TWO former Howard government ministers have accused a United Nations observer of putting rights before living standards by alleging that the intervention into remote Northern Territory communities is discriminatory.
UN special rapporteur on indigenous rights James Anaya said yesterday NT intervention was incompatible with key international covenents.
Former indigenous affairs minister Mal Brough, who led the 2007 intervention, told ABC radio that Professor Anaya had his priorities the wrong way around.
Mr Brough said that improving living conditions was more important that not offending “some law”.
“I get very annoyed when I hear people pontificating about human rights when today there will be children sitting out there in abject squalor with diseases they don’t have to have, inadequate education, poor nutrition and poor access to health and we have some nicety about human rights legislation,” Mr Brough said.
After 11 days of touring indigenous communities around Australia, Mr Anaya concluded that the emergency response, initiated in 2007 by the Howard government, was too wide in its scope.
“Any special measure that infringes on the basic rights of indigenous peoples must be narrowly tailored, proportional, and necessary to achieve the legitimate objectives being pursued,” Professor Anaya said.
“In my view, the Northern Territory emergency response is not.
“These measures overtly discriminate against Aboriginal peoples, infringe on their right of self-determination and stigmatise already stigmatised communities.”
The Coalition’s indigenous affairs spokesman Tony Abbott dismissed Mr Anaya’s criticism as “sanctimonious claptrap”.
“I don’t think anyone who is deeply familiar with conditions in these remote places could seriously say that (the intervention) wasn’t necessary,” Mr Abbott said. “In fact it was long overdue,” he said.