Intervention in Indigenous communities

The federal government -- any government -- is finally treating the situation in third-world northern Australia as what it is: an emergency. Link. The government plans to:

• take over about 60 Indigenous communities through five-year leases
• ban alcohol sales widely for six months
• restrict half of welfare payments to food and essentials
• put in compulsory medical assessments for all NT Indigenous children under 16
• link welfare payments to school attendance
• increase police numbers
  

Sure, it seems pretty disingenuous that the government is justifying the moves in terms of fighting child sexual abuse (the measures also include, strangely, a ban on x-rated pornography). But on the other hand, Howard knows the Australian public, and knows that it's the best -- maybe the only -- way to sell this strategy. If the content of the nightly news is any guide, the public is obsessed with child sex and bored by the thought of whole parts of the country descending into medical disaster and social chaos.