Leading article: Paternalism with a racist streak

The Australian Prime Minister John Howard has once again sullied his country's good name. Last week Mr Howard announced that the federal government is to take over the administration of Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory for the next five years. Alcohol will be banned for six months. Hardcore pornography will be made illegal. All Aboriginal children will be medically examined for signs of sexual abuse.

Mr Howard has presented such measures as sadly necessary to protect Aboriginal children claiming "it has nothing to do with race; it's got everything to do with responsibility of the parents". The plans have been backed by the National Indigenous Council and the opposition Labor party. But resentment has been growing. Aboriginal elders threatened this week to ban tourists from visiting Uluru (Ayers Rock) in protest.

No one would deny that there are deep-rooted social problems in Aboriginal areas. An official report this month found evidence of widespread child sex abuse in the Northern Territory. But there are social problems in many other communities in Australia too. And the Australian government would not dream of imposing such draconian measures on the population as a whole.

Moreover, the report itself recommended that the government implement a series of sensitive measures as a response to the problem such as improving education services and the appointment of a children's commissioner. And its authors stressed the need to "build on the goodwill, rapport and awareness ... in Aboriginal communities". It certainly did not suggest any of the paternalistic nonsense that Mr Howard has produced.

The whole plan is outrageously illiberal. It has been suggested that Mr Howard is doing this to boost his waning popularity before next year's national elections. But something more sinister can be discerned too. The plan reflects the old idea that Aborigines are, by nature, irresponsible children and need to be treated as such. This mentality contributed to the arbitrary removal of Aboriginal children from their parents by the state, a policy not officially dropped until the 1960s. And it goes all the way back to the original appropriation of Aboriginal lands in the European settlement.

Many Australians would, no doubt, regard that as history now. But this latest proposal demonstrates how such casually racist attitudes still persist in modern Australian political life.