Amnesty International has criticised new laws aimed at reinstating the Racial Discrimination Act (RDA) in the Northern Territory, claiming they fail to end discrimination introduced by the intervention. Federal parliament has recently passed laws
that will reinstate the RDA next year while maintaining many of the intervention's controversial measures. The legislation does this in two ways. First, it quarantines the welfare payments of all vulnerable people in the territory,
regardless of race. Second, it makes alcohol and pornography bans, as well as compulsory leases, more flexible and labels them special measures for the benefit of indigenous people. Amnesty says Labor's changes don't fully re-instate
the RDA and do not reverse racially discriminatory actions already initiated under the intervention . Despite advice from many organisations and individuals, the government has ignored the human rights violations sanctioned by these laws
and left racial discrimination legal in Australia, Amnesty's indigenous rights campaigner, Rodney Dillon, said in a statement.
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