the right to make decisions about our farm.

I noticed that although he attended council meetings, he didn’t make public council announcements, he always deferred to the land owners for such matters.

When a Yolngu man or woman speaks of the critical importance of land, I now know they are not talking about land in general. They are referring to their very own homeland.

If you are motivated to do so, please have a look at the online homelands petition, and consider supporting this cause.

http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/Homelands

John Greatorex

7th September 2009

Note: The quotes in these stories are used with permission.

Mundine didn’t hold back and his voice was but one of a chorus – from both sides of politics – of those that shouted down the good Professor and his findings.

Maybe for the good Professor it is a case of when everyone disagrees with you then you must be getting it right!

Here is what Warren Mundine told the ABC’s Samantha Hawley:

Aboriginal leader and former ALP president, Warren Mundine says that’s the right action to take. But he’s outraged by Professor Anaya’s findings and says his views should be completely ignored.

WARREN MUNDINE: I think this Rapporteur’s report should be dealt with the same as every other Rapporteur’s report; just drop it in the bin and actually get on with the job. What is detrimental about the protecting of children, the protecting of women against sexual assault, physical assault?

SAMANTHA HAWLEY: He has found that elements of the intervention are racially discriminatory; but are you saying that that’s okay given the problems that were in those communities?

WARREN MUNDINE: When Aboriginal women or Indigenous women I should say, are being raped then we need to have policies in place that deal with the rape of those women.

SAMANTHA HAWLEY: The Rapporteur also said there is entrenched racism in this country; would you agree with that statement?

WARREN MUNDINE: (laughs) Look, I think Australia is a great place. I think Australians are great people and decent people. We are one of the most modern, human rights, civil societies in the world.

SAMANTHA HAWLEY: Okay but, so there’s not an entrenched racism in your view in this nation?

WARREN MUNDINE: There are issues in this nation and there is racism in this nation, anyone would be a fool to say there’s not. But there is racism and there’s problems in all nations. We are actually, in Australia, working towards resolving those issues.

MARK COLVIN: The former ALP president and Aboriginal leader, Warren Mundine ending Samantha Hawley’s report.

Richard Downs will be familiar to readers of these pages from recent posts about the fight that he and the Alyawarra people of Ampilatwatja north-east of Alice Springs from recent posts here and here.

For mine, if you wanted to speak to or hear from a real “Aboriginal leader” and you had a choice between Richard Downs and Warren Mundine then I would take Richard Downs without a blink.

Richard Downs and his people sit out in the dust and heat at their bush camp after walking off from the township of Ampilatwatja in protest at the abject failure of this and previous Federal governments to accord his people their dues as Australian citizens – they want back what the government stole from then when the NT Intervention rolled into town.

They want the government to give them back their equality, their dignity, their freedoms and their right to live their lives as they decide – not as decided by some shiny-bummed bureaucrat in far-away Darwin or Canberra.

And Richard Downs isn’t just a man of action – he is also a man of words – and I for one would give good money to see a stand-up debate between Richard and Warren – I reckon Warren wouldn’t stand a chance.

Maybe that is why Warren and the other so-called Aboriginal leaders don’t dare take a step inside the Territory – if they did they would find themselves outclassed by the many people of Richard Down’s calibre who live their quiet lives in ever increasing desperation – not due to their own failings or the failings of their people – but a desperation caused by the manifest failings of governments that reckon they know how Richard and his people should live their lives and fail even in that task almost absolutely.

Here is what Richard Downs and his people said to Warren Mundine this afternoon:

STATEMENT
PRESS RELEASE FROM RICHARD DOWNS
WARREN MUNDINE

On behalf of my people I am calling on you to heed the advice of the UN special rapporteur on Indigenous rights and support your people demanding an end to the NT Intervention.

In your statement against the rapporteur you say the Intervention is protecting of women against sexual assault, physical assault. But this is not true – you need to focus on the big picture of what is happening to us. Your governments so called measures under the intervention go far beyond this to take away our dignity, our self esteem, and land control, disempowerment, human and indigenous rights.

More oppression, more young people in goals, we have no say in the justice system, which is failing. Your system is about creating divisions, hate and racism and control over people who are already struggling under oppression.

Get out of your air-conditioned office. You need to visit the people on ground, see and listen to them or are you afraid to find and learn the truth. You are an outsider, an outcast, a nobody just like us. The governments have taken away all our indigenous and human rights in this country. We are now are separate from rest of Australian people. Otherwise I urge you to show aboriginal people evidence and proof that we are all equal.

Show me where you and your government have had consultation, meetings with my people. Show us where this great law is protecting women and children, give us the evidence on how many convictions there has been with sexual child abuse, rape, murders, where is this indigenous pedophile ring your governments statements stated at the beginning. We don’t need any controls and measures and taking away of our land to negotiate to come to an agreed partnership arrangements with governments and others.

Make your stand Warren, Human Rights for all people of different cultures. Support your peoples United Nations DECLARATION on the Rights of INDIGENOUS PEOPLES.

Start your journey on discovery of yourself, your people, humanity our brother, open you mind and let your spirits guide you. Focus on the whole issue not on particular points to pull the wool over our general public friends.

Tell the general public the truth don’t hide the rest.

A man who takes away another man’s freedom is a prisoner of hatred; he is locked behind the bars of prejudice and narrow-mindedness. I am not truly free if I am taking away someone else’s freedom, just as surely as I am not free when my freedom is taken from me. The oppressed and the oppressor alike are robbed of their humanity. Nelson Mandela – Freedom – Compassion

Richard Downs
Ampilatwatja Community walk off spokesperson
Contact: 0428611169
www.interventionwalkoff.wordpress.com

Richard has been a vocal spokesman for the Alyawarra people living at the township of Ampilatwatcha, 350km north-east of Alice Springs.

As the Green Left Weekly reported a few weeks ago:

But on July 15, with 25-year-old pipes broken and sewage running through the streets, residents left the township and set up a camp outside of the boundary of Ampilatwatja. They said the NT intervention had done nothing to solve their problems and had actually made things much worse.

Richard Downs, spokesperson for the camp, told Green Left Weekly: “Nothing has happened in the community in the last three or four years. There’s no consultation. People are pushed to one side and not involved in any of the discussions. We realised that the government is just ignoring people and we realised that this was just a waste of time.

“We’ve got no response from [Aboriginal affairs minister Jenny] Macklin, she hasn’t shown any interest or shown any courtesy or respect towards us. Discussions with her have become a waste of time so we said ‘bugger it’ and set up a permanent camp out there.”

Richard and his people have been at that camp ever since.

I asked him if he had heard back from Jenny Macklin:

Richard North: (laughs) No, nothing – I mean we got a letter about 5 or 6 weeks after we wrote to her but the letter clearly had nothing in it. And we had a consultation meeting with FaHCSIA staff but we virtually said “No, you people are not listening to us – so we are going to keep going with our walkout”. That was it.

And when they came to talk to us about that lease – the Commonwealth has that compulsory five-year lease that they didn’t even ask us about – but now they want to make a forty year lease. The lease they showed us was not a good deal at all – it was like a blackmail. Just a total blackmail. We just told them that we would not be renewing that lease.

We reckon that she should resign as Minister – she is just not suited to the Aboriginal Affairs portfolio – she has no results, she doesn’t – or doesn’t know how to – listen. I mean, she ignored the Review of the Intervention that Peter Yu did and we don’t think she will restore the Racial Discrimination Act. She should go, and the sooner the better.

And, as I’ve noted previously, Richard and his people weren’t very impressed with the no-show of his local member, Alison Anderson, up until recently a Minister in the NT Government and now an independent MLA.

But that has all changed since Anderson visited late last week:

Yes, we wanted to talk to her and to give her a wake-up call. Alison needed to listen to the people out here and we thought that she was on the wrong pathway. Alison needed to be bought back in and embrace us. The fight we are putting up here is the Aboriginal way, the traditional way, through the country, the dreaming and through the ground and so on and Alison needs, as a traditional woman, to come back on that line.

Alison has made a total 100% commitment to the traditional Aboriginal way. And we told her that if she goes off that line – that would be a big embarrassment that she’s gonna have to live with for the rest of her life.

It is our history you know, and she is seeing what is happening. We just aren’t seeing the results on the ground and its all controlled by the Federal government under the Northern Territory Emergency Response legislation. That’s what Alison was saying to us – “I watched it, and I seen what’s happening and and now I’m ready to go back to my people“.

I asked Richard about what he thought might have led people like Alison Anderson, and many other people who previously supported the NT Intervention, to change their minds:

Many Aboriginal people, even people like Galarrwuy Yunupingu, Alison Anderson and myself, we said “OK – this [the Intervention] could be good for our people“. So we said “Well, maybe we’ll see how it develops in the first eighteen months or two years“.

But what we are saying now is “We’ve given it a go – we’ve given the government’s a chance under the NTER measures to solve a lot of the housing and health issues and two years down the track now we’ve seen that there is nothing. It has just gone backwards.” That’s why people like Galarrwuy, Alison Anderson and me have changed our thinking about this Intervention. We’ve changed our minds and said “No, it’s not working so we need to be a lot harder on the governments.“

I’m not surprised that Alison Anderson has changed. It is just that after two years Alison hasn’t achieved any results within the Labor party in the NT. She hasn’t seen any fruitful outcomes from the NTER measures in the two years and now she is seeing that. And that is why she is one hundred per cent behind us. When she was sitting down with us she said “This is the happiest day of my life since 1982“.

I asked Richard about some of the Aboriginal people that are given space and time in the media and are generally accepted as “speaking for Aboriginal people”:

Nobody else speaks for us – we are taking control from the remote areas and our homelands. I started it, then Rosalie Kunoth-Monks came on board and then Alison Anderson came on board. Because all the Aboriginal leaders sound like they have shut up shop. They are hiding in hollow logs and nobody is saying anything anymore, nobody is pushing the issues to bring it to attention. We need to work on a two-way partnership between the Aboriginal people across the Territory and the government.

We don’t want any other Aboriginal leaders like bloody Warren Mundine or so on. This is gonna come from the grass roots here in our own country. And poor Warren, I don’t know what planet he is on! He needs to realise that he is isolated, he is on the Rudd side and Warren, and people like him, are going to be pushed out of there. Rudd and Macklin aren’t going to be supportive of Warren as soon as we start attacking him because he’s on our list.

I know Bess Price. [the Chair of the NT Indigenous Affairs Advisory Council] I haven’t spoken to her but I think she is all for the Intervention. Her and her husband Dave Price. That is fine…But it is a false vision from the Government and others like Bess Price. I don’t know what that NT government Indigenous Advisory Council does or what it stands for but they should come and tell us what they stand for.

I asked Richard what the group of himself, Roslaie Kunoth-Monks and Alison Anderson would be doing.

He explained that:

We are all going to get together in mid-September on our land, on Alyawarra land, and we will have anything from about two to three thousand people coming here from all the language groups.
Alison has been out bush and I’m going to try to contact her today because I’m back in ‘phone range and the same with Rosalie Kunoth-Monks and give them the dates that we’ve agreed on – the dates for the 16th to the 20th of September when we are going to get together and sit down out bush here at Ampilatwatja.

And the main thing is, we don’t want any other Aboriginal leaders speaking up for us on our behalf – if they do then they must go through us. This is from the grass roots.

I’ve spoken to people at Yuendumu over the past few weeks – they have their own problems there with the Intervention and I told them that we need to start getting together.

I explained to Richard that earlier today I’d called Alison Anderson’s office in Alice Springs and had spoken to an electorate officer there. I’d called her office on Friday last week to speak to her about the media release but she wasn’t available to answer my questions then so I called back earlier today but was told she was “out bush for the rest of the week.”

Alison’s electorate officer also told me that Alison:

“…now has concerns about the media release and would make no further comment”.

Her electorate officer also said that he was not sure about which part of the media release Alison had concerns with.

I asked Richard if Alison Anderson had said anything to him about any concerns that she may have with the contents of the media release?

No, no. She shouldn’t be because we, that is Alison, Rosalie and me agreed on doing that media release. Yes, between the three of us. We sat down and agreed, before we put out anything this is what the media release should include. And we ended up doing that one page media release. Alison was there just by herself. She went out there with Rosalie and me and we had a meeting looking at things. We agreed on where Alison stands and where we stand and where we are all going to go in the future.

Earlier in the interview, Richard had told me that:

Alison will be independent now. She realises that she is coming on board, which is really gonna give her that strength from the grass roots. Not only from the Aboriginals – but from the white people. So she is really gonna be a strong player there, more so than that Gerry Wood, that independent that is there now. If she steps out of that, if she goes off that line – she has automatically lost it.

Well, if Alison does that [goes off that line] she won’t get that support from me and my people. And that is why we are 100% behind Alison now with the way she is speaking. And she is going to be consulting with me, and Rosalie pretty well every week.

Definitely [we are confident she will stick by us]. Like I said, this is Aboriginal way we are doing now and she knows all the traditions and the customs and she will follow that line.

I thanked Richard for his time.

He told me that he and his people were trying to raise funds to buy and install a bore at the Alyawarra Intervention Walkoff camp so that they wouldn’t have to cart water from town.

If you want to donate some money to the cause of Richard and his people – or want to find out more about the reasons why Richard and his people have walked away from Ampilatwatja to their remote bush camp then you can read all about it at the group’s website at Interventionwalkoff.

Further to this post and the one following I have highlighted the relevant comments from Alison Anderson that seem at odds with comments made by Richard Downs.

I’ll ask Richard about Alison’s comments a bit later today:

“Death by consultation.” By KIERAN FINNANE.

For the Intervention Rollback Action Group (IRAG), led by Mount Nancy town camp resident Barbara Shaw, it must have seemed like a coup: here supposedly was a joint statement from MLA Alison Anderson, well known supporter of the Intervention, and Richard Downs and Rosalie Kunoth-Monks, well-known opponents. It was calling for Aboriginal nations “to stand up against the absolute racist oppression, forced assimilation and attempts to destroy Aboriginal people being caused by the intervention measures”.

Ms Anderson has rocked a few boats lately – was this another one? She was still on the road back from Ampilatwatja where she had met with Mr Downs and Mrs Kunoth-Monks when she told the Alice News: “Those are Richard’s and Rosie’s words. “I’m not going against the Intervention, but they are because they haven’t seen any good come out of it.”

She says the joint statement was put together by a white woman on the community and she had not checked it before leaving to return to Alice Springs.

“At no stage did I say that I didn’t support the Intervention, but we can’t have a continuous Intervention – we need human and social development.

“At Ampilatwatja they’ve seen nothing come out of the Intervention except for a police presence at Alpara. “They’ve sat there for two years thinking something will happen and nothing has. I’d rather live in the bulldust than in the houses out there.” What about Income Management, one of the strongest initiatives of the Intervention – does that not also apply at Ampilatwatja? Says Ms Anderson: “I still think Income Management is a good thing – when I’m travelling around I can see the faces of the kids shining because they’re getting enough to eat. “But some people at Ampilatwatja don’t like it, they want to be able to manage their own money.” She says the Eastern Plenty has been failed by government policy, including the Working Futures policy which she launched while still Minister for Indigenous Policy with the Territory Government.

Update – Monday 31st August – I have now been able to establish that the media release considered below is in fact genuine.

In a following post I’ll put up an interview that I held with one of the signatories, Richard North, earlier today that sorts out a few of the questions I posed below.

Well, a few of them anyway.

Earlier today I again tried to contact Alison Anderson through her electorate office in Alice Springs. The mobile of one of her electorate officers was switched off but at the office itself I was informed by one of her staff that “Alison Anderson has concerns about the Media Release” but that staffer refused to elaborate on those concerns other than to say that Ms Anderson would make no further comment.

Ms Anderson would be “out bush” for the rest of the week. I pointed out to Ms Anderson’s staffer that she must surely be within mobile range (thanks Telstra) sometime soon and that I would be happy to speak to  her at any time and merely sought some answers to a number of obvious questions that arose from her apparent dramatic change of heart concerning the NT Intervention.

It is also a reasonable expectation that a politician that puts their name and contact details on a media release that reveals a fundamental change of philosophical and political direction would make themselves available to respond to the many questions that arise from those revelations.

But the usual rules of political behaviour don’t necessarily apply in the NT and also, apparently, to the conduct of our newly independent member for Mcdonnell.

That’s all by way of an update here – wander over to the next post for a look at the interview I conducted earlier today with Richard Downs, a co-signatory of the Media Release with Alison Anderson and Rosalie Kunoth Monks.

If there was one issue on which Alison Anderson has maintained a consistent position over the past two years of her turbulent tenure as MLA for the remote NT seat of Macdonnell it was her voluble support for the NT Intervention.

Just a month ago she was quoted in the NT News, praising former federal indigenous affairs minister Mal Brough and criticising her own party’s equivocal support for the Intervention:

“The fact is that Mal Brough had the guts to trigger an intervention. I think the man had guts,” she is quoted as saying. “I think what federal Labor has now done is the opposite.
“It is killing off the intervention without killing off the intervention. “We are killing people by consultation.”

As former chair of the NT Intervention Task Force, Sue Gordon told The Australian three weeks ago, Anderson:

“…is a very passionate lady, and she does put Aboriginal people first,” retired West Australian magistrate Sue Gordon said. “She was the only member of the NT government who stood up and supported the emergency response.”

In the same article the architect of the NT Intervention, Howard’s Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough also supported Anderson’s resolute support for his Intervention:

“Alison Anderson, to her enormous credit, has been consistent on these issues now for a number of years,” he said. “She has stood up to the bullies in the Labor Party and has now finally made the ultimate sacrifice. That is true principle…”

But it seems that consistency those “true principles” have been ditched and Anderson has joined the ranks of the “urbanised saviours” that she has so vehemently criticised in the past who:

“…know nothing about living amongst the poverty and abuse in remote communities have condemned the intervention,” Ms Anderson said. “My people need real protection, not motherhood statements from urbanised saviours. I live my law and culture and I will represent my people regardless of what’s fashionable. My people need the help and want the help from this intervention.”

Yesterday – according to the Media Release attached below – Anderson joined the widely respected and outspoken Chairperson of the Barkly Shire Council, Rosalie Kunoth-Monks (who would be more familiar to many Australians as the female lead in the ’50’s film Jedda) and Richard Downs, a spokesperson for the hundred or so residents of Ampilatwatja that walked off from their township to a remote bush camp a months ago.

As recently as two weeks ago Richard Downs was scathing of Anderson’s performance as the local member representing his community.

As he told the ABC’s Alice Brennan, his community was:

“…disappointed they have not heard from the politician. “Nothing,” Richard Downs said. “It just shows to me what sort of a person she is. “She doesn’t have concerns enough to give us a call and say, ‘Look, I’m going to visit with you, I’m going to listen to you and see what we can do.’ “You know the rules, you should have stayed in there and looked after your constituents – that’s both black and white. “Look, do what you want to do but we certainly ain’t gonna support you no longer.”

Downs has been a savvy user of the internet and the media and has established the InterventionWalkOff blog and website to give voice to his community’s concerns.

In a recent post, entitled “We are refugees in our own country”, the residents of Ampilatwatja made clear their views about the NT Intervention:

“The NTER legislation constitutes serious, substantial and persistent racial discrimination against Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory, multiple violations of the Race Convention and other international human rights covenants, to which Australia is signatory.
Aboriginal people had no other option but to walk off the Prescribed Area, thereby removing them from being subject to the NTER legislation, and which additionally accords them the status of being internally displaced refugees.”

So, to The Northern Myth at least, it is more than passing strange that Anderson would join with such strident critics of the Intervention which she has, perhaps with equal vigour, supported.

But in the weird world that passes for NT politics right now surprises are coming thick and fast. And just maybe Anderson took the trenchant criticisms from her constituents at Ampilatwatja to heart.

Yesterday Anderson, Kunoth-Monks and Downs co-signed what appears on its face to be an extraordinary press release (see text below), with the following as a joint statement:

“Richard, Rosalie, and Alison stated that “Aboriginal people are depressed and cannot see the light for the future, after experiencing decades of marginalisation, decades of being treated as second class citizens in their own country and the absolute racist oppression.”

Anderson is quoted as saying:

“…the failure over decades of health, education and basic infrastructure, has been an attempt to keep Aboriginal people unhealthy, uneducated and locked in poverty”, to weaken the people so they cannot fight.”
…
“this is the proudest moment of her life; to be here, with Alyawarra people, to hear and see them saying: “enough”.

The Northern Myth had some concerns that the joint Media Release may not be genuine, in part because of the extraordinary nature of what appears to be a world-class backflip-with-double-pike from Anderson to withdraw her consistent support for the Intervention and also because it was riddled with spelling, grammatical and syntactical errors.

Downs, Kunoth-Monks and Anderson give their contact phone numbers at the bottom of the press release as media contacts.

The Northern Myth called Downs several times but his phone was switched off.

Kunoth-Monks is “in town” and staff at the Barkly Shire don’t know her mobile number.

Anderson’s contact number on the media release is for her electorate office in Alice Springs.

The Northern Myth called late last night and eventually spoke to Anderson’s electorate officer, John Rawnsley, who is also a blogger, Deputy Mayor of Alice Springs, and was, at least as recently as last month, Anderson’s “anointed” successor for her seat of MacDonnell.

Rawnsley was unaware of Anderson’s comments in the media release, saying only that as far as he knew she was “out bush and beyond mobile range”.

The Northern Myth spoke to Anderson’s electorate office this morning and was again informed that she was “out bush and out of mobile range” but that would try to pass a message to her.

As at the time of posting Anderson has not responded to The Northern Myth.

All a bit strange for the co-signatories to a Media release trumpeting an event that Anderson described as “the proudest moment of her life”.

But Anderson has been promising a lot lately.

Just three weeks ago, after walking away from her position as the most powerful elected Aboriginal woman in the country, she told the ABC that events of the first day of sitting of the NT Parliament in the following week would be:

“…the biggest day in Territory history,” she said. “Let’s all wait until Tuesday. I think it’s going to be the greatest gift to Territorians. “It will be the greatest surprise to Territorians. I’ll leave the surprise as a whole package.”

There was no “big day”, no “great gift” and no “great surprise. It all ended in tears, with Alison’s grand plans in tatters thanks to the deal done between Gerry Wood and NT Chief Minister Paul Henderson.

And it remains to be seen how Anderson implements the call made in yesterday’s media release to:

“…stand up against the absolute racist oppression, forced assimilation and attempts to destroy Aboriginal people being caused by the Intervention measures.”

The Northern Myth still cannot confirm whether the Media Release is genuine…if you know otherwise, please pass on a comment to that effect.

For present purposes we are assuming it is genuine.

Here is the text of the Media Release – make of it what you will.

MEDIA RELEASE – The First Australians call for an end to oppression

Aboriginal people are standing up and calling on all the leaders from all the Aboriginal nations, to stand united against oppression and dictatorship

Statement from Richard Downs, Rosalie Kunoth-Monks, and Alison Anderson,

27 August 2009.

This is a very significant day…on this day, Richard Downs, community elders and members from Ampilatwatja, and Rosalie Kunoth-Monks met with Alison Anderson, Independent member for Macdonnell.

A resolution was made to call together the Aboriginal nations, from across the Territory, to unite under one banner to stand up against the absolute racist oppression, forced assimilation and attempts to destroy Aboriginal people being caused by the intervention measures.

Richard, Rosalie, and Alison stated that “Aboriginal people are depressed and cannot see the light for the future, after experiencing decades of marginalisation, decades of being treated as second class citizens in their own country and the absolute racist oppression.”

Alison Anderson stated that “the failure over decades of health, education and basic infrastructure, has been an attempt to keep Aboriginal people unhealthy, uneducated and locked in poverty”, to weaken the people so they cannot fight.

Aboriginal people have been patient for too long; but no longer – enough is enough. It is time for the people to come together…with one voice.

Alison said “this is the proudest moment of her life; to be here, with Alyawarra people, to hear and see them saying: “enough”. Alison has now made a commitment to rally her peoples across the following nations and language groups: Pintupi, Walpiri, Pitjantjara, Yangantjara, Arrernte (Eastern and Western), Lowitja, to join with the people from Ampilawatja on Alyawarr land, in their struggle against oppression.

Rosalie will rally people from the Utopia region; Anmatjarra, Kateytye and Waramungu to come together over the next weeks.

Aboriginal people come from a noble lineage; Mother Earth holds us to this land – we belong to this land; the land underpins everything that we are. Our language, our laws, our culture, and our rituals are an expression of this belonging, which has been in place since time immemorial. The land and law is us – no one can separate that.

From that place of safety and strength, we call on all the Aboriginal nations to unite with us and call on all levels of government to stop dictating the terms to Aboriginal.

The “Aboriginal industry” is worth billions of dollars, which is squandered by never ending layers of bureaucracy. Aboriginal people call for control of their own affairs – through direct funding from the federal government for our plans and visions for the future, rather than being squandered by the Northern Territory government on things like wave pools and convention centres.

“Let us set the flames alight”, said Richard Downs – let us remove ourselves from the governments’ oppression and unite and strengthen each other, in our resolve to no longer be dictated to.

For more information: www.interventionwalkoff.wordpress.com

Media contacts:

Richard Downs – spokesperson Alyawarra nation

Rosalie Kunoth-Monks – spokesperson Utopia region

Alison Anderson – Independent member for Macdonnell