Operation Outreach was the Australian Defence Force's (ADF) contribution to the Northern Territory National Emergency Response (NTNER).
The NTNER (also referred to as "the intervention") is a package of changes to welfare provision, law enforcement, land tenure and other measures, introduced by the Australian federal government under John Howard in 2007 to address child sexual abuse in Northern Territory Aboriginal communities. The package was the Federal government's response to the publication of Little Children are Sacred , a Territory government report that found neglect and abuse of Aboriginal children had reached crisis levels. It received bipartisan parliamentary support, but was criticized by some. Former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd had continued to support the response, whilst making some adjustments to its implementation. The former Prime Minister Julia Gillard has and continues to show her support.
ADF support to the NTNER, known as Joint Task Force (JTF) 641, included supplying contracted trade services (project management, engineering advice, construction and transport) to set up eighteen new police stations and safe houses in five remote communities. [1] [2] The military force also provided outbound logistics (linguistic and long-range communications support) through the wet season to child health check teams. [2]
The Stolen Generations were the children of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent who were removed from their families by the Australian federal and state government agencies and church missions, under acts of their respective parliaments. The removals of those referred to as "half-caste" children were conducted in the period between approximately 1905 and 1967, although in some places mixed-race children were still being taken into the 1970s.
The Australian Defence Force (ADF) is the military organisation responsible for the defence of Australia. It consists of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), Australian Army, Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) and several "tri-service" units. The ADF has a strength of just over 85,000 full-time personnel and active reservists and is supported by the Department of Defence and several other civilian agencies.
Malcolm Thomas Brough is a former Australian politician who was the Liberal National member for the Division of Fisher in the Australian House of Representatives. Brough was the member for the Division of Longman from the 1996 election to his defeat at the 2007 election. He was re-elected at the 2013 federal election as the member for the Division of Fisher. He held various positions in John Howard's second, third, and fourth ministries, and sat in cabinet as Minister for Families and Community Services and Indigenous Affairs from 2006 to 2007. In this role, he conducted the controversial Northern Territory Emergency Response. From Brisbane, Brough was a member of the Liberal Party, and briefly served as president of the party's Queensland Division in 2008, until he resigned following its merger with the Queensland Division of the National Party. He later joined the new Liberal National Party.
In Canada, the Indian residential school system was a network of boarding schools for Indigenous peoples. The network was funded by the Canadian government's Department of Indian Affairs and administered by Christian churches. The school system was created for the purpose of removing Indigenous children from the influence of their own culture and assimilating them into the dominant Canadian culture, "to kill the Indian in the child." Over the course of the system's more than hundred-year existence, about 30 percent of Indigenous children were placed in residential schools nationally. The number of school-related deaths remains unknown due to an incomplete historical record, though estimates range from 3,200 to upwards of 6,000.
Human rights in Australia have largely been developed under Australian Parliamentary democracy through laws in specific contexts and safeguarded by such institutions as an independent judiciary and High Court which implement the Common Law, the Australian Constitution and various other laws of Australia and its states and territories. Australia also has an independent statutory human rights body, the Australian Human Rights Commission, which investigates and conciliates complaints, and more generally promotes human rights through education, discussion and reporting.
The history of the Northern Territory began over 60,000 years ago when Indigenous Australians settled the region. Makassan traders began trading with the indigenous people of the Northern Territory for trepang from at least the 18th century onwards, and possibly 300 years prior to that.
The Bennelong Society was a conservative think-tank dedicated to Indigenous Australian affairs. The society was named after the Eora man, Bennelong, who served as an interlocutor between the Indigenous Australian and British cultures, both in Sydney and in the United Kingdom almost from the start of British settlement of Australia in 1788. It was affiliated with conservative commentators in debates on Indigenous affairs. The society was established to:
The Northern Command is a joint operational Australian Defence Force formation. Northern Command is responsible for the planning and conduct of operations to the north of Australia during peacetime and wartime. In addition, Northern Command manages the defence aspects of the multi-agency Maritime Border Command.
Bringing Them Home is the 1997 Australian Report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families. The report marked a pivotal moment in the controversy that has come to be known as the Stolen Generations.
Robert Lindsay Collins AO was a Labor Party member of the Australian Senate from July 1987 to March 1998, representing the Northern Territory. Prior to entering the Senate, Collins was a member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly from 1977 to 1987, and Leader of the Territory Opposition from 1981 to 1986. He was the first Northern Territorian to become a federal minister. He committed suicide after being charged with child sex offences.
Sue Gordon is an Aboriginal retired magistrate from Western Australia who has been locally and nationally honoured for her work with Aboriginal people and in community affairs. She is known for being chair of the Gordon Inquiry in 2002.
Little Children are Sacred, or Ampe Akelyernemane Meke Mekarle is the report of a Board of Inquiry into the Protection of Aboriginal Children from Sexual Abuse, chaired by Rex Wild and Patricia Anderson. Commissioned by the government of the Northern Territory, Australia, the report was publicly released on 15 June 2007.
The Northern Territory National Emergency Response, also known as "The Intervention" and sometimes the abbreviation "NTER" began with a media release by Mal Brough, Minister for Indigenous Affairs on 21 June 2007. The media release served as ministerial regulation to implement a taskforce of eminent Australians, led by Magistrate Sue Gordon, chair of the National Indigenous Council. The role of the Taskforce was to oversee a list of at least 12 measures in the Northern Territory, which included discriminatory changes to welfare, compulsory health checks for all Aboriginal children, the acquisition of Aboriginal townships, and banning alcohol and pornography in prescribed Aboriginal communities. The measures also included increased policing with assistance from other jurisdictions; calling in the army for logistics and surveillance; appointing managers to all government business in designated communities; and improving housing, but establishing market-based rents for public housing.
The Howard Government refers to the federal executive government of Australia led by Prime Minister John Howard between 11 March 1996 and 3 December 2007. It was made up of members of the Liberal–National Coalition, which won a majority of seats in the House of Representatives at four successive elections. The Howard Government commenced following victory over the Keating Government at the 1996 federal election. It concluded with its defeat at the 2007 federal election by the Australian Labor Party, whose leader Kevin Rudd then formed the First Rudd Government. It was the second-longest government under a single Prime Minister, with the longest having been the second Menzies Government (1949–1966).
The Stronger Futures policy is a multifaceted social policy of the Australian government concerning the Aboriginal population of the Northern Territory. It is underpinned by the Stronger Futures in the Northern Territory Act 2012.
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was a royal commission established in 2013 by the Australian government pursuant to the Royal Commissions Act 1902 to inquire into and report upon responses by institutions to instances and allegations of child sexual abuse in Australia. The establishment of the commission followed revelations of child abusers being moved from place to place instead of their abuse and crimes being reported. There were also revelations that adults failed to try to stop further acts of child abuse. The commission examined the history of abuse in educational institutions, religious groups, sporting organisations, state institutions and youth organisations. The final report of the commission was made public on 15 December 2017.
The Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement (IRSSA) is an agreement between the Government of Canada and approximately 86,000 Indigenous peoples in Canada who at some point were enrolled as children in the Canadian Indian residential school system, a system which was in place between 1879 and 1996. The IRSSA recognized the damage inflicted by the residential schools and established a $1.9-billion compensation package called CEP for all former IRS students. The agreement, announced in 2006, was the largest class action settlement in Canadian history. As of March 2016 a total of $1,622,422,106 has been paid to 79,309 former students. An additional $3.174 billion has been paid out as of December 31, 2018, through IAPs which are for damages suffered beyond the norm for the IRS.
The Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory is a Royal Commission established in 2016 by the Australian Government pursuant to the Royal Commissions Act 1902 to inquire into and report upon failings in the child protection and youth detention systems of the Government of the Northern Territory. The establishment of the commission followed revelations broadcast on 25 July 2016 by the ABC TV Four Corners program which showed abuse of juveniles held in the Don Dale Juvenile Detention Centre in Darwin.
The National Security Committee (NSC), also known as National Security Committee of Cabinet, is the peak decision-making body for national security and major foreign policy matters in the Australian Government. It is a committee of the Cabinet of Australia though decisions of the NSC do not require the endorsement of the Cabinet itself.
The Department of Home Affairs is the Australian Government interior ministry with responsibilities for national security, law enforcement, emergency management, border control, immigration, refugees, citizenship, and multicultural affairs. The portfolio also includes federal agencies such as the Australian Federal Police, Australian Border Force and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation. The Home Affairs portfolio reports to the Minister for Home Affairs The Hon. Peter Dutton MP and is led by Secretary of the Department of Home Affairs Mike Pezzullo.
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