NT Intervention was a ‘political stunt’, says former Chief Minister Clare Martin

VIDEO: Former Chief Minister Clare Martin says the Northern Territory Intervention was a political stunt that denigrated Aboriginal people and made no real improvement to their lives

Former Chief Minister Clare Martin says the Northern Territory Intervention was a political stunt that denigrated Aboriginal people and made no real improvement to their lives. Picture: Patrina Malone

FORMER Chief Minister Clare Martin says the Northern Territory Intervention was a political stunt that denigrated Aboriginal people and made no real improvement to their lives.

In an interview with Sky News to mark the 10th anniversary of the Northern Territory Emergency Response, Ms Martin revealed she made up her mind to quit politics after Prime Minister John Howard announced the Intervention with no consultation.

“I thought for six years I had worked reasonably well with John Howard,” she said.

“I wasn’t in the same party as John Howard, but we always seemed to manage to sort things out, and then to be used as a political strategy like it obviously was, I just felt really deflated.

“My first thought when Howard rang me was to say expletives and resign and then I thought ‘well that’s just not mature’, but I did after that plan when I would leave.”

Ms Martin remained chief minister until the 2007 federal election, but resigned that November despite leading a government that held 19 of the 25 seats in the NT parliament.

The NT’s first Labor chief minister said she only found out about the Intervention when John Howard called her on the day it was announced.

“He didn’t ring me to say ‘can we talk about a possible intervention’, he rang me and said ‘there is an intervention taking place, I’m not going to talk to you about it, and it’s a done deal’,” she said.

She said she offered to fly to Canberra to discuss the plan but Mr Howard told her he was “too busy” to meet with her.

“I was stunned. I had no idea it was going to happen. I don’t think most people in the Territory – Aboriginal people who were the subject of it – they didn’t know it was going to happen, and very quickly you worked out it was mostly a political stunt.”