Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

We will get to that. The justification for such haste was that there was a state of emergency in Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory that required immediate action to remedy the situation. While I have no doubt that the situation is dire in many Aboriginal communities, this has been a problem for many years. It was many years in the making and did not simply arise overnight. As with so many issues that the previous government found on its plate, it took a long time to get around to dealing with it.

I am supportive of any measures that help bring disadvantaged communities out of despair and poverty. The Australian government remain committed to the Northern Territory intervention. We supported the intervention because the Little children are sacred report urged government action to protect Indigenous children from abuse and violence. One of the authors of that report was Pat Anderson. I had the great privilege of meeting Pat. She was very committed to solving these problems in the Northern Territory and did a great job on that report.

We are also committed to undertaking an independent review to report on the effectiveness and efficiency of all the Northern Territory emergency response measures. This review will report before the end of the year. It is important to address the serious issues in the Northern Territory in a professional and responsive manner. One of the key differences between the Rudd government’s approach to this issue and that of the previous government is the inclusive way in which the Rudd government has involved the Northern Territory government. The Rudd government wants to ensure that both governments are working with communities to solve problems rather than making unilateral decisions for them.

In its submission to the Senate inquiry into the Northern Territory National Emergency Response Bill 2007, the Northern Territory government at that time was scathing in its assessment of the new legislation, calling it:

... totally unexpected and totally unprecedented.

It went on to state:

The Northern Territory Government wants to make it fundamentally clear that it is opposed to the parts of the intervention legislation that remove the permit requirements of the Land Rights Act and the sections that allow for the compulsory acquisition of Aboriginal Land.

The Chief Minister of the Northern Territory, Paul Henderson—recently re-elected; he is a great chap, a fantastic chap—understands the importance of involving the community to help solve social problems. He said last year:

Let’s move forward in a spirit of cooperation rather than intervention and let’s engage Indigenous people in these reforms, let’s get some ownership of these reforms, let’s get some commitment for the reforms.

Paul Henderson understands that real leadership involves bringing people along with you, just as he did in his successful re-election only a couple of weeks ago.