A fiery public meeting of 300 people in Alice Springs yesterday was told by Indigenous leader Pat Turner that the Federal Government’s intervention legislation was “a national shame”.

The event commenced with a symbolic burning of the 500 pages of legislation which were railroaded through the House of Representatives and into the Senate, where they are expected to be passed today.

Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough’s lofty language in The Australian today assuring the public that his managers on the ground “will be given advice from elders about the significance of things in their communities [to ensure that] that they do not trample over significant issues unintentionally” simply isn’t washing at grassroots level.

Crikey was at the meeting to hear Turner, CEO of National Indigenous Television, and former ATSIC boss, describe the bill as “the most racist and discriminatory legislation that this country has ever seen”.

She said that the intervention was nothing more than a “short-term, cynical, electoral stunt” with “not one reference in this 500 pages in terms of ensuring the safety of the women and the children in our communities” and that “not one recommendation in the Wild/Anderson report is addressed”.

“They are putting business managers into communities who will be the equivalent of mission managers. They will disregard the elected councils in our communities and just brush then aside,” said Turner. “This is the final nail in the coffin of self-determination for Aboriginal people.”

William Tilmouth, Executive Director of Tangentyere Council also addressed the meeting. Some months earlier, Tilmouth had led the Alice Springs town camps in a spirited defence of their hard-won special purpose leases, despite Minister Mal Brough dangling a carrot of $60 million desperately-needed dollars.

“It was a con job” said Tilmouth. “They were going to take our land by stealth or by force. Well you’ve seen the full brunt of the law in today’s legislation…It’s a sad day for Australia and a sad day for Aboriginal people.”

Despite the brutally truncated Senate review of the proposed legislation, the Manager of Government Business in the Senate, Eric Abetz, has today accused senators of drawing out the debate.

And notwithstanding the growing evidence to the contrary, a press release today from the Northern Territory Emergency Response Task Force insists that “feedback from the communities remains mainly positive”.

Indigenous folk at the Alice Springs meeting were vociferous in their agreement to continue the fight to protect their rights. If Prime Minister Howard and Minister Brough think the new arrangements are a ‘done deal’, then their view is not shared by many in the Centre.