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CAMPAIGNERS have slammed the federal government for its failure to boost Aboriginal job prospects, claiming the Northern Territory intervention enslaves communities.

Protesters at rallies in Sydney, Alice Springs, Melbourne and Brisbane angrily claimed the legislation had been an attempt to "destroy a race".

Welfare quarantining was the cornerstone of the Howard government's 2007 intervention, designed to tackle child abuse in remote indigenous communities.

But three years on, campaigners told the Sydney demonstration that Aboriginal workers were being treated "like slaves" as they worked for as little as $4 an hour.

Calling for the NT intervention to be binned, speakers said Community Development Employment Project (CDEP) positions should become fully waged jobs.

Campaign members also placed advertisements in national newspapers published Friday calling for "jobs with justice".

Speaking to more than 150 supporters outside Sydney Town Hall, Rosalie Kunoth-Monks, an Aboriginal campaigner, said: "Our people in the Northern Territory are traumatised to such an extent that we do not know who to turn to.

"Action is needed to say no to the Northern Territory intervention."

She said it "speaks volumes" that the federal government bypassed the racial discrimination act to implement the legislation.

"The legislation was to destroy a culture, destroy a race - these people have been here for thousands of years. That is wrong by any standard."

Under Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin's new CDEP scheme, Aboriginal workers are being required to work 16 hours a week, providing vital civil services to townships, only to be paid in credit on a BasicsCard.

Barbara Shaw, spokeswoman for the Intervention Rollback Action Group, said: "Aboriginal workers tell us they are being treated like slaves, being forced to work for the BasicsCard.

"This is a breach of our fundamental human rights."

Protesters also said the high-profile GenerationOne campaign, a not-for-profit movement aimed at ending the disparity between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians, was doing more harm than good.

Jean Parker, of Stop the Intervention Collective, said the government had been hypocritical in backing the scheme, founded by Andrew Forrest, head of Pilbara iron ore miner Fortescue Metals.

"What's really disgraceful is that these people - who own the casinos and the mines - have the support of the Labor government," she said.

"But who doesn't have the support of the government - the Aboriginal community. It's utter hypocrisy."

Bev Manton, chairwoman of the New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council (NSWALC), backed the rallies, saying the NT intervention "has been an abject failure on a raft of levels".

"Apart from the physical and psychological harm done to its victims, one of its most damaging legacies has been the gradual dismantling of CDEP," she added.

"The fate of Aboriginal labour needs to be in the hands of Aboriginal people," she said.