The Northern Territory intervention was launched by the Howard government following the release of the ‘Little Children are Sacred’ report, which revealed a high level of sexual abuse among Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory.

However, according to the Democrats, there is a 50% under spending in the first six months of the intervention, and a third of the children have not been volunteered for health checks.

“The organisers say that the health checks are voluntary and many of the parents declined to take their children,” explains Australian Democrats leader Lyn Allison.  

While Senator Allison agrees that the health checks should be voluntary, she insists that it is vital for the Federal Government to find out why the children are being withheld. “If it’s fear, we need to deal with it. If their parents are ashamed and they don’t want people to know we need to understand that as well,” she says.

Senator Allison points out that some of the measures taken by the Government in the intervention have raised suspicions within the community. “The removal of the permit system did not seem to have any relationship with children who have been abused. The leases on housing do not seem urgent or related to the exercise at hand,” she says.

Additionally, the government’s decision to bring health practitioners into the Northern Territory puzzled some of the communities according to Dr Jenny Reath, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander unit GP manager in the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.

“There was confusion about ‘okay those people are coming from outside to do health checks, how does that relate to what our doctors are doing? Is this information getting back to the medical services where we usually go? Are they like our own doctors or are they experts, does that mean that our own doctors aren’t efficient in these areas?’”

This mistrust has led some communities to turn their back on the intervention completely. Barbara Shaw, an Aboriginal resident of Mount Nancy Town Camp, one of the Federal Government’s prescribed areas, points out that taking children to be checked might be viewed as a sign of accepting the intervention. “Accepting part of it is like accepting all of it, which I don’t,” she stresses.

Shaw describes herself as a doting mother and insists that when her children are sick, she takes them to the clinic. When the children are cut, she administers first aid. “I look after my family and I make sure they are alright. I don’t need someone to tell me how to do it,” she says.

Senator Allison adds that the recent apology has made memories of the stolen generation fresh, which could have further exacerbated “the feeling that their children might be taken away.”

Michael Mansell, a Tasmanian Aboriginal leader, believes that with such fears, it is no surprise the children are being withheld. “What parent in their right mind would take their children to the health checks when they know they can lose them?” he asks.

“The government needs to understand that the parents are an asset, they need to involve them as well as the Aboriginal community and not treat them as objects,” he insists. “This ‘do it or you will be punished’ system will only make people more stubborn.”

Aboriginal resistance to the intervention is not the only problem at hand. According to Senator Allison, the Northern Territory suffers from a shortage in medical personnel and resources. “Nurses say they are there alone, practitioners are there alone, and life in remote areas is difficult. There are nurses there that are required to do jobs that are normally done by doctors - there should be more support,” she says.

Dr. Reath, who worked with Aboriginal communities for 20 years, points out that the shortage is across Australia and not just in Aboriginal communities.

“I believe with the Northern Territory intervention, GPs who have volunteered have been provided with an orientation but it has been a very quick on the run type of orientation,” she says. “There is a need for support to keep those GPs working in those communities.”

In a recent press release, the Northern Territory Government’s Department of Health and Community Services announced that 6000 health checks have been administered so far with the next phase predicted to complete 7500 more.  Additionally, the Department is currently recruiting more health professionals to complete the checks.

However, there is only so much doctors can do with the current housing and sanitation problems in Aboriginal communities. “We need to fix housing, you can’t expect people to have good health if they are crowded. You don’t have kitchens, people sleep on the floor together. That’s why diseases like scabies grow, and it’s a highly infectious problem,” explains Senator Allison.

Dr. Reath agrees; “You are just band-aiding if you are dolling out antibiotics and drugs to treat scabies, because the same problem will arise time after time until the issue of overcrowding and things as basic as water supply are sorted.”

Coincidentally, Jenny Macklin, the Indigenous Affairs Minister, announced last month an additional $20 million for housing in remote Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory.

While Dr. Reath sees a lot of potential in the intervention with promises of follow ups and improvements to Primary Health Care, Mr. Mansell doesn’t see the plan working in the long run.

“The Federal Government needs to offer their help, their laws, and their money to the Aboriginals but ask what they need and let them lead,” he explains. “White interference in Aboriginal issues only causes dysfunction - we need to learn from the last 100 years.”


Original image by Pierre pouliquin
Courtesy of Creative Commons