The Northern Territory Intervention in Aboriginal Affairs: Wicked Problem or Wicked Policy?

Abstract

This paper takes up the debate kindled by Boyd Hunter in 'Conspicuous Compassion and Wicked Problems' (2007). The present paper's contention is that just as unemployment is a 'matter of choice' - in the words of Treasury Secretary Ted Evans in 1993 - so too is Aboriginal despair. In the case of Aborigines, there is a price to pay for an alleviation of that despair; a change in behaviour. But changing behaviour - in other words, becoming less 'cultural' and less 'authentic' as an Aboriginal - has until recently been ruled out of the policy lexicon. For this reason many Aboriginal people, especially those locked out of the economy and sitting in dysfunctional communities, have paid a price because policy-makers have restricted their choices to a sub-set of those available to other Australians. The ability of Aborigines to change their behaviour and the cost of change are matters for debate. But as long as appalling behaviour continues, not changing is not an option. At the very least, the recent intervention by the Australian Government into the Northern Territory - the Emergency Response - has opened a space for a more realistic debate about choices in Aboriginal policy.