Crikey is reporting today that a leaked progress report demonstrates that the Northern Territory Intervention, now just short of a year old, is “a shambles”. It’s worth reading the full story, but it’s also interesting to note that Mal “who will think of the children?” Brough has admitted that the thing was cobbled together in 48 hours, as just about everyone suspected at the time.
When Jenny Macklin announced the composition of the panel who will oversee the review of the Intervention earlier this month, commentary predictably focused on whether those appointed were “critics” or “supporters”, which seems an idiotic yet predictable angle given that the whole point of the thing is to see whether it’s attaining its actual goals, something recognised by Peter Yu who was named as the review’s chair. Most of the coverage of the Intervention has continued to be framed in ideological terms, not least from those who claim that we need to move on from ideology.
Some of the simplistic solutions advocated for Indigenous disadvantage might have been brought into focus by Monday night’s Four Corners report on education in remote areas, which certainly didn’t leave me thinking that boarding schools are the panacea they’ve been made out to be by luminaries such as Noel Pearson, Helen Hughes and Gary Johns. Every time an intense light is shone on one aspect of Indigenous affairs, it tends to reveal a far more complex picture than would be painted by the endless opinionating on the topic. Nor am I particularly convinced that the removal of civil liberties and the attacks on self-determination which are inherent in aspects of what has been done and continues to be done can be justified either in principle or on some sort of utilitarian “what works” ground. It would be nice if the public debate considered this, as well as the actualities of the outcomes of what was indisputably a politically motivated action, rather than get stuck once again in the same old same old.
The 4 Corners report was certainly a despairing eye-opener on educational impediments facing remote communities, even those seemingly well resourced on Elcho Island 90kms across the Arafura Sea from Darwin. The report has been accused of cherry-picking the worst by a knowledgeable informant in today’s SMH, but it was more objective than the sort of stuff Helen Hughes produces. For example she is unrelenting in her criticisms of the NT Education Dept but the teachers evident in the 4 Corners get my tick for sheer dedication in the face of some demoralising behaviours.
I don’t feel qualified to argue whether the Tiwi language should relegate English to an ESL status. My fear is that too many reports like this will lose remote communities further tax-payer support in the long run.
Shambles?
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Really?. It’s a shambles?
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Wow. I’m surprised. I thought that this was a different policy direction this country was taking. Y’know like instead of ignoring these people’s views, wiping their rights and applying half-baked bollocks solutions whenever it’s brought to our attention that live in Fubaria courtesy of us. And then proceeding to use it as an excuse to beat the Left or the Right over their past policy mistakes (it’s all your fault, no it isn’t, yes it is). Instead of all that we’d decided to take a long, deep, consultative approach to the problems and actually endeavour to do real good instead of just throwing some money at the situation and telling it to shut the fuck up….
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Oh wait.
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Hang on didn’t Kevvie apologize. Well it should be all good then. What’s the problem?
My only suprise was that Brough said it took 48hrs to put together. I was sure it was 10mins over a cup of tea and all written down on the back of a postage stamp.
Err in haste, repent at leisure.
It wasn’t just the Liberals. I remember after Lateline broke the story about the Sadean nightmare in the NT I was at the writer’s festivals and there were all these bouquets of various urbane innaleckshall types waxing luyrical on ‘the solution’. They didn’t know jack-shit either. It’s always the same. Band-aid the problem and shove it under the house. And above all, whatever you do, don’t listen to ‘em. If we’d listened to them to start with there wouldn’t be alcoholism in these places ’cause there wouldn’t be and booze in the first place.
I think there’s a difference between criticising the education department and criticising the teachers. But I agree that the teachers in the 4 corners project came across as very dedicated and doing the best they could under the circumstances. Just like in the rest of australia, if the home situation isn’t good there’s only so much that teachers can do.
The retrospect in the program back to the old missionary days was interesting. Much fewer rights than even now and I’m guessing little respect for traditional values, but as the program said demonstrated that western education results are possible. Its not surprising that some of the older people in the communities think things were better back then. I guess thats where some of the current policies came from.
One thing the program didn’t ask is why there is no public high school on the island?
To call the intervention a ’shambles’ is as simplistic as the approach that was taken by Brough and Howard. It was a mess early. No surprise in this. Most policy initiatives developed in 48 hours dealing with complex issues would also be a mess.
If we put to one side some of the ignorant stuff about it all being about protecting children from sexual abuse there have been some changes that look positive. Houses are being built - although the first ones rolled out under the Brough regime appear to have come in at over $1m each. A lot more money is now available to housing and infrastructure programs. The need for this money has been identified over and over for the last 20 years or so. Additional money for education and health is positive. There are reports from some communities, particularly in Central Australia, that income management has helped a great deal in reducing dysfunction and increased food supply.
The Tiwi College initiative, discussed in the 4 Corners program on Monday night, has been under discussion by the Tiwi leadership for many, many years. There has been strong resistance to it from some within the communities but there is a more powerful desire to try every possible option to break the current cycle that provides such low education outcomes.
The Tiwi College may not be the answer. After many years involvement in this area I am pretty sure that there is no single or simple answer. But one thing the 4 Corners program made clear was that, without family support, no education system will work. If the Tiwi reckon that the College will provide a useful option then it is worth a try.
The NT invasion by the Coalition was an abject failure with respect to it’s principal, if not only, 2 aims.
[1]It failed to wedge/dog whistle the ALP. [Maybe it shouldn’t have failed.]
[2]It failed to save the Coalition at the election. [Maybe it helped soften the blow a little which, if so, increases the culpability of those who supported it.]
It did [falsely] succeed at one thing.
It [falsely] equated child sexual abuse and neglect and domestic violence in Australia with race in the perceptions of many, perhaps millions, of people.
I reckon a strong case could be made that it was the single most shameful policy of the Coalition despite some strong competition from other policies/actions refugees for example.
http://www.vibe.com.au/vibe.asp?pageID=2073The full list.
Its saving grace was that of unexpected consequences. Hannah’s dad is correct in what where the main aims, but it has lead on to other useful outcomes as Mangoman says.
The NTER is best viewed as an ulcer; the rotten parts need cutting away to allow the healthy bits to heal.
“if the home situation isn’t good there’s only so much that teachers can do” said Chris (a different one) and then Mangoman
“without family support, no education system will work.”
They speak the ‘truth’. The greatest influence on an individual’s educational attainment is the family, generally speaking. All the significant Reports confirm the fundamental importance of the family.
Tis sad that this well established fact needs to be constantly restated.
Just picking up on one issue mentioned in the crikey article:
“The source told Crikey that the cost of income management alone is currently running at $3000 per person per annum — to manage average welfare payments of around $10,000 per recipient. The documents point out that there are around 10,500 people under income management.”
To get a fair comparison this would have to be contrasted with the cost/benefit to the individual, community and government for the same population when their income is not being ‘managed’.
10 500 people who have the resources to feed their families, and divert this from grog and associated violence @ $3000 each = 31.5 million.
I wonder what the associated health costs of alcohol abuse, malnutrition, alcohol related assault and violence, and child neglect actually are? I notice there has been a dramatic drop in the number of homicides since welfare restrictions have come into play. What cost is a woman’s life? Police, courts, welfare staff, and dialysis machines don’t come cheap either.
THe start up costs of any system are going to be more costly at the beginning, so this would also have to be factored into any comparision.
I’m not defending the cost btw, but merely saying these things are multi-factored.
I know the article below is merely anecdotal, but its an interesting observation nonetheless.
http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2008/s2270349.htm
Further to what Mangoman had to say, the injection of funding for additional policing has been really welcome. There are communities that have been crying out for a police presence for twenty years who only received it due to the intervention. Not that it excuses all the other absurdities of the intervention though.
I think it takes a stretch of the imagination to attribute the income management to the murder rate instead of the alcohol restrictions and extra policing. Both of which I believe have been requested by Indigenous Australians for many years.
SIHIP is looking promising though especially if it can manage to employ local workers.
Yuwulk - Here’s centrelinks blurb starting what Income Management means: http://www.centrelink.gov.au/internet/internet.nsf/filestores/ah1549_0802/file/ah1549_0802en.pdf
It reduces the ability to purchase alcohol with state welfare benefits.
Also, an older, interesting link about the rates of violence experienced by indigenous women. And, yes I note the irony of the conclusion
Trying those links again Centrelink: http://www.centrelink.gov.au/internet/internet.nsf/ea3b9a1335df87bcca2569890008040e/f9dba67a56dcfd23ca2573e80083a4c0!OpenDocument
and violence stats for indigenous women
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/ILB/1999/93.htmlDon't presume i'm happy with all the processes of the intervention btw. I think there are some serious flaws and gaps (duh), but neither am i blanketly against it.
That why the evaluation and review processes are so crucial.
On the subject of Crikey articles, here’s one which puts its case in very clear and simple terms. The medical side of the intervention has been all about checks with no followup or services. What on earth is the use of screening if few people are going to be treated, as before? “Yes we can categorically state your children have incipient trachoma. No, sorry, we’re not going to provide any eye doctors!”
Read the whole thing.
Apologies, there should have been a blockquote or italic tag from “…we are encouraged” to “…once-off (or even annual) checks”. That is the Crikey text, not mine. My bad.
SC - a little off-topic (or not!), but thought of your comments re lack of support networks for offenders (in Henson context when reading this article on the Guardian today. You might find it interesting.
…with a silent ‘)’ after ‘context’.
Helen, I’ve fixed up the formatting in your comment but the link is broken.
I’m living in Alice Springs this year in the epicentre of the intervention, and I’ve talked candidly to friends who are bureaucrats in Canberra involved with the intervention from early on, and all sources pretty much say the same thing — while some good is being done just by throwing resources at the problem, an astonishing lack of any sort of planning or consultation or proper oversight is leading to waste, inefficiency, and often alienating indigenous communities unnecessarily. I’ve heard some tales of epic incompetence — a recent example was locksmiths installing locks in newly built homes with the same master keys across the entire NT, which led to all of them being reinstalled at an alleged cost of around a million.
I think a large factor in the interventions failure to wedge the ALP was that the sheer cowboy nature and incompetence was obvious early on, and it is hard to whip up strong ideological support for incompetence. When a government department announces major controversial new programs, and then a few weeks later announces it won’t be doing them after all because it turned out they were illegal, that impresses no one.
The ideological back and forth is largely beside the point - whether or not you ideologically believe in the velue of various intervention measures, both sides of the ideological spectrum should agree that planning, efficiency and competence is better than rushing in and the resulting blunders, inefficiency and wasted opportunities.
sublimecowgirl I am aware of what income management means and does I just don’t believe it has had a significant impact on murders. Those who want to drink simply trade their cards for cash or swap to petrol sniffing as has been suggested is now happening in Yirrkala.
A couple of paragraphs from your own link to the violence stats seem to argue against things such as the enforced income management as counter productive.
Policy Implications-What can be Done?
These figures suggest that there are fundamental issues which need to be addressed concerning excessive alcohol use amongst Indigenous people. These issues include empowerment; self-esteem and pride; meaningful occupation; and strengthening culturally-based social control mechanisms;
The prevention of intimate violence and consequent lethal violence is a problem i
However, prevention can never be imposed on a society or culture. If it is tobe successful, prevention must involve people who are willing to listen and become involved.12 It is therefore essential to provide resources for self-help, such as training for Indigenous welfare workers, to assist Indigenous Australians to help themselves. The most successful prevention has to take place within the community -it is less likely to succeed if imposed from the outside.
To back up Helen’s article this one was recently in the MJA.
http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/188_10_190508/bai11268_fm.html
Abstract
Objectives:
To describe delivery of child health services in Australian Aboriginal communities, and to identify gaps in services required to improve the health of Aboriginal children.
Design:
Cross-sectional baseline audit for a quality improvement intervention.
Setting and participants:
297 children aged at least 3 months and under 5 years in 11 Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory, Far West New South Wales and Western Australia in 2006.
Main outcome measures:
Adherence to guideline-scheduled services including clinical examinations, brief interventions or advice on health-related behaviour and risks, and enquiry regarding social conditions; and recorded follow-up of identified problems.
Results:
Documentation of delivery of specific clinical examinations (26%–80%) was relatively good, but was poorer for brief interventions or advice on health-related behaviour and risks (5%–36%) and enquiry regarding social conditions (3%–11%). Compared with children in Far West NSW and WA, those attending NT centres were significantly more likely to have a record of growth faltering, underweight, chronic ear disease, anaemia, or chronic respiratory disease (P < 0.005). Only 11%–13% of children with identified social problems had an assessment report on file. An action plan was documented for 22% of children with growth faltering and 13% with chronic ear disease; 43% of children with chronic respiratory disease and 31% with developmental delay had an assessment report on file.
Conclusion:
Existing systems are not providing for adequate follow-up of identified medical and social problems for children living in remote Aboriginal communities; development of systems for immediate and longer-term sustainable responses to these problems should be a priority. Without effective systems for follow-up, screening children for disease and adverse social circumstances will result in little or no benefit.
Mark, thanks.
Crikey appears to have moved the link, but here’s a report of the same thing on a doctors’ site called 6 minutes.
http://www.6minutes.com.au/articles/z1/view.asp?id=174463
(Is “6 minutes” a reference to directives from the Health dept on the proper duration of a medicare funded consultation, or something?)
Helen,
not only where the health checks a waste of time because of the lack of follow up, some of the people doing the checks were Dr’s, but because of the tight time frames invovled, had not been registered to practice in the NT, and so could not legally provide any treatment to those they were screening.
Nuwak i actually read that entire indigenous special issue of the MJA thoroughly, wasnt it only last month?
Nuwak i actually read that entire indigenous special issue of the MJA thoroughly, wasnt it only last month?
Brough deserves credit for giving urgency and priority to this issue, and criticism for doing it in such a way that was unnecessarily divisive and ideological blinkered, thus ensuring many of the major inefficiencies which have occured were inevitable - not to mention dishonestly portraying at as responding to the Little Children are Sacred report (which was actually being all but ignored), using child sexual abuse as a justification whilst doing little to actually directly target child abuse or abusers, and tacking on unnecessary ideological objectives such as scrapping the permit system which had no relation to the issue.
Having said all that, the extra resources and the raising of the bar on expectations of delivering results does present an opportunity. most of the alcohol restrictions were not new, but the commitment to enforce them and to resource related programs was not there.
There are things about the intervention that still concern me, but the Review provides a good chance to fix many of those. A lot of the reports I hear of what’s happening match what is in the Crikey piece referred to in the post, but I do hear other much more positive reports - as shown in Crikey itself, with a different piece published on the same day giving a far more positive assessment of the impact of the Intervention in one NT community, mostly based on policing of the alcohol restrictions and the impact of quarantining.
Going cold turkey on grog smacks of ‘cruel-and-unusual-punishment’ to me.
The way I weaned myself off alcoholism was through measured ( dried) use of magic mushrooms. These grow ( or used to grow) as an indigenous fungi and appear clearly superior to Kava.
And another thing…where is the indigenous investment in all this bullshit ‘democratic’ process?
Where’s the ATSIC input?
White people would be ropable if the army was trooping through their bedrooms confiscating a bit of harmless mull and/or some popular art such as hangs on the walls of our white elite. So where is the outrage eh!?
‘First they came for the first Australians…’
What Andrew said.