Australia has been too slow to act on endemic sexual abuse of aboriginal women and children because of "cultural sensitivities," acting Prime Minister, Treasurer Peter Costello said yesterday.

"It doesn't matter what the colour of your skin is a rape is a rape, child abuse is child abuse," said Costello.

"There is no such thing as a defence that says because you are aboriginal or because there is something in your culture this is permitted. It is not, it is a crime."

Costello's comments back a plan by Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough to ask state and territory governments to scrap consideration of cultural law, which has been used by aboriginal offenders to get reduced sentences.

"I think that there's been a tendency to say, 'oh well, go a bit soft on some of these things because there's a cultural sensitivity,'" Costello told Australian radio.

Last week a central Australian prosecutor said sexual violence, fuelled by alcohol and drug abuse, in black communities around the outback town of Alice Springs had been allowed because of fear and the cultural belief it was "men's business."

Prosecutor Nanette Rogers, who has worked in central Australia for 15 years, wrote a paper that detailed several disturbing cases. In two incidents, a seven-month-old baby girl and a two-year-old girl were raped by aboriginal men.

Alcohol, drug and sexual abuse amongst Australia's Aborigines has been occurring for decades with periodic media coverage sparking emotional debates about how to improve black living standards.

"I think some of the child welfare authorities have been too slow to remove children at risk because they don't want to be accused of stealing aboriginal children because of all of the history of that particular issue," Costello said.

"So I think the outcome of this is that the law enforcement has been too soft and it's got to be toughened up considerably."

'Stolen generation'

Costello was referring to the so-called "Stolen Generation" of Aborigines, up to 100,000 children who were seized from their parents from 1910 to 1970 to be assimilated into white culture.

Australia's 458,500 Aborigines, around 2.3 per cent of the population, are dying at almost three times the rate of other Australians and have a life expectancy 17 years lower than the rest of the population.

In central Australia, homicide is the leading cause of premature death for aboriginal women, who are also 45 times more likely to suffer domestic violence than white women.

Local media reported yesterday that the Northern Territory's largest aboriginal community at Wadeye, 450 kilometres southwest of the territory's capital Darwin, has spiralled into lawlessness with two black gangs running riot through the town.

The Age newspaper reported yesterday that Wadeye local council is considering evacuating up to 300 of the town's 2,500 citizens to Darwin so they could receive basic services.

The Northern Territory branch of the Australian Medical Association has called for the military to be sent in to restore law and order in some remote communities.

But Costello, who is leading the country while Prime Minister John Howard and his deputy prime minister, Mark Vaile, are overseas, rejected the call to use the military, saying crime was a police matter.

The government's budget, handed down earlier this month, set aside US$2.5 billion this year for indigenous affairs, but Costello said the money could be tied to better governance of black communities.

"I actually think maybe it should be tougher that the condition of receiving welfare should require attendance at school, good parenting and so on. Money on more stringent conditions that are directed towards outcomes," he said.

(China Daily 05/24/2006 page7)