Restore community governance
DEMAND 1
Urgently rebuild Aboriginal community government councils. Restore decision making power and administration of municipal services to these councils.
Transfer all assets seized by the shires to the Aboriginal councils and pay compensation for all other assets sold off by the shires.
Remove Government Business Managers installed by the Intervention.
Repeal Business Management Area Powers which grant the Minister the capacity for total control over the budgets and direction of organisations receiving Commonwealth funding.
Overview
Since 2007, Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory have suffered a sustained assault on their ability to participate in decisions regarding community services and development.
The NT Intervention installed Government Business Managers (GBMs) into most communities. GBM compounds were built in a matter of weeks, often surrounded by barbed wire, without consultation with local people.
The federal government legislated extraordinary Business Management Area Powers which grant the Minister capacity to direct local organisations, seize assets and fire staff.
Prior to the Intervention, most communities had Aboriginal Community Government Councils. These were bodies elected by the local people.
They had an important representative function, being the main point of contact with government agencies and any organisations wanting to do business in the community.
Community councils also ran municipal and other social services and often Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP).
Council offices were also hubs of community life, one of the only access points to the outside world through phone, fax or internet.
Following the Intervention, these councils were dissolved through a process of local government reform (pdf) undertaken by the NT government.
58 community councils were replaced by eight shire councils in July 2008. Decision making power and council assets were removed from local sites, to regional centres in Alice Springs, Tennant Creek, Katherine and Darwin.
The NT government's design of shire amalgamation began prior to the Intervention. But it was Intervention powers and newly installed Commonwealth officials which ensured the smooth multi-million dollar transfer of buildings, assets and authority in circumstances which may have otherwise been challengeable. Both the imposition of GBMs and shire councils have been experienced as a new wave of dispossession, disempowerment and an effective loss in levels of service.
Currently there is no local organ of decision making power where Aboriginal people can play a role directing the process of development in their community - this must change immediately.
References
The Governance Role of Local Boards: (pdf) Report by the Central Land Council examining the impact on community governance of the transition from Aboriginal community councils to the Shires. Along with detailed surveys from six communities on the role of local boards under the Shires, this report contains a clear summary of the recent policy changes.
Contested Governance: Culture, Power and Institutions in Indigenous Australia: (pdf) A major work from the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research (CAEPR), this collection of papers examines the dilemmas and challenges involved in the Indigenous struggle for the development and recognition of systems of governance that they recognise as both legitimate and effective. The book is national in scope, with a number of works looking at the impact of recent reforms in the NT including from Fraces Murphy, Dianne Smith, Will Sanders and Jon Altman.
The Return of the Super-Intendant: (pdf) Extract from an upcoming paper ‘return to the ration days’, by Paddy Gibson from the Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning. These short interviews look at the community experience of Government Business Managers in the first year of the NTER.
Prescribed Area People’s Alliance statement: An open letter to Jenny Macklin demanding and end to the Intervention and the return of Aboriginal community government councils. Personally delivered by a delegation of representatives from Prescribed Area’s in February 2009.
http://stoptheintervention.org/facts/your-voice/prescribed-area-people-s-alliance
Interview with Mark Fordham: An interview with Mark Fordham, former works manager at the Barkly Shire Council at Ampilatwatja who was sacked following a dispute over his refusal to dump raw sewage near the community school. Mark discusses the failure of the Shire to provide basic services or employ Aboriginal people. Mark has sadly passed away since this Interview.
Videos
Explore the reality further with our videos.
