By Amy McQuire, February 10, 2012
A peak Aboriginal children rights body has called on a parliamentary committee to reject the Stronger Futures legislation, stating the NT intervention has failed to protect Aboriginal children.
Indigenous affairs minister Jenny Macklin introduced the controversial Stronger Futures legislation to the lower house in November last year. It has since been referred to a senate committee, with a reporting date of February 29th.
Stronger Futures is intended to replace the Northern Territory Emergency Response (NTER), which expires in August this year.
But the legislation has largely been billed as the mark II of the NTER. The government will keep many of the planks of the original intervention in place, including the alcohol and porn bans, compulsory income management (including the rolling out trials linking welfare payments to school attendance), star chamber powers for the Australian Crime Commission, and bans on considering customary law in sentencing and bail decisions.
Comments
Re: 'Stronger Futures' won’t protect children: SNAICC
This piece of news left us in the cold back in 2012. Ever since there has been some advancement in the protection of aboriginal children, however nowhere near enough. The problem is not just the lack of backers, but the lack of good ideas for projects that would protect them. The Stronger Futures legislation can be argued but the reason it was rejected was not that simple. Sincerely, Tu Chanming.
PS. I believe that ones a truly innovative idea comes out, it will pass through without difficulty.