Aboriginal child-abuse measures must stay: report

By ROD McGUIRK,Associated Press Writer AP - Monday, October 13

CANBERRA, Australia - A radical government crackdown on child sexual abuse among Aborigines should continue but in an altered form, an independent report found Monday.


The government-commissioned review of the first year of a crackdown on child abuse and neglect in Australia's Northern Territory has partially vindicated a scheme that critics condemned as discriminatory and an attack on indigenous culture.

The intervention _ which includes increasing police numbers as well as improving health care and housing in remote settlements _ is a drastic response to a report that found Aboriginal child abuse was rampant on Australia's northern frontier.

In June 2007, then-Prime Minister John Howard announced his government would use its constitutional powers over the territory to impose strict measures aimed at protecting children from abuse in Outback Aboriginal settlements.

Alcohol and hard-core pornography were banned from Aboriginal communities and Aborigines were forced to spend a portion of their welfare checks on family essentials like food.

Three members of the review panel, which included two prominent Aborigines, reported Monday to the new government of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd that some measures _ including the alcohol ban _ should stay.

But controls on how Aborigines spend their welfare money should be lifted except in cases where a court orders them or an Aborigine requests them, the report said.

Aborigines are an impoverished minority who die on average 17 years younger than other Australians.

The so-called federal intervention should continue because "the situation in remote communities and town camps was _ and remains _ sufficiently acute to be described as a national emergency," the report said.

Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin said she would consider the report and respond soon.

"The government remains committed to continuing and strengthening" the intervention, she said in a statement.