The Northern Territory Emergency Response – or NTER – was introduced by the previous Australian Government in June 2007.
The current Government, elected in November 2007, said that it would continue the NTER. It did this because the NTER aims to help protect children and make communities safer.
The new Government also said it would review the NTER after 12 months of operation.
The independent NTER Review Board reported to the Government in October 2008. The board found that the situation in remote Northern Territory communities and town camps remained sufficiently acute to be described as a ‘national emergency’.
It made three overarching recommendations, that:
- the Australian and Northern Territory Governments recognise as a matter of urgent national significance the continuing need to address the unacceptably high level of disadvantage and social dislocation being experienced by Aboriginal Australians living in remote communities throughout the Northern Territory
- in addressing these needs both governments acknowledge the requirement to reset their relationship with Aboriginal people based on genuine consultation, engagement and partnership; and
- Government actions affecting Aboriginal communities respect Australia's human rights obligations and conform with the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (RDA).
The Government said on 23 October 2008 that it accepted each of these recommendations and committed to introducing legislation into the Parliament in October 2009 to remove the provisions that exclude the operation of the RDA.
This discussion paper sets out how the Government is going to meet these recommendations. It will be changing the measures in the NTER, where necessary, so they conform with the RDA (which puts the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination into legislation in Australia).
At the same time, the Government will also have regard to its other important obligations under international treaties such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women.
The Australian Government is committed to respecting Australia’s human rights obligations. Without this commitment, the Government believes that the improvements already made in the Northern Territory will not last, and the improvements planned for the future will not happen.
The Government believes that the NTER measures are beneficial and would like to hear more from people in the affected communities
This paper sets out proposals for these measures, including some possible improvements, as a starting point for discussion.
The Government is open to ideas and proposals. It will listen to ideas put forward in consultations.
The NTER Review Board said that many of the NTER measures were not as effective as they should have been because Aboriginal people were not involved in their original design. There was no consultation or engagement. This Government is committed to real consultation with Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory so the NTER measures can be improved.
More detail on how the Government is going to consult with Aboriginal people is included in Section 5 of this paper. Section 6 has information on how the community can have their say, mainly through community consultation meetings.