On Legacy

(Courtesy of abc.net.au) When John Howard's minister for Indigenous Affairs, Mal Brough, authorised the Northern Territory intervention, public response was mixed. Was it a necessarily extreme response to meet an extreme situation, or an inherently racist piece of legislation that didn't engage with the key problems? More than 2 years and a new government later, controversy still surrounds the intervention, even as it has been modified by the new minister Jenny Macklin. Delivering the final Sydney PEN lectures for 2009, aboriginal lawyer, academic and activist Larissa Behrendt delivered a damning assessment of the last two years, and the ideological agenda that she believes underlies the intervention.