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Written by Barbara Shaw
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Feb 10, 2008 at 12:18 PM |
The NT Intervention Posted on the campaign blog , February 6th, 2008 
Barbara Shaw is a Northern Territory resident who is leading the Convergence on Canberra on February 12th calling for an immediate review of the NT intervention by the Government. Here she tells GetUp! members her views on living in a community affected by the intervention and why the convergence is so important. Hello, My name is Barbara Shaw and I live in a community that has been “prescribed” under the Federal intervention into the Northern Territory called Mt. Nancy Town Camp. I'm an executive member of the local Tangentyere Council. I'm helping my community. I'm a self-determined person, but with the intervention this government is trying to take control of everything. I am very concerned for my people.
One massive problem is the welfare reforms, which see 50% of Centrelink payments for all people in prescribed areas “quarantined’ and distributed as store vouchers. There is no process of review for this.
People don’t want the quarantine. It is making everyone poorer. Centrelink is never organised to get our food vouchers in on time. We went the last long weekend without food, I was lucky to get a donation of cold meet from a journalist.
I look after not only my own kids, but others as well. It would be much easier to look after the kids if I had that Centrelink money in my pocket. I don't want to be controlled by a government department. They don't know my situation at home, how many mouths I've got to feed. There are a lot of parents out there like this.
Work for the dole is forcing people to work for their food vouchers. That's what Vincent Lingiari walked off the cattle stations for in the 60's. We need that kind of fight again.
Centrelink is not providing proper services for remote communities, so people are being forced into town. Wallace rock-hole is shutting down, which community will be next? . We don’t have the services to cope with the urban drift.
Under Howard we have consistently put up programs, crying out for help, and always been knocked back. Labor must be different.
I am trying to raise funds to take a group of Aboriginal people from Central Australia to Canberra for the opening of Parliament, to join with others from around the country in solidarity to make a strong statement to the new government that there should be a immediate review of the NT Emergency Intervention Legislation, restoration of the Racial Discrimination Act and implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
I am writing to request a donation to help cover the cost of hiring a bus to travel to Canberra and food and accommodation for the trip. Our total costs are going to be close to $35,000 and so far we have raised a quarter of this.
Community members have very little spare money especially those whose incomes have been quarantined. We are hoping to raise some funds through art sales, and some communities are asking members to put in so much per week out of their limited money. Any donation you are able to make would be a great help.
We have limited time as we hope to leave for Canberra in less than a week. CAAMA (Central Australia Aboriginal Media Association) is our sponsoring organisation and has kindly agreed to deposit funds in a special account.
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