A Senate Committee’s recommendation to pass legislation that does not sufficiently reinstate rights protections in the Northern Territory will perpetuate discrimination and disempowerment amongst large numbers of Indigenous peoples, according to Amnesty International.

Following an inquiry, the Community Affairs Legislation Committee majority report tabled on 10 March 2010 has recommended that the Senate pass several proposed laws relating to racial discrimination and welfare reform. Dissenting reports from Coalition and Greens senators were also lodged.

To enact the Northern Territory Emergency Response (NTER) legislation in 2007, the Australian Government suspended the Racial Discrimination Act and other anti-discrimination legislation.

“Despite all the information provided to the Committee, it has failed to rectify many of the inadequacies in the government’s plan,” said Amnesty International Australia Campaign Coordinator Sarah Marland.

“Suggesting that the Bills will reinstate the Racial Discrimination Act is misleading and represents another missed opportunity to re-establish comprehensive rights protection in the Northern Territory. Amnesty International has consistently stated that racially-discriminatory measures under the NTER violate Australia’s human rights obligations and should cease.”

While Amnesty International supports the proposed repeal of clauses in the NTER legislation that remove anti-discrimination protections for Indigenous residents of prescribed communities, the organisation believes that these moves do not sufficiently reinstate protections against discrimination.

Amnesty International is concerned that these Bills will not reverse racially-discriminatory actions already initiated under the NTER and offer no redress for discrimination already suffered.

The proposed Bills provide for the continuation of compulsory lease acquisitions, bans on alcohol, gambling and pornography in Indigenous communities, and fail to restore the permit system, which ensures Aboriginal control over who enters their land.

They provide for race-based compulsory income quarantining, in its current form, until mid 2011 and propose that such quarantining be expanded to disadvantaged groups nationally, not just prescribed Indigenous communities.

“The evidence being used to justify the expansion of the income management regime is woefully inadequate and we are yet to be convinced it has improved the lot of Aboriginal women and children in the Northern Territory,” said Sarah Marland.

Amnesty International believes these Bills must be reformulated in order to fully protect the rights of all Indigenous people in the Northern Territory.

“A robust process of free, prior and informed consent, as outlined in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, must be at the core of any government plan but we once again we find exactly the opposite happening,” said Sarah Marland.

“Racial discrimination has never been acceptable and the Australian Government is in breach of its international legal obligations by allowing it to continue.”

Read Amnesty International's submission to the Senate Committee