DIRECTOR-GENERAL:
I have today for the first time, had an opportunity of cursorily examining the “Bill for an Ordinance to provide for the Care and Assistance of Certain Persons”, recently rejected by the Northern Territory Legislative Council. As the Bill is presumably now under review I am prompted to offer certain comments which I feel should be considered by this Department in determining its policy towards the proposed Ordinance.
You will be well aware that after nearly 30 years practical experience in Health and Native Affairs Administration in Northern Australia, I am immutably of opinion that the native population constitutes a serious danger as a reservoir of endemic diseases, imperilling successful social and economic development of the area by a white population.
You will be well aware also that it is my conviction that Health Administration and Native Administration in this area should be undertaken by the one organisation and that neither can be successfully undertaken by an organisation which does not enjoy full powers under both the Health and Native Administration Ordinances.
It might have been hoped that a change in native affairs legislation would have been made the opportunity, as far as overall policy permitted, to remove the disabilities imposed upon Health administration by its loss of the direction of native affairs in 1939.
Certainly, following representations made by this Department at the recent Native Welfare Conference in Canberra, it might have been hoped that an Ordinance designed to facilitate the assimilation of natives into the white community would not have aggravated these disabilities thereby prejudicing its own success.
The Deputy Director of Health, Darwin, has already entered his objections to certain provisions of the Bill likely to handicap him in his administration but a number of others have been overlooked.
Failure of the Bill to pass the Legislative Council of the Northern Territory might well be made an opportunity for this Department to urge re-drafting with a view to its ultimate passage in a form permitting the Deputy Director sufficient freedom of action to carry out his duties in health administration successfully.
The sincerity of the Department of Territories in its desire to create a welfare organisation which will facilitate the rapid elevation of the native population to white standard and its assimilation into the general community is not in question. The Department of Territories, however, must realise that the pursuit of this purpose involves some sacrifice of departmental sovereignty by the Director of Welfare and the readiness with which this is yielded will be a measure of its sincerity.
Whatever may be hoped to the contrary, assimilation of the native into the general community in the North must ultimately depend upon his acceptability to the white family. No matter how high his standard of education, personal cleanliness, domestic hygiene and civic pride, he will not be acceptable if his presence in school, in hospital, in places of public assembly and recreation is regarded by the white parent as involving a disease risk for the white children. Propaganda notwithstanding, leprosy is still an incurable and loathsome disease. An incidence approximating 1 in 20 must be recognised to imply that a considerable number of natives will be and many more may be a danger to their white associates. This point will not escape recognition by the general white population, however effectually the policy of assimilation is publicised.
In agricultural, pastoral and mining areas of the Northern Territory in spite of recent advances in practicable methods of control, malaria and hookworm will continue to be difficult and costly to eradicate. Endemicity of these in a nomadic population will continue for years to be social and economic hazard. The very objective of assimilation with which the Department of Territories is so concerned, involves the early and complete eradication of these diseases, the prevalence of which in the native population will prevent its realisation.
Over individuals of the responsible white population the Health Authority has certain specific powers set out by law and these must be extended to the native population. The mode of life of many natives and mixed bloods will for many years to come be such that powers deemed adequate in respect of the white man will be impossible of conventional application to the black. This truth is realised in the purpose of the Welfare Ordinance for it proposes to appoint a Director of Welfare who on behalf of the ward will assume and discharge certain responsibilities to the community. It follows that the Director of Welfare for purposes of Health legislation is identified with the person of the individual ward and must accept full liability to comply with orders made by the Deputy Director of Health under Territory Health law.
In particular –
- Entry into Reserves:
The Deputy Director of Health must have free and untrammelled right of entry into reserves for the purposes of –
- medical inspection of persons;
- treatment of persons;
- hygiene inspection;
- communicable disease control;
- removal of persons for treatment.
He must be competent to issue effective orders relating to the control of disease and the improvement of hygiene on these reserves, not only to the Superintendents of the Reserves but also to the Director of Welfare.
- Entry into Camping Areas:
The powers listed in respect of entry into reserves are equally necessary in respect of entry into camping areas and the Deputy Director of Health and his officers must have power to issue orders to employers of native labour or other persons in charge of these camping areas.
- Power of Apprehension:
The Deputy Director of Health and his officers must have unquestioned powers of immediate apprehension of persons suffering from certain diseases. They must be competent to –
- remove persons from a reserve;
- order persons into and to remain upon a reserve;
- remove persons into a prohibited area;
- remove persons from one place to another;
- prohibit removal of persons from one place to another; and
- veto transfer of persons by the Director of Welfare from one area to another, including any order for or prohibition of entry into a reserve or prohibited area.
The Deputy Director of Health must also be competent in his own right in the interests of the individual and of the community to order the disposal and treatment of any ward suffering from a communicable disease.
- Exemption:
The purpose of exemption is to permit the assumption of full citizenship by a coloured person with complete surrender of directive power by the Director of Welfare. In a community menaced by the endemic disease hazards confronting the Northern Territory, it must be a condition precedent to exemption of the ward from the Director’s tutelage that he has reached a social consciousness acknowledging his responsibilities in respect of the control of communicable disease. Unless prompted by the Deputy Director of Health, the Director of Welfare and the Court may well overlook this important attribute. The Deputy Director of Health, therefore, must have statutory power to intervene if he thinks fit in any proceedings connected with the exemption of any ward. This in turn, assumes that he must have prior notice of any proposal to initiate exemption proceedings.
- Permit to Marry:
The white citizen is assumed to acknowledge certain responsibilities in respect of marriage whilst suffering from venereal or other communicable disease. Before authorising the marriage of a ward or wards special care must be taken to assure that both parties are in good health and that each appreciates and is likely to honour this responsibility. Otherwise he may unwittingly or deliberately incur the penalties applicable to the white citizen. It follows that unless the Deputy Director of Health is to reveal the fact that one or other party is suffering from venereal disease, he must be consulted before the Director of Welfare issues any permit for wards to marry. This is particularly important when one of the parties is not a ward.
- Employment:
In a country where there is an incidence of leprosy approximately 1 in 20 of the coloured population, the employment of any number of natives in white households or in labour pools must place a large number of European families and white employees at risk of infection with leprosy. If dissemination amongst white children exposed to contact with nurses and domestic employees suffering from leprosy is to be minimised, the Deputy Director of Health must be vested with power to veto the employment of natives in certain capacities and under certain circumstances.
All these points and many others were enumerated by me at your direction in an outline plan for the organisation of a Medical Service for Natives, submitted to an officers’ conference in 1950. They have been pressed by this Department from time to time ever since, at conferences of officers and of Ministers. It is recommended that they again be brought to the attention of the Department of Territories in order that a mutually acceptable formula for providing the Health Authority with the powers required may be evolved whilst the Welfare Ordinance is being reconsidered.
C.E. Cook
2/1953