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March 1st, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda The federal department of indigenous affairs is under fire over reports the consultation process with Aboriginal communities for the next phase of the Northern Territory intervention was deeply flawed.
The Gillard government’s Stronger Futures draft laws, which extend the Howard government’s NT intervention, passed the lower house earlier this week and have now gone to the upper house.
The Senate’s community affairs committee is conducting an inquiry into the draft laws which include alcohol restrictions and a controversial program that cuts the welfare payments of parents whose kids skip school known as the student enrolment and attendance measure (SEAM).
The National Congress of Australia’s First People and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social justice commissioner Mick Gooda both slammed the consultation process at a Senate hearing on Thursday evening at Parliament House in Canberra.
Mr Gooda described it as “rubbish”.
But department deputy secretary Michael Dillon angrily rejected claims the consultations “lacked independence” and subsequent reports were “selective.”
He said the consultation process had been “unprecedented.”
“The department does not say the consultations were perfect,” Mr Dillon said, adding there had been 100 meetings across the NT.
Mr Dillon attacked Mr Gooda’s claims, saying he had only attended one meeting and was relying on hearsay evidence.
The hearing heard auditors attended just 10 of the 100 meetings and Minister Jenny Macklin had gone to eight.
Only two to three percent of meetings had been subjected to “quality assurance”.
Labor senator Claire Moore and Greens senator Rachel Siewert told department officials that the Aboriginal people they spoke to at NT hearings last week had given overwhelmingly negative feedback about the consultation process.
“I fail to see how you can say with confidence (Aboriginal) people knew what was going on, I just fail to see that after the kinds of feedback we’ve had,” Senator Moore said on Thursday.
Senator Siewert said: “What we heard last week was completely different from what you said – polar opposites.”
Mr Dillon also denied elements of the draft laws were discriminatory and rejected claims the SEAM program was punitive and that evaluation reports of the pilot scheme had not shown improved school attendance.
“It’s a strong measure but not the only measure – it’s not seen as a panacea,” he said, adding social work and support services would also be offered.
He said the rollout of SEAM across the NT would be different from the original pilot.
Earlier, Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning adjunct professor Eva Cox accused the government of using “unprofessionally” collected data from the consultations in an “unethical way” to back up a pre-determined outcome.
Prof Cox described the SEAM program as a “large hammer” that was being used instead of cheaper and more effective community programs.
“The commonwealth is looking for authoritative top-down solutions that can do more harm than good.
“You can’t just hope because you’re being nasty to the community that they will be rescued by the NT bureaucrats.”
Asked if the SEAM program could put pressure on NT teachers and education department officials to lift their game, Ms Cox said it would fail.
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