Amnesty International has welcomed an Australian Government Bill repealing legislation that removed anti-discrimination protections for Indigenous residents of prescribed communities under the Northern Territory Emergency Response (NTER), but believes these moves fall short of resolving other important issues.

Amnesty International is concerned the Bill does not guarantee removal of race-based welfare quarantining until 2011, will not reverse racially-discriminatory actions already initiated under the NTER and offers no redress for discrimination already suffered.

To enact the NTER legislation and to implement the intervention, the Australian Government suspended the Racial Discrimination Act and Northern Territory’s anti-discrimination legislation.

The Social Security and Other Legislation Amendment (Welfare Reform and Reinstatement of Racial Discrimination Act) Bill 2009 was introduced to the Parliament on 25 November.

“For Indigenous residents living in prescribed communities, this is a very limited improvement in protection against racial discrimination,” said Sarah Marland, Amnesty International Campaign Coordinator.

“Simply removing clauses in the legislation that overtly discriminate while strengthening the measures on the ground goes against the evidence, and means that the Government falls short in protecting all Australians from discrimination in all circumstances.”

The Government’s own NTER progress report released last month found that childhood disease and risk factors caused by poor living environment have not changed significantly, housing stress has not abated and low rates of school attendance have barely changed.

The Bill allows for compulsory welfare quarantining in prescribed areas to continue until the end of 2010 unless it is superseded by a new welfare quarantining regime. This new regime would apply to all people living in yet-to-be defined areas of disadvantage across Australia.

“Having more than 45,000 Indigenous people in 73 prescribed communities in the Northern Territory subject to racially discriminatory measures, including the compulsory and blanket quarantining of social security payments, has been and continues to be completely unacceptable,” said Sarah Marland.

“While the proposed new regime would not be directly racially-discriminatory, concerns remain that there will be a disproportionate effect on Indigenous people, and that it will proceed without an adequate assessment of its impacts.”

Amnesty International continues to call on the Government to move away from imposed, blanket policy approaches in addressing the underlying disadvantage of Indigenous people in Australia.

The organisation welcomes plans to invite community participation in the development and management of strategies to deal with issues such as alcohol and substance abuse. Amnesty International also calls on the Government to clearly communicate changes to its policies and processes to the Indigenous people affected by these amendments.

“In addressing the underlying disadvantage of Indigenous people in Australia, Amnesty International continues to encourage the Government to adopt approaches that empower people and engage communities’ meaningfully in finding solutions to the complex issues they face,” said Sarah Marland.

Amnesty International will further analyse the Government’s Bill and the remaining elements of the NTER for their compliance with human rights standards.