SOME REACTIONS & PHRASING THAT MIGHT HELP IN DEVISING LETTERS:

1. The Indigenous people in the NT aren't sitting around with computers at ready access -get real.

2. The NAA would be effectively denying anyone unable to dredge up the cost of an airfare access to research commonwealth records. In a country this large we need an office in each state.

3. I am no constitutional lawyer but the spirit of the constitution if not the letter of it could be read to suggest that the states and territories should be treated equally

"99. The Commonwealth shall not, by any law or regulation of trade, commerce, or revenue, give preference to one State or any part thereof over another State or any part thereof."

4. "The National Archives is an Executive Agency within the Prime Minister and Cabinet portfolio, reporting to Senator the Hon. Joe Ludwig, the Cabinet Secretary and Special Minister of State. The National Archives of Australia Advisory Council provides advice to the Minister and to the Director-General of the Archives."

I would suggest that contact be made directly with Senator Ludwig's office asap.

Also, individuals should contact their local federal member - ALP, Opposition, Green, independent - in writing, to put the issue on the table and clearly ask that the closures be stopped.

5. As a former reference archivist for the NAA Darwin Office (late 1980s) I was privileged to work with indigenous people who were seeking information about their families, some members of which they weren't even aware of. This was the vanguard of the "Stolen Generations" juggernaut, and was only made possible by the location of the records being in the area in which the people lived. It was traumatic enough, but had the people been required to do this research in Canberra or some other southern centre it would have been impossible (south is scary enough for me and I'm a whitefella!).

….the notion that people can access the records online is ridiculous as, apart from computer literacy being sub-standard in indigenous communities, the infrastructure is just not available there. In my previous job I was involved in trying to improve said infrastructure and we were constantly being reminded by southern (Canberra) apparatchiks that broadband coverage in Australia is 98%. It was totally moot as we were dealing almost exclusively with the 2% where it doesn't exist.

This decision is going to disadvantage an already disadvantaged group in our society (at least in the Northern Territory) and is a backward step in "closing the gap".

Computers are still a mystery to many members of the community and as the reference archivist at the NT Archives Service I meet a fair number people who are intimidated by computers. I know that my presence gives these researchers a much better chance to find the information they are looking for.

Also the service offered in the context of a search room goes beyond the issue of computer literacy. Often researchers need a friendly person there to reassure them in their venture in the foreign world of archives...

6. What is the worth of an apology to either the Aboriginal people of the Stolen Generation or the child migrants, the "Forgotten Australians" if they lose their rights again, this time to access to records which may enable them to claim their family connections or rights to sue governments?