The Stronger Futures policy was a multifaceted social policy of the Australian government concerning the Aboriginal population of the Northern Territory. It was underpinned by the Stronger Futures in the Northern Territory Act 2012, which ceased 10 years after its commencement on 29 June 2012.
On 23 November 2011, the Stronger Futures legislation was introduced in the Parliament of Australia by Jenny Macklin, the Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, and was subsequently supported by the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard. The policy intended to address key issues that exist within Indigenous communities of the Northern Territory such as unemployment, low school enrolment and attendance, alcohol abuse, community safety and child protection issues, food security, and housing and land reforms. Several years of similar initiatives preceded the policy, including the "Building Stronger Regions, Stronger Futures" policy, "New Local Government" policy, and the Northern Territory National Emergency Response Act 2007.
The Stronger Futures legislation maintains key components of the Northern Territory National Emergency Response Act 2007 and includes bills such as the Stronger Futures in the Northern Territory Bill of 2011, Stronger Futures in the Northern Territory (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2011 and the Social Security Legislation Amendment Bill of 2011. The legislation proposed to extend both the time frame and the geographic scope of these measures. The Stronger Futures legislation was passed in the House of Representatives with small changes on 27 February 2012 and was passed by the Senate on 29 June. The Australian Government claimed that consultations with Aboriginal communities of the Northern Territory helped to construct the Stronger Futures.
The policy has been criticised by rights organisations such as Amnesty International and Concerned Citizens of Australia. The Stand for Freedom campaign leads the public movement against this legislation and criticises many measures of the legislation since they maintain "racially-discriminatory" elements of the Northern Territory Emergency Response Act and continue the control by the Australian Government over "Aboriginal people and their lands." In addition, the campaign is critical of the inadequacy of the Aboriginal consultations, saying that the decisions derived from these consultations rarely coincided with the actual desires of the affected communities.
Building Stronger Regions, Stronger Futures policy The Building Stronger Regions, Stronger Futures policy, launched on 3 May 2003 by the Northern Territory Community Development Minister Jack Ah Kit, involved consultation between the Northern Territory Government and Indigenous group leaders of the Northern Territory to form a regional governance system and improve service delivery outcomes within the Northern Territory. Due to the high failure rate of small councils in the Northern Territory, their increased dependence on non-Aboriginal staff for basic needs, and the corrupt and fraudulent activity within local governments, the policy created representative and administrative regional authorities and transfused local governments into twenty large and stable councils. The regional authorities would sustain initiatives of regional development, require the support of residents, supply decision-making structures and provide a culturally based electorate.
The Local Government Act of 1978, which established community governance structures in remote areas of the Northern Territory and promoted local governments in Aboriginal communities, supplied an appropriate statutory foundation for these authorities. In addition, the policy addressed capacity development in governance through the development of improved financial and service capacity monitoring, instatement of development officers and establishment of stronger administration in local and regional areas.
In 2004, at the end of the policy's first year of application, the Australian Government abolished the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC), which was a "statutory based national forum for Indigenous Australians based on the election of representatives from every state and territory." Through this abolition, the Indigenous people of the NT had much lessened representation in the Commonwealth government, and the regional governments were promoted as an alternative. In mid-2005, the Northern Territory negotiated with the Australian Government to produce the "Overarching Agreement on National Affairs". This agreement detailed the collaborative goals of the Australian Government and Northern Territory and outlined the initiatives of the Building Stronger Regions, Stronger Futures policy. These were: "The implementation of legitimate and effective representation" "The establishment of Regional Authorities which would involve voluntary amalgamations of community councils based on extensive and effective consultation to ensure constitutions reflect local aspirations and have cultural legitimacy" "The amalgamation of community councils into Regional Authorities to effectively addresses current problems of scale, improve service delivery, reduce staff turnover and ensure greater coordination and continuity of interest in community economic and social development."
This agreement defined the anticipated outcome of the regional authorities. In late 2006, the Building Stronger Regions, Stronger Futures policy was replaced with the New Local Government Policy due to "ideological dissatisfaction and implementation difficulties experienced by government bureaucrats in trying to accommodate Indigenous regional concepts, ideas about representation for local government and consensus methods of decision making." The discussion-based approach of the Building Stronger Regions, Stronger Futures policy took time and strained the resources and capacity of both Governments.
New Local Government Policy
In 2006, the Australian Government enacted the New Local Government Policy which established mandatory regionalisation within the Northern Territory and outlined nine regions, which were to be acknowledged as shires, to command a single democratic governance structure through a "one size fits all" approach. The policy exhibited similar flexibility in Indigenous governance structures and decision-making processes, compared to the Building Stronger Regions, Stronger Futures policy, yet effectively ignored culturally based processes of local governance, Indigenous governance systems and cultural geographies within the shire structure.
In order to address Indigenous input, the policy created 'transitional committees' through which the Australian Government could provide advice about shires and non-Indigenous individuals and stakeholders could participate.
Northern Territory National Emergency Response Act 2007
In August 2007, the Coalition Australian Government responded to the ALP NT government's Little Children are Sacred report, with the Northern Territory National Emergency Response Act 2007, bringing about what became known as "The Intervention". This was developed without the involvement of the NT government. Through this Act, the Australian Government seized administrative control of sixty remote Indigenous communities, attained compulsory leases on Indigenous settlements for a minimum of a five-years and enacted legislation to act on these changes. As a result, "all communities located on the Aboriginal inalienable freehold land under the Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1976 would have their permit systems revoked."
In addition, the Australian Government sent an Emergency Response Taskforce, which included the Australian Army and Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, to "priority communities" in order to ensure requirements of the Act were carried out and oversee health checks on Aboriginal children.
At the November 2007 federal election the ALP was voted into power, and expressed a desire to evaluate the new Act.
Northern Territory Emergency Response Evaluation
In October 2008, after an examination of an independent review of the Northern Territory Intervention, the Australian Government pledged to recognise the extreme disadvantage and social seclusion experienced by remote communities within the Northern Territory, form a legitimate relationship with the Indigenous people based on consultation, acknowledge Australian human rights responsibilities and reinstate the Racial Discrimination Act 1975. From June to August 2009, the Government held consultations with Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory to identify the proper direction for the Northern Territory Emergency Response. In June 2010, as a result of these consultations, the Australian Parliament passed legislation to "reinstate the operation of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 in relation to the Northern Territory Emergency Response, introduce a new, non-discriminatory scheme of income management, redesign the alcohol and pornography restrictions, five-year leases and community stores licensing, redesign law enforcement powers to improve and make them sustainable for the greater long-term benefit of Indigenous people."
In 2011, representatives of the Northern Territory Government and Australian Government, assisted by independent advisory groups from the community, compiled an Evaluation Report of the Northern Territory Emergency Response Act to discover if initiatives within the Intervention were effective and produced desirable outcomes. The report identified measures of the Intervention which drew positive support from Northern Territory community members such as the utilisation of Indigenous Engagement Officers, establishment of Government Business Models, increased presence of police and use of night patrols. In addition, the report revealed how the Intervention expanded educational systems, reduced school overcrowding and increased the availability of teaching positions.
Despite these improvements, the report recognised that "a key gap in the evaluative evidence that we have addressed was the systematic collection of data about the experiences and views of local peoples from the NTER communities." The report identified certain problems within the Northern Territory Emergency Response such as the blanket imposition of initiatives, especially those that demanded behavioral change such as income management, and the suspension of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975. The report identified specific issues within the Intervention such as the lack of interpreter services, persistent challenge of housing, high rates of violent crime and alcohol-related offenses, low employment rates, and low rates of school attendance. The report received widespread criticism, such as that it was a hasty reaction to allegations and not properly planned or thought through, and that it was nothing more than another attempt to control these Aboriginal communities. Through this evaluation, the Australian Government recognised the large discrepancy which persists between non-Indigenous and Indigenous peoples within the Northern Territory and has created the "Stronger Futures" Policy along with several pieces of supportive legislation to continue "closing the gap."
Stronger Futures policy of 2011