Northern Territory Emergency Response (NTER)
Monitoring Report

Executive Summary

The Australian Government’s response to the review of the NTER included a continuation until 30 June 2012 of measures commenced in 2007 under the NTER and relevant legislation. The ongoing measures will be managed under the Closing the Gap in the Northern Territory National Partnership Agreement to strengthen and consolidate existing investment made under the NTER within the framework of the Remote Service Delivery Strategy and the Northern Territory Government’s Working Future plan.

The partnership transitions the NTER to a three year development phase that will maintain and strengthen core NTER measures, while placing a greater emphasis on community engagement and partnerships, building capability and leadership within indigenous communities. The partnership will also build the capacity of the Northern Territory Government in areas of the protection of vulnerable children, and provision of law and order, quality education and health services to residents of the prescribed communities.

Specific measures in the first year of the NTER were directly targeted to the stabilisation of communities. These include income management, licensing of stores, nutrition programs, community cleanup and housing repairs and additional law and order such as additional police, night patrols, safe houses, and alcohol and pornography restrictions. Most intermediate outcome indicators showed little change over the first year. However, in some areas reporting levels increased due to additional services, such as the 63 additional police officers, introduced as part of the NTER process. It is important to note that increases in reported incidents may not reflect a rise in crime, rather they are as a result of the additional police in the NTER communities.

Barriers to implementation of the measures were multifaceted but common to many was the interdependency between measures such as income management, store licensing and the School Nutrition Program. Also, lack of local infrastructure to support an increased workforce, constraints on workforce availability and logistical barriers such as distance to communities, weather and community business all had an effect on the rollout of the measures. Lack of expertise of government and non government organisation staff working in remote communities and time needed for community and service provider consultation also affected the rollout.

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Key information to 31 December 2008:

Health

A total of 10,292 Child health checks have been carried out between July 2007 and December 2008.

Overall, 6,497 children were referred to at least one specialist service with a slightly higher proportion referred during July to December 2008 (74%) than during 2007-08 (61%). The number of referrals per referred child increased from 1.05 for 2007-08 to 1.4 for July to December 2008.
Of the 6,497 children referred, 56% were referred to additional primary health care, 51% were referred to dental services, 20% were referred to tympanometry and audiology services, 17% were referred to paediatricians, 13% were referred to ear nose and throat services and 17% were referred to other services.

Preliminary data suggest that follow-up in primary health care has reached over 80% of children who have received CHCs.

Enhancing Education

As at December 2008, 71 schools across 73 communities are being supported by a School Nutrition Program - almost an eight fold increase since February 2008.
Data from the NT Department of Education and Training shows that at December 2007 there were 5,460 students enrolled in Primary School and 1,335 students enrolled in Secondary School with an average attendance rate of 66% for Primary School students and 53% for Secondary School students. At December 2008, there were 5,336 students enrolled in Primary School and 1,929 students enrolled in Secondary School with an average attendance rate of 63% for Primary students and 54% for Secondary School students.

Supporting Families

By 20 May 2009, 17 out of 22 Safe Houses were operational.
Three of the nine new crèches are operational. Five crèches are in the final stages of establishment – these are expected to open end June 2009. One crèche has been held over to 2009-10. Upgrades to six existing Australian Government crèches have been completed. Completion of five upgrades is expected by end June 2009.
Fifty communities have been visited by the Mobile Child Protection Team and 459 cases investigated.
As at 20 May 2009, three of the five new facilitated playgroups are operational and delivering playgroup services to 264 children and 92 parents and caregivers in 11 locations
As at 31 December 2008, Indigenous Children Program services expanded under the NTER provided support to 33 children and 26 parents and caregivers
As at 31 December 2008, the Invest to Grow Child Nutrition Program that was expanded under the NTER delivered 37 prevention and intervention sessions to 307 participants and assisted 65 children and their families with essential food and health requirements in emergencies.

Promoting Law and Order

As at 20 May 2009, sixty three additional police have been deployed since the NTER was announced in June 2007; 45 Australian Federal Police (AFP) and interstate police and 18 NT police.
At 20 May 2009, four permanent Police Stations have been upgraded and 18 temporary Themis Police Stations have been established in the 18 Operation THEMIS communities (some of these communities did not have a police presence prior to the NTER).
In March 2009 a new permanent police station was officially opened in Galiwinku.
The number of domestic violence related incidents in the NTER communities reported to police rose from 902 in the last six months or 2007 to 1163 in the last six months of 2008.
NT Department of Justice data records 33 actual convictions for breach of a restraining order across the NTER communities in the second half of 2008 compared to 43 in the second half of 2007.
In the 18 months to the end of December 2008 there were 480 convictions for assaults committed in the NTER communities. The equivalent figure for the 18 months ended December 2006 was 466.
Child protection data are not available at the NTER community level. However data are available for Indigenous children across the whole Northern Territory. In 2007-08, Indigenous children in the NT were six times as likely as other children to be the subject of a substantiation of a notification of abuse and neglect.
The rate of substantiation of a notification of child abuse for Indigenous children aged 0-16 in the NT rose from 16.8 per 1,000 children in 2006-07 to 23.7 per 1,000 children in 2007-08.
Substantiations for Indigenous children in the NT were most likely to reflect neglect (36.5%), followed by emotional (27.1%) and physical abuse (21.8).
Sexual abuse accounted for 14.5% of substantiations for Indigenous children in the NT in 2007-08, which is an increase of 4.6 percentage points from 2006-07.
The total number of incidents of child abuse ³ reported to police in the NTER communities rose, from 74 in the last six months of 2007 to 124 in the last six months of 2008. Almost three quarters of these related to ‘child welfare’ ⁴.
There were 17 convictions for child sexual assaults committed in the NTER communities from July 2007 to 31 December 2008. This compares to 8 convictions in the 18 months ended December 2006.
As at 31 December there were 63 active Night Patrols of the 73 NTER identified communities. The number has increased to 70 as at 20 May 2009 with three communities still in the consultation phase.
Between 1 July 2008 and 31 December 2008 legal service providers handled 398 NTER related matters including 81 advices, 83 duty lawyer services and 234 cases on issues such as welfare rights, alcohol management and child welfare,
Legal service providers undertook 196 outreach visits to communities between July and December 2008.
In the period 1 July 2008 to 31 December 2008, 2518 people sought access to an interpreter, an increase of almost 40% from the corresponding period in 2007. The number of hours of interpreting provided for the NTER for the period totalled 2,387 hours.
Alcohol Management Plans are being implemented in Alice Springs, Tennant Creek, Palmerston and Katherine.
Alcohol Management Plans are being developed for Jabiru, West Arnhem, Darwin, Borroloola, Timber Creek, Maningrida and Elliot

Housing and Land Reform

As at December 2008, 3185 buildings have been surveyed under the Community Clean Up. Make Safe repairs have been completed on 85% of the buildings surveyed and 86% had Minor Vital works completed.
A cadastral survey project to review the boundaries of the 64 five-year lease communities was completed in 2008. The boundaries were reduced in all 64 communities to more closely match the lease boundary with the town footprint and to leave out areas not essential for service delivery. The changes came into effect on 1 April 2009.

Welfare Reform and Employment

The number of communities participating in income management increased from 52 communities and seven town camp regions, to 73 Communities and ten town camp regions at the end of 2008.
Since July 2007, a total of almost $124.5 million has been income managed as part of the NTER.
Over $91 million was income managed between July 2008 and December 2008. Ninety six per cent of this money was spent or allocated to priority needs, primarily food items, with only $3.6 million yet to be allocated.
As at 2 January 2009 the number of Income Management customers was 15,488 – a net increase of 16% since 27 June 2008.
86% of Income Management customers at 2 January 2009 had a BasicsCard.
The proportion of ‘auto income-managed’ ⁵ customers was only 0.5% compared to 13% six months earlier.
At 30 June 2008 the most common payments for income management customers were Newstart Allowance (35%) and Parenting Payment (23%) ⁶.
At 31 December 2008, there were enhanced food security measures in all communities where income management was in place. Specifically, there were 75 licensed stores and an additional three communities having access to Bush Food Order packages.
The total number of income support recipients in NTER prescribed communities decreased by almost 550 between December 2007 and December 2008. Fewer customers were receiving Newstart Payment and Parenting Payment, while increases occurred for Disability Support Pension and Carer Pension customer numbers. A number of customers moved off income support through employment under the Jobs Package.
A total of 1,907 jobs had been created through the Jobs Package program to December 2008, with 600 being created during July and December 2008.
All of the 1,907 jobs created to December 2008 have been filled by previous CDEP participants.
Over 2000 people commenced in the Work for the Dole program between 1 August 2007 to 31 December 2008 with 34 per cent of commencements occurring between July and December 2008.
Over 200 Indigenous people have been employed in childcare services through the Jobs Package.
The CDEP program was reinstated in remote communities from 1 July 2008 and as at 31 December 2008 there were almost 5,500 CDEP participants in the Northern Territory.
Between July and December 2008 CDEP services were being delivered by 28 providers in the ICC regions of Alice Springs, Darwin, Katherine, Nhulunbuy and Tennant Creek.

Coordination

20 Indigenous Engagement Officers (IEO) and three IEO Project Managers were recruited between July 2008 and 31 December 2008.
As at 26 March 2009 approximately 700 complaints relating to the NTER had been received by the Ombudsman’s office – 103 of these between July and December 2008.
Between July and December 2008 the Ombudsman’s office visited 19 communities and 24 town camps.
There were 53 GBMs in place servicing 73 communities and town camps in the Darwin, Alice Springs, Katherine and Tennant Creek regions as at December 2008. As of May 2009, there were 60 GBMs in place servicing 73 prescribed communities, Borroloola and town camps in Darwin, Tennant Creek, Katherine and Alice Springs.

This includes, child abuse material, child welfare, child welfare – pregnancy, child welfare STI prohibited material, and unclassified adult material
Child Welfare relates to issues that would generally be considered to be child neglect.
‘Auto income managed’ customers are customers who have not entered into a formal agreement with Centrelink – 100% of their Centrelink payments are withheld until a formal agreement is in place.
The number of people on Income Support does not exclude the Income Management exemption customers so these percentages are slightly overstated.