The Return To The Legal And Citizenship Void: Indigenous Welfare Quarantining in the Northern Territory and Cape York

Abstract

This article will suggest that the universal quarantining of Indigenous people's social security in Northern Territory communities is a departure from Indigenous peoples' citizenship rights. The Social Security and Other Legislation Amendment (Welfare Payment Reform) Act 2007 (Cth), which is part of the Commonwealth's Northern Territory 'emergency' measures, represents a return to a historical legal void where Indigenous people had neither rights to their culture nor citizenship rights.