National Indigenous Violence and Child Abuse Intelligence Task Force (NIITF)

The NIITF was announced in July 2006 as part of a ‘whole of government’ response* to remedy violence and child abuse in remote, rural and urban Indigenous communities. The Task Force, led by the ACC, is being resourced jointly by the Commonwealth and states and territories and includes involvement of the AFP, state and territory jurisdictions and other relevant agencies.

The Task Force has the following objectives:

• improving national coordination in the collection and sharing of relevant information and intelligence;
• enhancing national understanding about the nature and extent of violence and child abuse in Indigenous communities;
• providing related intelligence and other advice, including on organised criminal involvement in drugs, alcohol, pornography and fraud; and
• conducting research on intelligence and information coordination and identification of good practice in the prevention, detection and responses to violence and child abuse in Indigenous communities**.

These are being addressed through:

• building an enhanced national intelligence capability in relation to violence and child abuse in Indigenous communities; and
• informing future law enforcement, and wider government, decisions on addressing violence and child abuse in Indigenous communities.

These aims will be advanced in parallel, utilising a phased approach that builds upon existing holdings/ functionalities and incorporates successive planning/activity sequences. These efforts will be underpinned by a coordinated program of community visits, undertaken in close consultation with local authorities to ensure highest priority locations are included, and that nationally there is adequate representation in geographical and cultural terms. Making contact with Indigenous groups and individuals to obtain information will be undertaken with sensitivity to the local circumstances and all staff involved in the NIITF will undertake cultural awareness training.

The fundamental drivers of Indigenous violence and child abuse are social and economic. Accordingly, the NIITF is adopting an approach which is ‘non punitive’ and respectful of Indigenous people and cultures. National and regional level consultative arrangements will be established, where possible utilising existing structures. In these processes, particular efforts will be made to engage with and involve Indigenous elders, leaders and women’s groups.

Activities will be coordinated by the Task Force’s operational head, based in Alice Springs, with support from ACC and jurisdictional staff working from Darwin and other ACC offices. Subject to ACC Board approval, the NIITF will operate until late 2008, with a final report to the ACC Board due in mid 2009.

If you have any information to provide the Task Force, please call
Alice Springs (08) 8217 6240 or
Sydney (02) 9373 2253.
Alternatively you can email niitf@crimecommission.gov.au.

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* Other elements include: reviews of the application of customary law and bail arrangements, and initiatives in the areas of leadership development, victim protection, drug and alcohol rehabilitation, child health monitoring, community governance and increasing overall school attendance.
** The Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) will have primary responsibility for this objective in consultation with the ACC.