Larissa Behrendt is no stranger to the sort of episode that “shows you who your friends are” – the sort that the Indigenous academic, lawyer and writer endured in the aftermath of 2007, when the federal government marched its troops into the Northern Territory.
This was “the intervention” – John Howard’s emergency response to reports of widespread child abuse in Aboriginal towns. Alcohol was restricted, benefits were cut, police numbers surged. The Racial Discrimination Act was suspended – shamefully, Behrendt says.
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