Kevin Rudd’s new Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Jenny Macklin, has put her head above the trenches for long enough to pour cold water on the possibility of compensation being paid to members of the stolen generations, subsequent to a government apology.

In a rather disingenuous offering, Macklin has suggested that “the best way to give force to the apology is to provide funding to close the gap in life expectancy between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians”. It sounds okay if you say it quickly, but ignores the fact that the importance of monetary compensation was a key recommendation of the landmark Bringing them Home report.

It seems that Indigenous human rights are expendable. Yesterday, town-campers in Alice Springs became subject to income quarantining. Unlike the model proposed by Cape York leader, Noel Pearson, the federal government’s heavy-handed plan ensnares all comers – the financially foolhardy and the responsible alike.

Minister Macklin’s rhetoric on the issue is far from convincing. Perhaps it’s a good thing that her press release of 6 January 2008, entitled Income management continues to roll out is not available on the web because the technocrats are still building the new website.

She would do well to substantiate her assertion that “where income management had been introduced on other communities, it was largely well received”. Here in the desert, there is considerable support for quarantining the income of those who are demonstrably irresponsible, but those who manage their money effectively often feel demeaned and disenfranchised.

There are some angry town campers in Alice Springs. Many have a track record of voluntarily organising Centrepay deductions to help them manage their finances. But now Big Brother has stopped simply watching them and has begun interfering.

Amid widespread resentment that these measures have been imposed only on residents of Aboriginal communities, Minister Macklin may care to explain the Rudd Government’s silence on the sidelining of the Racial Discrimination Act – one of Australia’s cornerstone human rights laws.

Better still, she could give an unequivocal undertaking to immediately introduce legislation which would restore the RDA, and allow Indigenous Territorians to test the legality of the government’s tender mercies.

Hostile Senate and all, it would be an interesting exercise to invite those who recline on the red benches to explain away a vote against human rights.