Mary Edmunds has just published an evaluation of the Northern Territory intervention for the Whitlam Institute, and she joins Peter Mares on ABC Radio's National Interest.

It's three and a half years after the Howard government sent an army of soldiers, civil servants, police and doctors into indigenous communities in the Northern Territory. But the intervention remains contentious and there's no end to the debate over whether Aboriginal people have benefitted from the emergency measures introduced at the time. Perhaps that's because there's no simple 'yes or no' answer to the question.

Mary Edmunds is an anthropologist, a visiting fellow at the ANU and a member of the Human Rights Council of Australia. She is the former director of research at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies and was for eight years a member of the National Native Title Tribunal. Dr Edmunds has published an evaluation of the Northern Territory intervention, The Northern Territory Intervention and human rights, for the Whitlam Institute, and she joins us in the National Interest.