Amnesty International Assails Australia's Intervention among Indigenous Tribes in Northern Territory
Australia has failed so far in raising the quality of life prevalent among the indigenous people living in the Northern Territory, according to the latest human rights review released this week by Amnesty International (AI) in Australia.
In an interview with ABC, AI Australia director Claire Mallinson scored the federal government for neglecting the plight of the aborigines in the region, many of whom she revealed could still not access basic services like water and toilets.
Ms Mallinson said that an ocular inspection earlier conducted by a ranking AI official unmasked a troubling reality in the NT region, where these exists "people in Australia who are living without water, without toilets, without showers."
What was seen came as a shock for Australian AI officials, Ms Mallinson told ABC, as she stressed that "basic services like water are a human right and it is something that is critically important to ensure that the health of the people living there."
She argued that if the national government seemed to have neglected the basic needs of the indigenous in NT, then its push for a Stronger Future in the region, as embodied in a proposed legislation, is bound to fail.
In a report by The Sydney Morning Herald, the legislative intervention advocated by Prime Minister Julia Gillard will allow the national government to continue its active intervention in the region, purportedly for the uplift of NT's indigenous population.
Among the interventions cited were educational, legal and cultural intrusions that Ms Mallinson claimed would only amount to "a continuation of a dark era for Aboriginal peoples in the Northern Territory."
While she conceded that Ms Gillard's Stronger Future will definitely see the light of the day in Parliament, many thanks to the support of Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, Ms Mallinson noted to The Herald that "an overwhelming majority of affected Aboriginal communities oppose the legislation."
The government, however, clarified that measures included in the Stronger Future legislation were gleaned from active discussions with the indigenous in the NT region, with Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin stressing that the dialogues sponsored by federal authorities covered at least 100 different communities.
"I am confident that the priorities we are addressing ... are the priorities shared by Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory," Ms Macklin told The Herald.
But she allowed that in spite of the efforts displayed by the government "not everyone will agree with what (we are) doing."