Indigenous Rights: NT Intervention and Income Quarantining

In November 2011, the Minister for Indigenous Affairs Jenny Macklin announced welfare changes for Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory.1 One of the measures announced was an extension of the 2009 Improving School Enrolment and Attendance through Welfare Reform Measures ('SEAM').2 In amending the Social Security (Administration) Act 1999, the Gillard government will link Aboriginal school attendance to welfare payments. For Aboriginal families in the NT, if your kids don't go to school, Centrelink can suspend income support and family parenting payments. For Frank Brennan, this is the 'nanny state on steroids.' He asks, 'who will be responsible for feeding the children whose parents have had their welfare payments suspended?'3 Intervention in the life of Indigenous people in the Territory is nothing new. In June 2007 the Howard government introduced the Northern Territory Emergency Response ('NTER') into 73 Aboriginal communities. This was the federal parliament's response to the findings of the NT Board of Inquiry into the sexual abuse of Aboriginal children.4 The 2007 NT Intervention granted the federal government direct control over selected Aboriginal communities for five years. The legal basis for the action was the territories powers contained within the Constitution. These powers allow the Commonwealth to legislate laws overriding territory sovereignty. Territory powers had been previously used by the Howard government to override the 1997 NT euthanasia laws and the 2006 ACT same-sex marriage laws.