CANBERRA, Australia (AP) -- An Aboriginal town may ban tourists from scaling the giant red rock in Australia's Outback known as Uluru, or Ayers Rock, to protest a heavy-handed government crackdown on child abuse in Aboriginal areas, a local leader says.

The threat came from the leaders of Mutitjulu, the Aboriginal township in the shadow of the red monolith in the central Australian desert where media reports last year of child prostitution and of children trading sex for gasoline to sniff prompted a government inquiry.

The inquiry recently reported that child sex abuse was rampant in Outback Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory, and the federal government last week responded with a radical strategy to protect children in impoverished settlements where substance abuse and violence are rife.

The government said it would ban alcohol and pornography in those communities and reduce welfare payments of parents who do not adequately care for their children. The government also plans to send additional police, with the military providing logistical support.

The strategy also demands mandatory medical checks of all children living on Aboriginal land for evidence of abuse.

Mutitjulu elder Vince Forrester said Tuesday local families are terrified their children will be taken into care.

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ok, sorry for misplacing it. Maybe a mod could move this to campground or soapbox as appropriate.

Well, they are sending in the army, and I know that if that sort of thing was tried in the US there'd be massive outcry...

for all our bleating about American History in relation to race relations we are just as bad.

Child abuse is not to be tolerated at all, but the report that triggered this response is two years old... kinda funny that it's only happening now that the Howard Government is staring down the barrell of an election defeat.

This action is even more touchy when we consider the "Stolen Generation" - to cut a long story short the government came in and forcefully took indigenous children away from their parents and gave them to white people so that they would be brought up properly (like all white kids).

There are deep deep scars within the Indigenous Australian Community when it comes to the Government and Child Welfare... and for good reason.