ANU - RMAP Seminar: Police failure in Indigenous affairs. Altman

RESEARCH SEMINAR - Policy failure in Indigenous affairs: The social and economic impacts and likely legacies of the NT emergency intervention.
Jon Altman MP3 Audio
On June 21 2007 the Australian government dramatically declared a 'national emergency' in relation to child sex abuse in the Northern Territory. In an unprecedented set of actions the Commonwealth has taken direct control of communities, overriding the authority of both the NT government and local community organisations using the territory powers conferred under the Australian constitution. Subsequently in August 2007 these actions and others were enshrined in Australian law. This seminar addresses the immediate policy background to this intervention and then from a development anthropology perspective assesses the likely social and economic impacts of these new laws on prescribed communities and their residents. It is argued in the seminar that for a wide range of reasons the new measures are unlikely to work and indeed may result in adverse and unsustainable outcomes for Indigenous Australians.