Discrimination Act should apply to intervention: Calma

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner wants the Racial Discrimination Act immediately reinstated in the Northern Territory's Indigenous communities.

When the Howard government's emergency intervention legislation was introduced last year, it was made exempt from the Racial Discrimination Act.

Commissioner Tom Calma says suspending the Act for Aboriginal people is wrong.

"If we want to practice equality, if we want to honour our international obligations and the obligations that the Parliament has bestowed on Australia, and that's the Racial Discrimination Act, then that should be back in place and people should have the right to be able to lodge a complaint," he said.