A submission by Professor Jon Altman in response to the FaCSIA Discussion Paper 'Access to Aboriginal Land under the Northern Territory Land Rights Act - Time for Change?'

In this publication version of his keynote address to the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Conference ‘Forty Years On: Political transformation and sustainability since the Referendum and into the future’, given in Canberra on 7 November 2007, Professor Altman examines the political and ideological background to the Northern Territory Emergency intervention, its policy goals, and its progress in the first four months, including a survey of implementation in five remote communities.

Conspicuous Compassion and Wicked Problems, Agenda, Vol. 14, No. 3. [Link]

This article examines the role of the Community Development Employment Program (CDEP) in Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory and the consequences of its sudden abolition. (First published in Arena Magazine 90, August-September 2007).

These remarks to the one day Senate enquiry emphasise Professor Altman's opposition to the many of the measures contained in the Bills, which he describes as 'hastily conceived' and filled with 'unnecessary' and 'contradictory' approaches.

This report, commissioned by Oxfam Australia, provides compelling evidence to argue that the proposed changes to the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 have no connection with the incidence of child sexual abuse; are likely to jeopardize the effectiveness of the Government's emergency response in the Northern Territory, and are detrimental to the development of Aboriginal communities.

While Australia is one of the world's richest countries, many of its Indigenous peoples live in poverty. This paper seeks to elucidate some avenues for addressing poverty in remote Indigenous Australia via appropriate pro-poor growth strategies. It engages robustly with the dominant Indigenous policy approach that promulgates a view that Indigenous economic development can only be achieved via mainstreaming, and presents an alternative livelihoods approach. (First published in Development Bulletin No.

Ministers Joe Hockey and Mal Broughs' decision to abolish the Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) scheme in remote Indigenous communities in the NT will have marked impacts on the arts industry, the management of Indigenous Protected Areas, and community-based Caring for Country ranger projects. And it's not just these success stories that will suffer; it's likely that there will be wider local, regional and national costs from this myopic, ill-considered, policy shift.

A costing estimate for the Howard Government's intervention into Northern Territory Indigenous communities. (First published in Crikey, 29 June 2007.)

An initial response to the Howard Government's new approach to Indigenous Affairs, announced on 21 June 2007. (First published in Crikey, 22 June 2007.)