THE radical intervention into remote indigenous communities in the Northern Territory has "fractured" the relationship between governments and indigenous people and led to an even greater sense of betrayal and misery among many people, an independent panel has found.
The board commissioned by the Federal Government to review the intervention after 12 months found it had not led to anyone being arrested for child sexual abuse - the grounds on which the previous government justified the intervention.
Measures to increase school attendance had also been unsuccessful, it said.
"There is intense hurt and anger at being isolated on the basis of race and subjected to collective measures that would never be applied to other Australians," said the report, made public yesterday.
The board called for the intervention's exemption from the Racial Discrimination Act to be removed and supported the reinstatement of the permit system for entry to lands.
The board was scathing of several of the intervention's good intentions, such as providing safe houses for victims of domestic violence.
Shelters consisted of ship containers grouped together, the board found, and people refused to use them because they were reminiscent of detention centres.
Pat Turner, of the Combined Aboriginal Organisations of the Northern Territory, said she applauded its recommendations to compensate Aboriginal landowners on just terms for compulsory leases over their land and for its call for the intervention to be subject to the Racial Discrimination Act.
But Ms Turner, who has called the intervention a Trojan horse designed to seize Aboriginal land, opposed a recommendation for alcohol bans to remain, saying they should be replaced by a "massive campaign on living responsibly with alcohol, because it's not going to go away".
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