{"id":5272,"date":"2018-02-13T14:16:42","date_gmt":"2018-02-13T06:16:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/?p=5272"},"modified":"2023-01-08T05:33:26","modified_gmt":"2023-01-07T21:33:26","slug":"opinion-how-kevin-rudd-and-jenny-macklin-created-another-stolen-generation-padraic-gibson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/opinion-how-kevin-rudd-and-jenny-macklin-created-another-stolen-generation-padraic-gibson\/","title":{"rendered":"OPINION: How Kevin Rudd and Jenny Macklin created another stolen generation &#8211; Padraic Gibson"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"field-abstract row\">\n<h3 class=\"field field-name-field-abstract field-type-text-long field-label-hidden cXenseParse\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">In 2007, there were 265 Indigenous children in \u201cout of home care\u201d in the NT. In 2013, the year Labor left office, there were 623. Researcher, Padraic Gibson explores Labor&#8217;s responsibility for the forced removal of so many thousands of children.<\/span><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"content-bar row\">\n<div class=\"table\">\n<div class=\"tr\">\n<div class=\"field field-author\">\n<div class=\"author-text\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><span class=\"field-label\"><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">By <\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Padraic Gibson<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"last-updated not-recently-updated\" title=\"UPDATED 13 Feb 2018 - 1:35 PM\"><span class=\"content-created\" style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">13 Feb 2018<\/span><br \/>\n<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Kevin Rudd has had a busy schedule of celebrations leading up to the tenth anniversary of his Apology to the Stolen Generations. It appears he is working hard to ensure the Apology is cemented at the centre of his political legacy.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Jenny Macklin, who served as Minister for Indigenous Affairs under Kevin Rudd, is making similar efforts.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">In an <span style=\"color: #800000;\"><a class=\"omniture-processed\" style=\"color: #800000;\" href=\"https:\/\/meanjin.com.au\/essays\/how-we-said-sorry-reflecting-on-the-apology-a-decade-on\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">extended essay<\/a><\/span> in <em>Meanjin<\/em>&nbsp;literary magazine, and in and subsequent <a class=\"omniture-processed\" href=\"http:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/radionational\/programs\/drive\/reflecting-on-a-decade-since-the-apology\/9406260\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"color: #800000;\">media appearances<\/span><\/a>, Macklin gives us a blow by blow account of behind the scenes arguments and anxieties leading up to the big \u2018Apology Day\u2019 on 13 February 2008. Macklin reminds us that the Apology \u201cwas not inevitable&#8221;. She casts herself and Rudd as brave fighters for Aboriginal rights, pushing back against racism of the Liberal party and in the electorate, to ensure the Apology took place.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Both politicians have also used their publicity to grandstand against the Liberal government, contrasting Turnbull\u2019s rejection of the Uluru statement with their own, supposedly enlightened approach to Aboriginal affairs.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Macklin claims that her government was able to \u201ccombine symbolism and substance\u201d, by taking measures to \u201caddress the shocking disadvantage suffered by Indigenous Australians\u201d and \u201cfoster relationships with Aboriginal people based on mutual respect\u201d.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">The ugly truth however, is that Macklin and Rudd were central to the implementation of the Northern Territory Intervention, the most destructive and explicitly racist initiative in Aboriginal affairs since the days of segregation under the Protection regime.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<h3 class=\"p1\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><strong>&#8220;The ugly truth however, is that Macklin and Rudd were central to the implementation of the Northern Territory Intervention, the most destructive and explicitly racist initiative in Aboriginal affairs since the days of segregation under the Protection regime.&#8221;<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">The Intervention led directly to a three-fold increase in forced child removal in the NT and further drove a massive wave of Indigenous child removal across the country. The Aboriginal children graphically tortured in Don Dale Detention Centre were removed from their families under this policy &#8211; this, in my view, is the real legacy of Macklin and Rudd.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Both politicians, along with the entire parliamentary Labor Party, voted in June 2007 to accept the <em>Northern Territory Emergency Response Act<\/em> (NTER), originally introduced by John Howard. This&nbsp;legislation suspended the&nbsp;<em>Racial Discrimination Act<\/em>, marking Aboriginal people as second-class citizens and bringing communities under Commonwealth control. Huge amounts of money flowed into the construction of new punitive bureaucracies to micromanage Aboriginal people. Income management, Government Business Managers, invasive police powers: surveillance and control on a scale not experienced since Protection era.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">When Rudd took office in November 2007, many Intervention measures had not yet been implemented. Labor became the face of the roll-out of the Intervention and Minister Macklin was one of its most enthusiastic champion. She assured Australia and an increasingly concerned <a class=\"omniture-processed\" href=\"http:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/pm\/content\/2009\/s2669042.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"color: #800000;\">United Nations<\/span><\/a>, that Aboriginal people needed to be put under Commonwealth control for their own good. This would save the women and children from abuse.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">By the time Macklin left office in 2013 rates of incarceration, child removal, unemployment and attempted suicide and self-harm had <a class=\"omniture-processed\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sbs.com.au\/nitv\/article\/2017\/06\/21\/10-impacts-nt-intervention\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"color: #800000;\">all increased dramatically in the NT<\/span><\/a>. The NT Children\u2019s Commission was reporting that \u201con the whole, the child wellbeing indicators in remote communities are getting worse\u201d and shocking rates of family violence had not improved at all.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"p2\">&nbsp;<\/h2>\n<h1 class=\"p1\"><span style=\"font-size: 18pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><strong>Labor and the Racial Discrimination Act&nbsp;<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Macklin\u2019s essay does not completely ignore the Intervention &#8211; it would be impossible to do so. As she acknowledges, the day prior to the Apology there was a mass demonstration against the Intervention led by NT Aboriginal community leaders (I actually helped to organise this rally, which marched on Parliament House in Canberra to oppose the policy). Incredibly, Macklin tries to distance herself from the racism of the Intervention, saying &#8220;Labor opposed the suspension of the Racial Discrimination Act, but very few people had heard this in the heat of the debate\u201d.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">No one had missed Labor\u2019s lip service to the RDA, while voting in practice to suspend it. The main concern of NT leaders at the rally was that Labor use their newfound powers of government to re-instate the RDA and end the Intervention. But they did neither.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Labor kept the RDA suspended for three full years. They did so to prosecute an agenda to gain long-term Commonwealth control of Aboriginal land. In her essay, Macklin says that she argued to make remote housing a central focus of Rudd\u2019s \u201cpractical\u201d efforts in Aboriginal affairs. &#8220;I knew the overcrowding was horrific and addressing this need would be one very practical way to make sure we started to close the gap,\u201d she writes. But in practice, Labor essentially used funding for housing as a weapon to crush Aboriginal control.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">The Intervention imposed compulsory 5-year leases which placed Aboriginal township land in the hands of the Commonwealth. These leases were then used to transfer administration of all community housing stock from Aboriginal organisations to the NT public housing agency. This massive theft of assets was part of the broader war on Aboriginal self-determination taking place through the Intervention. In 2008, Labor began to insist that to receive any funding for new housing, or even housing maintenance, NT communities needed to sign long-term leases of between 40 and 80 years with the Commonwealth.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Earlier in 2007, while she was Shadow Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Macklin had opposed this policy. She quoted from the land rights anthem \u201cfrom little things, big things grow\u201d and scolded the Howard government across the chamber, \u201cwe&nbsp;do not want land tenure reform being made a condition of basic services\u201d. Once in power however, she was ruthless in imposing these conditions.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Many communities refused give up their hard won rights to land and would not sign long term leases. They wanted to win back control of their own housing. They rightly identified that distant NT Housing officials were drastically mismanaging administration. They saw non-Indigenous contractors from outside communities being given all the maintenance and construction contracts, while good local workers languished on the BasicsCard.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">&#8220;Racist laws, blackmail, cutting off resources to force migration, this is the reality of Rudd and Macklin\u2019s &#8216;relationship of mutual respect&#8217; with Aboriginal communities.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">A high profile stand-off came with the Tangentyere Council, who represent town camp housing associations in Alice Springs. Kevin Rudd and Jenny Macklin issued an ultimatum to Tangentyere &#8211; either sign long term leases or we will use powers granted under the NTER to compulsorily acquire your lands anyway. Tangentyere Director William Tilmouth called this, <a class=\"omniture-processed\" href=\"http:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/7.30\/town-camps-acquisition-seen-as-step-backwards-for\/2674968\"><span style=\"color: #800000;\">\u201ca gun to the head\u201d.<\/span><\/a> Minister Macklin\u2019s office had received advice from her Department that the powers of compulsory acquisition could <span style=\"color: #800000;\"><a class=\"omniture-processed\" style=\"color: #800000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.crikey.com.au\/2009\/07\/06\/macklin-advised-not-to-consult-aboriginals-over-town-camps\/\">potentially be challenged<\/a><\/span> if the RDA was reinstated. So Macklin reneged on promises to bring back the RDA by November 2009, delaying until December 2010, just long enough to force Tangentyere to capitulate.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">The Labor government announced that only 22 remote communities across Australia would receive funding for new housing, despite chronic overcrowding across many hundreds of communities. A COAG agreement signed by Rudd in December 2007 described these restrictions as a strategy to force Aboriginal people to leave communities considered economically \u201cunviable\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">The COAG agreement established a category called \u201cpriority communities\u201d, that is &#8220;larger and more economically sustainable communities where secure land tenure exists&#8221;. The agreement urges governments to &#8220;avoid expectations of major investment in service provision&#8221; outside these communities and encourages &#8220;facilitating voluntary mobility by individuals and families to areas where better education and job opportunities exist.\u201d&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Racist laws, blackmail, cutting off resources to force migration, this is the reality of Rudd and Macklin\u2019s \u201crelationship of mutual respect\u201d with Aboriginal communities.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"p1\"><span style=\"font-size: 18pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><strong>Stolen children and the NT Intervention&nbsp;<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">The contemporary mass removal of Aboriginal children from their families is at such a crisis point that it has become impossible for politicians to ignore. I first heard Kevin Rudd acknowledge this crisis in 2016, after protests from <em>Grandmothers Against Removals<\/em> and other affected families had forced it into the media.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Stolen Generation survivors themselves have also pushed the issue forward in media interviews about the Apology anniversary. Fay Moseley, who was taken from her family and abused at the Cootamundra Girls Training Home, <span style=\"color: #800000;\"><a class=\"omniture-processed\" style=\"color: #800000;\" href=\"http:\/\/mobile.abc.net.au\/news\/2018-02-11\/stolen-generations-cootamundra-girls-home-whats-changed\/9408132?pfmredir=sm\">told the ABC<\/a>,<\/span> \u201cTen years later, what\u2019s changed? Nothing\u2026 they have to stop taking our kids\u201d. The Sydney Morning Herald carried <a class=\"omniture-processed\" href=\"http:\/\/www.smh.com.au\/national\/the-ongoing-trauma-at-the-heart-of-a-stolen-family-20180208-p4yzpt.html\"><span style=\"color: #800000;\">a weekend feature<\/span><\/a> about Stolen Generation elders still hurting deeply, struggling to even have visits with grandchildren who have been taken into out-of-home-care.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"media-element file-body-content\" title=\"Protesters in Redfern call on the Rudd Government to scrap the Northern Territory Intervention, 2008 (AAP Image\/Dean Lewins)\" data-picture=\"\">\n<div data-src=\"https:\/\/www.sbs.com.au\/nitv\/sites\/sbs.com.au.nitv\/files\/styles\/body_image\/public\/20080621000101674103-original.jpg?itok=fF210m9H&amp;mtime=1518488624\" data-media=\"only screen and (min-width: 768px)\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-5278\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Redfern-protest.jpg?resize=700%2C471&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"471\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Redfern-protest.jpg?w=700&amp;ssl=1 700w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Redfern-protest.jpg?resize=300%2C202&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"image-caption\">\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Protesters in Redfern call on the Rudd Government to scrap the Northern Territory Intervention, 2008 (AAP Image\/Dean Lewins)<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Source: AAP<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">In Macklin\u2019s essay she acknowledges,&nbsp;\u201cAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are being removed from their families at rates higher than at any time in the Stolen Generations era\u201d. But despite this shocking reality, she completely fails to explore her own responsibility for the forced removal of so many thousands of children. She writes glibly, &#8220;the numbers of Aboriginal children being removed from their parents continue to rise. Plainly none of us have found the policy solutions.\u201d&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><strong>&#8220;In Macklin\u2019s essay she acknowledges, &#8216;Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are being removed from their families at rates higher than at any time in the Stolen Generations era&#8217;. But despite this shocking reality, she completely fails to explore her own responsibility for the forced removal of so many thousands of children.&#8221;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">In a similar vein, Rudd has argued we \u201crisk\u201d another Stolen Generation, \u201cnot by design, but by default\u201d.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">History tells another story. The mass forced removal of Aboriginal children from their families under the Northern Territory Intervention was planned, budgeted for, and executed under the leadership and Rudd and Macklin.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">The policy drivers of contemporary child removal were made crystal clear in the <em>Bringing Them Home<\/em>&nbsp;report in 1997 &#8211; a report which both politicians have referenced extensively. But while their references focus only on the past, the authors of&nbsp;<em>Bringing Them Home<\/em> dedicated the entire back third of the report to contemporary removals. The report argues:&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><em>Not a single submission from any Aboriginal organisation saw intervention from welfare departments as an effective way of dealing with Indigenous child protection needs \u2026 We have seen that Indigenous families were historically categorised by their Aboriginality as morally deficient. There is evidence that this attitude persists \u2026 A focus on child-saving facilitates blaming the family and viewing \u2018the problem\u2019 as a product of \u2018pathology\u2019 or \u2018dysfunction\u2019 among members, rather than a product of structural circumstances which are part of a wider historical and social context \u2026 The primary reason for welfare intervention in Indigenous communities is neglect. Social inequality is the most direct cause of neglect\u2026 problems which result in removals need to be addressed in terms of community development.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><em>Bringing Them Home<\/em> said that to stop contemporary removals, responsibility for Indigenous child protection needed to be given to Aboriginal-controlled agencies. A major transfer of resources to Indigenous communities \u2013 a \u2018social justice\u2019 investment package \u2013 was required for real community development to alleviate grinding poverty. The report argued for self-determination at the core of all initiatives in Indigenous affairs \u2013 nothing would be effective if not led by Aboriginal people.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">The NT Intervention was the polar opposite of this approach, which I have already demonstrated through examples of how the racist laws were used destroy the capacity of Aboriginal people to exercise any control over their own affairs.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">&#8220;In my work, I documented numbers of CDEP workers in Tennant Creek decline from 300 to 130 over 2009-10 and finally dwindle down to nothing by the time Labor left office. The social consequences were devastating as many people previously employed were thrown on the dole and started drinking heavily.&#8221;<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Another central measure of the Intervention was the abolition of Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP), which had employed approximately 7,500 in the NT people before the NTER. These job cuts massively <span style=\"color: #800000;\"><a class=\"omniture-processed\" style=\"color: #800000;\" href=\"https:\/\/rollbacktheintervention.wordpress.com\/statements\/intervention-to-destroy\/\">compounded the shocking poverty<\/a><\/span> and living conditions that drive child removals.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">As Shadow Minister, Macklin had opposed the Howard government\u2019s proposed abolition of CDEP. She argued, &#8220;getting rid of CDEP in the remote Northern Territory communities will actually make communities, parents and children more vulnerable\u201d. Once in power however, Labor proceeded to dismantle the program themselves. New people coming into the program were forced to work for their quarantined welfare payments, instead of award wages on CDEP.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Then the CDEP jobs began to be cut. In my work, I documented numbers of CDEP workers in Tennant Creek decline from 300 to 130 over 2009-10 and finally dwindle down to nothing by the time Labor left office. The social consequences were devastating as many people previously employed were thrown on the dole and started drinking heavily. At Ampilatwatja, a CDEP workforce of more than 60 people who had taken care of municipal services was replaced by a small number non-Indigenous contractors who could not maintain services. In late 2009, the community led a \u2018walk-off\u2019 in protest against the Intervention, as raw sewage flowed through the streets and houses were falling apart.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Aboriginal unemployment rates across remote Australia have skyrocketed from 11 per cent before the Intervention, to 28 per cent today. A figure that does not register the many thousands of unemployed people who are not registered with Centrelink and so receive no income at all.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">While the Federal Labor government destroyed the capacity of Aboriginal people to keep their communities safe for children, they too massively expanded the budget of the NT Department of Children and Families (DCF) to visit remote communities and remove children into foster care.&nbsp;According to a 2012 report by Olga Havnen, then coordinator-general for remote Indigenous services, in 2010\u201311 DCF spent $47.8 million on keeping children in out-of-home care and $31 million on child protection workers: three times its pre-Intervention budget. Over the same period DCF spent just half a million dollars on intensive family-support services to assist struggling families.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">The logical result of these policies was an explosion in the number of Aboriginal children removed from their families. On June 30 2007 there were 265 Indigenous children in \u201cout of home care\u201d in the NT. On June 30 2013, the year Labor left office, there were 623. The most recent statistics show almost 1000 Indigenous children in the NT \u201cout of home care\u201d system.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">&#8220;On June 30 2007 there were 265 Indigenous children in \u201cout of home care\u201d in the NT. On June 30 2013, the year Labor left office, there were 623.&#8221;<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Of course, many of these children were removed from real risks, from families grappling with chronic hunger, over-crowding, substance abuse and family violence. But overwhelmingly, they were ripped out of kinship networks full of love, capacity and willingness to look after these children, but denied the resources and opportunity to do so.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">In a clear repeat of the Stolen Generations during the Protection era, many of Indigenous children have been removed hundreds of kilometres away from their communities, placed with non-Indigenous foster carers or in profit making institutions where they lose their language and culture. The rate of compliance with the \u201cAboriginal child placement principle\u201d fell in the NT from 56% of cases in 2006-07 to just 36.2% in 2012-13.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">In May 2013, just before Labor lost government, the CEO of DCF Jenni Collard made the extraordinary admission that while DCF was good at taking kids into care, it was \u201cnot very good at looking after them\u2026 If we are taking kids into care, we are not necessarily providing care that\u2019s any better\u201d.&nbsp;The recently concluded Royal Commission to the youth detention and child protection systems in the NT exposed the shocking realities of abuse faced by <span style=\"color: #800000;\"><a class=\"omniture-processed\" style=\"color: #800000;\" href=\"https:\/\/arena.org.au\/nter-took-the-children-away-by-thalia-anthony\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">many children in DCF care<\/a>,<\/span> including those who went on to be tortured in detention facilities while still under the care of the Minister.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"media-element file-body-content\" title=\"Pat Anderson, co-author of Little Children are Sacred, speaks about Northern Territory National Emergency Response Bills, Canberra 2007 (AAP Image\/Mark Graham) \" data-picture=\"\">\n<div data-src=\"https:\/\/www.sbs.com.au\/nitv\/sites\/sbs.com.au.nitv\/files\/styles\/body_image\/public\/20070810000041993380-original.jpg?itok=QOVlMNG5&amp;mtime=1518488522\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div data-src=\"https:\/\/www.sbs.com.au\/nitv\/sites\/sbs.com.au.nitv\/files\/styles\/body_image\/public\/20070810000041993380-original.jpg?itok=QOVlMNG5&amp;mtime=1518488522\" data-media=\"only screen and (min-width: 1px)\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div data-src=\"https:\/\/www.sbs.com.au\/nitv\/sites\/sbs.com.au.nitv\/files\/styles\/body_image\/public\/20070810000041993380-original.jpg?itok=QOVlMNG5&amp;mtime=1518488522\" data-media=\"only screen and (min-width: 401px)\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div data-src=\"https:\/\/www.sbs.com.au\/nitv\/sites\/sbs.com.au.nitv\/files\/styles\/body_image\/public\/20070810000041993380-original.jpg?itok=QOVlMNG5&amp;mtime=1518488522\" data-media=\"only screen and (min-width: 768px)\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-5280\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Pat-Anderson.jpg?resize=703%2C466&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"703\" height=\"466\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Pat-Anderson.jpg?w=703&amp;ssl=1 703w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Pat-Anderson.jpg?resize=300%2C199&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 703px) 100vw, 703px\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"image-caption\">\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Pat Anderson, co-author of Little Children are Sacred, speaks about Northern Territory National Emergency Response Bills, Canberra 2007 (AAP Image\/Mark Graham) Source: AAP<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Pat Anderson, the author of the <em>Little Children Are Sacred<\/em>&nbsp;report which Howard used to justify the Intervention, gave evidence to the recent Royal Commission. As Dr Thalia Anthony has <span style=\"color: #800000;\"><a class=\"omniture-processed\" style=\"color: #800000;\" href=\"https:\/\/arena.org.au\/nter-took-the-children-away-by-thalia-anthony\/\">highlighted<\/a><\/span>, Anderson argued that:&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">&#8220;The Intervention legitimated an attitude that Aboriginal people can only be dealt with as problematic. Anderson said that cruelty towards children in detention was \u2018an extension\u2019 of the abuse of Indigenous people under the Intervention. It produced a \u2018general moral decay\u2019 that \u2018has allowed children being put in hoods and restraint chairs\u2019\u2026 &nbsp;For Anderson, there is \u2018no doubt in my mind\u2019 that the \u2018disempowerment\u2019 and \u2018appalling\u2019 treatment of Aboriginal people living under the Intervention culminated in the torture of Aboriginal children at Don Dale.\u201d&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">I have witnessed firsthand the way these racist attitudes fanned by the Intervention corrupt the judgement of child protection workers, leading to the removal of NT children from perfectly capable households. Some of these <a class=\"omniture-processed\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=0Kw_K_B-njY\"><span style=\"color: #800000;\">stories<\/span><\/a> feature in Larissa Behrendt&#8217;s new film \u2018<a class=\"omniture-processed\" href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20221006143327\/http:\/\/aftertheapology.com\/\"><span style=\"color: #800000;\">After the Apology\u2019<\/span><\/a>.&nbsp;Despite the enormous increase in the NT child protection budget since 2007, the number of non-Indigenous children being removed by DCF has actually <em>declined<\/em>&nbsp;under the period of the Intervention, and can only be seen as a clear indication of institutional racism.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"tr\">\n<h3 class=\"p1\"><span style=\"font-size: 18pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">How Labor left Aboriginal affairs<\/span><\/h3>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Labor\u2019s parting shot in Aboriginal affairs was the introduction of the <a class=\"omniture-processed\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sbs.com.au\/news\/factbox-the-stronger-futures-legislation\"><span style=\"color: #800000;\">Stronger Futures legislation<\/span><\/a>, which continues many of the key racist measures of the Intervention until at least 2022. These laws were introduced despite strong opposition from Aboriginal organisations, community leaders, trade unions, social service peak bodies and more. Former Liberal Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser said of the laws, &#8220;If you could translate it back over 100 years, I think AO Neville, protector from Western Australia, would be proud of this legislation. It is racist. It is paternalistic.\u201d&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">The impact of the &#8220;racist, paternalistic&#8221; mentality of the Intervention had national consequences. On June 30 2007, the statistics that were available when Rudd made his apology, there were 7,917 Indigenous children in \u201cout of home care\u201d. When Labor left office in 2013, there were more than 14,000 and the number placed with Aboriginal family had also declined.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"media-element file-body-content\" title=\"Mr Rudd says the money pledged for the Intervention into Northern Territory Indigenous communities will be paid in full (AAP Image\/Terry Trewin) NO ARCHIVING\" data-picture=\"\">\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-5281\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Rudd-Macklin.jpg?resize=701%2C481&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"701\" height=\"481\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Rudd-Macklin.jpg?w=701&amp;ssl=1 701w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Rudd-Macklin.jpg?resize=300%2C206&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 701px) 100vw, 701px\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"image-caption\">\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Mr Rudd says the money pledged for the Intervention into Northern Territory Indigenous communities will be paid in full (AAP Image\/Terry Trewin) Source: AAP<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">These thousands of children removed from their families are Federal Labor\u2019s stolen generation. It is a legacy of destruction that will have consequences more far reaching than the fleeting sense of optimism and goodwill generated by the Apology. Rudd and Macklin are just as responsible for ripping these children from their mother\u2019s arms as any politician in the 20th century.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">We need serious commitments to self-determination, a complete turn around from the paternalism and assimilationist bipartisan approach that has characterised Indigenous affairs over the past decade or more. The Liberal government have extended Labor\u2019s cruelty even further, whether through the massive funding cuts of Abbott\u2019s horror budget in 2014, or the even more exploitative CDP scheme which forces Aboriginal people to work for 25 hours a week for Centrelink payments, often on a BasicsCard or Healthy Welfare Card. Child removal has continued to increase exponentially. The figures from June 30 2017 show more than 17,664 Indigenous children are in \u201cout of home care\u201d. It is important the Liberals are defeated at the next election.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><strong>&#8220;Hundreds of millions of dollars were spent removing Aboriginal children from their families while Labor were last in office. They must now make commitments of hundreds of millions more to return children to their families and communities and provide the resources and assistance required to rebuild shattered lives.&#8221;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">But for Labor to have any credibility in offering an alternative that will bring real change, they must unequivocally apologise for the destruction of communities and mass removal of children under the racist Intervention. To mark the anniversary of the Apology, Labor have announced that a national summit on First Nations children will be held within 100 days of forming government. A signal for genuine change would couple this with commitments to repeal Stronger Futures legislation and associated measures such as compulsory income management.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Hundreds of millions of dollars were spent removing Aboriginal children from their families while Labor were last in office. They must now make commitments of hundreds of millions more to return children to their families and communities and provide the resources and assistance required to rebuild shattered lives.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">There is a blueprint for stopping child removal and rebuilding communities in the <em>Bringing Them Home Report.<\/em> Aboriginal people don\u2019t need more \u201cconsultation\u201d or \u201cadvisory\u201d roles &#8211; they need control of their own communities, children and land.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><em>Padraic Gibson is a Senior Researcher at the Jumbunna Institute, University of Technology Sydney. He has been active in protest moments against the NT Intervention and the contemporary removal of Aboriginal children. Follow him&nbsp;<span style=\"color: #800000;\"><a class=\"ProfileHeaderCard-screennameLink u-linkComplex js-nav omniture-processed\" style=\"color: #800000;\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/paddygibson\">@paddygibson<\/a><\/span><\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span style=\"color: #800000; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><a style=\"color: #800000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sbs.com.au\/nitv\/article\/2018\/02\/13\/opinion-how-kevin-rudd-and-jenny-macklin-created-another-stolen-generation-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><strong>Related<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<h4 class=\"entry-title\"><span style=\"color: #800000; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><a style=\"color: #800000;\" title=\"A Decade On, The Fraud Of The NT Intervention Is Exposed (2017) \u2013 Michael Brull\" href=\"https:\/\/newmatilda.com\/2017\/06\/28\/a-decade-on-the-fraud-of-the-nt-intervention-is-exposed\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">A Decade On, The Fraud Of The NT Intervention Is Exposed (2017) \u2013 Michael Brull<\/a><\/span><\/h4>\n<h4 class=\"legacy entry-title instapaper_title\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><a title=\"Ten years on, it\u2019s time we learned the lessons from the failed Northern Territory Intervention\" href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/ten-years-on-its-time-we-learned-the-lessons-from-the-failed-northern-territory-intervention-79198\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"color: #993300;\"><span style=\"color: #333300;\"><span style=\"color: #800000;\">Ten years on, it\u2019s time we learned the lessons from the failed Northern Territory Intervention<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 2007, there were 265 Indigenous children in \u201cout of home care\u201d in the NT. In 2013, the year Labor left office, there were 623. Researcher, Padraic Gibson explores Labor&#8217;s responsibility for the forced removal of so many thousands of children. By Padraic Gibson 13 Feb 2018 Kevin Rudd has had a busy schedule of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5285,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[135,301,47,107,12,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australias-move-to-the-right","category-corruption","category-health","category-homelessness","category-indigenous-affairs","category-political-issues"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}