Australia takes drastic action on Aboriginal child abuse (Roundup)

Jun 21, 2007, 8:23 GMT

Sydney - The Australian government Thursday announced drastic measures to tackle the child sex abuse in Aboriginal communities in the country's far north identified in a recent report.

They include a six-month moratorium on the sale of alcohol in remote Aboriginal communities, a ban on hard-core pornography and the drafting in of police officers from outside the Northern Territory.

Howard said parents who kept their children off school would have their welfare payments docked. Children under 16 would undergo a compulsory medical examination and a permit system that kept journalists out of Aboriginal communities would be scrapped.

Half of welfare payments, which most remote Aboriginal families live on, would be quarantined for food and other essentials.

'We are dealing with children of the tenderest age who have been exposed to the most terrible abuse from the time of their birth virtually,' Howard told Parliament.

'Any semblance of maintaining the innocence of childhood is a myth in so many of these communities and we feel very strongly that action of this kind is needed.'

The report handed to the Northern Territory government earlier this month noted that child sexual abuse was evident in all 45 Aboriginal communities that inspectors visited.

Around 500,000 of the 20 million Australians identify themselves as Aborigines. Their life expectancy is 17 years shorter than other Australians. Suicides are twice the national rate, murders are six times as high and they are 11 times more likely to be imprisoned.

The Northern Territory has around 70,000 Aborigines - over a quarter of the population. Its government doesn't have the powers of states like Victoria and New South Wales so the federal government can adopt what amounts to direct rule.

Howard was unapologetic about extending Canberra's powers. 'What matters more - the Constitutional niceties or the care and protection of young children?' he asked.

The prime minister appealed to the state governments to arrogate to themselves the same powers and intercede in remote indigenous communities where they know child sexual abuse is rife.

Sue Gordon, head of the National Indigenous Council, applauded Howard's initiative. 'The nation cannot avert its eyes and close its ears to the abuse and violence being suffered every day by children, women and men in our communities,' she said in a statement.

But Aboriginal activist Bonnie Robertson slammed the emergency powers, saying they robbed indigenous people of their dignity and their civil rights.

'Sexual abuse does not have a black face,' Robertson said. 'There are many perpetrators who are non-indigenous. If we are going to be serious about sexual abuse in this country, let's do it across the board.'

Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough said the programme would not discriminate between black and white in those remote Northern Territory communities where it would operate. He estimated that one in 10 in remote communities were not Aborigines.

'I want perpetrators brought to justice,' Brough said. 'Black families and white families in those communities will be treated equally.'

He promised that similar conditions would soon be set for all recipients of welfare payments right across Australia.