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Booze, porn plan 'racist'
22/06/2007 09:51 - (SA)
Sydney - An Australian government plan to ban alcohol and pornography in Aboriginal communities to try to curb rampant child sexual abuse was labelled racist and knee-jerk by indigenous groups on Friday.
Prime Minister John Howard announced the unprecedented measures on Thursday following a government report detailing paedophilia and juvenile prostitution in Aboriginal communities across Australia's vast Northern Territory.
As government ministers appealed on national television for health professionals to help solve what Howard described as a "national emergency", critics said Canberra's plan had been hastily prepared and poorly thought out.
Indigenous activist Michael Mansell accused Howard of trying to stir hysteria against Aborigines ahead of national elections later this year, where the prime minister's conservative government will seek a fifth term in office.
Mansell said the government's plans singled out Aborigines.
"It would be different if his social behaviour strategy applied to everyone in Australia, but it doesn't, making his policies racist," said Mansell, the director of the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre.
"This is a racist attack on the weak and an immoral abuse of power, amounting to nothing more than political vote scoring."
'Obliged to protect children'
The government plans to take control of Aboriginal communities and bar alcohol for six months, ban hard-core pornography, ensure welfare payments are not spent on alcohol and carry out health check on indigenous children.
Howard denied the action was racist, saying the government was obliged to protect children regardless of their background.
"It has got nothing to do with race; it's got everything to do with responsibility of the parents," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
"It's just that the worst examples in Australia are to be found in many of these Aboriginal communities."
Academic Judy Atkinson, who has written several reports on Aboriginal child protection issues, said she was concerned that government plans, which include using police and the military to "stabilise" communities, would backfire.
"We will have an increase of violence, we will have an increase of suicide and suicide attempts, there will be greater feelings of despair," she told the ABC.
Australia's police union also expressed reservations about its members being expected to clean up indigenous communities without clearly-defined goals and strategies.
"The ill-defined proposal to place interstate police into Northern Territory communities fails to recognise the realities facing every Australian police force," said Police Federation of Australia chief executive Mark Burgess.
Aboriginal Affairs Minister Mal Brough rejected "politically correct" criticisms of the government's actions, saying they amounted to excuses to do nothing to address the problem.
"Instead of us having shame, let's have action," he said.
- AFP
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