Australia’s Aborigines were stripped of the right of self-rule yesterday after the Government declared the widespread sexual abuse of Aboriginal children to be a national emergency.

John Howard, the Prime Minister, banned the sale of alcohol across an area the size of France and imposed restrictions on access to pornography.

He also announced tight controls on welfare benefits, which will be cut if children fail to attend school. Aboriginal families will be required to spend at least half their fortnightly welfare on food and essentials.

In a statement to Parliament the Prime Minister said: “We are dealing with children of the tenderest age who have been exposed to the most terrible abuse from the time of their birth, virtually. Any semblance of maintaining the innocence of childhood is a myth in so many of these communities, and we feel very strongly that this kind of action is needed.”

In what amounts to the end of a decades-long and largely failed path of self-determination for Aboriginal people, hundreds of extra police will be deployed in northern Australia to enforce the laws, which will apply on land that has been returned to Aboriginal ownership over the past 30 years.

The sudden move was prompted by the findings of an inquiry, released last week, that showed alarming levels of sexual abuse of Aboriginal children. The inquiry, led by a leading QC and an Aboriginal child expert, found that children were being abused in each of the 50 settlements that they visited in northern Australia. There are hundreds of such settlements, many with fewer than 100 people.

The inquiry, established by the government of the Northern Territory, found that children were being abused by Aboriginal and nonAboriginal adults. It concluded that “rivers of grog” and a lack of education were great contributors to the levels of abuse.

It also found that very young Aboriginal girls had been taken into Darwin by nonAboriginal men, who traded sex for drugs. Girls aged between 12 and 15 years were being provided with cash and gifts for having sex with white mine-workers. Video and other forms of pornography were used widely by men in Aboriginal communities, and overcrowded housing conditions meant that children were exposed to sexual activity from a very young age, the inquiry reported.

Mr Howard said that he was concerned over what he considered to be the Northern Territory’s inadequate response to the findings, and that was why the Government was using its powers to seize control of the Aboriginal settlements there.

He said that every child under the age of 16 would be checked by teams of doctors which would be sent into Aboriginal areas. Remote schools would receive more funding so that they could provide pupils with a meal every day.

The settlements will be under federal control for the next five years; able-bodied unemployed will be made to repair houses and clean up communities in return for continued welfare payments.

The decades-long entry-per-mit system, under which Aboriginal people have controlled access to the 660,000sq km (255,000sq miles) of Aboriginal lands in northern Australia, will be largely scrapped.

The measures were condemned by leaders of Aboriginal communities. The lawyer Michael Mansell, an Aboriginal activist, said that the Government’s actions were an “immoral abuse of power” aimed at taking over people’s lives.

“Mitch”, a member of a government board helping Aborigines who were taken from their parents under past assimilation laws, said: “I’m absolutely disgusted by this patronising government control. Tying drinking with welfare payments is just disgusting. If they’re going to do that, they’re going to have to do that with every single person in Australia, not just black people.” Mr Howard urged of Western Australia, Queensland and New South Wales, where the federal Government does not have the power to override local legislatures, to introduce similar bans on the distribution of alcohol.

Alan Carpenter, Premier of Western Australia, said that his government was addressing the issue of child abuse, and questioned why Mr Howard had declared it a national emergency after 11 years in office.

Throughout his premiership Mr Howard has focused on practical measures to tackle Aboriginal disadvantage, often angering critics with his tough-love approach at the expense of symbolism, such as an apology for past injustices.

There are about 470,000 Aborigines in the 20 million population of Australia. They are the country’s most impoverished community, with life expectancy more than 17 years lower than the national average.

The underclass

1788 British penal colony founded at Sydney. Indigenous people gradually pushed off their land, many dying of European diseases

1910-1970 The Stolen Generation As many as 30 per cent of all indigenous children born are forcibly removed from their parents to live in institutions

1967 National referendum on Aboriginal rights. Aborigines included in the census for the first time. Laws can now be passed specifically referencing Aboriginals: before that their voting rights were unclear – in practice they held little influence

1972 The unofficial Tent Embassy founded in Canberra to represent Aborginals, who claim they are strangers in their own country. It remains to this day, and is credited with raising awareness of Aboriginal rights

1976 Aboriginal Land Rights Act passed, allowing Aborigines to make legal claims on land

1992 The official justification for European settlement, that Australia had been Terra Nullius – unclaimed land – is overthrown in court Aboriginal men have a life expectancy of 56 years, compared with 76 for the population as a whole The suicide and alcoholism rates among Aboriginals are more than twice that of other Australians 5,200 Aboriginals sought refuge in government domestic violence programmes in 2000

Sources: Australian Government, Times Archives

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