27 February 2011
Aboriginal leaders in central Australia have welcomed comments from the man who designed the Northern Territory intervention, agreeing that it has failed.
Former Liberal Indigenous affairs minister Mal Brough introduced the intervention under the Howard government in 2007.
The policy banned alcohol in communities and restricted welfare payments.
Since Labor won government the intervention has remained in place, but Mr Brough says Labor has not delivered it properly.
Rosalie Kunoth-Monks from Utopia, 230 kilometres from Alice Springs agrees, although her agreement with Mr Brough ends there.
"It was a violation to human rights right from the beginning," she said.
"What we really needed was real empowerment. In other words, real investment and people to earn and merit what we've got on the communities."
Richard Downs from the Ampilatwatja community says the entire policy is wrong.
"[Mr Brough] waffles on about 'the next stage'. I don't know what the next stage is but he has totally disempowered the people here," he said.
"You know, I mean [they are] asking for a disaster, which is what they're getting now, with people migrating from homelands communities into townships into Alice Springs, Katherine, Tennant Creek."
Ms Kunoth-Monks and Mr Downs want the Government to end what they say is a racist approach.
