Northern Territory National Emergency Response

Just before the end of his premiership, in August 2007, the Howard government announced the Northern Territory National Emergency Response to address the child abuse in Aboriginal Northern Territory communities, but critics expressed skepticism about the plan's true intention, saying it was instead an attempt to remove land rights from Aboriginal communities, given that Howard had been a long-time opponent of indigenous Native Title in Australia. Key components of the intervention included seizure by the Federal Government of local community land leases for a five year period and removal of the permit system that had allowed aboriginal communities to control access to their land.