Abbott slams intervention `torpor'

THE PM is in the firing line for backsliding on Aboriginal reforms.

TONY Abbott has accused Kevin Rudd of backsliding on the Northern Territory indigenous intervention by giving too much power back to the NT government.

The Opposition Leader said yesterday the Howard government's takeover of NT indigenous communities to crack down on violence and sexual abuse was "practically dead", because the Prime Minister had let it revert to "administrative torpor".

In an interview with The Weekend Australian, Mr Abbott advocated the appointment of commissioners to indigenous communities with broad-ranging powers, in a tough-love approach similar to that championed by Cape York indigenous leader Noel Pearson.

If communities agreed, a commissioner advised by elders would control most administration, including alcohol bans, welfare quarantining and public housing.

His comments came as the Rudd government released a report indicating its policies had improved service delivery to indigenous communities, but gains were limited by problems including poor management.

Mr Abbott, who became Opposition Leader on Tuesday, questioned the Prime Minister's commitment to the NT intervention, sparked in mid-2007 when John Howard called the sexual and physical abuse in indigenous communities a national emergency.

Since being elected, the Rudd government has added plans to improve housing and has implemented a system of quarantining welfare payments to ensure they are spent on necessities.

But Mr Abbott said yesterday the intervention continued in name only and that Mr Rudd and Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin had lost the Howard government's urgency.

"What the Rudd government has tried to do with the intervention is hand it all back to the Northern Territory government," Mr Abbott said. "But it is the Northern Territory government that was complicit in creating the problems the intervention was meant to address."

While managers overseeing the intervention in each community had previously reported to Canberra, they were now reporting to the NT government.

"The impression I get is that everything has lapsed back to a business-as-usual approach," Mr Abbott said. "The usual administrative torpor applies."

However, Mr Abbott congratulated Mr Rudd and Ms Macklin for quarantining welfare cash.

Asked for his direction on Aboriginal policy, Mr Abbott said he favoured Mr Pearson's approach on Queensland's Cape York, where in four communities a magistrate advised by welfare commissioners made the decisions on welfare payments.