The NT’s attack on Aboriginal communities leads a national race to the bottom on human rights
By Mililma May
For too long, the federal government has watched idly as legislators in the Northern Territory chip away at the basic human rights of First Peoples, writes Danggalaba Kulumbirigin Tiwi woman, Mililma May.
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Australia claims to be a human-rights-respecting nation. Yet here on Gulumoerrgin (Darwin), the rights of Indigenous peoples are being intentionally and systematically violated.
In August, the four Land Councils of the Northern Territory stood together in a rare and historic moment of unity against the Finocchiaro Government’s new “public safety” and prison laws, which they said ignored and undermined the rights of Aboriginal people, as reported by the ABC.
For our communities, this was a powerful moment of strength that showed the courage of our people across the Territory, while also highlighting how dire the material conditions are. To mobilise the institutions of the Land Councils is to show just how determined we are to secure basic human rights on our own lands.
And yet, the Albanese Government has kept us at arm’s length, encouraging us to focus only on the NT Government – as though Canberra doesn’t hold the real power. Under the Constitution, the Territory’s powers ultimately sit with the Commonwealth. The federal government cannot keep hiding from its responsibility while people’s lives are being destroyed under laws it allows to stand.
This federal evasiveness has a long history. Every time the Commonwealth dares to look too closely at what’s happening in the NT, whichever party is in power in the Territory throws a tantrum about “people on the east coast” not understanding the NT. That dance between so-called Territory rights and federal power has created the perfect cover for a race to the bottom on human rights – nowhere more obvious than here in the Territory.
As Thomas Mayo and many of us are warning, that race to the bottom is national. The Albanese Government’s enabling of Finocchiaro is being replicated across the states. Victoria is following Queensland into ever more punitive responses to children in the legal system – scapegoating mostly Black and poor kids in the name of being “tough on crime” because it plays well at the ballot box.
These governments are moving in advance of their state elections, gambling that locking up more children will win votes. Without strong federal minimum standards, this competition over who can punish the hardest will keep dragging the whole country down.
The Country Liberal Party’s (CLP) cruel and punitive policies are not only harming Aboriginal communities, but all of us who live here. They have drunk so much of the Trump Kool-Aid – importing his politics of fear, division and open contempt for human rights – that they have shown us exactly who they are.
Just this week, the CLP has blocked United Nations (UN) human rights inspectors from accessing Northern Territory prisons, watch houses, and youth detention centres, in a deliberate attempt to avoid scrutiny and accountability. They have proven themselves so immoral that we know they will not shift course on their own. That must be called out plainly.
But we also refuse to let the federal government off the hook. It is the Commonwealth that has the power – and the obligation – to draw a line in the sand. Our voices are being raised to Canberra because we need them to act: to use their Territory powers, to legislate national minimum standards and to make sure no state or territory can sink below basic human rights protections again.
The Albanese Government must stop pretending that this is someone else’s mess. If we are to keep calling this a rights-respecting country, the Commonwealth must implement minimum standards that reflect its international obligations and the decades of First Nations activism that has always been this country’s moral compass.
Australia will only be a rights-respecting nation when the most vulnerable child in this country is thriving.
For me, this must be an inevitable future where every single Indigenous child in this country is healthy, with their families, speaking their language, on their Country, with clean drinking water, in a safe house, with a great education and dancing their song lines.
About the author
Mililma May
Mililma is a Danggalaba Kulumbiringin Tiwi writer and community organiser. She is the former CEO and Co-Founder of Uprising of the People Ltd, and has led and supported grassroots movements across the Northern Territory including Shut Down Don Dale, Save Lee Point, and Stop Middle Arm.
Currently serving as the campaigns and advocacy manager at Change the Record, Mililma is committed to ensuring that Indigenous peoples are self-determined, empowered and learned, with a core focus on building a world where every Indigenous child can thrive.
This is so important, thank you for sharing. Also. Heartbreaking.
“Just this week, the CLP has blocked United Nations (UN) human rights inspectors from accessing Northern Territory prisons, watch houses, and youth detention centres, in a deliberate attempt to avoid scrutiny and accountability. They have proven themselves so immoral that we know they will not shift course on their own. That must be called out plainly.”
Exactly.
Same with the NT’s longtime practice of using their GST funds intended for “closing the gap” in local government infrastructure in Indigenous communities on election grabbing projects in Darwin. Denying human rights for decades and no accountability because as people within Federal Labor used to say, “Aboriginal people will always vote for us, they have no better option.”