About the Northern Territory Emergency Response

The Northern Territory Emergency Response (NTER) was announced on 21 June 2007 by the former Australian Government. This intervention was a response to evidence of abuse and potential neglect of children in the Little Children Are Sacred report to the Northern Territory Government.

The response has a wide range of measures designed to:

• protect children and make communities safe
• create a better future for Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory.

Community safety and law and order

• Providing more police in remote communities
• Bans on alcohol and pornography in prescribed areas
• Expanded night patrol services
• New and expanded safe houses for families experiencing violence
• Additional child-protection workers and Aboriginal family and community workers
• Diversionary programs for young people

Health

• Health checks and follow-up treatment for children
• Specialist support for children who have been abused
• Extra drug and alcohol rehabilitation and treatment services

Early childhood development and education

• More playgroups and crèches
• Extra teachers and classrooms and new boarding schools
• New early childhood and literacy programs
  

Welfare reform

• Income management of half of people’s welfare payment to ensure children’s essential needs
  are met
• Licensing of community stores

Employment

• Creating real jobs in communities
• Community Employment Brokers in remote communities

Community and housing

• Government Business Managers to work with communities
• Working with locals to clean up communities
• Fixing problems with existing houses
• Building new homes and new arrangements for the management of public housing in communities (outside the NTER context)

The current Government will continue most of the NTER measures until an independent review is undertaken after 12 months’ implementation. The review, to be completed by late 2008, will look at what is working and what may need to be changed.