Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women's Parallel ...

• The compulsory acquisition and taking control of specified Aboriginal land andcommunity living areas through renewable five year leases raises concernsabout the right to self-determination, as well as our cultural rights.• The laws introduce an income management regime, which includes measuressuch as quarantining 50 per cent of welfare payments for food and otheressentials and linking welfare payments to children’s school attendance. Thesemeasures raise particular concerns about to the right to self-determination andthe right to social security.Lack of consultationThe Northern Territory Intervention legislation was passed without consulting Aboriginaland Torres Strait Islander representatives or affected communities. This is despite theAustralian Government's commitment, in the Common Core Document, to consultingand involving Indigenous peoples when policies and programs have an impact onthem. 24Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women have told us that there are seriousproblems stemming from communication breakdowns about the Intervention and thelack of consultation with Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory. Women inthese communities want the wider Australian and international community tounderstand what is happening to them. Some expressed concern that many Englishterms used to describe the Intervention and associated measures and programs are noteasily translated into community languages. The Northern Territory AboriginalInterpreter Service reported that they had to develop new training packages to teachinterpreters the new terms involved in some of the new social security arrangementsimposed under the Intervention. An interpreter from the Service reported that this wasdifficult as 'the language was complicated and bureaucratic and not really aimed atcommunity people'. 25As one forum participant stated:Income management may work for those people who require it, but please do not use ablanket approach and apply this very discriminatory mission-management style ofmoney management to all Aboriginal people.The participant also gave the following example of practical problems with incomemanagement in a remote community, where people are given store vouchers to buyessential items rather than cash:The mob are given store cards that they can only use in certain shops, which are usually100 kms away from their community. For example, one woman had a voucher foraround $200 but it costs her $100 in taxi fares to go from the community to the shop withher kids…The scary thing is that this income management has already started to beimplemented in Western Australia and Qld.24 Australian Government, Common Core Document forming part of the reports of States Partiesincorporating the Fifth Report under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and theFourth Report under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (2006)[181], .25 Information provided at Darwin consultation.26