On June 22, 2010, the Australian government reinstated its Racial Discrimination Act (RDA) in the Northern Territory after the Senate approved the legislation as part of a Social Security Act. The discrimination laws were suspended by the Northern Territory National Emergency Response Act in 2007 in order to allow governmental authorities to regulate how welfare money was spent by the Aboriginal people of the country. Under the act, regulators were able to intervene in Aboriginal areas by setting aside a portion of the welfare benefits received for rent, food and medical care in order to prevent the designated money from being spent on alcohol. Until the repeal of the NTER, the regulations only applied to Aborigines. The reinstatement of the RDA allowed the regulation of welfare payments to remain in place, but applied the regulations to both indigenous and non-indigenous citizens living in the Northern Territory.


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