Exposed: The lies that started the NT intervention

By Kieran Adair, and Liz Cush

 

It’s been 4 years since Tjanara Goreng Goreng blew the whistle on a Howard Government conspiracy to mislead public perception of Indigenous Issues in the lead up to the Northern Territory intervention.

Tjanara, then an employee of the Office of Indigenous Policy Coordination, leaked confidential department documents to members of the press gallery exposing how a senior bureaucrat posed as an Youth Worker on ABC’s Lateline and made claims about paedophile rings in the Aboriginal Community of Mutitjula.

These claims were later used as a key justification for implementing the intervention.

This did not come without personal cost to Ms. Goreng Goreng, after the story broke her house was raided by police.

She will be appearing along side Chris Graham, founding editor of the National Indigenous Times, to talk about their experiences in exposing the scandal, and highlight the shaky foundations of the Intervention.

The forum, ‘Racism in the media: the lie that built the Northern Territory intervention’ is being hosted by Stop the Intervention Collective Sydney (STICS), an organisation which has led the public campaign to expose the lies and failures of the Northern Territory intervention.

The speakers at will analyse the ABC Lateline program ‘Sexual slavery reported in Indigenous communities’, and discuss how it helped the Federal Government mount the case for the NT intervention.

According to Graham the scandal surrounding this story has already destroyed several careers, sparked a series of parliamentary brawls, and led to police raids on homes in Canberra and Central Australia.

Goreng Goreng will discuss the personal cost of taking a stand as a whistle blower.

Graham will provide an insight into the ABC story, and detail what he says were a series of frauds perpetrated on Lateline viewers.

“If you think you know what media behaving badly looks like, then you need to think again,” Graham said.

“The Northern Territory intervention has harmed Aboriginal people; it’s caused starvation; it’s seen a dramatic rise in reports of self-harm incidents; it’s driven children away from school; it’s wasted hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars. In short, it’s been a disaster for the nation’s most disadvantaged citizens, the people who could least afford it.

“The media has always played a crucial role in creating an environment where governments can get away with race politics during election campaigns. In this case, the government couldn’t have done it without Lateline.”

This comes in the same week as incoming independent MP Andrew Wilkie has called on the Australian Government to implement strong new laws to protect whistle blowers.

‘Racism in the media: the lie that built the Northern Territory intervention’ will take place at the University of Technology, Sydney from 6pm on Friday, September 3 (University Hall, Building 4, 745 Harris Street, Ultimo).

Read more here. http://www.altmedia.net.au/exposed-the-lies-that-started-the-nt-intervention/24018