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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 July 2014
This article compares the two most significant paradigm shifts in the administration of Aboriginal affairs in Australia's Northern Territory. The Welfare Ordinance 1953 (NT) constituted a then-unique attempt to reclassify the diminished legal status of most indigenous Territorians as justified not by their racial heritage but by their level of social need, while the 2007 legislation behind the “Northern Territory intervention” has jettisoned formal racial neutrality through a campaign to curb the breakdown of “community standards and parenting behaviours” in many remote indigenous communities. The authors argue that while both initiatives had similar fundamental aims—encouraging remote Aboriginal people to adopt social habits generally evident in non-indigenous society—the decision to jettison racial neutrality has ushered in a new era of race relations in Australia, in which race has openly and formally been reestablished as a marker of legal inferiority.
Cet article compare les deux changements de paradigme les plus importants survenus dans l'administration des Affaires autochtones du Territoire du Nord de l'Australie. En premier lieu, l'Ordonnance de Protection de 1953 représentait, à l'époque, une tentative unique, quoique fondamentalement maladroite, de réinterpréter le statut juridique inférieur des statuts légaux des aborigènes du Territoire du Nord comme étant causé non seulement par leur héritage racial mais aussi par l'ampleur de leurs besoins sociaux. En second lieu, la législature de 2007 dans «l'intervention du Territoire du Nord» cessait de prétendre qu'une neutralité raciale existait dans l'effort du gouvernement de contrer l'affaiblissement des standards communautaires et des comportements parentaux dans plusieurs communautés indigènes lointaines. Tandis que ces deux initiatives avaient des buts fondamentalement similaires, soit d'encourager des peuples autochtones éloignés à adopter des comportements sociaux généralement acceptés dans une société non-indigène, la décision de réfuter la neutralité raciale marquait le début d'une nouvelle ère de relations raciales en Australie, où la race est ouvertement et formellement rétablie comme un indicateur d'infériorité.
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9 Welfare Ordinance 1953 (N.T.), s. 14.
10 Ibid., s. 4, First and Second Schedules.
11 Aboriginals Ordinance 1918–1953 (N.T.).
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23 Welfare Ordinance 1953 (N.T.), s. 15 and Second Schedule.
24 Aboriginals Presentation and Protection Acts 1939 to 1946 (Qld.), ss. 16(1), 22.
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34 Northern Territory National Emergency Response Act 2007 (Cth.), s. 12; Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs and other Legislation Amendment (Northern Territory National Emergency Response and Other Measures) Act 2007 (Cth.), Schedule 1; Social Security and Other Legislation Amendment (Welfare Payment Reform) Act 2007 (Cth.), Schedule 1.
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38 As defined under the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 (Cth.).
39 Northern Territory National Emergency Response Act 2007 (Cth.), s. 4; Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA), “Communities and Prescribed Areas” (Northern Territory Emergency Response Fact Sheet), http://www.facsia.gov.au/nter/docs/factsheets/overview/factsheet_nter_communities.htm.
40 Northern Territory National Emergency Response Act 2007 (Cth.), Schedule 1; see also Airman, J.C., “The Howard Government's Northern Territory Intervention: Are Neopaternalism and Indigenous Development Compatible?” Tropical Issues 16 (2007), 5, 7Google Scholar.
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42 Western Australian Special Committee on Native Affairs, Report of Special Committee on Native Affairs [Western Australia Votes and Proceedings] (Perth: Government Printer, 1958), 35Google Scholar (quoting Hasluck).
43 “Indigenous Emergency: Interview Transcript of the Joint Press Conference of the Prime Minister of Australia John Howard and the Hon Mai Brough, Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, Canberra” (June 22, 2007), http://www.eniar.org/news/JohnHowardPM.html.
44 See Northern Territory National Emergency Response Act 2007 (Cth.), especially ss. 11–19.
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46 CPD, House of Representatives (September 18, 2007), 2.
47 Schwartz, Melanie, “Policing the Territory: A Comment on the Emergency Response to Little Children Are Sacred,” Indigenous Law Bulletin 6 (2007), 9Google Scholar; Lithopoulos, Savvas, International Comparison of Indigenous Policing Models (Ottawa: Public Safety Canada, 2008), http://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/prg/le/ap/ipm-eng.aspx.Google Scholar
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51 FaHCSIA, “More Police in Communities,” http://www.fahcsia.gov.au/nter/docs/factsheets/law_order/factsheet_more_police.htm; CPD, House of Representatives (September 18, 2008), 3.
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61 See, e.g., Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC), Recognition of Aboriginal Customary Law (Sydney: ALRC, 1986)Google Scholar, paras. 500–10; Northern Territory Law Reform Committee (NTLRC), Report on Aboriginal Customary Law (Darwin: NTLRC, 2003)Google Scholar.
62 Northern Territory National Emergency Response Act 2007 (Cth.), s. 132; Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs and Other Legislation Amendment (Northern Territory National Emergency Response and Other Measures) Act 2007 (Cth.), s. 4; Social Security and Other Legislation Amendment (Welfare Payment Reform) Act 2007 (Cth.), s. 4.
63 See Pritchard, Sarah, “Special Measures,” in The Racial Discrimination Act: A Review, ed. Race Discrimination Commissioner (Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service, 1995)Google Scholar.
64 CPD, House of Representatives (August 7, 2007), 1–25.
65 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, Social Justice Report 2007 (Sydney: Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, 2007), http://www.hreoc.gov.au/social_justice/sj_report/sjreport07/pdf/sjr_2007.pdf, 261, 265Google Scholar.
66 New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 (N.Z.), s. 7; Human Rights Act 1998 (U.K.), s. 19.
67 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, Social Justice Report 2007, 267Google Scholar.
68 CPD, House of Representatives (August 7, 2007), 10.
69 Ibid., 13.
70 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, Social Justice Report 2007, 291Google Scholar.
71 Hasluck, Paul, Shades of Darkness: Aboriginal Affairs 1925–1965 (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1988), 86Google Scholar.
