KEY POINTS:
As more details emerge of the Federal Government's draconian measures to curb indigenous child sex abuse in the Northern Territory, it is becoming clear that Prime Minister John Howard has launched a much broader social agenda.
Next week his Cabinet will consider a proposal to extend tough new conditions on welfare and family payments to all beneficiaries across Australia, regardless of race.
Thursday's announcement of Canberra's intention to take control of indigenous communities and their health and welfare also overturns policies that for decades have been lodged in the principle of self-determination.
Howard has already abolished the elected Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission and the regional councils that administered and distributed federal indigenous funding.
Plans to increase policing in the Territory's indigenous communities blurs the distinction between social policy and law and order. And Howard has further indicated his intention to use the military to support his measures.
Reaction to the startling package announced by Howard and Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough has been mixed, with the widespread welcoming of real action to tackle some of the nation's most shameful failings muted by cynicism over his motives and the ability to implement the measures.
This is an election year, and Howard continues to trail in the polls.
An unapologetic, hard-nosed approach to problems of child abuse and neglect, welfare abuse and other ills will appeal to a nation that has for decades agonised over its inability to improve the desperately Third World lives of Aborigines.
The realities of the package and its implementation will be clouded by the rhetoric.
Howard intends banning alcohol and pornography on Aboriginal land, removing their right to control access to their land, taking control of their communities, "quarantining" 50 per cent of welfare payments to ensure all is not spent on alcohol and drugs, tying welfare payments to attendance of children at school, making parents pay for school lunches, and medically examining every indigenous child under 16.
The catalyst was a report released at the weekend detailing the prevalence of sexual abuse of Aboriginal children and the "rivers of grog" that are destroying their communities.
What was lost in the commotion was Howard's intention to apply the welfare conditions to all Australians, beginning with a Cabinet submission by Brough next week.
"I should indicate to you that Mr Brough is bringing ... some proposals to further extend the conditionality of welfare payments to all Australians receiving income support to ensure that these payments are used for the benefit of their children," Howard said.
The Northern Territory's indigenous problems provided the urgency and the peg on which to hang his broader agenda.
"There are examples of [wasting welfare] in many parts of Australia, not as concentrated and therefore not as apparently gross and distressing as can be found in the Northern Territory," Howard said.
Howard does not try to disguise the extent or severity of the measures.
"It is a hardline approach in the sense that we are moving in, we are going to take control. I will be slammed for taking away people's rights and so forth. Frankly, I don't care about that because I do know that the greatest responsibility I and others have got is the protection of the vulnerable in our community - and nobody is more vulnerable than a little child."
But critics have slammed the measures as "knee-jerk" and even those who applaud Howard's determination question his ability to bring about sustained, long-term improvements to indigenous lives.
While Health Minister Tony Abbott yesterday supported the view that indigenous health and welfare was a law and order issue - "We need to get the police in and the booze out" - police unions and state ministers said the extra resources required were not available.
Doctors say their numbers are not sufficient to carry out the medical examinations and remedial work likely to flow from them, even with the "tens of millions" Howard says he is prepared to spend.
And the broad view was summed up by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission's indigenous social justice commissioner, Tom Calma, who said Howard's package did not provide the measures to stop violence and prevent its recurring, nor the services needed once the changes were made.
"How will people be assisted to safely come off their alcohol or substance addiction?" Calma asked.
"Where are the rehabilitation services? Where are the trauma counselling and support services for families?
"The real obstacles to ending violence are insufficient professional and support staff, resources and basic infrastructure that indigenous communities need."
