A/HRC/15/37/Add.4 III. Incompatibility with international human rights standards A. Racially discriminatory treatment of indigenous individuals and communities 13. No doubt the NTER represents a substantial commitment of human and financial resources on the part of the Government to overcome immediate problems and improve the conditions of indigenous peoples, with particular attention to the needs of indigenous women and children. The NTER, however, has an overtly interventionist architecture, with measures that undermine indigenous self-determination, limit control over property, inhibit cultural integrity and restrict individual autonomy. These measures include the following: • Under Section 31 of the NTER Act, the Government compulsorily acquired fiveyear leases to the lands of over 64 communities, in order to provide access to the Government over these areas to improve housing. The leases give the Commonwealth exclusive possession and quiet enjoyment of the land while the lease is in force.4 Such five-year leases came into effect at the entry of force of the NTER, without consultation or consent by the relevant Aboriginal associations. Further, these leases were acquired without any compensation to the indigenous owners. • Under Section 47, the NTER Act allows the Government to take control of Aboriginal town camps, which are held under leases in perpetuity by Aboriginal associations under the Special Purposes Act and the Crown Lands Act of the Northern Territory. The Commonwealth has the option of vesting in itself all rights, titles and interests in town camps merely by giving notice, with a similar consequence as the compulsory five-year leases. • Section 51 suspends the “future act” provisions of the Native Title Act over areas held under leases granted under sections 31 and 47, and in some other circumstances. The future acts provisions allow indigenous communities to negotiate arrangements with third parties, including natural resource extraction companies, while native title claims are pending. • Part 5 of the NTER Act vests broad powers in the Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs to intervene in the operation of representative Aboriginal community councils and associations, including with respect to service delivery and management of funds. Section 67 grants the Minister broad discretion to decide when to intervene in service delivery, including if “a service is not being provided in the area to the satisfaction of the Minister”. Further, the Minister can unilaterally determine how Commonwealth funding is to be used, managed or secured, within declared “business management areas”; and any area within the Northern Territory may be declared a business management area by the Minister, through a legislative instrument. The Government placed in many indigenous communities in the Northern Territory its own “Government Business Managers” to oversee and coordinate the delivery of services. • The NTER introduces a regime of compulsory income management that involves severe limitations on the use of social security benefits received by indigenous individuals. Fifty per cent of individuals’ income support and 100 per cent of advances and lump sum payments made to them are diverted to an “income 4 28 Sect. 35 (1). GE.10-13887