Former prime minister John Howard defends NT Intervention after police commissioner apology speech

ABC NEWS (Australia)

A warning, this story contains distressing themes. Former Australian prime minister John Howard has defended the 2007 NT Emergency Response, following a landmark speech from the territory's police commissioner.

Transcript

00:00When public servants, army officers and police rolled into Lapalung Damaranji's Arnhem Land

00:07community 17 years ago, many of his Yolngu brothers and sisters feared another stolen

00:13generation.

00:14Most of my countrymen took up midnight to travel by boat to other communities and remote

00:24homelands because of that.

00:27The intervention brought compulsory ban on alcohol, gambling and pornography and abolished

00:32an employment program in 77 remote Aboriginal communities.

00:37The then Howard government also suspended the Racial Discrimination Act to introduce

00:41compulsory income management through the Basics Card.

00:46Seventeen years on at the Garma Festival, an acknowledgement of the role police played

00:51in the intervention, with the Anti-Police Commissioner apologising for historic racism

00:56in the force.

00:57The intervention also increased police presence on communities to enforce those restrictions

01:03and reduce customary law and cultural practices.

01:07At the time, then Prime Minister Howard said he had no choice but to act on allegations

01:11of widespread child abuse, which have since been widely disputed.

01:16But despite that and the Police Commissioner's words, he stands by his response.

01:21The intervention was totally justified because the NT government had failed in its responsibility

01:26to Indigenous children in the Territory, despite the findings of a report that that government

01:32had commissioned.

01:33The Rudd government seriously weakened the intervention.

01:36That should not have happened and I stand by every element of my government's decision

01:40to intervene.

01:42When contacted by the ABC after the Commissioner's speech, current Prime Minister Anthony Albanese

01:48would not say whether the Commonwealth would apologise for the intervention.

01:52And after all these years, Lapalung just wants his people's voices to be heard.

01:57We want our government to respect my countrymen.

02:05Let's work together to sustain our nation.

02:08A call to learn from lessons of the past.

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