Acknowledgement

The Joint Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs acknowledges the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the traditional custodians of Country throughout the lands now known as Australia. The Committee pays respects to ancestors and Elders past, present, and future, and is committed to honouring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ unique cultural and spiritual relationships to land, waters and seas.

The following report predominantly discusses provisions and initiatives relating to the Stronger Futures legislative package and its precursor, the Northern Territory Emergency Response Act 2007 (Cth) (commonly known as the Intervention). As these legislative arrangements were implemented in the Northern Territory alone, the words ‘Aboriginal peoples’, ‘Indigenous peoples’ and ‘First Nations’ are used interchangeably to refer to the Aboriginal peoples of the Northern Territory.

In some sections of the report, the words ‘Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’, ‘Indigenous peoples’ and ‘First Nations’ are used interchangeably to refer to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of Australia.