Elizabeth June 27th, 2007

PANIC about the Howard Government’s crackdown on child sexual abuse has spread widely throughout remote Aboriginal communities, where parents fear their children will be taken away in a repeat of the stolen generation.

Some families have already fled the first community to be targeted, Mutitjulu at Uluru, but the Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Mal Brough, blames “liars” who have something to hide from police and military personnel for terrorising people and spreading hysteria.

“The reason people are scared there at the moment is because people are putting around that the army are coming to take their children away, that the army is coming in to shoot the dogs and the Government is going to take away their money and make them sit there and do what they’re told,” Mr Brough said.

Social workers and indigenous MPs in the Northern Territory are being swamped with phone calls from Aborigines wanting to know what will happen in their communities.

An indigenous MP, Alison Anderson, said she had been trying to persuade families in her huge desert electorate south of Alice Springs not to take their children and flee before police and troops arrived, which in some places could be within days.

“In one telephone hook-up last night people told me they were going to run away to a waterhole 50 kilometres away,” Ms Anderson said. “I have heard from many people thinking they may do the same thing. I’ve urged them not to panic and to stay on the communities and work with the people who arrive.”

Marion Scrymgour, a Northern Territory Government minister, said: “There’s a lot of fear, particularly among elder woman. Not so long ago – 30 to 40 years – children were being taken out of the arms of Aboriginal mothers. There is real fear that is going to happen again.”

Read the rest at the Sydney Morning Herald

I don’t have time to articulate my thoughts on this right now, as I’m knee-deep in boxes and packing tape, but I just wanted to register my complete lack of surprise. I can’t imagine the panic that I would feel if I was in these peoples’ shoes, especially considering our government’s shameful record throughout their entire lifetimes. How can Howard drop this landmine from Canberra and not communicate it properly to the people it will directly affect?

Just read Patrick’s post about why Howard is absolutely correct in comparing this mess to Katrina. I’m cranky.

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