LETTER: Mini Budget courtesy the Toe Cutter and others resurrected

Sir – In the NT Government’s mini-budget is a strong element of deja vu: Three of the panel of experts appointed by the Mills Government for the current exercise (paid for at great cost to long-suffering taxpayers) were also prominent at the time of the Expenditure Review Committee process of 1990/91. They are Barry Coulter (then newly appointed as NT Treasurer), Dr Neil Conn (then Under-Treasurer) and Col Fuller (a senior public servant, the secretary of the Dept. of Transport & Works, and the Power and Water Authority). Fuller had previously been the head of the Conservation Commission of the Northern Territory, in which organisation he was widely known as “Toe-cutter”.
The circumstances and reasons for the ERC process of 1991 are markedly similar to what’s happening now – both events followed hot on the heels of NT elections (in 1990 the CLP had a “near death” experience, being on track to lose office for the first time after years of turmoil; this year the CLP has been returned to office after years of being in Opposition) – and of course the Labor Party was / is to blame on both occasions, too (in 1990/91 it was the Federal Labor government’s fault, now it’s the previous NT Labor government’s fault).
Not only is the wheel of NT history constantly spinning in a rut but we’re all being taken for a ride, too!
It’s worth mentioning, too, that the CLP first attempted winding back conditions of employment for the NTPS in June 1987 (under CM Steve Hatton) in response to difficult budgetary circumstances. This prompted a wave of protests across the Territory, on one occasion leading to a near riot on the steps of the (old) NT Legislative Assembly when CLP politicians were jostled by extremely angry public servants.
 
Territory voters vented their spleen in July that year by switching support for the Federal Labor candidate – and the legacy of that situation continues to this day – it was Warren Snowdon, who has now gone on (despite one interruption) to become the longest serving Federal politician in NT political history and is the second-longest serving politician overall (the record of longest-serving NT politician is still held by Bernie Kilgariff).
Alex Nelson
Alice Springs

It's the Mini Budget we had to have – Labor would have done it too, says Treasurer

Treasurer Robyn Lambley a short time ago released the following statement:
The Mini Budget sets the Northern Territory on a path towards fiscal sustainability and charts a course for long-term prosperity that was not achievable under the previous financial regime.
With net debt in the non-financial public sector projected to reach $5.54 billion by 2015-16 and the fiscal imbalance at $867 million in 2012-13 in the Pre-Election Fiscal Outlook, it is not only responsible, but also necessary, to take steps that improve the Territory’s financial position.
The Mills Government has to take urgent measures to restore the Territory’s finances. The previous Government was consistently spending beyond its means and for reasons of political expediency failed to take any tough action required to improve the budgetary position – leaving us to clean up the mess.
If Labor had been re-elected, it too would have had to make cuts – notwithstanding the Opposition Leader’s pathetic denials to the contrary. Evidence of this is found in the April 2011 letter from the former Treasurer sent to Power and Water chairwoman Judith King, committing her Government to hiking up power prices “on the basis of financial and commercial sustainability” after the 2012 election.
It is very clear from this that what Delia Lawrie was saying in private exchanges was vastly different to what she was telling Territorians. The Mini Budget refocuses Government expenditure priorities on frontline service delivery. It also honours the commitment made in our contract with the Northern Territory to cut Labor’s waste and reduce debt.
We have been able to fund our election commitments at the same time as improving the Territory’s finances over the next four years. This Mini Budget will take the fiscal imbalance in 2015-16 down to $53 million – very close to again living within our means. Compared to the PEFO, by 2015-16 employee expenses are 3% lower, meaning approximately 600 positions will go through a process of redeployment, natural attrition or non-contract renewal.
Other savings include:
• $10.9 million ongoing from 2015-16 through civilianising positions currently occupied by police officers, who will be able to return to the front line.
• Greater focus on shared services within the public sector.
• $4.2 million ongoing from 2014-15 through closure of the Smart Court and the Alcohol and Other Drugs Tribunal.
• Rationalisation of agencies’ travel, consultancies, vehicle fleets and other discretionary spending.
• Closure of the Chief Minister’s offices in Palmerston and Katherine and the relocation of the Alice Springs office to more modest facilities.
• 600,000 a year through cessation of the Council of Territory Co-operation.
These and other measures will result in a saving in interest repayment of $136 million over the forward estimates period. In future, the community can expect to see a leaner and more efficient public service capable of delivering the services and infrastructure that the community wants and needs.
The Mini Budget has allowed the Government to honour its pre-election commitments, which include:
• $52.5 million for 120 additional police officers in Darwin and Alice Springs by July 2014
• $100 million extra for repairs and maintenance for the next four years
• $14 million over four years for additional housing improvements on homelands and outstations
• $1 million in 2012-13 and $2 million ongoing from 2013-14 for early intervention and residential camps for juvenile offenders
• $300,000 to conduct a safe streets audit
• $800,000 ongoing from 2012-13 to establish and operate the Planning Commission
• $500,000 ongoing from 2012-13 to establish an independent Northern Territory Environment Protection Authority board
• $6.5 million per annum for enhanced cardiac outreach and rehabilitation services and commencement of low risk angioplasty services.
• $150,000 ongoing from 2013-14 for additional motorcycle education and training courses.
• $250,000 per annum over four years from 2013-14 for additional driver training courses.
• $220,000 from 2013-14 to develop a recreational fishing development plan.
• $1 million to support local government reform.
• $35 million to construct rehabilitation centres.
The Mini Budget gives more emphasis to Territory based small businesses by, reprioritising investment from capital works into increased repairs and maintenance over four years while delivering the new Government’s capital works commitments. We have increased spending on repairs and maintenance by $100 million over four years to ensure essential Territory infrastructure does not deteriorate further. This is good news for small businesses, tradespeople and suppliers across the Territory.
Compared to the appalling fiscal outlook left to us by the previous government, the Mini Budget improves the Territory’s fiscal imbalance by $95 million in 2012-13, increasing to a $422 million improvement by 2015-16.
As promised during the election campaign, frontline employees are exempt from the savings measures that will see some contracts lapse and staff re-deployed within the Northern Territory Public Sector. In a cost of living measure designed to put downward pressure on housing prices, particularly rents, by initiating more residential housing development, the Government is amending legislation from today to
• Increase the First Home Owner Grant to $25,000 for new homes in the greater Darwin, Palmerston and Darwin rural area and all home purchases in the remainder of the Northern Territory. The rebate for existing homes in the greater Darwin, Palmerston and Darwin rural areas will be $12,000.
• Cease the stamp duty first home owner concession.
• Increase the stamp duty principal place of residence rebate from $3500 to $7000 for the purchase of new homes or vacant land on which the new home will be built.
• Reduce the ‘threshold amount’ (value of the home) for eligibility for the first home owner grant from $750,000 to $600,000.
Under the previous Government the Territory received 22 per cent less from its own sources of taxes and charges than the state average. This was revenue lost to the Territory. A range of fees and charges will be raised over the next few months to bring the Territory closer to the average level in other parts of Australia.
This was a popularity measure pursued by the Labor Government, but Territorians were still paying in other ways such as higher debt and interest payments and lower levels of service. For example, aside from CPI increases, motor vehicle registrations have not increased in 16 years. Registration fees will rise between 4% and 18% from January 1 – meaning motorcycles and small box trailers will increase by $11, small vehicles by $67 and large 4-wheel drives by $105.
One of the outcomes of the Labor Government’s cash crisis was the large number of legacy commitments made by the Labor Government that required funding. The Country Liberals Government sought to prioritise and fund the programs we deemed important including additional funding $10 million in 2012-13 and $5 million ongoing from 2013-14 for child protection and out-of-home care services and a range of other services.
While the Mills Government will maintain substantial funding, we are being more selective about the programs we support to ensure they meet our election commitments to cut waste and reduce debt, tackle crime, create a 3-hub economy, ensure proper future planning and increase accountability.
We are bitterly disappointed to have found the state of the Territory’s books in such bad shape but are determined that the short-term pain caused by some of our measures will be offset by prosperity in the future.

COMMENT: The Treasurer's too hard basket

COMMENT by ERWIN CHLANDA
 
Tomorrow the new government will release its mini budget. Will the statement by Treasurer Robyn Lambley include the answer to the big question: why does governing the Territory, per head of population, cost five and a half times as much as the national average?
Let’s look at Joe Blow in Adelaide and Fred Nurk in Alice Springs. When Joe gets $1 from Canberra Fred gets $5.50 (both via their respective governments). Both Joe and Fred spend around a quarter of their money on health care. In Joe’s case that is 25c and in Fred’s it is $1.38.
Is Fred five and a half times as sick? Are governments in the rest of Australia five and a half times more efficient? These questions have been asked pretty well since the inception of self government in 1976, during the 26 year reign of Ms Lambley’s party and 11 years of Labor. Both parties are fudging the answers. As soon as they get into power they’re singing from the same song sheet. Will they give up some of that money? No way!
“It costs a motza to build a school in Yuendumu,” says the Government. This line of explanation has been stubbornly adhered to over the decades although some 80% of us live in centres strung along the Stuart Highway, including half in the greater Darwin area. “The money Canberra gives us to fix problems in the bush is spent on a wave pool in Darwin,” says the Opposition. What we need are detailed numbers. What we get is spin.
Despite the flood of money from Canberra, Labor has racked up a debt that has risen to $3.5b in 2012-13.
We’re all used to things being more expensive up here, what with freight and so on. We’ve learned to live with groceries some 15% dearer than in state capitals. But 550% more expensive? That, dear Treasurer, needs a no holds barred analysis and full public disclosure. Is the new government, which is claiming to be open and transparent, committed to such a process? We asked Ms Lambley but got no answer.
Before losing government Labor formulated a budget for 2012-13 of $5.5b (60% from the GST; 20% locally raised; 20% grants from the Feds). Is there not enough slack in that ocean of money to pamper Territorians just a little?
The Government’s biggest headache is the Power and Water Corporation. More than anyone in Australia we are dependent on power and water. Julia Gillard has just announced she wants them to cost less nation-wide. Yet what we in then NT are now getting is a user pays style response which will further discourage people from moving here and locals from staying. Not a great start.

LETTER: Water debate 21 years ago – similar in substance, but not in tone

Sir – I sent the following letter to Jimmy Cocking, or the Arid Lands Environment Centre (ALEC).
Hello Jimmy,
In light of the controversy that has erupted over Councillor Steve Brown’s latest intemperate outburst I thought you might be interested in the articles published in the Centralian Advocate – “Alice faces water restrictions” (January 1991) and “Save water – warning” (April 1992).
The first article was essentially a warning by the Power and Water Authority director John Baskerville that, in light of record water consumption in Alice Springs that summer, the town faced the imposition of mandatory water restrictions. Mr Baskerville later went on to become Alice Springs’ most senior bureaucrat under the previous CLP government, essentially the director of all NTG departments in the Centre. He retired to South Australia early in the period of the Labor NT Government but has now been recalled to work for the new Mills CLP Government.
It’s of interest to note that Baskerville’s warning of impending water restrictions (never implemented) was 21 years to the month (January 1970) since the last mandatory water restrictions were imposed in Alice Springs, to my knowledge. This occurred when the town was supplied by water from the Mereenie aquifer and the population was less than 10,000.
The article “Save water – warning” of April 1992 describes the concerns about Alice’s high water consumption by a long-serving board member of the Power and Water Authority, Herman Weber, who was also the chairman of a new water usage committee set up to encourage more efficient use of water. How history loves to repeat itself in Alice Springs!
It’s very interesting to compare Mr Weber with Steve Brown – both are electricians and long-term residents of Alice Springs (Mr Weber arrived in the Alice in 1957 and retired to SA in 2002. He was a prominent businessman in Alice Springs for several decades). Both were members of the CLP, including being chairmen of the Alice Springs Branch (Mr Weber was also a founding member of the party in Alice Springs and served as a party vice-president in the 1980s). Finally, both were members of the Alice Springs Town Council (Mr Weber became the Deputy Mayor of Alice Springs). Yet the contrast between the two is stark – although Mr Weber was well known for his strong conservative stance on many issues, I cannot recall him ever resorting to the kind of intemperate and vitriolic outbursts that are so characteristic of Steve Brown. Mr Weber was also very considered in his opinions, even if many others disagreed with him, and he had a well-developed capacity for being self-deprecatory. He was never loud and over-bearing.
Steve Brown has a well-developed capacity to push his particular viewpoint through the media via his over-bearing manner but, in doing so, often displays a marked ignorance of the subjects he expounds upon. He would do well to take heed of the conduct exemplified by Herman Weber if he wishes to make his career in public office a long one.
Alex Nelson
Alice Springs

Protecting unborn children from grog damage

For their mothers ‘none for nine months’ is safest 
 
By KIERAN FINNANE
 
There is only one cause of foetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) and that is prenatal alcohol exposure, in other words a pregnant mother’s drinking. This can cause brain damage in the unborn child, resulting in learning difficulties, a reduced capacity to remember tasks from day to day, anger management and behavioural issues, impaired speech and muscle coordination, and physical abnormalities in the heart, lung and other organs. The effects can range from mild impairment to serious disability.
 

At left: A diagram from the report shows how, when a pregnant woman drinks, the alcohol is passed directly to the fetus through the placenta.
 
How many Australian children are affected is not known with accuracy. There are estimates of between 0.06 and 0.68 per 1000 live births, though some say this is a significant underestimation. For Indigenous communities, the incidence is thought to be higher, between 2.76 and 4.7 per 1000 births.
 
These are the barest of facts about the syndrome from the report released yesterday by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs. The report is titled FASD: The Hidden Harm.
 
Most of its recommendations concern the Commonwealth. But two involve engaging with the states and territories. Recommendation 8 is that the Commonwealth “raise with the States and Territories the critical importance of strategies to assist Indigenous communities in managing issues of alcohol consumption and to assist community led initiatives to reduce high-risk consumption patterns and the impact of alcohol.” And Recommendation 9 is that the Commonwealth work with the states and territories “to identify and implement effective strategies for pregnant women with alcohol dependence or misuse”.
 
Both are of particular relevance for the NT Government’s move to liberalise access to alcohol on Indigenous communities if they so choose. The Federal Minister for Indigenous Affairs Jenny Macklin has the power to sign off on local alcohol management plans under Stronger Futures legislation and she has stipulated that the plans must address harm reduction, alongside supply and demand reduction.
 
The finding of a higher prevalence of FASD among Indigenous communities “is consistent with the history of harmful alcohol consumption in some Indigenous populations”, says the report. “However, it is likely that FASD is more easily recognised in Indigenous populations than in some non-Indigenous populations due to the concentration of occurrence in some remote communities, whereas the occurrence of FASD may be more dispersed across larger populations.
 
“Further, a focus on reducing alcohol consumption and addressing health issues caused by high rates of alcohol consumption has brought FASD into the spotlight in some Indigenous communities.”
 
The committee’s attention is obviously not confined to Indigenous communities. In regard to the big picture, it says “understanding the use and prevalence of alcohol consumption and its role in Australian society is critical to formulating national FASD prevention measures”.
 
The report says most people do not drink to excess. “However, short-term consumption of alcohol at harmful levels, or binge drinking, while only occasional, is a prominent feature of Australia’s drinking culture. One in five Australians aged 14 or older drinks at short-term risky or high-risk levels at least once a month.”
 
Women of course are not exempt from this and, although the majority of women ” either reduce consumption or abstain during pregnancy” nearly half of all pregnancies are unplanned . Thus many women may consume alcohol during the early weeks of a pregnancy without knowing that they are pregnant. Sadly “following differentiation in the third week of pregnancy, cells undergo rapid development and are highly susceptible to damage from exposure to alcohol at this stage”.
 
Above: A grim photo from the report, comparing a normal six week old brain (on the left) with one affected by foetal alcohol syndrome.
 
Lack of awareness of the risk of harm, which is “widespread across the population”, is a significant factor contributing to women continuing to drink during pregnancy. The report notes that “over the last two decades in Australia, there has not been a consistent health message regarding the consumption of alcohol during pregnancy”. Interestingly, the report says women with higher education are more likely to consume alcohol while pregnant and comments: “Where the customary behaviour has been for alcohol to be an accepted part of social life or relaxation, women may not change their daily or social patterns without a clear cultural shift in community attitudes to support them to do so.”
 
The consistent message to women from health professionals must now be that “not drinking while pregnant is the safest option”, says the report. It sets out a process and a deadline (January 1, 2014) for achieving this single message.
 
The committee also recommends that the Commonwealth prepare for the mandating of health warning labels on alcoholic beverages, “including a warning label that advises women not to drink when pregnant or when planning a pregnancy”. The process towards this should begin immediately and the labels should be in place again by January 1, 2014.

Income management: a lot of pain for little gain?


UPDATED November 30, 9.21am.

By KIERAN FINNANE

 
“A substantial proportion of people who are subject to Compulsory Income Management appear to be competent in managing their finances, are not subject to financial harassment, and live in families where alcohol, drugs and gambling are not seen as major problems.
 
“Compulsory Income Management is a blanket measure which applies irrespective of the circumstances of the individual, and exemptions are difficult to obtain, particularly for Indigenous people. Thus there appears to be a large number of people subject to Compulsory Income Management who are unlikely to benefit from this measure, and for whom the restrictions of income management can create unnecessary frustrations and challenges.
 
“Just over a third of Indigenous and around a quarter of non-Indigenous people subject to Compulsory Income Management report that they wish to stay on income management.”
 
So concludes the just-released first report, Evaluating New Income Management in the Northern Territory.  A second report will follow in 2014 and will include an economic evaluation of the program, answering the question, “Does income management provide value for money by comparison with other interventions?” According to the report’s authors, “FaHCSIA have sought to have this undertaken in the later stages of the evaluation when they consider there will be a better appreciation of the full costs of program implementation as well as the breakdown of costs between establishment and operation.”
 
The research team of eight was led by Professor Ilan Katz from the Social Policy Research Centre of the University of New South Wales.
 
Is it discriminatory?
 
The report looked at whether the measure has been implemented in a non-discriminatory manner. It did not find “any active and overt discrimination in the implementation of NIM in the Northern Territory, and there was no evidence produced that Centrelink staff tend to be prejudiced or discriminatory”.
 
However, while its impact on the non-Indigenous population as a whole is “marginal”, a “substantial proportion” of Indigenous people in the NT are affected. Says the report: “About 90 per cent of people subject to income management are Indigenous (virtually every person on Voluntary Income Management, Vulnerable Income Management and Child Protection Income Management is Indigenous) and Indigenous people are much less likely to apply for, or be granted, an exemption. In addition … there seems to be little substantive
support available to people who need to prepare cases to prove their applications for exemptions.”
 
Further, according to the report, “an overwhelming majority of both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people on income management had a sense, at some time or another, of being treated unfairly by being income managed, with many of these describing the program as being discriminatory. In particular, many Indigenous people subject to income management described the policy as being racist.”
 
At the same time, “Indigenous people, especially those in NTER areas, were more likely to be positive about aspects of income management than their non-Indigenous counterparts”.
 
Interestingly, the report says that “there do not appear to be significant gender differences in perceptions of income management, although women are perhaps somewhat more positive about the measure than men”.
 

Has it changed behaviours?
 
The report has had limited success in being able to answer the question of “changes in spending patterns, food and alcohol consumption, school attendance and harassment”, hoped-for outcomes of the measure.
 
Says the report: “The most important data for answering this question will be the population level data, especially for the Indigenous population who are most affected by income management. In general, this data is not yet available for 2011 and so it is not possible to answer this question at a population level as yet.
 
“Data on spending of income managed funds is not available in a form which allows actual patterns of expenditure to be examined. Only data that relates to the proportion of income which is managed is available.
 
“The specific effects of income management on school attendance are difficult to measure as we do not have data that links school attendance and income management. However, the effects appear to be rather limited. If school attendance outcomes are assessed by the number of exemptions granted as a result of meeting the school attendance criteria, then the impact has been marginal, as only a relatively small proportion of those with children have been granted such exemptions. This is particularly the case for the Indigenous population.
 
“While in the survey, as noted earlier, a large proportion of Indigenous participants reported higher levels of school attendance in their community since the inception of income management, there is no clear evidence of such a change in attendance to the end of 2011. This finding is in line with the NTER evaluation which found similar positive perceptions but no overall increase in the level of school attendance reported in the administrative data.”
 
Reducing harassment of individuals for cash was another aim of income management. The report has found some evidence of a reduction but says “the problem remains significant, including for people who have been on income management for an extended period under the NTER”.
 
Elsewhere, the report says: “From the evidence we have collected it appears that income management seldom in itself motivates people to develop the skills to manage their finances (where these are lacking), obtain paid employment or parent more adequately. There is little evidence that it is bringing about the behavioural change necessary to generate the intended long-term effects. The program logic […] indicates that income management is only one of a range of interventions which are necessary to change behaviour, and the evaluation has found that many of those subject to income management have not accessed appropriate services or interventions which, according to the program logic, are necessary to facilitate longer term change.”
 
The report also notes that it can be difficult to detect the effect of income management specifically when there have been multiple interventions and areas of improvement. For example, in relation to alcohol consumption, it is “very difficult to disaggregate the effects of income management from the many other initiatives in the Northern Territory, and improved policing of alcohol restrictions was cited by some survey participants as a positive”.
 
An important finding of the report “at this stage” is that compulsory income management is applied to “a substantial number of people who appear neither to require, nor to gain any benefit from, the program”.
 
“This is not without cost, both to the individual and to government. In many cases those subject to income management have a sense of unfairness at being subject to income management and find it embarrassing, humiliating and in some cases de-motivating.
 
“The data collected from Centrelink staff and those subject to income management reveals that there was a common view that the compulsory application of income management was not necessary and in many cases poorly targeted.”
 
The Australian Government, which commissioned the report, announced a number of changes to income management today.

Income management 'improvements' announced

The Australian Government today announced improvements to the delivery of income management in the Northern Territory, in response to findings from an interim evaluation report.
 
Income management helps families ensure their welfare payments are spent in the best interests of children. It ensures that money is available for life essentials, and provides a tool to stabilise people’s circumstances and ease immediate financial stress.
 
The interim report by the Australian National University, Australian Institute of Family Studies and the Social Policy Research Centre at the University of New South Wales found that among Indigenous people on income management in the Northern Territory, there was a statistically significant perception of an improvement in their ability to afford food.
 
It also found that income management may make a contribution to improving wellbeing for some, particularly those who have difficulties in managing their finances or are subject to financial harassment.
 
This report builds on the independent Northern Territory Emergency Response Evaluation Report 2011 which found that income management was supported by many people in communities who believed it was bringing about positive outcomes, especially for children.
 
It also builds on findings from the Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children, which showed that the majority of respondents who were on income management thought that it had led to positive changes in communities.
 
The new model of income management has been operating in the Northern Territory since 2010. The model is non-discriminatory and targeted to long-term income support recipients of working age, people referred to income management by Northern Territory child protection authorities, people assessed by Centrelink social workers as being vulnerable, and people who volunteer for income management.
 
Since July 2012 income management is also applied to people referred for income management by the Northern Territory Alcohol and Other Drugs Tribunal.
 
The report has identified some areas where income management could operate more effectively, including clearer exemption processes for people who are on compulsory income management and better targeted money management courses.
 
In response, the Government is making changes to improve the delivery of income management in the Northern Territory.
 
These changes will apply from 1 July 2013 and will include ensuring parents on compulsory income management have a clearer pathway to apply for an exemption.
 
Under the new arrangements, parents will receive more regular reminders from Centrelink about their responsibilities and the requirements they need to satisfy to qualify for an exemption, such as ensuring that their child has regular health checks, is immunised, and attends school.
 
The Government will also strengthen the relationship between money management services and Centrelink, to ensure people on income management are receiving help to build their financial literacy, including budgeting, banking, savings and awareness of the risks of payday loans.
 
To ensure vulnerable young people are assisted to better manage their income support payments, the Government is also introducing additional triggers for automatic inclusion on income management under the vulnerable measure.
 
Income management will also apply to:

  • people aged under 16 years granted the Special Benefit by a social worker or those aged 16 and over granted the Unreasonable to Live at Home payment by a social worker; and
  • people under the age of 25 who receive crisis payment due to prison release, and who live in  a location which offers the vulnerable measure of income management.

 
Under these new triggers, people will be placed on income management for 12 months, with a social worker reviewing the person’s situation at the end of those 12 months.
 
If a social worker assesses that income management is not appropriate for a particular customer, they can be taken off income management within the 12 months.
 
The model of income management operating in the Northern Territory is different to the model operating in Western Australia and other areas of disadvantage around Australia.
 
These models will be evaluated separately to the Northern Territory to help inform future policy decisions.
 
The Government will receive the final evaluation report of income management in the Northern Territory in 2014.
 
A copy of the interim report can be found here.
 
Source: Media release by Minister for Indigenous Affairs Jenny Macklin

LETTER: A town council media policy is wrong on every count

Sir – During my time as an alderman of the Alice Springs Town Council I fought the introduction of a media policy for years. It came before council twice. It was defeated twice.
The core reason was that elected members are not bureaucrats, not staff members. They do not represent the council but the ratepayers and the people of Alice Springs.
But it seems like slow setting concrete, bureaucrats have slowly but surely bureaucratised members. Some elected members have fallen for this, showing a deplorable lack of understanding of their core responsibility.
A media policy takes the honesty and passion out of the debate. It also takes transparency out of the debate.
I say to the councillors, it sells to the community a false representation of who you really are.
People deserve to know all your beliefs, so they can make a judgment of what you stand for and who you really are. This is the principal reason elected members at all levels of government have fought against constraints on good, honest debate in all forms.
A media policy creates a sameness, you are not distinguishable in the herd.
When going to polls people have very little understanding of what you have fought for, what you believe and who you really are.
I am amazed any elected member would vote to ensure that they are sounding like everybody else.
This issue would be fertile ground for fighting an election, or a by-election, if someone was forced to resign, considered his or her position had been made untenable.
The council needs to make up its mind: is it for democracy or against democracy.
I express no view about the subject matters at hand. Two good people – Jimmy Cocking and Steve Brown are in this debate.
But I say to Jimmy, don’t go down this road. It is undemocratic. Don’t vote for Steve next time. That’s your ultimate weapon. That’s what democracy is all about. Ultimately this issue may destroy democracy in this town if debate is stifled.
A councillor should even have the right to make a fool of himself or herself.
What would happen if a councillor is brought before the council on charges of violating a media policy? It would be decided on votes – and we all know which way the vote would go.
A media policy is wrong on every count.
Murray Stewart
Alice Springs

Brown's "blow-in Enviro-Nazi" blast draws formal complaint

By KIERAN FINNANE
 
A formal complaint has been lodged with the Town Council about the conduct of Councillor Steve Brown. 
 
The complaint comes from Jimmy Cocking, coordinator of the Arid Lands Environment Centre (ALEC) and it’s about the letter to the editor written by Steve Brown and posted on this site on Tuesday morning.
 
Cr Brown signed the letter only as “Steve Brown” but he does not stipulate that the views are personal and they very much concern issues that are before council – the adoption of “community water rules” being pushed for by Alice Water Smart. Further, the Town Council is an Alice Water Smart consortium partner and has an elected member (Eli Melky) on its Citizens Advisory Panel in relation to the “water rules”.
 
Cr Brown accuses Water Smart of having a “blow-in Enviro-Nazi mentality” and, in a follow-up comment, describes its personnel as “Loopy Left Environmentalists”.
 
Mr Cocking (pictured above during a protest against the nuclear waste dump) says the letter breaches clause 5.4 of council’s Code of Conduct for Members which requires of them that they “treat members of the public fairly and equitably and with respect, courtesy, compassion and sensitivity”.
 
He says Cr Brown’s language is “offensive to us, our organisation, environmentalists generally and to the families of people around the world who suffered at the hands of the Nazis”. He says it is simply not acceptable for an elected representative to behave in the way Cr Brown does and that he needs to temper his approach.
 
Cr Brown, however, stands by his choice of words. He says the term “Enviro-Nazi” is in common usage and he has not applied it to any one individual: “If an individual recognises themselves behind the term then that’s their problem.”
 
The code of conduct provides penalties for breaches.  They include the possibility of a censure motion being passed by council; council requesting that the member make an apology; or council reprimanding the member who may be counselled.
 
Cr Brown says council might ask but he would not be apologising. And if council instructs him to? “I’ll take no bloody notice,” says Cr Brown. “I won’t be constrained in my language.”
 
Mr Cocking says Cr Brown’s letter is also in breach of council’s agreement with Alice Water Smart as a consortium partner: “You can’t go out in public slamming one of the other program partners. The whole spirit of the agreement is that we respect each other.”
 
To this Cr Brown (at right) says that he is a councillor, “not part of council”. He was elected to put people’s point of view to council: “I’m not subject to its rules and conditions.”
 
What about the code of conduct? The News read to him clause 5.4 (as quoted above). Cr Brown says he does treat members of the public with courtesy, and reiterated that his comment was about a particular mentality, not about individuals.
 
Mr Cocking says Cr Brown’s behaviour is especially of concern given that he is chair of the council’s Environment Advisory Committee: “It’s very hard for that committee to have credibility when its chair sees people who are concerned about the environment as ‘Enviro-Nazis’.”
 
Cr Brown rejects this: “I’m just sick of the holier-than-thou smart-assess who give all environmentalists a bad name. I’m an environmentalist, of the common sense kind.”
 
Mr Cocking says Cr Brown has also demonstrated “disconnection” with his responsibilities by failing to attend, or provide an apology to, the October meeting of the Alice Springs Water Advisory Committee, convened by the NT Government, and on which he is the council representative.
 
Cr Brown is again unapologetic. He says he can’t attend every meeting nor apologise for every absence. Things come up at the last minute, especially as he’s a working electrician.
 
The controversy comes in the wake of council adopting on Monday a “usage” policy relating to media, including social media, which imposes similar constraints on elected members. It generally calls on them to exercise “sound judgment and professionalism” and stipulates that those using social media “must … be polite and respectful to all people with whom they interact” and “must not post material that is offensive”.
 
The vote was split five to four. The dissenting four were Councillors Brown, Eli Melky, Geoff Booth and Dave Douglas. Cr Brown’s objections were mainly focussed on this paragraph: “Views expressed by elected members should be clearly identified as their own, either personal or professional. Comments should be in line with relevant Council policies and not at any time bring the reputation of Council into disrepute.”
 
During debate Cr Brown agreed that once elected members reach a decision they should back it up and that they should not bring council into disrepute but he didn’t like at all the idea of “wording that sits on our shoulders and every time we go to write a letter to the paper or make a comment that we have to think whether it complies”.
 
He said that it may often be the duty of an elected member to disagree with council and not to necessarily follow council’s guidelines. “Our role is to represent a point of view of ratepayers to council. Any wording that places restrictions on our ability to do that is anti-democratic and I will not support it”.
 
It so happened that Cr Brown had his letter to the editor ready to fire off, and has thus provided an early test of the policy and the “disciplinary action” it warns of.
 
Meanwhile, he says he will be working to overturn the media usage policy which is a “direct threat to freedom of speech”.
 
Town Council CEO Rex Mooney has said he will respond to questions from the Alice Springs News Online “as soon as I am in a position to do so”.

LETTER: Scales of justice tipped in favour of Native Title claimants

Sir – In a decision that turns the 16-year-old native title dispute resolution system on its head, landowners will soon be left high and dry – forced to fund their own representation in native title disputes, while claimants will continue to be funded by taxpayers.
 
As of 1 January 2013, the Gillard government will only fund the costs of claimants in native title disputes, leaving landholders to fend for themselves and potentially causing lengthy delays, huge costs and confusion.
 
In just a few weeks the federal government will abandon the principle of equality and fairness that is currently provided under section 213A of the Native Title Act 1993. This clause currently provides legal funding assistance for both claimants and respondents in native title cases.
But in a mean, penny-pinching bid to save a lousy $2 million over two years, federal Labor’s heavy and ham-fisted mitts are about to tilt the scales of justice in favour of one side over another by only providing funding to help those lodging claims.
 
Striking a fair balance in resolving native title disputes is essential. As things stand, claims are generally assessed and resolved within two years in a spirit of goodwill without financial penalty to either party. The last thing any of us want is for a landowner to lose a native title dispute because the costs of testing claims are prohibitive for them.
 
In Question Time yesterday the Prime Minister dismissively asserted that ‘commercially viable enterprises’ did not need assistance. But this change threatens to seriously undermine the course of justice in native title cases by skewing the ability to pursue legal avenues. It could also lead to vexatious claims being made in the hope that landholders simply cannot afford to defend themselves.
Warren Truss
The Nationals

Police not waiting to be called to enforce DV orders

By KIERAN FINNANE
 
Alice Springs police are not waiting to be called before acting on domestic violence, Detective Superintendent Brent Warren told the Alice Springs Town Council last night. He said domestic violence assaults make up “a huge component of our violent assaults work” and that detectives are working on “a more proactive approach in dealing with victims and offenders”.
 
At left: Police make an arrest in a town camp. Photo from our archive. 
 
“We’re monitoring people who’ve got domestic violence orders, going out and doing checks without being called. We’re checking on a person: if they’re a high risk victim we’re making sure the offender is not around at the time or otherwise breaking the conditions of that order.”
 
Supt Warren said the approach has been “very effective” especially when “dovetailed” with the liquor operations of uniformed police, in particular on town camps. He noted the “well identified link” between alcohol and particularly domestic violence assaults. The latest
quarterly crime statistics, released last week, showed a 70% link between alcohol and assaults in Alice Springs and a roughly 60% link between assaults and domestic relationships.
 
“We’ve had a number of surge operations where we’ve had a combination of uniformed police and detectives going to some our hot spots to do liquor enforcement and at the same time domestic violence enforcement … We’ve done it a number of times now and found it really effective and it seems to be quite well received by people in the town camps.”
 
Police priorities in Alice are around three core issues, he said – anti-social behavior and liquor-related offending; property crime; and domestic violence related assaults. Uniformed police are doing their anti-social behavior and liquor-related patrolling “with a higher profile presence that everyone has seen and seems to enjoy”, while detectives are taking a “taskforce approach” to unlawful entry and domestic violence assaults.
 
Their work has been aided by a more rapid turnaround of forensic evidence, with results coming from the fingerprints department in Darwin often within 24 hours. This has allowed his team to go out and quickly target new offenders, following up with getting them on restrictive bail conditions to manage them, including keeping them off the streets.
 
Uniformed police will remain outside bottleshops
 
Superintendent Catherine Bennett told council that uniformed police presence outside liquor outlets will continue this summer. She says the officers have the power to question people about their purchases of alcohol and where they intend to drink it. She said this and other aspects of Operation Marathon have worked “extremely well”. Police have received additional resources including a couple more large police vans which they are stationing at hot spots. They also got a couple more motorbikes which allow them to work on restricting consumption of alcohol in hard-to-reach places. A dozen new recruits have already arrived and 12 more are expected in December.
 
The Summer in Alice operation will be reviewed at the end of December to make sure the strategies are working.
 
The messages to the public was lock your doors and report all incidents of concern, no matter how minor. “Each little picture” helps police to see “the big picture”, said Supt Bennett. Questioned by Councillor Eli Melky on a recent worrying rock-throwing incident, Supt Bennett said police only learnt about it through the media.
 
Meanwhile, council is going to talk to the NT Government about installing floodlights at Heavitree Gap, lighting up the cliff-face as a deterrent to rock-throwers. A similar strategy at Anzac Hill has apparently been successful.

Council takes step towards better management of the Todd and Charles Rivers

By KIERAN FINNANE
 
The Town Council has taken the first step towards getting stakeholders in the Todd and Charles Rivers around the table to consider the rivers’ management issues. The Alice Springs News Online recently reported that council looked set the relinquish its role as the rivers’ trustee, when it appeared reluctant to respond to a call by Arid Lands Environment Centre coordinator Jimmy Cocking to take “leadership” in the management of the rivers.
 
At left: The normally dry bed of the Todd River cuts a green swathe through through the middle of Alice Springs, as seen clearly from the top the range at Heavitree Gap.
 
CEO Rex Mooney and Mayor Damien Ryan have since revisited the minutes of the Environment Advisory Committee, where Mr Cocking put his motion, and it was clear that the committee wanted council to consider a meeting of stakeholders, says Mr Mooney.
 
Council has therefore written to the Department of Local Government CEO, John Baskerville, formerly a senior public servant in Alice Springs and a key figure in a joint management committee set up in 2000s to oversee the Todd and Charles.
 
“This is one way of getting advice back to council on whether there is interest in reviving such a committee from the government’s point of view,” says Mr Mooney. “The government is the appropriate body to be facilitator, and council could be a participant.”
 
The past committee did not have project officer, nor a budget, which Mr Mooney says were “some of the shortfalls of the committee at the time”.
 
The News asked whether this move has implications for council’s trusteeship of the river.
 
“I wouldn’t think so because that trusteeship was in place when the former committee existed,” says Mr Mooney.
 
As recently reported, council sees its trustee responsibilities in the river as limited to maintaining fire breaks, keeping weeds down (not eradicating them) and managing litter, although it is not adverse to discussing a joint holistic approach.

'What do you want to do with your life?'

By KIERAN FINNANE
 
 
Lena Campbell is working on a digital photo story as I enter the classroom. It shows mostly young men in her family circle and the backing track is an original rap by her son. It’s called “Runamucks”. The photos are captioned: the word “gangsta” crops up frequently. So does “RIP” after the names of some of the men. There are photos of guns, police, handcuffed prisoners. In an unsettling photo one of the young men, who elsewhere I have seen with his arms around his mates’ or his girlfriend’s shoulders, brandishes a huge knife.
 
Lena (at right) is doing a course through Batchelor Institute known as “Digilinks”. She’s literate and thoroughly articulate in English, while her mother tongue is Ngarrindjeri (her grandfather was an Arrernte Campbell who married a South Australian woman). She uses an iPad and its various apps including Studio Art with confidence. This was the sort of thing I had come to find out but it immediately seems rather trivial alongside what she wants to talk about: her sons.
 
She tells me about her rapper son. He lost his father at a young age, he was depressed and suicidal, he got into a big gang here in Alice but now he’s found music: “This is how he expresses himself. He’s come out of the cycle.” She would love to see him go further with his music, “to sing for a living”.
 
Her first-born son, “Buddha”, was not so lucky. “He passed away,” she says quietly, “he was murdered.” He was in a gang in Adelaide.  She shows me another digital photo story done in his memory. He was the young man with the big knife, just 20 years old when he died. One of her captions under a photo of him reads, “Love all my family from da Heavens”.
 
She wants young men to look at these stories and start thinking about making different choices in their lives. But the stories are also for her, “to help me get over grieving”. The course has been “awesome” for this: “I’m learning to express myself”. It feels like the start of something: “I’d like to work on other subjects,” she says.
 
Although the 12-week course ends next week, there’s a strong case for some students to be able to return, says teacher Angela Harrison. She and her colleague Miranda Mills are employed by Batchelor which in turn is funded by FaHCSIA to deliver this course, mostly to local CDEP participants. Batchelor typically works with remote area students on its campus south of the Gap. But the old Bloomfield Street campus is more accessible for Alice residents, says Angela.
 
A visitor arrives, Carmel Barry, a nurse working for a home visiting program for mothers of young children, run by Congress. She’s organising a Christmas party for them.  Sylvia Drover is one of her clients and also a Digilinks student. She says she’ll come and bring some of her family with her. She’s working on a digital photo story of her family, starting with her very cute chubby-cheeked baby, dressed all in pink. There’s another photo of the baby swaddled in white, in her father’s arms with a big sister leaning in. The family live at Warlpiri Camp.
 
Carmel’s program channels a lot of young mothers into the Digilinks course: “We visit them every two weeks over two and a half years,” explains Carmel, “and one of the things we talk to them about is , ‘What do you want to do with your life?’ Most of them want to study, to learn to read and write, to get a job.”
 
That’s exactly what Sylvia (at left) wants: “I need to learn more, to read and write, to do more things on computers.”  She shows me a story that’s she’s already completed. It’s called “Sacred Sights”. There are photos and some video of the “dog dreaming” sites around Anzac Hill and Charles Creek as well as of the plaques on the Anzac Hill obelisk, recalling the various wars in which Australia has been involved. Her fellow students can be seen in a number of the shots.
 
Coming to the class “makes me feel happy”, says Sylvia, “and it gets me out of the house.” She turns back to her iPad and chooses another folder of photos. I had been touched to see her happy young family, but now I get the bigger picture. These photos are all of graves, the graves of people related to her. There’s her mother, “62 years old when she left me”, there are uncles, an aunt, and then there are children – a five-year-old boy hit by a car, an eight-year-old girl who died of cancer, a 15-year-old girl who killed herself, a six month old baby who suffocated, two little girls who were burned in a car fire.
 
“Memorials” have emerged as a bit of a theme for the class, says Miranda. What they focus on in their work is “student-driven” and they visited the cemetery as a group.
 
Sylvia is matter-of-fact as she shows me these images but soon turns back to working on her happy family story. After this course, she’d like to learn about sewing, she says.
 
Not all of the students are mothers. Angela shows me the work of a couple of young single adults. A young man is working on an animation, using plasticene figures that he’s modelled and a tiny stage set that he’s made and rigged up lighting for. Angela is looking to put him in touch with a professional animator to go further in this field.
 
His cousin has taken the opportunity to research her family. She visited the Strehlow Research Centre and obtained genealogies recorded by Ted Strehlow as well as early photos of her forbears. She used the Western Arrernte Picture Dictionary, which includes good maps, to help her decipher the Strehlow orthography and match it to contemporary spellings of place names so that she can trace where her ancestors were born and lived. Next step for her might be Batchelor’s “Preparation for Tertiary Success” course, says Angela, but they have also discussed the possibility of her pursuing a creative media course with a focus on production.
 
“She’s very organised,” says Angela, “and interested in community development.” There’s a little used learning centre on Ilparpa town camp where the young woman lives. What would it take to get that going again, she’s been wondering, similar to the way the  learning centre at Larapinta Valley Town Camp operates?
 
At right: Teacher Angela Harrison with the “tea trolley”, a useful tool. It can charge all the iPads and back up all their content all at the same time. 
 
There’s little doubt that the students are engaged in interesting meaningful work, but how does this course stack up against what its funding body wants from it, which is presumably to orient the participants towards employment? The course follows the curriculum for Certificate I in Education and Skills Development, says Angela, but the point is really for the students to grow in confidence, working up from the skills they already have: “Everyone is on a different learning pathway,” she says. “Some have low literacy, some are quite literate. Some may have been educated up to Year 10 or 11 and if everything else was working in their lives, they would probably be able to operate on their own in the mainstream.”
 
As students go along in the course, the teachers talk with them about where to from here. Some are ready to start looking for work and doing a job application with them or visiting a potential workplace can be useful. Some might need another course or some further training before they’re ready for that. Carmel recalls a student who went on to do Karen Sheldon’s hospitality training at the IAD cafe and then she got a job. Angela helped another student link up with a research project on which she was then engaged as a local researcher.
 
Critical to students making progress is to connect with their aspirations, says Angela, and to be flexible enough to find ways for them to come back in when life – illness, family dramas, drinking – gets in the way. The iPads are the tools for today’s literacy acquisition. Learning with them goes hand in hand with using communications media, like mobile phones, the Internet and Facebook.  None of this is an end in itself, but a means to an end – taking the next step.
 
 
 
Note: Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education has two main campuses, one at Batchelor in the Top End, and one in Alice Springs at the Desert Knowledge Precinct on the Stuart Highway south of Heavitree Gap. Before the DK Precinct was built the Alice campus was on Bloomfield Street, just across the highway from the Alice Springs CBD.

Giant shed to enhance heritage-listed railway cottage?

By KIERAN FINNANE
 
“Alice Springs will have a new, modern and fresh looking building within the CBD, adding to the sought after ‘vibrancy’.”
 
Alice Springs will get “a HUGE industrial shed behind No 12 Railway Terrace, one of the four heritage-listed Railway Cottages” on this street.
 
These are the two very different views of  a development proposal that will come before the Development Consent Authority on December 12. The applicant is seeking to build a shed for light industrial use at the rear of the block. The block is zoned CB – Central Business. “Light industrial use” is not prohibited in the CB zone but requires approval by the DCA.
 
Above: Architect’s drawing of the shed as seen from the Stuart Highway. The heritage-listed outdoor dunny will still peak over the fence, from under the verandah roof.
 
The shed will be almost seven metres high at the rear, abutting (with a gap of 400mm) the fence that faces the Stuart Highway. Its roofline occupies the entire width of the block. It has been “designed to be minimally eye catching, but if spotted and observed, to be visually appealing”, according to the application.
 
The front of the shed is about six metres high. Although the applicant claims that the shed will be “hidden by screening vegetation”, the architect’s drawings (at right) make it clear that it will be clearly visible beyond the cottage, when facing it from the front, rising to one and a half metres above the peak of the cottage’s pitched roof. There will be a clear view to the full height of the shed approaching the block from the south. The view will be screened by existing tall trees approaching it from the north.
 
Viewed from the Stuart Highway, the shed will tower over the existing fence. At present this fence is capped by bougainvillea and more will be added, according to the application. Beyond the fence the pitched roof of the old backyard toilet (also heritage listed) can be seen. This will “remain as is and will have protection provided by the proposed ‘verandah’ portion of the structure “, says the application.

 
The applicant, Gregory Taylor, says the design of the shed has been modified and its height reduced “to satisfy the Heritage Department”. He also says “the NT Heritage Department” has given its approval for  “the proposed shed to go ahead”. He refers to documentation attached to the proposal but unfortunately this is not available for viewing among the application materials available on the government’s planning notices website.
 
Above: No 12 Railway Terrace a few days ago. The full height of the proposed shed will be clearly visible from this angle.
 
Heritage conservation architect Domenico Pecorari, who owns another of the heritage-listed cottages on Railway Terrace, says that “in a town that has already lost too much of its character” the proposal should not be allowed to proceed: “The Railway Cottages are all that has survived to mark the coming of the railway in 1929 and the role that the railhead played in the development of Alice Springs.
 
“A building of such size and scale will seriously impact upon and diminish the heritage values of the listed place, as well as having a detrimental visual effect upon the public space that is the Stuart Highway. There is little hope of screen planting to soften the visual blow there.
 
“No-one would accept the erection of a ranger’s maintenance shed amongst the historic buildings at the Telegraph Station, would they?  This case is no different.
 
“If this is allowed to go ahead, what kind of an image will we be sending to our interstate and international visitors when they see how poorly we treat our heritage places?  Is this the kind of precedent we want to set for future developers?”
 
At right: The existing boundary fence along the Stuart Highway. The shed will be over four times its height, says Mr Pecorari.
 
Mr Pecorari says the lack of a Conservation Management Plan for the Railway Cottages should not be allowed to pave the way for approval of this proposal.  The guidelines that are applicable to the  Alice Springs Heritage Precinct between Bath and Hartley Street are surely relevant, he argues, and they would not permit such a proposal.  He also says the proposal does not reflect “the public’s expectation of the type of development that may be permitted within a heritage listed area”.
 
There could also be a case for arguing that light industry is incompatible with the residential uses of the Railway Terrace cottages. The primary purpose of the CB zoning, according to the Town Plan, is “to provide for a diversity of activities” but with “a commitment to the separation of incompatible activities”.
 
The deadline for public comment on the proposed development is this Friday, November 30, 4pm. The relevant documents can be found here.

LETTER: Blow-in Enviro Nazis – hands off our water!

Sir – I was disgusted by a recent presentation to Council on the Water Smart Program. It is supposed to be a forerunner to the setting up of a group to draw up water rules for our community, whether we want those rules or not.
 
I was both alerted and disgusted by the inaccuracies and blatant untruths that smell of an agenda not necessarily in the interest of our town, our homes and our community. As much as I support the efficient and clever usage of water and most aspects of the current water smart program I cannot support what amounts to a back-door attempt to inflict rules that will affect the very fabric of our lives here in The Centre.
 
There is an imported environmental agenda at play, one revolving around an imported / blow-in Enviro Nazi mentality whose basic philosophy is that if there are water restrictions in Melbourne then there should be restriction here, notwithstanding that we are some 3000 kilometers distant, and that we have the largest water supply of any city in Australia.
 
It’s really unfortunate that the intentions of this well meaning program appear to have been hijacked by a few who in a religious-like environmental fervor, feeling a burning necessity to sacrifice something to the Gods of the Environment. They have your patch of grass, your roses and the town’s oasis style amenity directly in their sights.
 
The elected members of Council made it very clear to the organisers of this group that they would not accept anything more than water advice, not rules or enforcement. Yet some  involved with this organisation have made it very clear in ongoing social media comment  that they wish to establish and have enforced a set of water usage rules. They hope to achieve this by back-door regulatory methods that do not require input and approval from our normal democratic processes.
 
The citizens of this community cannot allow rules that affect the very basis of our life and future here to come into being without thorough public debate based on fact.  Facts like water is not a “finite” resource as stated in their opening verse, as every drop of water that ever was on earth is still here! Alice Springs does not have a cap on its potential size. We do not have a cap on how much water our community can use. We have enough water to support a much larger town with a large, irrigated agricultural precinct, for a couple of hundred years without recharge!
 
Engineers like to claim they don’t know whether the Mereenie field recharges. This is simply for convenience, given no effort has been made to prove or disprove it. All the surrounding fields recharge including the massive Great Artesian Basin not so very far to the south and which we could easily tap if it ever became necessary.
 
So we would be pretty safe in assuming that the Merreenie field also recharges, which would give it a never ending life at appropriate harvest levels. When Alice was established there was nothing more than a few springs and rainwater from the roofs. Did that constrain its development? No, it didn’t! As more water became necessary we went out and found it, just as we will in the future.
 
More Furphies: native plants use less water! Another completely inaccurate statement, one that has already been to the detriment of our town’s gardens and overall amenity. Why? While there are few suitably attractive species native to this area that give value for money /water, there are many exotics that do far better. The term native has been used much too broadly: a gum tree from WA is no more a native than an olive from Spain. Yet we’ve filled our town with ugly, ineffective, unsightly and – if you want any growth – water guzzling WA gums!
 
Yet another misleading statement: “We use double the amount of water to anywhere else”! Well of course we do! We are drier than most other places, receiving a tiny amount of their rainfall. I think that means we do pretty dam well, doesn’t it? Our yards, our gardens are part of our homes, part of our living amenity, part of creating habitable living conditions in this very hot very dry part of the world. Without these areas that bring liveability to our homes many simply wouldn’t stay, and we would see a gradual decline of our town.
 
What can we do to be water smart? We can start by recycling the enormous amount we waste in sewage. The fact that more than half of what we pump is simply let go to waste in this way is ridiculously wasteful. We can also assure considered water usage by the simple means of always charging the consumer the true cost of production. It is beyond time we had an independent assessment of PAWA management use / misuse of our community’s single most valuable asset, the Merreenie aquifer / borefield. I suspect their enthusiasm for the “Water Smart” program stems from a wish to sidestep the large capital input required to allow re-charge spelling of the Merreenie bores.
 
This in turn means pumping from ever deepening levels, which is ever more costly. According to early engineering reports on the Merreenie aquifer, leaving it dry for long periods can and more than likely will lead to solidification of the aquifer.
 
In short we are possibly vandalising our town’s greatest asset! It is also the reason the language around the Merreenie Water has shifted to “mining water” as opposed to harvesting because mining means you don’t have to take responsibility for preserving the aquifer.
 
Steve Brown
Alice Springs

Govt "vandalising" our source of water, claims councillor

By ERWIN CHLANDA
 
The recharge of the Mereenie bore field, from which Alice Springs is getting most of its water, is moving into sharp focus again as Alice Water Smart is looking for ideas about saving the precious fluid.
Councillor Steve Brown, who heads up the council’s environment committee, says the NT Government owned Power Water Corporation (PWC) is “vandalising” the bore field by sustained pumping of too much water.
He says there should be an independent study of how the resource is used, and he is certain that a significant recharge can take place.
He says the second source of water near town, Rocky Hill, should be brought on stream so Mereenie could have a spell, reducing the risk of its sandstone “solidifying” and closing itself off to the underground rivers.
But John Childs, who spent most of his professional life studying water supply in the NT, says Mereenie is “strong, competent and not suffering from compaction issues”.
However, he says the recharge is only about 5% of the current consumption.
“It is perhaps the best deposit of good quality ground water in inland Australia and we are using it in a very casual way, pouring it onto footpaths and lawns,” says Dr Childs.
“We’re lucky to have a very big resource for a very small population.”
He agrees with PWC estimates that the level is dropping a metre a year – 50 metres since being tapped – now 150 metres below the surface.
Cr Brown says PWC’s endemic money problems have forced the Rocky Hill development onto the back burner.
The company is now seeking to cover up its failures by putting its weight behind Alice Water Smart, an unelected body, says Cr Brown.
These moves may “threaten the future of our town, the way we live here.
“Are we not going to be allowed to have a lawn? Step out of our front door onto a sand hill?
“If necessary, let’s find further resources.”
Says the PWC website: “The water that is stored in the [Mereenie] aquifer is very old, dated 10,000 to 32,000 years old.
“This rain fell in a much wetter climate than our current experience, although some rainfall today reaches the aquifer following flows in the Todd River and Roe Creek.
“Mereenie holds vast amounts of water but some of it is salty.
“It is estimated that the aquifer holds five million megalitres of water suitable for drinking, but only 1.25m megalitres of this is high quality (similar to what you drink now).
“One megalitre is about the amount of water in an Olympic-sized swimming pool.”
Image: NT Government.

More than 30 lose jobs as company closes its doors

Business sources say the local firm EXECTech which had more than 30 employees has closed its doors.
 
Its principal, Brendan Peterkin, did not respond to several requests for comment, but an employee told the News he’d received a phone call last week stating the firm had been put into liquidation and he was to return the company vehicle.
 
EXECTech described itself in recent advertising as “an established and successful commercial electrical services organisation”. Photo: The firm’s premises in Whittaker Street.
 

Big beautiful monoculture

COMMENT  by KIERAN FINNANE
 
From a distance, it looks like a row of softdrink dispensing machines, but up close it is revealed in all its glory as a heavy-handed piece of signage. Taking its cue from the Big Banana and the like, it’s a row of Big Books, there to hit you over the head with the fact that this is a public library.
 
I had entertained high hopes of a beautiful new entrance to the library when I learned in council papers that two of the town’s leading artists, Pip McManus and Elliat Rich, both with a strong record of work in public places, had been asked to present their conceptual designs for the project to the council’s Public Art Advisory Committee. I had also heard this presentation being referred to in council meetings as “a Master Plan”.
 
The papers record that they proposed a sandstone wall at the entrance, with writings carved into the stone as a feature, as well as a sandstone “welcome mat” with signage in steel lettering. The sandstone would have related well to the existing sandstone elements of the Civic Centre and reflected the natural beauty of the local landscape. The texts, we can imagine, would have reflected something of the cultural range of materials to be found inside the library.
 
The artists also proposed a pathway that would orient people towards the new entrance on the riverside of the building. This pathway would be textured with “a material resist” and when it rains embedded images would “come alive with stories”. This part of the project, credited to Rich, is underway. Contractors and a “working bee” team laid and textured the path last Friday. It winds from Gregory Terrace across the lawns, starting as a normal grey concrete path, shading into red and with the textured effect gradually emerging and fading.
 
Following the path, you arrive in the courtyard from which the fence and gate have been removed. There is existing vegetation including a tall graceful river red gum, which connects the site well to the river that it now faces.
 
And then there are the clunky Big Books, crowding onto the small courtyard. Apart from their general ungainliness, there is also the matter of the message that these ‘books’ send.  All eight of them are by Neville Shute of A Town Like Alice fame. So, one author, a white Anglo-Saxon male, who died in 1960. The library is named after Neville Shute and A Town Like Alice is part of our heritage. But is this the kind of aging mono-culture that we want to signal can be found inside?
 
Over the years the library has developed as a vital, multi-cultural communal space in a town where there are not too many of them. It also tries to keep abreast of the rapid changes in the way people consume information. The Internet and digital media are all part of what is on offer there and responsible for attracting many of its visitors. It places a strong emphasis on children and young people, in its collection and activities. The Big Books do nothing to reflect all of this.
 
According to CEO Rex Mooney the ‘books’ are part of the overall library refurbishment which began “prior to the calling of [art] works and the Master Plan”: “As an operational project this did not require consultation with the Public Art Advisory Committee (PAAC),” he says.
 
That’s a shame because I’m sure the the Public Art Advisory Committee would have advised against the Big Books and had a better idea.  And what is the point of commissioning and paying for a “master plan”  if you are going to start doing works – of high visual impact – in a piecemeal fashion that do not take it into account?
 
Council is in charge of the revitalisation of Todd Mall. A great deal of thinking, planning and design work has gone into this. Let’s hope ‘bright ideas’ under the heading of “operational projects” don’t undermine it.

Tourism lobby has big wish list for new government

By ERWIN CHLANDA
A return of public sector investment in tourism to at least 2008/09 levels, marketing better suited to new realities, more money for parks and roads, a resolute push for a second airline, coordination of special events, an industry task force to drive a “whole of government” approach to its issues and a minister “who can devote significant time and energy” to these tasks: it’s all on a wish list that has been presented to the new government by Tourism Central Australia (TCA).
The group last week also met with Minister Matt Colan and new Tourism NT supremo Tony Mayell who returned to the Northern Territory after 15 months as head of Tourism Tasmania.
“Having close access to key tourism staff within Government will bring benefits to the Central Australian industry, including more collaboration and a closer ear for our voice to be heard”, says TCA’s Acting General Manager Laurelle Halford (pictured with TCA chairman Jeff Huyben). She is currently acting as part-time general manager while negotiations are under way with a preferred applicant for the position.
TCA’s manifesto has the support and input from Tourism Top End, NT Chamber of Commerce, Alice Springs Town Council, Darwin City Council, the Tourism and Transport Forum and the Australian Tourism Export Council.
The wish list “will continue to grow as TCA finalises its strategic plan” says Ms Halford. “Tourism NT has not yet released its own revised strategic direction – it is in draft form I believe – and TCA obviously takes into account the Government’s direction when deciding its own.”
She says that one of the top priorities for TCA is to continue to work with Government to see a second airline into Alice Springs: “There needs to be continued investment in the attraction of and strong lobbying for additional airlines into the Northern Territory particularly recognising the importance of a second airline into Alice Springs”. She says another focus needs to be how the industry could “better benefit from major events and conferences that come to town”.
She suggests a board or an overarching committee could bring about “improved collaboration and communication between TCA, the industry, the Convention Bureau and the government. “Key events representatives could sit on this committee, such as NT Major Events, Masters Games, NT Convention Bureau, council, and other event organisers, for example Finke and Beanie Festival. There is not enough communication at the moment to allow operators to maximise the opportunities. We would like Government to take the lead in forming such a board or committee, seeing as most of the major events, festivals and conferences are either funded or part funded by Government.”
Ms Halford says, for example, when a conference comes to town, the opportunities for tourism operators could be outlined and presented by the Convention Bureau to identify targeted experiences and packages for the delegates. At present there is a list of upcoming conferences available for operators to view on the NTCB site, but the industry could benefit from more details, such as the types of activities those delegates might like to engage in in their “down” time, when they might have their down time, or opportunities for operators to be able to offer specialised packaging to delegates for pre/post touring.
“Promotion of such packages or experiences could occur with the PCO (professional conference organiser) during conference planning as well as when the delegates arrive. Operators could be given the opportunity to offer special deals just to conference delegates and these could be promoted in the pre-conference communication to delegates.”
Ms Halford says “there is a lot more collaboration that could occur” with the Masters Games: “TCA takes it upon itself to ask for special rates from operators for participants etc, however I don’t know that there is much collaboration between all the relevant bodies to ensure this event is marketed as broadly and as best as it can be. It is widely acknowledged that interstate participant numbers were down this year, and the reasons for this need to be explored by all parties.”
The manifesto calls for a public sector investment to at least 08/09 levels “and for that investment to increase at a minimum rate of CPI on an annual basis. In doing this the incumbent government recognises the significant contribution that tourism makes to the economy, employment and well-being of the Northern Territory.”
There should be an “increased public sector investment for targeted domestic and offshore promotions – strategically, recognising the significant change in marketing channels across the tourism sector, but not forgetting traditional marketing channels and in fact some renewed energy and investment [should go] into these traditional channels”.
The wish list calls for increased public sector investment into “targeted infrastructure spending, in particular the sealing of the Red Centre Way, expansion of the Alice Springs Convention Centre, infrastructure development into national parks, recognising their significance in both sustainability and as an attractor in their own right”.
The new NT government should “invest in and gain funding for training and work skills initiatives across the tourism sector … and secure additional funding from Federal government to ensure the Territory’s tourism businesses have the people and skills they need to ensure the delivery of compelling high quality visitor experiences and services, including increased digital capacity for operators and customer service training.”
 
PHOTO: Postcard produced by Councillor Eli Melky in his campaign for a second airline.

LETTER: Power, water hikes will drive up council rates

Sir – The Alice Springs Town Council will, unfortunately, be compelled to pass on the recently announced Power and Water Corporation price increases. Council has always tried to keep rate increases to a minimum and therefore any additional significant costs simply cannot be absorbed within next year’s proposed budget.
 
Council will undergo an budget review on the December 10 as well as looking at implementing ongoing energy efficiency measures across the organisation. Due to this dramatic increase in power and water cost, a rate rise is certain, however just how much will be determined pending the outcome of the 2013/2014 budget preparations and ongoing energy efficiency measures.
 
Based on current budget estimates, the increases in power, water and sewer cost to Council for the six month period between January and June 2013 are $375,000.  For the 2013/2014 financial year Council will then need to find a further $750,000 to cover forecast Power and Water corporation price increase.
 
Council releases the pressure this places on ratepayers and will certainly do all that it can to keep these increases to a minimum. Council will continue to working with the Local Government Association NT (LGANT), to lobby the NT Government on these matters.
 
Damien Ryan
Mayor

Finke grid girls race towards record


 
 
 
 
 
Ex Alice Springs girl Puddy Gardner would like the opportunity to return to her roots and represent the race that means a lot to her: “Being an Alice girl at heart, it would be a great privilege to be able to represent my hometown and support all the participants – including my sister who races!”
 
The search for the 2013 Tatts Finke Desert Race Inland Electrical Grid Girls is only three weeks in and the record of applicants looks to be broken very soon.
 
They are the official ambassadors of the race which sees over 650 compete in an off road race on a motorcycle, quad bike, buggy or car from Alice Springs to Finke and back again over the Queen’s Birthday Weekend in June each year.
This year 59 beautiful applicants from across Australia applied in the three month search period. The 2013 search looks to smash this with already 55 girls applying in the first three weeks.

LETTER: Huge power savings

Sir – Alice Springs residents who entered a challenge to save 10 to 20% on their household energy use in one year have saved over $3000 in the first six months of the competition.
The 27 homeowners joined Alice Solar City’s Energy Challenge in March 2012, and made a public commitment via the project’s website.
 
The combined savings will add up to $6,000 over the 12 months of the challenge, and will represent greenhouse gas savings of almost 20 tonnes per annum, the equivalent of installing 100 solar panels.
Savings have been made through a variety of measures, including turning off lights, installing energy efficient pool pumps, solar hot water, low energy lighting, and finding ways to keep cool other than using the air-conditioner.
Challenge participant Jackie Smith, who has saved almost 60% of her household energy use two months in a row, said: “Being involved in the challenge makes us more motivated to be aware of our energy use.”
“Changing to an energy saving pool pump has made the most difference, and we have changed behaviours such as doing our clothes and dish washing at night when power is cheaper.” (Jackie is part of the Alice Solar City Cost Reflective Tariff trial which offers higher daytime rates and lower nighttime rates)
Julie and Steve Vincent, who have saved 38% and 51% in the first and second bill quarters respectively, took on board all the advice given to them in their home energy survey.
“We are passionate energy conservatives and have put in place everything we can to save energy. It has definitely produced results for us and we are very happy.”
The winner of the Energy Challenge will be randomly drawn from those homeowners who have met or exceeded their energy reduction over the year, and will be announced in April 2013. They will win $2000 to spend on energy efficiency around the home.
 
Sam Latz
Alice Solar City General Manager

"Shout it, Indigenous, Australian, dancing, creative!"


Centralian College rappers win top prize
 
 
By KIERAN FINNANE
 
It’s fun, moving, full of optimism and high energy: a video clip made by Year 11 Indigenous students at Centralian College in Alice Springs has won a national competition, earning $15,000 for their school.
 
At left: Among the students involved in the clip are (from front) Ashley, Lavina, Lemona and Shania.
 
As with all the high schools in the CREATivE CHANGE competition, they based their entry on the Warumpi Band’s Blackfella/Whitefella, researching the issues with their teacher Marylyn Pett and going on to develop an original rap, using Garage Band to create their own backing track. The lyrics are simple but meaningful:
 
“We’re singing together / we’re making life better … are you ready with a helping hand? / When the camera is gone … will you still be there for your fellow man? … We are all one mob / we all need an education / we all need a job / across this great nation … Healthy eating /  healthy living / healthy family / healthy future … make the right choices / … Shout it: Indigenous / Australian / dancing / creative…”
 
They mostly film themselves, rapping and dancing in all sorts of locations around the school and town, including in bushland, giving the clip a great feel of the place they live in. As the backdrop to the famous Warumpi chorus of “Stand up, stand up and be counted”, they turn their camera outwards, to non-Indigenous people around the town, business people, children, who do indeed ‘stand up’. “Can we count on you? / Can we count you in?” they ask and here you see the college student body packing out their theatrette, all jumping to their feet. It works – you feel like cheering.
 
The competition is organised by a group known as “GenerationOne” in collaboration with the Australian School of Performing Arts. GenerationOne is “a movement to bring all Australians together to end the disparity between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians in one generation”. As the Centralian College students say (filming at Heavitree Gap), “Whitefeller, backfeller, let’s close the gap / Make it one genation across the map.”
 
The competition was judged by actor Jack Thompson and singer-songwriter Casey Donovan together with GenerationOne spokesperson Jeremy Donovan. Entries came from 176 schools. Primary schools were asked to to perform and film their own version of the GenerationOne theme song Hands Across Australia. Yandeyarra Remote Community School (WA) won the primary school section. The People’s Choice went to to Tallowood School (NSW).
 
Check out the Centralian College entry here.

Alice professor on Desert Knowledge CRC blacklist?

By ERWIN CHLANDA
 
The proposed co-operation between the Desert Knowledge movement and Charles Darwin University (CDU) is off to a rocky start with the apparent boycott of Professor Rolf Gerritsen (pictured at left).
He is the university’s senior and most prominent member in Alice Springs, a frequent public commentator on a range of issues, as the Professorial Research Fellow in the region for the The Northern Institute.
A CDU student, Coll Marshall, who applied to do a Master’s Degree, had requested Prof Gerritsen to be his supervisor.
Mr Marshall also applied for a grant from Desert Knowledge CRC (not Desert Knowledge Australia), now operating as Ninti One Limited, which has a multi million dollar contract from the Federal Government for slaughtering feral camels by shooting them from helicopters.
According to correspondence seen by the Alice Springs News Online, Mr Marshall was told he would not get the grant if Prof Gerritsen were the supervisor.
We put this allegation by email to Professor Murray McGregor (pictured at right) of Curtin University in Perth at noon yesterday (10:30am Perth time).
He is the General Manager Research, Innovation and Quality of Ninti One, managing the Cooperative Research Centre for Remote Economic Participation (CRC-REP) and the Australian Feral Camel Management Project.
Prof McGregor did not confirm nor deny the allegation but said, in a email at 1:15pm we would need to direct our enquiry to “our communications manager Linda Cooper”.
As he did not provide Ms Cooper’s email address we sent him a request at 2:17pm to forward our email to Ms Cooper.
At 4:12pm, having had no contact from Ms Cooper, we emailed a request for comment to Michael Dockery, Associate Professor at Curtin, who is mentioned in the correspondence of Mr Marshall.
Assoc Prof Dockery (pictured at left) rang soon after, saying that we would need to deal with Ms Cooper. We asked him to forward our emails to her and he said he would do that. We have not heard from Ms Cooper nor from Jan Ferguson, Managing Director of Ninti One, for whom we left a message this morning.
Meanwhile Mr Marshall has decided to stick with Prof Gerritsen as his supervisor and do without the grant from Ninti One.

Outlook for the Alice: a mixed bag

Visitors who have boned up on Central Australia are likely to expect workers with black faces at the airport, but will they be Indigenous? None of these four is: Taxi drivers Harpreet Singh and Bruce Mahiangu come from India and Zimbabwe respectively. Security guard Gladys is from South Sudan but now – when asked where she’s from – proudly says “Australia”. Her colleague Sam  comes from Liberia. The number of India born people now in the NT rose from 588 to 2000 between 2006 to 2011. Alice Springs’ cosmopolitan character has been enhanced by an injection of nearly 2,000 overseas migrants who arrived in Australia between 2006 and 2011. They’ve found The Alice to be a great place to get a job, a forum was told this week.
 
By ERWIN CHLANDA
 
The population of Alice Springs, after a slow growth between 2001 and 2009, is now declining.
Old people are leaving. The proportion of working age people is on the way up.
There are gains in education. Many people from overseas are now working here.
Small bush communities (of fewer than 200 people) seem doomed and the uncertain prognosis for our region is to have a non-Indigenous population of just under 30,000 and an Indigenous one of 20,000 by 2025. It’s a mixed bag.
“The anticipated growth rates are low to moderate when compared to say Darwin and the rest of Australia as a whole. Nevertheless, things can change rapidly and substantially,” says Andrew Taylor (pictured), of The Northern Institute.
He was presenting a statistical snapshot to assist Charles Darwin University with its plans for Central Australia, gauging “the potential local market for higher education now and into the future in terms of size, higher education readiness and composition”.
Dr Taylor says Alice now has a population of 28,500 with a median age of 33 and 19% of us are Indigenous.
The two shires surrounding us, massive in size, Central Desert and MacDonnell, have just 11,000 people – a lot younger than us, median age 27, and 77% are Indigenous.
The town and the two shires make up the region described by Dr Taylor.
The town grew by just 7% between 2001 and 2011, from 26,529 to 28,500, with a peak in 2010 and a slight drop in the following year.
By comparison, the fastest growing NT shire is Palmerston – a 33% increase for the same period. The NT average is 17%.
Dr Taylor told a forum in Alice Springs this week: “Essentially since 2009 the population of Alice has been estimated to be stagnant or falling … due to high net out migration to other states and territories which we essentially put down in part to a hiatus in major construction projects.”
The town’s shifting demographic is influenced by “the growth, albeit from a small base, in the Indigenous population aged 40 and over,” says Dr Taylor.
“I must say this surprised me a little, given all the talk about young males drifting into town as a result of the intervention.
“But younger ages have actually declined in real terms. Collectively the 40+ Indigenous population makes up 30% of all Indigenous residents now, up from 25% in 2006.
“This is consistent with our past research which has shown that older Indigenous people, and women in particular, make up a lot of the urbanising cohort in the Territory.”
We are part of the urbanisation ‘megatrend’
Urbanisation of our region is on the way up: “It is in Australia and globally is what I’d term a megatrend.
“A megatrend is a development which is overarching and impactful economically, socially and politically. They are so powerful that they transform societies at all levels and are generally outside the influence of policy makers.”
Says Dr Taylor: “Growth in and around Australia’s capital cities dominates our collective picture of national growth. This was certainly the case in the Territory with Greater Darwin and surrounds growing at twice the rate (21%) of the rest of the NT (12%) from 2001 to 2011.
“In fact, around three quarters of the Territory’s population growth during the past decade has been in the Greater Darwin area. Even within the Alice Springs region, an increasing share, now 72%, of the population is residing in town.
Fewer people are choosing to live in remote settlements.
“Large communities are continuing to trend upwards, medium fluctuating somewhat and small actually increasing slightly.
“But the biggest story is the significant reduction over time of people choosing to live in settlements of less than 200 residents.
“This is a delicate issue because these include the outstations or homelands which are seen as archetypal in the relationship between land and the wellbeing of Indigenous Territorians.
“Likewise, the long term trend is towards the urban centres of Darwin and our other towns.
New migrant communities
Says Dr Taylor: “There has been large growth in the non-Indigenous working age residents. Much of this is the effects of the in migration of new migrant communities.
“A portion is likely to be workers associated with expanded government services and programs, and at least some with the NTER.
“Nevertheless, the reduction in 5-20 year old non-Indigenous people is curious. We might take the negative view on this and speculate that some of those who moved into Alice chose not to bring their kids and instead send them to schools elsewhere, or we might take a more positive view and suggest many come as singles or young couples and may be about to have children, especially those aged in their mid to late 20s.”
(At right: Some do choose to stay! Children marching in the Bangtail Muster 2012.)
One thing that characterises the demography of the Northern Territory are our very high population turnover or “churn rates”.
“It has long been a hallmark. Darwin, for example, has around 100% turnover as a proportion of the resident population each five years.
“Alice region is not quite as high but nevertheless significant.
“There were more movers out than in and particularly for young females in their early career ages.
“This is a double whammy for the future because not only do we lose their economic contribution and social capital but also their potential contribution to population growth through births.”
Churn rate a challenge for higher education
There was a churn of around 2,500 with other areas in the Territory, around 9000 with other states and 2300 inbound from overseas, but an unknown quantity outbound to overseas because they of course don’t complete the Census.
“The turnover as a proportion of the 2011 resident population is high by any standard and once again signifies a challenge for attracting and retaining both staff and students for higher education.”
The net effect of interstate in and out migration to the region over the five years was around minus 1,100. Retirees are leaving in relatively large numbers and there is a large outflow of females aged 30-39 years. In the five years prior there was a large inflow of females aged in their 20s.
“While we can’t tell whether it’s the same people it is very likely to be some of (if you like) 2006 intake who are now leaving.
“The other disconcerting thing is that we are failing to retain retirees and grandparents in the region which means that young families are faced with the decision on whether to stay or move closer to the family once they have children.
“The departure of so many women in their 30s suggests this influence is at play and we know from other data for the Territory that there is a substantial baby effect on out migration from the Territory. Again, this is nothing unusual for remote places.
“Counter balancing this, the net inflow of people in their early career ages, should they stay for the long haul, offers future birthing potential and future dividends for the workforce and general social capital.”
Good improvement in secondary education
There is good news in education, a large improvement in the number of residents who have achieved Year 11 or Year 12.
Outside of town there was a dramatic increase in those completing Years 9 and 10.
“What we would obviously like to see in 2016 when the next Census is undertaken is the progression of the new achievers for Years 9 and 10 to Years 11 and 12 in the remainder of the region,” says Dr Taylor.
“Again we see some good progress with strong growth in town in the proportion with a Bachelor degree or above and some growth in the remainder of the region.
“This is reflected in good overall growth in the proportion of those 15 and over who have a post-school qualification. Of those in town with a Certificate, 96% were at Certificate level III or IV.”
Projections point to an ageing of the population in the region over the medium to long term but projections at these fine grained levels of geography and by age are perhaps indicative at best.
The town’s cosmopolitan character has been enhanced by an injection of nearly 2,000 overseas migrants to Alice Springs town who had arrived in Australia during 2006 to 2011.
Overseas born 20% of town population
This boosted the overseas born population to 20% of the town, about the same as the proportion who were Indigenous residents.
It grew the size of the proportion that was born overseas by 30% between 2006 and 2011 and without the new arrivers in the past five years the population of Alice Springs would have fallen by around 5%.
There are nevertheless very few overseas born people in the bush – it’s a town based phenomenon.
Driving the recent inflow are four emergent or new migrant communities which are growing rapidly. While traditional sources like the UK and USA are still the largest, they are declining relatively and in the meantime new communities, especially India, the Philippines (like members of the Mabuhay Multicultural Association pictured above), Zimbabwe and New Zealand are growing rapidly.
Combined, these new migrant communities are now larger than the most prominent source for overseas born – the UK.
Says Dr Taylor: “Job opportunities appear to be a major factor in drawing these new migrant communities to Alice.
“For females, full time work in the health care and social assistance industry is prominent. This industry includes hospitals; medical and other health care services; residential care services; and social assistance services.
“This industry is dominated by females across the country and in the sorts of ratios we see here. Male employment is more widely distributed across industries with public administration and safety and health care prominent.”
As we know, on any given day there are a number of non-resident workers in the region on short-term contracts or associated with specific projects.
Going on 2006 figures, non-resident workers have a slight male bias, are relatively old and, as shown in the new migrant communities, many are working in the Health and Community Services sector.

Is the Town Council getting ready to relinquish its role as trustee of the Todd River?

By KIERAN FINNANE
 
As the Town Council’s trusteeship of the Todd River within the municipality nears its 30th anniversary, there are signs of council wanting to relinquish its role. In the last meeting of the Environment Advisory Committee, council was asked to take “leadership in the management of the Todd River”. Jimmy Cocking, coordinator of the Arid Lands Environment Centre (ALEC) and a member of the advisory committee, says this wording is a “watered down” version of what he was seeking, which was that council take the lead in forming a working group of all relevant decision-makers with a view to better management of the river.
 
Above: The river lapping the Wills Terrace footbridge: at all times it’s a challenge to manage. Photo from our archive.  
 
However, when the issue was raised at the Town Council’s subsequent meeting, Councillor Steve Brown, who chairs the Environment Advisory Committee, said council does not want to take a lead role in forming such a  body; the river as Crown land is NT Government-owned and this should be their role.
 
At right: The destruction of trees in the Todd and what to do with them when they’re down has been an issue of ongoing concern. Photo from our archive.
 
Director of Technical Services Greg Buxton reiterated this in greater detail. He said what ALEC and (unspecified) others on the committee want goes beyond the terms of council’s trust agreement for management of the river. He said council’s responsibility is to maintain fire breaks, keep weeds down (not eradicate them) and manage litter. Issues in the river catchment are outside of council’s responsibility and should be dealt with by the NT Government.  However, council would be happy to be part of a joint committee to discuss a “holistic approach” to the river, and he said ALEC and others should put a proposal to the Environment Advisory Committee about what that river management committee would look like.
 
Councillor Jade Kudrenko (at left), who had raised the issue in response to the committee’s minutes, expressed her disappointment: this was an opportunity for council to show leadership, to be more proactive, she said. The minutes show that CEO Rex Mooney provided background on council’s “former [sic] management of the river”. This is followed by two questions: “The Todd River is Crown land and should be managed by the NT Government? The Council will put forward suggestion to Council in regards the Todd River?”
 
Not surprisingly, Cr Kudrenko wanted to know what that meant and Mayor Damien Ryan also asked for greater precision. Mr Buxton said he would go back to the recording of the meeting to clarify.
 
Meanwhile, Mr Cocking hopes that council will assume its leadership role: “All I was asking council to do was to take a lead role in pulling in the partners to form a working group, not a committee – no-one wants to join another committee –  but a working group, similar to the Alice in 10 model. Decision-makers getting together around a table regularly, reviewing priorities and making sure that the work is being done to make the river a more amenable environment for the whole community.
 
“ALEC wants to see the river managed as a whole for its ecological, cultural and social values, not in the current piecemeal fashion. For example, I wouldn’t have thought flood mitigation was a council responsibility yet they are doing sand dredging under this heading. Flood mitigation is not just a matter of digging the channel deeper. All that’s going to do is increase the rate of flow.
 
At right: Trying to get it right: the riverbed south of the Wills Terrace causeway is subject to endless remediation. Photo by Alex Nelson, March 2010.
 
“Part of the process of a working group would be to look at the existing management plans and see how they are going. It’s always good to review where you are at and then to start looking forward. I think everyone agrees the river management could be done a lot better.
 
“I understand it’s not council’s sole responsibility and that it doesn’t have the capacity to do it alone. But it can take a leadership role. The river is one of our most important natural and cultural features. It requires collaboration but everyone seems to be passing the buck.”

Aboriginal peak organisations warn governments against allowing more grog on remote communities

The Great Alcohol Debate: bring back BDR or similar, they say 
 
Aboriginal peak organisations of the Northern Territory have called on governments to “base alcohol policy on evidence not politics” and to “bring back a system (such as the Banned Drinkers Register [BDR]) to restrict the supply of alcohol to problem drinkers without resorting to criminalisation”. They have pleaded with governments “to heed our warnings about the risks of allowing more alcohol to flow into remote communities”.
 
The organisations involved in the alcohol policy summit in Darwin, held last Friday, included Anyinginyi Health Service, East Arnhem night patrol, Central Australian Aboriginal Congress, CAAAPU, CAAPS (Council for Aboriginal Alcohol Program Services Incorporated), and SAF,T (Strong Aboriginal Families, Together). Also attending were representatives from Borroloola, Tiwi Islands, Ntaria, Beswick, Bagot community, Jilkminggan and Katherine. There was also a presentation from representatives from Fitzroy Crossing, a community severely impacted by excessive drinking, with alarmingly high rates of children being born with foetal alcohol syndrome.
 
Expert speakers at the summit included Professor Peter d’Abbs from Menzies School of Health Research; Associate Professor, Ted Wilkes from the National Indigenous Drug & Alcohol Committee; Professor Dennis Gray from the National Drug Research Institute; David Templeman, CEO of the Alcohol & Other Drugs Council of Australia; Donna Ah Chee, Acting CEO of Central Australian Aboriginal Congress, Doctor John Boffa, Central Australian Aboriginal Congress; Russell Goldflam, People’s Alcohol Action Coalition; and Michael O’Donnell, Chair of the NT Alcohol and Other Drugs Tribunal.
 
The peak organisations issued a communique, as follows:
 
We ask for all levels of government to heed our warnings about the risks of allowing more alcohol to flow into remote communities.
The key messages delivered throughout the summit, included:
• That NT has unacceptably high rates of alcohol related harm.
• Aboriginal people in the NT have a long history of fighting for alcohol restrictions right across the NT and we are now at a critical point in this journey.
• Aboriginal families are most affected by the destructive impacts of alcohol, including domestic violence, suicide, and removal of children from their families in high levels.
• Aboriginal people need to secure our future and our culture by keeping our children safe, healthy and strong.
• Evidence shows that Aboriginal people must be in control of developing and implementing strategies to tackle alcohol issues and associated problems for them to be effective.
• Alcohol restrictions can provide necessary breathing space for Aboriginal communities, but are only one part of the solution.
 
Aboriginal participants made a number of key resolutions about action to be taken in their communities:
• To promote truthful and productive conversations about alcohol within our own communities;
• To draw strength from our successes;
• To draw strength from the importance of spirituality and culture;
• To ensure our communities get access to relevant data and evidence regarding alcohol impacts and policies;
• To ensure that community consultation processes are not dominated by drinkers but give voice to women, non-drinkers, elders and particularly children; and
• To take harm reduction as the key principle guiding alcohol policy.
 
Aboriginal summit participants called on both levels of Government to:
• Involve our people in all levels of decision-making regarding alcohol policy, program development and resourcing in the NT;
• Acknowledge that our people live in two worlds – one of traditional culture and another of contemporary society;
• Acknowledge that our people must be supported to develop solutions to tackle issues around alcohol related harm;
• Empower our people to resolve their own disputes and conflicts;
• Acknowledge the importance of our spirituality and culture in healing alcohol-related harm;
• Base alcohol policy on evidence not politics;
• Ensure that Police work with communities and develop strategies to ensure better relationships with Aboriginal people rather than engaging simply in law enforcement;
• Ensure community-specific cross-cultural training for non-Aboriginal staff, including nurses, doctors, teachers, and police officers;
• Complete the current study into on licensed clubs before considering further policy reform;
• Bring back a system (such as the Banned Drinkers Register) to restrict the supply of alcohol to problem drinkers without resorting to criminalisation;
• Implement population level supply reduction measures as a ‘circuit breaker’ for problems in our communities;
• Provide significant new resources into early childhood programs as an absolute priority;
• Expand government support for community-based recovery strategies, similar to strategies used in Fitzroy Crossing; and
• Expand and invest in existing rehabilitation programs and infrastructure before considering new options.
 
The outcomes of the summit will be followed up with Government through nominated delegates.

Ngurratjuta artists are the new owners of the Desert Park gift shop

A shot in the arm for the watercolour movement … and chance for visitors to have contact with Aboriginal people
 
By KIERAN FINNANE
 
 
It’s an opportunity that will surely be the envy of many: the Ngurratjuta art centre has bought the gift shop at the Alice Springs Desert Park. It will be used to exhibit and promote the work of its artists, and provide an income to their enterprise from its trade in the full line of gifts and souvenirs. The Desert Park is also keen to have the artists painting on site and this looks set to happen from late March next year, as the cooler weather arrives.
 
Above right: Coordinator Iris Bendor installing the watercolour display at the shop.
 
Ngurratjuta artists are best known for their watercolour landscapes in the Hermannsburg tradition, though they also include some ‘dot’ painters. The Desert Park is an ideal outlet, attracting as it does people with an strong interest in the landscape and particularly the West MacDonnells, the artists’ stamping ground.
 
With the art market at an ebb, the gift shop is a way to reacher a broader range of potential buyers, with both high end and emerging art on display, says coordinator Iris Bendor. Having the artists on site in the park – in an open-air shelter with kitchen and bathroom facilities – will also increase their exposure, she says.
 
In the two weeks since Ngurratjuta took over the shop, two of the artists, Mervyn Rubuntja and Peter Taylor, have visited, says Ms Bendor. They expressed their willingness to get involved beyond painting, by interacting with visitors. Apart from the possibility of casual conversation between artists and visitors, there is talk of having events in collaboration with the park, such as special exhibitions and seminars.
 
At left: Artist Lenie Namatjira in a ‘painting on country’ workshop. Her work was recently acquired by the Art Gallery of NSW. Photo courtesy Ngurratjuta Iltja Ntjarra Art & Gifts.
 
Project-based painting is another possibility for stimulating the artists’ own practice. An example would be a project focussed on Mount Gillen (Akngwelye / Gnoilya), which dominates the view to the west of the park and is, of course, sacred to the Arrernte. Another could be artists’ reinterpretation of landscapes made famous by their forebear, Albert Namatjira.
 
Not so long ago the future was not looking bright for the Ngurratjuta artists, and for some months they have been without a studio. Now “we’ve gone from no opportunity to a huge opportunity”, says Ms Bendor.
 
The national interest in the watercolour movement remains strong. For instance, the Art Gallery of New South Wales has just acquired four works by Ngurratjuta artists – two by Ivy Pareroultja, one by Gloria Pannka, and one by Lenie Namatjira – to complement their already substantial collection. And a new book, a biographical study by Martin Edmond of Rex Battarbee and Albert Namatjira, will be published in early next year. Hopefully the business and other opportunities arising from the move to the Desert Park will provide a strong context for the movement’s living exponents to continue their work.
 

 Below: The art enterprise will benefit from the full commercial opportunities of the shop – its ticket and general souvenir sales as well as art sales. Robyn Williams at the counter. 

Charles Darwin University told to lift its game in Alice

By ERWIN CHLANDA
 
Darwin based CDU bosses who came to Alice Springs to gauge what the locals thought of their university got some robust messages about north-of-the-Berrimah-line decision making, the lack of meaningful co-operation with Desert Knowledge Australia (DKA) and the failure to entice young people to do their tertiary studies in their home town.
Vice-Chancellor Barney Glover and Deputy Vice-Chancellor Sharon Bell (pictured), busy adapting to new online teaching opportunities and looking north to buzzing Asia for business, met with 30-odd representatives from education, academia and NGOs in Alice Springs, some of whom made it clear that Charles Darwin University will need to look a lot harder in the other direction as well.
Although The Centre is “the most researched place in Australia,” as Professor Bell put it, there is no unifying force to bind together the hundreds of academics, graduates and institutions in The Centre for them to jointly make a difference. They are a “huge resource,” said Bruce Walker, long-time driving force of the Centre for Appropriate Technology, a partner in Desert Knowledge: “Can CDU do it?”
The “contained” nature of Alice makes it eminently suitable for events such as the Masters Games, yet CDU had not established itself in a way that would take advantage of that quality. And so the four kids Dr Walker brought up in The Alice, where they got “a good education,” left town for their tertiary studies, and to “get a view of the world”.
Harold Furber (pictured), chairman of the Desert Peoples Centre, home of DKA, says his son went to Adelaide to study.
“Why go to Darwin?” he asked. “It is not the centre of the universe. We are not chained to CDU.”
He was critical of DKA not being mentioned in the presentation, and asked: “How could it operate with CDU?” He said DKA sees the world from an Alice Springs point of view – is that something CDU could accommodate? In any case the “parallel universes” of local education – one north and one south of The Gap – need to come to an end.
Prof Glover had no quarrel with this although he admitted having talked about it for three years, with “nowhere near enough progress”. How should the process start? he asked.
Dr Walker counseled against government involvement – “people just sit back” – and proposed a re-enactment of the process 15 years ago that kicked off Desert Knowledge: “Let’s all sit down again here for a discussion.” Mr Furber offered to call a meeting.
Prof Glover suggested the result could be a “centre of excellence,” replacing what is now a piecemeal effort.
Alice-based CDU research professor Rolf Gerritsen said the university is “over centralized” in Darwin and “needs to have an internal discussion” about this. “Organizational issues” are unclear to people who attend meetings and go home, none the wiser. “Commitments are made in Darwin, not here,” he said.
Professor John Wakerman, head of the Centre for Remote Health, which has close links with Flinders University in Adelaide, said the health professionals working here are increasingly fly-in, fly-out staff, staying just a short time, eroding the residential workforce. They are agency people “less well prepared now than 10 years ago for working out bush”.
Prof Bell said between 2009 and 2012, more than 200 VET qualifications have been offered through the Alice Springs campus – from Certificate I to Diploma level. She said there is significant demand in more than 25 fields of education: Introductory Vocational Education; Spoken and Written English; Horticulture; Conservation & Land Management; Rural Operations; Automotive; Electrotechnology; Business and Financial Services; Retail; Tourism and Hospitality; Aged Care; Youth Work; Mental Health; Education Support; Children’s Services; Carpentry; Building and Construction; Creative Industries, Music and Visual Art; IT; Engineering; Meat Processing; Fitness, Sport & Recreation; and Hairdressing.
About 2,656 VET qualifications have been completed and more than 40 Higher Education (HE) qualifications had been offered through the Alice Springs Campus since 2009. There is significant demand in Tertiary Education Preparation; Commerce; Indigenous Languages and Linguistics; Nursing; Social Work; and Education, said Prof Bell.
About 790 students enrolled between 2009 and 2012 and more than 260 have completed. There are 13 additional HE and research staff located in Alice Springs, and three new buildings – HE, Community Services and new accommodation.

Is NT turning back the clock with its plans for compulsory rehab?

The Great Alcohol Debate: Most developed countries have long ago turned their back on forcing detox and treatment
 
By KIERAN FINNANE
 
“Forced detoxification” is neither “effective” nor “ethically acceptable” as a way of treating addiction, according to an editorial published under the name of 10 Australian and international researchers in the latest issue of Addictions, the top international journal of addiction studies.
 
The editorial mainly takes aim at the compulsory detention and forced detox of drug users in developing countries but gives a brief overview of the approach in the developed world. Some of its points have relevance for the current debate in the Northern Territory on compulsory rehab for problem drinkers as proposed by the Country Liberal Government.
 
We learn that a number of Australian and US states legislated for the involuntary treatment of ‘inebriates’ in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. US Federal courts were also sending  heroin-addicts for six months’ compulsory treatment during the mid-20th century.  However, with the notable exceptions of Russia and Sweden, compulsory detention of addicted individuals has “either been abandoned or fallen into disuse in most developed countries”, says the editorial.
 
This has been for two main reasons: “First, it failed to treat addiction effectively, with most people detained returning to drug use after release. Secondly, this approach has been criticized for violating the human rights of drug users.”
 
Russia and Sweden continue their compulsory detention of addicted people “in the absence of rigorous evaluations of the efficacy or safety of this approach”.
 
The editorial provides a range of references for the various points it argues, including questions of the effectiveness of compulsory treatment, one of which is available online. It dates from 2010 and was published by the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research. Its authors are Wayne Hall, Professor and NHMRC Australia Fellow at the University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research, and Jayne Lucke Associate Professor and Principal Research Fellow at the UQ Centre for Clinical Research.
 
Conditional ethical approval from WHO and UNODC
 
Opioid dependence is the main addiction discussed in the article, but perhaps some points can be extrapolated to the NT debate. On ethical considerations the authors report that a 1986 World Health Organization consensus view was that legally coerced drug treatment was legally and ethically justified if: (1) the rights of the individuals were protected by “due process”, and (2) if effective and humane treatment was provided.
 
They also report that the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)  has recently argued that coerced drug treatment is an acceptable alternative to imprisonment that is consistent with international drug control treaties and supported by evidence of effectiveness. “However, UNODC describes long-term compulsory residential drug treatment without the consent of the offender as a form of imprisonment that is not effective in treating problem drug use and is in breach of international human rights agreements.”
 
The authors point to the ethical issues that often often arise in interactions between the correctional and drug treatment systems: “Treatment staff see the drug offender as their client and hence as someone who should be involved in treatment decisions, is owed an obligation to respect confidentiality, and whose drug use should be dealt with therapeutically rather than punitively. By contrast, correctional and judicial personnel see treatment as directed by the court, and drug use as a breach of a court order that should be reported by treating staff.
 
“The effective and ethical use of coerced drug treatment requires a shared understanding of goals of treatment and a clear statement of the roles and responsibilities of correctional and treatment staff for monitoring and reporting upon an offender’s progress in drug treatment.”
 
‘Boot camps’ clearly do not work
 
The authors go on to look at what works and what doesn’t when treatment is offered under “legal pressure”. In considering the voluntary drug treatment programs on offer in US prisons, they report that “meta-analyses of these programs clearly show that boot camps do not reduce drug use or recidivism”.
 
“Therapeutic community approaches” however are  more effective, “especially those that link prisoners into treatment after release”. One study found that these approaches in prison “produced a 5.7 per cent reduction in recidivism and the financial benefits of doing so exceeded their costs”.
 
A comprehensive program of compulsory rehabilitation for recidivist drug offenders was established in NSW in 2006. The rationale was that it would be more cost-effective than imprisonment per se “which had failed to affect the drug use and criminality of these offenders”. The authors point out that “a major problem for those establishing the program … was the lack of evidence on the effectiveness of compulsory drug treatment in prison”.
 
“There were no randomised controlled trials of the effectiveness of these programs, no evidence on their
cost-effectiveness, and little guidance on how and to whom to provide such treatment. The most relevant evidence came from studies of the effectiveness of voluntary prison-based treatment programs.”
 
Of possible relevance for the NT’s debate is also the “civil commitment for drug dependence” that was trialled in California and New York in the 1960s: “Practitioners reviewing this experience in the late 1980s reached the consensus that ‘long-term client aftercare and monitoring’ were essential to successful compulsory drug treatment.” In this respect it is worth pointing out that Attorney-General John Elferink has described only a three-month program, with more of an emphasis on getting drunks off the streets than on their rehabilitation. He accepts the high risk of therapeutic failure, hoping that if people pursue their drinking afterwards,  they will at least be “more discreet”.