KEY POINTS:
GULKULA - The authors of the child abuse report that prompted the Government's emergency intervention say they feel devastated and betrayed by the crackdown.
Addressing a forum at the Garma festival in north-east Arnhem Land, Rex Wild, QC, and Pat Anderson said they felt betrayed by the government.
"When we turned the TV on and saw the troops roll into the Northern Territory we were just sort of devastated to think that that could happen," said Anderson, an Aborigine and an expert in indigenous health.
The crackdown is supported by the federal opposition and by a number of prominent Aboriginal leaders.
But Anderson distanced herself from Canberra's actions to date, in particular the legislation the Government plans to push through Parliament next week to authorise the scrapping of the permit system and the seizure of 73 remote Aboriginal communities under a five-year lease scheme.
The Little Children Are Sacred report was commissioned by the NT Government in August last year following damning reports of horrific child sexual abuse in remote Aboriginal communities.
- AAP
