The
Northern Territory National Emergency Response (also referred to as "
the intervention") was a package of changes to welfare provision, law enforcement, land tenure and other measures, introduced by the
Australian federal government under
John Howard in 2007 to address allegations of rampant
child sexual abuse and neglect in
Northern Territory Aboriginal communities.
Operation Outreach, the intervention's main logistical operation conducted by a force of 600 soldiers and detachments from the
ADF (including
NORFORCE) concluded on 21 October 2008. In the seven years since the initiation of the Emergency Response there has not been one prosecution for child abuse come from the exercise.