The School of Australian Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Governance Program present the third seminar in the 2007 Occasional Seminar Series on 26 September to 12.30pm to 1.30pm.
Michael O’Donnell presents ‘The National Emergency Response Legislation in the Northern Territory’.
The Federal Parliament has passed wide ranging legislation in the Northern Territory that significantly affects Aboriginal communities and to some extent the general population of the NT in its response to the Little Children are Sacred Report concerning child abuse in Aboriginal communities in the NT.
The Federal Government will now directly control and manage Aboriginal communities in the NT and regulate the lives of Aboriginal people resident in those communities to a significant degree. To achieve this outcome it has introduced both permanent and temporary changes. It has significantly wound back sections of the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act, 1976 including the application of the permit system; the application of anti-discrimination laws in the NT; and the Northern Territory (Self-Government) Act, 1978.
Are these measures justified? You be the judge after you’ve heard the detail.
Michael O’Donnell is a lecturer in law, Faculty of Law, Business and Arts, Charles Darwin University.
This seminar takes place in the lecture theatre, building 22.