Porn and ‘grog’ ban to tackle child abuse

AUSTRALIA will ban alcohol and pornography in Aboriginal communities across the country’s vast Northern Territory to combat widespread child sexual abuse, Prime Minister John Howard said yesterday.

Describing the plight of Aboriginal children as “a national emergency”, Mr Howard said he was taking control of indigenous communities from the Northern Territory government because it had not addressed the problem.

He is introducing the unprecedented measures in response to a Northern Territory government report released last week that found rampant child abuse fuelled by a “river of grog (alcohol)”.