New NT deputy chief to push Rudd on intervention  New NT deputy leader Marion Scrymgour makes a heartfelt plea for the stolen generation at a news conference in Darwin yesterday.
Photo: Glenn Campbell
Lindsay Murdoch, Darwin
November 28, 2007
MARION Scrymgour says she has never pulled her punches and is not about to start now she has become the highest-ranked Aboriginal leader of any Australian government. "We are kidding ourselves if we said there is a child sleeping out there who is safe tonight — that is not the case," said Ms Scrymgour, speaking about the intervention in the Northern Territory's remote indigenous communities that has the support of Labor Prime Minister-elect Kevin Rudd. An opposing view on Marion's political independence from the NT News Marion 'on leash' ________________________________________________
Ms Scrymgour, who was elected the territory's deputy leader on Monday, told journalists yesterday that six months after the Howard Government started spending hundreds of millions of dollars on the intervention there was still "social devastation" in the communities. "We have seen Aboriginal people leave their communities en masse and they have come into our suburbs because of the confusion, the anger and the anxiety that is out there," she said. Ms Scrymgour, a feisty and controversial mother of three who will take charge of indigenous affairs after a reshuffle of the NT Government's cabinet this week, has put Mr Rudd on notice she will push for changes to key elements of the intervention — which the Howard government described as an emergency response to protect vulnerable indigenous children. "I've always said quite clearly the acquisition of land and the removal of permits does not go to the protection of children," Ms Scrymgour said. Ms Scrymgour, 47, whose father was a member of the so-called "stolen generation", made clear she intends to take the lead in "putting a new plan" to the Rudd Government to tackle indigenous disadvantage. She said she supported some aspects of the intervention, including extra police and money to build schools and houses. But she added: "We need to put forward a plan that will be strategic in areas of real need." The NT's new Chief Minister, Paul Henderson, who replaced Clare Martin after she stepped aside on Monday, is seeking a meeting with Mr Rudd to discuss the plan as hundreds of people working for the intervention taskforce in 73 prescribed communities wonder about their future. Ms Scrymgour lashed out yesterday at the impact 99-year leases had had on indigenous people on the Tiwi islands, north of Darwin, where her mother was born and which she represents in the NT Parliament. "It's clear people didn't understand the concept of what was happening," she said "They are not happy … they didn't know what they were getting themselves into." Mr Rudd and whomever he appoints to be his indigenous affairs minister will find Ms Scrymgour a formidable Aboriginal advocate. She created splits in Labor when she last month described the intervention as the "black kids' Tampa" and a "vicious new McCarthyism" before she was forced to concede her comments were "a bit over the top". One of six Aboriginal MPs in the NT government, Ms Scrymgour often clashed in private with Ms Martin. Source
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