In 2007, the Howard government suspended the racial discrimination act in order to pass a sweeping set of laws known as the Northern Territory intervention.

As intended, the intervention was racist and discriminatory - from a series of outright consumption bans, to income management for welfare recipients, to government acquisition of indigenous-owned lands, all administered by a flood of police and even military personnel into the Territory. Supported even by some "progressives" and continued by consecutive Labor and Liberal governments until 2022, the effects are still felt by indigenous communities today.

This talk will trace the intervention’s roots and the political debates that emerged around it.