Journalist urges federal government to intervene in NT 'social catastrophe'

In his new book The Northern Territory: A Litany of Failure, veteran ABC journalist Murray McLaughlin asserts that federal government policies have significantly worsened life outcomes for Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory (NT) over the past five decades. McLaughlin, who previously worked as an ABC TV current affairs journalist and an adviser to the Northern Land Council (NLC), contends that the federal government has been largely passive in addressing the deteriorating welfare of the Territory's Aboriginal citizens.

He describes the NT as a "beguiling and bewitching place, a unique wonderland," but warns that it will never right itself due to the jurisdiction's dependence on the Commonwealth.

McLaughlin argues that the Albanese government has done little to avert the "social catastrophe" unfolding in the NT. Despite pouring billions of dollars into the Territory for northern defense systems and petrochemical industry development, housing, health, and education indicators continue to decline for the Aboriginal population, particularly those living in remote communities. He states that the NT's self-government since 1978 has been a "failed experiment" which has hastened a collapse of social order.

The book chronicles how successive Country Liberal Party (CLP) governments, aided by Canberra Coalition administrations, have attempted to erode federal NT Aboriginal land rights laws. McLaughlin highlights how the CLP administrations of Paul Everingham and Adam Giles have relentlessly challenged Aboriginal land claims and sought control of land rights laws from the Commonwealth.

He also documents the harmful impact of Labor government policies, such as Xstrata's excavation through a sacred site to expand the McArthur River Mine in 2006 and the reduction of bilingual education in Aboriginal community schools during the Clare Martin administration.

McLaughlin reveals that the 2007 Paul Henderson Labor administration's reversal of bilingual education, concentration of government funding into larger Indigenous communities, and amalgamation of remote local government councils into eight "super shires" further exacerbated the situation. He attributes the introduction of the Northern Territory National Emergency Response, or the "Intervention," to a flawed ABC Lateline story about an alleged paedophile ring in Central Australia and Clare Martin's failure to respond to the Little Children Are Sacred report.

The Intervention, which affected 73 communities, involved the deployment of the army and police from other jurisdictions and was characterized by compulsory income management, facilitated by the suspension of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975. McLaughlin notes that while Aboriginal men were offended by the branding of them as child molesters and the threat to their traditional ownership rights, the most troubling policy was the compulsory income management program.