Whatever happened to the Port Augusta model?

By KIERAN FINNANE
 
Whatever happened to the Port Augusta model? Since Councillor Steve Brown (at right) produced a report to council on what he has drawn from that southern city’s approach to “community harmony”, the public has heard not another peep.
 
Back in May, when he and like-minded councillors were focussed on having a council body monitor the effective delivery of government services in Alice Springs, there was sense of urgency in the discussion. It was the kind of development that called for early morning meetings; progress on it was supposed to be “vital” and “immediate” in order to address the  “considerable anxiety” in the community over the decline in law and order.
 
Now, says Cr Brown, council is waiting for the right moment to talk to the new Territory Government about what is on its mind.
 
Has there been any direct contact on the issue? No, only courtesy meetings.
 
Will council be seeking direct contact soon? Not until after the government brings down its mini-budget, promised for December 4.
 
And we all know what happens after that – Christmas and the summer holidays, not a good time for getting the wheels of government turning while also a time when social tensions can be heightened.
 
Cr Brown’s plans, including a new youth centre and other youth-focused projects, now come with a considerable price tag, and at this point, with lots of belt-tightening messages coming from the new government,  he is not liking his chances of getting those plans up.
 
As for the watchdog role – his proposed “Heads of Departments Harmony Monitoring Committee” – although it would be essentially cost-free, he is politely waiting to be heard.
 
And meanwhile, the community is in the dark on the whole council’s attitudes towards Cr Brown’s proposals. When will we hear that debate in a public forum?
 
Pictured above: The Country Liberals’ major promise for Alice during their election campaign was $2.5m to upgrade the Alice Springs Youth Centre, a long way behind Cr Brown’s proposals for Alice’s Port Augusta-inspired responses to social problems. In our photo the then prospective Chief Minister Terry Mills talks to the Youth Centre’s Marie Petery and June Noble. With them are Braitling MLA Adam Giles and Araluen MLA Robyn Lambley, now Minister for Central Australia.

LETTER: Online campaign against 'nosey' federal Attorney-General

Sir – We encourage concerned Australians to cc Nicola Roxon on their day to day emails, email traffic the federal government shouldn’t be monitoring and retaining.
We don’t want to crash government computer systems. But we do want to send a humourous but clear message to the Attorney-General that the government shouldn’t have their nose in the private business of either activists or the general public.
We have grave concerns that the data collected will be used by governments to monitor and hinder people undertaking legal protest. Similarly, the information could be used against journalists and whistle-blowers keeping governments to account. Generation Alpha demands that intelligence agencies, law enforcement officials and politicians respect the values of Australians by respecting our fundamental rights of privacy and political protest.
The lack of detail on data retention safeguards is concerning. This issue is essential as there will be large financial incentives for criminal gangs to hack personal information for the use of fraud, identity theft, human trafficking and other serious crime.
Nosey Nicola’s Email: nicola.roxon.mp@aph.gov.au
Generation Alpha: www.facebook.com/GenerationAlpha
Ben Pennings
Generation Alpha

The Minister replied:

Is Fred our most faithful visitor?

By ERWIN CHLANDA
 
When it comes to repeat business, Viennese optometrist Alfred Pruckner must be a dream come true for the local tourist industry.
Since 1995 he has toured Central Australia 16 times, every time staying for a few weeks, cruising around the bush in big hired 4WDs, taking in the well known attractions, and many not so well known.
He camps out most nights, this time with his partner of four years, Erika Staudenbauer, sharing his rooftop tent.
She visited Ayers Rock 20 years ago but hadn’t been back to The Centre until this year.
“Here’s where I come to recharge my batteries,” we quoted Alfred in November 1998.
In 2005 Alfred and some mates walked the Larapinta Trail, end to end. His experiences over nearly two decades make him more qualified than most to judge the region, from the standpoint of a paying tourist.
He says the good news is that the magnificence of nature remains unchanged.
He doesn’t think humans are doing nearly as well: bureaucracy and regimentation are creeping into the visitor experience, and the cost of food and alcohol is well above Austria’s – itself not known as a cheap country.
He says the local tourism industry seems to be blissfully indifferent to the fact that the strong dollar is a disincentive to visiting Australia.
Glaring examples are the $18 per person camping fee at Ayers Rock Resort, notwithstanding that the shower doors don’t lock, the hooks to hang your clothes  are broken off, and the facilities are far from clean. The cheapest bottle of wine in the resort bottle shop costs $39 and you have to have a card issued by the parks service allowing you to buy it.
“It’s a gold digger’s attitude,” says Alfred.
Given that Erika and Alfred mostly do their own cooking, they shop in the supermarkets, comparing the prices with those at home. Alfred says in 2003 they were 15% lower than in Austria. This year they are 30% higher.
Car fuel is substantially cheaper than in Austria, although there are some adventurous fluctuations once you get outside Alice Springs, with one supplier between Broome and Alice charging $2.31 a litre for diesel.
Restaurant prices are extortionate compared to Austria where you can get a Menü – soup and main meal – in hundreds of good neighborhood and country pubs for around $6.50. A 500ml glass of beer is $3.60 in Austria. Here a 345ml stubby is likely to cost you $7.
Alfred isn’t a whinger – far from it – but his observations are useful for local tourism planners. He’s learned to avoid the most blatant rip-offs and makes the most of the magnificent locations around The Alice, equally enjoying walking and driving.
He says facilities in the government-run parks offer variety (no charges at all, for example, at Serpentine Gorge, or $3.30 a night for “bush camping” or $6.60 for serviced camping areas, such as the excellent one in Palm Valley).
Nature is the central attraction for Alfred and Erika, whose main hobby is doing world trips each year. His by now profound knowledge of the Central Australian region allows them to make the most of it.
They avoid organised tours but at times travel with friends in a second vehicle.
They paid $4875 to hire a Troopie with two rooftop tents (each accommodating two people) for 26 days ($187.50 a day).
They have pretty well given up on Uluru because of actual or perceived restrictions on movements and climbing. There was a sandstorm when they visited last week, and the Olgas were closed because of a fire. On balance it wasn’t worth spending the $25 a head for a three day pass, given they were planning to stay only two.
Restrictions like these are a growing concern for Alfred: “In Rainbow Valley you are now allowed to walk a few paces and then go back to your car.”
On many visits Alfred used to walk extensively around that spectacular rock formation, avoiding climbing because of the risks presented by the brittle sandstone.
“But what damage could you possibly do walking across the dry claypan there?”
Similar restrictions now apply at Gosses Bluff.
They were amazed by the absurdity of the government having sealed the road all the way from Alice Springs to the turn-off to the bluff, but not the last five kilometers, which excludes anyone not having 4WD from visiting it.
Contact with the locals was a bit of a mixed bag for Alfred and Erika.
On the way from the Bungle Bungles in WA they drove through Yuendumu. They met some locals whom they describe as friendly but the place was “terrible, filthy. Dead cars and beer cans everywhere. A rubbish dump,” they say.
“It was Sunday and the art centre was closed.”
They found that “interesting,” given the number of obviously idle people around, and the world-wide interest in Western Desert art.
They had been thinking of having a look around but decided against it.
They were also disturbed by the rubbish in drinking camps along the highways near Aboriginal communities.
It was a very different experience for Alfred when on a past trip he visited Ipolera, an outstation close to Gosses Bluff and owned by the Malbunka family.
The men in Alfred’s group were shown around – including areas of traditional significance – by a male member of the family, and the women, by Mavis Malbunka, who is also a traditional owner of the bluff.
Alfred says it was a memorable experience, in a beautiful place kept tidy.
Arriving in Alice, he was amazed to find the Town and Country pub in Todd Mall shut down. While it was known as Scotty’s it was his ‘local’ during previous visits, “always full, great atmosphere, a real outback pub”.
Neither Alfred on his many visits to Alice, nor Erika on her first, were in the slightest bit concerned about their safety in the streets of Alice Springs – day or night, nor annoyed by anti-social behaviour.
Will Alfred and Erika come back? For sure – they’re hooked. Will other Europeans start to come again in much greater numbers?
It seems the industry will need to put on its thinking cap: Will charging 30% less double the visitor numbers, at least so long as the Aussie dollar remains high? PICTURED: Alfred and his partner, Erika, at Chambers Pillar and in Alice Springs this week.

LETTER: NBN Co confirms fixing mobile phone blackspots not on Labor’s radar

Sir – The Labor Government has no plan to improve mobile coverage in regional Australia.
Evidence given at Tuesday night’s hearing of the Joint Committee on the NBN revealed that the Labor Government has not asked NBN Co to consider how its rollout of fixed wireless broadband towers could contribute to improved mobile phone coverage in regional Australia.
I directly asked NBN Co CEO Mike Quigley if NBN Co had done any projections as to the possibility of improving mobile phone coverage by the use of NBN Co’s wireless broadband towers. In response, he told the committee that NBN Co had not been asked by the Government to look at that issue.
In its response to the 2011-12 Regional Telecommunications Review, the Government ignored a recommendation to contribute to the expansion of the mobile phone network. Instead, Labor promised to “review the impact of the NBN fixed wireless towers on improving mobile coverage before considering the desirability of any further action”.
It is now clear that neither the Government nor NBN Co have any idea whether the NBN wireless rollout, which will cost taxpayers more than $1 billion, will have any impact on mobile phone coverage in the regions.
The sad reality is that the Labor Government has not spent one dollar on mobile communications, since being elected.
It is simply not good enough for the Government to stick its head in the sand until the wireless rollout is complete in 2015 and just wait to see if the situation improves. This problem requires action from the Government.
The last two Independent Regional Telecommunications Reviews have found that poor mobile phone coverage is the most prominent communications concern for people living and working in regional Australia.
Poor mobile coverage in regional Australia reduces public safety, hinders the recruitment and retention of skilled staff, and affects productivity.
Luke Hartsuyker
Shadow Minister for Regional Communications

The NT's violent southern half

By KIERAN FINNANE
 
‘Serious assault causing injury’ is the standout crime in the Police Southern Command, according to the picture painted by Police Annual Report for 2011-12, tabled in the NT parliament yesterday. Police stats show a 246.7% increase in that category, compared to 12.3% in the Darwin Metropolitan Command and 131.4% in the Northern Command.
 
The raw numbers for the Southern Command are 137 in 2010-11 jumping to 475 in 2011-12. That puts Southern Command in 2011-12 way ahead of Darwin Metropolitan with 229 such offences, and Northern Command with 162. (Unlike the quarterly Department of Justice crime statistics, there are no breakdowns for the major urban centres of the Southern and Northern Commands.)
 
In offences against property the Southern Command is not far below Darwin Metropolitan. The totals for Darwin in the  ‘Unlawful entry with intent/burglary, break and enter” were 1,664 for 2010-11 and 1,853 for 2011-12, up 11.4% For the Southern Command in the same category the totals were 1,448 and 1,313, down 9.3%. In the Southern Command the building and dwelling sub-sets of these figures were roughly even, while in Darwin there were significantly more unlawful entries into buildings.
 
On a much commented upon topic, the timeliness of police response, the report offers these NT-wide statistics:
 
• the proportion of 000 calls answered within 10 seconds in 2011-12 was 82%, compared to 87% in 2010-11 and the national average of 74.5%.
 
• the proportion of general calls answered within 20 seconds was 68% in 2011-12, compared to 74% in 2010-11.
 
• the proportion of “priority one” incidents where police were dispatched within 10 minutes was 64.% in 2011-12, with no comparisons available.
 
 
 

The Great Alcohol Debate: Police protective custodies headed south over the last six years


 
UPDATED: November 1, 2012, 12.28pm. See graph at the bottom.

 
The small drop in the most recent 12 months builds on a big drop in the preceding 12 months
 
By KIERAN FINNANE
 
Protective custody statistics shown in the Police Annual Report, tabled in the Legislative Assembly yesterday, show a considerable drop in police protective custodies over the last six years, with a big hike in the middle period followed by a big drop in 2010-11 (see graph below).
 
This puts a different complexion on the recent mileage made by NT Attorney-General John Elferink of the small drop in police PCs between 2010-11 and 2011-12. A small drop building on a big drop is a better look for where alcohol policy was heading than just a small drop on its own. Mr Elferink interpreted the small drop as evidence of the failure of the Banned Drinkers Register, rolled out across 2011-12.
 
The Alice Springs News Online asked for more detailed statistics, specific to Alice Springs. We repeated our request this week but to date we have had no reply (sounds familiar – same spots on this different leopard).
 
Turning to the six-year picture in the Police Annual Report, in all years the numbers involving Indigenous males tower over the rest, but over the six-year period they have dropped by more than 5000, from 17,375 in 2006-07 to 11,926 in 2011-12.
 
The next largest category is Indigenous females, over the six years dropping by a little more than 2000, from 7432 in 2006-07 to 5378 in 2011-12.
 
The figures for non-Indigenous females have risen, but the numbers are small: 131 in 2006-07, 171 in 2011-12. The figures for non-Indigenous males have fallen by some 200, from 1509 to 1296.
 
In 2011-12 there is an unusually high number of people in the Indigenous status unknown category, due to a changing in recording practices. All up these cases accounted for 1214 police PCs, 683 of them female.
 
Looking at totals, there has been a drop from 26,448 in 2006-07 to 19,988 in 2011-12. In between the figures climbed to a shocking high of 35,872 in 2009-10, not far off the 35,397 of the preceding 12 months. The big jump from 2007-08 was in the Indigenous male category (up by 4382), followed by the Indigenous female category (up by 1669). These peaks were followed by a big fall  in 2010-11 to 20,354, with figures for Indigenous males and females both dropping below the levels recorded in 2006-07.
 
The police PC stats however – as pointed out in the report –  do not give a full picture as they don’t include people taken to sobering up shelters, taken home or left in the care of a responsible person.
 
Below: The graph illustrates the sustained drop in police Protective Custodies, NT-wide. One factor that may have contributed to the big drop in 2010-11, as pointed out by Bob Durnan in the comment below, is the ban on cheap wine in large casks (4 and 5 litres). This was made NT-wide effective from January 1, 2011, bringing Darwin and Palmerston into line with the other major urban centres and most towns of the NT where the ban already existed. The Licensing Commission noted in its decision, that prior to the ban, “the Darwin / Palmerston areas were defying the downward trend with alcohol sales and consumption increasing, while a decline was being experienced in the rest of the Territory”.
 

Back to the drawing board on pedestrian crossings in Alice CBD

By KIERAN FINNANE
 
Council will not be proceeding with wombat crossings between the Post Office, Yeperenye and Coles – nor any new crossings at all – pending further consideration of past reports and a new traffic study in the CBD.
 
At left: Probably the CBD’s busiest crossing, on Hartley Street in front of the Yeperenye shopping centre.
 
The issue had been discussed at length by the previous council, with the wombat crossings (the kind of raised crossing that has been installed on Gregory Terrace, between Kmart and Coles) finally agreed to. At last night’s meeting the Technical Services department was seeking council’s permission to proceed.
 
Councillor Steve Brown said he had received  a lot of feedback from residents on the issue, all of it negative. The crossings would unnecessarily restrict traffic and far from improving safety, may increase the hazard for pedestrians. Cr Eli Melky agreed, with “possible road rage” among the negative consequences.
 
Cr Liz Martin, while happy to listen to both sides of the debate, pointed out that her mother had been hit by a car under the present conditions.
 
Cr Chansey Paech spoke in favour of the crossings, as a way of council being seen to promote a healthy lifestyle, encouraging visitors to the CBD to walk between trading centres (Todd Mall, Yeperenye, Coles). He said he had received positive comment on the proposed crossings from people with little kids.
 
At right: The wombat crossing on Gregory terrace, between Coles and Kmart. 
 
Cr Dave Douglas wanted council to go back to the drawing board and consider installing lights at the crossings.
 
A resident had spoken from the public gallery, suggesting speed humps rather than crossings, but Cr Jade Kudrenko didn’t think people would like speed humps throughout the CBD. She thought council might want to eventually look at a one-way loop for traffic through the CBD. Meanwhile, wombat crossings would be safer, she said.
 
 

Council wants to save water but doesn't like the word 'rules'

By KIERAN FINNANE
 
If the Town Council is a barometer of public opinion, Alice Water Smart may have some trouble with getting the community to warm to “water rules”. Council has been asked to nominate a representative to the Citizens’ Advisory Panel on the development of the rules. As previously reported here, the rules are not intended to be compulsory, more a set of guidelines drawn up through a community consultation process.
 
But words matter and Councillor Steve Brown led the debate with his objection to the use of the term “water rules”. Alice Water Smart has “no mandate” to impose rules, he said, and a term such as “advice” would be amore appropriate. Water use rules would be a matter for the NT Government, not for a voluntary body of citizens, he said.
 
Council is a partner in the Water Smart consortium, as Mayor Damien Ryan pointed out. CEO Rex Mooney understood councillors’ difficulty with the word ‘rules’ but said that it would be best for council to have someone, preferably an elected member, “around the table” on this issue.
 
Cr Liz Martin also thought that the word ‘rules’ would sound “overbearing” for the community; and as such rules can’t be “governed and enforced”, calling them “initiatives” might be better.
 
Cr Eli Melky expressed his concerns, referring to the current marketing of the concept as “almost like a political campaign”. It doesn’t show where or how any rules would be “policed”, he said, asking, “why should the people of Alice Springs follow them?”. “Water awareness is a good thing” but the council should “distance” itself from the notion of ‘rules’. Nonetheless he supported having a council representative  on the advisory panel.
 
Mayor Ryan understood the misgivings around the term but compared the situation to council’s involvement with Alice Solar City and its “champions” program. He suggested that “a big part of the community will want to play in this space” and that council would need to have at least an officer on the advisory panel.
 
Greens Councillor Jade Kudrenko was also “uncomfortable” with the word ‘rules’ but said what Water Smart is trying to achieve is “positive”. She was of the view that an environment officer, if council had one, would have been an ideal representative on the advisory panel. Mayor Ryan appeared nettled by this: he didn’t think it would be the role of an environment officer to write rules. (Council has an environment officer whose role appeared to have been confined to landfill management matters.)  Mayor Ryan preferred the idea of having council’s Works Manager, Scott Allen, at the table.
 
Cr Dave Douglas, who had attended a recent Waterwise function for schools, presenting its various awards, had been “very impressed” by the schools’ water savings. While he was also against the notion of ‘rules’, he said saving water was a good conclusion in the long run.
 
In the end, Cr Melky was nominated, and accepted, to represent council on the advisory panel. Mayor Ryan summed up “the mood in the room”: council is interested in saving water but not in having “rules”.
 
 
 
 

The Great Alcohol Debate: Council rangers work 'more difficult' since scrapping of BDR, says Mayor

By KIERAN FINNANE
 
Town Council rangers have had a “more difficult workload” since the removal of the Banned Drinkers Register, according to Mayor Damien Ryan. He told his fellow councillors last night that he had conveyed this message to the stakeholders’ meeting on alcohol issues convened by Deputy Chief Minister Robyn Lambley on October 5.
 
Under council’s Public Places by-laws public drinking is prohibited and rangers have the power to seize and empty open containers of liquor.
 
May Ryan said that each stakeholder representative at the October 5 meeting spoke of their organisation’s experience of alcohol issues and that the rangers’ “disappointment” was what he could speak about. He also commented on the bigger number of wine and spirit bottles found in the public open space since the scrapping of the BDR, which had “dissipated over time” with its introduction. Mayor Ryan was responding to a question from Councillor Jade Kudrenko about the meeting.
 
Meanwhile, his opposition to the NT Rock Bar’s application to extend its trading hours had evaporated as had Cr Eli Melky’s. Council had received an extension of time to comment on the application and last night voted to “not object”.
 
At right: The NT Rock Bar last night.
 
Cr Eli Melky said he had changed his mind after meeting with the licensee. He was satisfied that he runs his business well and that he fully understood council’s concerns with alcohol and anti-social behaviour issues. Cr Melky said he sought assurance from the licensee that he would  attend relevant meetings to work towards resolving alcohol-related issues, which the licensee gave. He encouraged his colleagues to vote in the affirmative which the majority duly did. Crs Geoff Booth and  Brendan Heenan were absent but had voted in the affirmative previously; only Cr Kudrenko abstained, though without comment.
 
Mayor Ryan said his “main” point when he spoke on this matter at the committee meeting was how to get Gaming and Licensing to understand council’s meeting cycle. He didn’t revisit the substance of the application.
Council has since been told that there shouldn’t be a problem with allowing enough time to comment on future applications.

The Great Alcohol Debate: Aboriginal Peak Organisations say 'politicians are right, our people must decide'

The Territory Government is determined to let Aboriginal people decide on whether they want grog or stronger grog in their communities. Minister for Indigenous Advancement Alison Anderson backs this while also expressing her confidence that 99.9% will say no to grog.  Now Aboriginal Peak   Organisations have announced a summit to get a “firm overview of Aboriginal views”.
 
Alliance spokesperson Priscilla Collins said “the effects of grog on our people here in the Territory cannot be denied. It is reflected in the health of our people, in the levels of alcohol-related family and communal violence, and our encounters with the justice and jail systems.
 
“At this critical moment in the Northern Territory’s history, this summit will give a voice to Aboriginal people throughout the Territory so they can give their views. As well, we will have access to evidence from the alcohol policy professionals—what works and what doesn’t work. Our politicians are right—the ultimate decision over managing alcohol on our communities must lie with our people—all of us.
 
“The real issue is that those decisions are made on the basis of having accurate information and evidence in making these decisions. The Grog in the Territory summit is designed to take important first steps in that direction.
 
“This will pave the way for the many meetings that will have to occur as communities across the Territory develop their own Alcohol Management Plans under the Stronger Futures program,” said Ms Collins who is also CEO of the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency.
 
Federal Minister for Indigenous Affairs Jenny Macklin has the power to sign off on alcohol management plans. In a radio interview on Friday, to a question about it being Aboriginal people’s “right to drink”, she said: “Well, I don’t think it’s a right to drink and then drink to the extent that you belt your wife and your children and they end up in hospital. I don’t think that’s a human right, I think those children and those women have a right to live safely in their homes and they’re the rights that I’ll be certainly fighting very hard to protect.”
 
She also said that she’s heard I’ve heard “loud and clear from Aboriginal leaders”  both in Queensland and remote Northern Territory where in many places “they’ve had alcohol bans for a long time”, that “they do not want to see the return of alcohol and the devastation that that means for their families”.
 
The Peak Organisations’ summit will be held in Darwin on Friday 16 November.
 
Source: Daily Hansard, media release, transcript.

The Great Alcohol Debate: Some MLAs making the link between drinking and not having to work

By KIERAN FINNANE
 
Freedom of choice for Aborigines is dominating the parliamentary debate on alcohol but the link between excessive drinking and lack of employment is also receiving attention.
 
Member for Barkly Gerry McCarthy made a colourful contribution in the debate last Friday when Leader of the Opposition Delia Lawrie moved a Matter of Public Importance about the reintroduction of full strength beer to the Tiwi Islands. By his own account Mr McCarthy took warmly to his “research” into Aboriginal social clubs while on a tour of bush electorates with Ms Lawrie.
 
He extolled the “vibe” of the “very well patronised” club at Kalkaringi – security on the door, great food, entertainment, mid-strength alcohol and no quota system – although he also said people had made a “clear distinction” between when that club sold full-strength alcohol and when it did not. “There was definitely a difference in the community life and the community safety. That [view] was coming from all walks of life, Indigenous and non-Indigenous.”
 
He had a “great time” too (drinking Coke) at the Nguiu club where there was no tucker, a band, mid-strength alcohol and a quota system (six mid-strenghth beers). He said locals told him how that quota system could be easily scammed.
 
But despite the “lot of good fun” he had in both places, he also saw the challenges, similar to those in his home town of Tennant Creek: “There was a common denominator: in both those places the employment programs are running at less than 30%, but the club was really well patronised. Nobody was late for the club, but the employment programs are running at less than 30%. People were not going to work, they were not getting up and doing things. Their self-esteem, obviously, has dropped – and you know the story … they had the similar problems of communities in the Barkly, where employment levels are really low, people are not going to work, kids are not going to school with 100% attendance, the community wellbeing is low, self-esteem is low, and there are issues.”
 
Member for Braitling Adam Giles hinted at having a different view of the freedom of choice argument being advanced, saying that his opinions on alcohol are being challenged by the Member for Arafura Francis Xavier Kurrupuwu “because that is what his people want”. Perhaps that is why he focussed instead on the ‘big picture’, talking about the provision of infrastructure to stimulate economic development, something he sees as working on the “demand side” of the alcohol issue.
 
“You did not talk in your speech, Member for Barkly, about welfare. All members here, but particularly the Member for Port Darwin [John Elferink], spoke about treating people equally. If you live in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth or anywhere and you are on the dole and you do not look for a job, you lose your money. I do not want to see people lose their money, but I think there needs to be a carrot-and-stick approach to all Australians, to encourage people to get a job …
 
“If you paid me to sit down and do nothing all day – because I do not mind having a beer – I might drink beer. I have responsibility in my life; I have things to do, I have to earn a living. That is what provides that change. The real debate is about welfare. The real debate is about sit-down money; it always has been about sit-down money. Land tenure reform is a part of an argument – that is a federal argument – but sit-down money is a major problem. You are not going to get people to turn up to your employment programs if you keep paying people to do nothing. That is the No 1 issue.”
 
Independent Member for Nelson Gerry Wood expressed his strong support for Mr Giles’ focus: “In fact, I would have preferred this MPI to say: the introduction of full employment and the dissolution of welfare.” He recalled being  works manager in the Nguiu Shire Council, employing 107 men.
 
“We employed everybody we could until about 1978 when Gough Whitlam brought in unemployment benefits. Since then we have had generations of unemployed people and that has been one of the absolute disasters for the welfare, not only of Aboriginal people, for other people as well.”
 
He recalled the social club on Bathurst Island in the ’70s, when people were entitled to four cans each of full-strength beer. “Drinking was certainly an issue”, he said, but having a job had a “calming” influence: “If people had to turn up the next day for a job, they were less likely to get on the booze. If someone did not turn up, they would not be given the next day to work either. So, there was hopefully an incentive to make sure that even though you had been on the grog, you would turn up for work.
 
“And I think the two work together. If you have got no job, well you might as well get drunk anyway, because you have not got much to live for, so why not? I mean there is a lot of talk about what are you living for? And if you are living in an overcrowded house, have not got a job, they are not putting any new houses in your community, what are you living for? And work is something that gives people a reason to live. And if you are taking that basic human value away, who blames people for getting drunk or going on gunja? ”
 
He said he has spoken about this directly with Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin: “I said, ‘You have to get rid of welfare’, and you have to give that money – and this is my version, so other people might have a different idea – give that money to the councils, top it up to a reasonable wage and say to anyone, ‘Welfare is not available here, but if you want some money, you go to the council and the council will at least get you a job’.
 
“As long as the council is also funded with enough infrastructure and capital equipment to do that, it can be done. There is plenty of work in communities, plenty! And then if people want another job, well, perhaps they have to advance their education, apply for jobs elsewhere, but at least you give them the basic start in life that you give them a job. And I agree totally, if you are the government and if you can convince the federal government …”
 
The sittings resumes tomorrow.
 
Source: MLAs’ comments as reported in Daily Hansard.

Guides clean up world record


 
The Alice Springs Girl Guides yesterday took part in a nation wide bid to break the Guinness Books of Records count of most cars washed washed in an eight-hour period.
It looks like the record of 4344 cars was broken – it’s not official yet – with a national tally of about 6000 cars.
In Alice, one of the 100 communities taking part in the challenge organised by the automotive parts supplier Repco, 37 guides washed 68 cars.
Repco donated the fee of $5 per car to the guides.
The Alice Springs Girl Guides was started in 1935 and today has 100 members aged five to 17. – Video and story by Erwin Chlanda.
 
UPDATE October 30:
At 5.00 pm on Saturday, the 27th of October, REPCO broke the World Record for Most Cars Washed, according to a spokesman from Repco. The validation process with Guinness should be complete within a week before the result becomes official.
More than 5,000 cars were washed across multiple Repco locations in Australia and New Zealand.

LETTER: Should we dam the Todd?

Sir – I would like to contribute to the issue of damming the Todd River. Something has to be done about flood mitigation. Burying your head in the sand will not make it go away. We live in a climate of extremes and some of our older residents will remember the terrible Easter flood in 1988 with massive property damage.
Most of your readers expressed the opinion that there seems little interest in having a recreational lake north of Alice Springs. With our evaporation rate ten times greater than our rainfall it makes sense not to create a permanent lake. Most of the rivers in Central Australia are known as dry rivers.
What I would like readers to consider is the construction of a flood levy on the Todd River north of Alice Springs at a place know as Atnyere Arrkelthe (Junction Waterhole pictured).
In January 1990 the Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority (AAPA) issued a work certificate to build this levy but it was withdrawn when construction plans were amended to make this a permanent lake. I believe AAPA would reconsider the idea of a levy at this location.
Let’s get serious about flood mitigation. I live on South Terrace and according to Council flood plans my property will be affected every 20 years. Let’s have this levy and not a dam. That makes sense.
Ted Skahill
Alice Springs

Contest on two wheels or two … eyes

Sarah Fitzgerald, (left) from Mildura, Victoria, wants to win in next year’s Tatts Finke Desert Race, one way or another: She’ll apply to be a Grid Girl, and if that doesn’t work, she’ll straddle her new 125cc pit bike – her first – and give the boys a run for their money on the track.
Another early hopeful to join the glamor girls, sponsored by Inland Electrical, is born and bred local, Jade Hatt, who says she can’t wait to apply when entries open on November 1, “continuing her journey of growing up with the race”.
“The Finke is a national event open to anyone and everyone wishing to compete,” says race committee member, Claire Ryan. “The same applies with our volunteers and Grid Girls.”

Food store licensing expanded

The whole of the Northern Territory is now defined as a food security area, except for the major centres that are specifically excluded. The effect of the change –  part of the Stronger Futures package – is that all stores that are an important source of food, drink or grocery items for an Aboriginal community, whether or not they are in or close to the community, will have to be licensed.
 
Said Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs Jenny Macklin: “Due to strong competition, higher levels of consumer awareness and the variety of food, drink and grocery outlets, the expanded stores licensing will not apply in the major centres of Darwin, Palmerston, Alice Springs, Tennant Creek, Katherine and Nhulunbuy.
 
“Licensing focuses on all aspects of a store’s operation, including on the range and promotion of healthy food, the quality of retail management, governance and financial practices.
 
“Aboriginal people have told us that store licensing has improved the quality and availability of fresh, healthy food, and is having a positive impact on their communities,” Ms Macklin said.
 
The Minister for Indigenous Health Warren Snowdon said that a survey released last year showed Aboriginal people said that children are now healthier, happier and more active than three years ago.
 
Stores in the expanded area that need to hold a licence will be brought into the scheme over a period of time and will be contacted about the changes well before licensing assessments occur.
 
The new scheme will also provide for a wider range of penalties for licence breaches.
 
The Government is investing $40.9 million over ten years in the expanded stores licensing scheme.
 
Source: Australian Government media release.

How 'independent' will the revamped EPA be?

By KIERAN FINNANE
 
Chief Minister Terry Mills (at left) will front media in Darwin this afternoon to talk about the new Northern Territory Environment Protection Authority Bill introduced into Parliament today. He will be accompanied by the man nominated to chair the revamped authority, Dr Bill Freeland. Formerly the Executive Director of Parks and Wildlife, Dr Freeland’s position was controversially abolished by Labor’s Minister Kon Vatskalis in 2002 as he went about creating the ‘super department’ of Infrastructure, Planning and Environment.  Leader of the Opposition at the time, Denis Burke, attempted to censure Mr Vatskalis  for the sacking of “a loyal and dedicated public servant”.
 
Will the media get any further than Independent MLA Gerry Woods did in Question Time yesterday, when he asked Mr Mills how the existing EPA is not already independent and what the cost would be of setting up a new EPA agency?
 
This is what Mr Mills said, as reported in the Daily Hansard: “The efficiencies come with more effective and open decision-making. Previously, the decision-making was excessively slow. This will be at arm’s length; it will be conducted in full view of the Territory community. One thing that I want to restore in the Northern Territory is confidence in the systems that are there, designed for the community to be engaged in, to have trust that decisions are being made in the interests of the Northern Territory, and not in the interests of a political party, as in the former government. One way to avoid that was to have very, very slow decision-making – you will see a significant change. Do not underestimate the improvements that we will see in productivity and growth in the Northern Territory at addressing our core issues if we have improved decision-making.”
 
Mr Woods questioned the relevance of the response.
 
Mr Mills replied: “What I indicated was it is independent; the commission is independent of the minister and provides in full view the advice that is provided for us all to see. The powers that the minister once had which puts the minister in the position of adjudicating and perhaps slowing down the process is now completely rested with the commission. That authority now rests with the commission and not with the minister, which provides for openness, transparency and clarity over the decision-making – and full accountability ability because every member will get to know exactly what those deliberations are before a minister has the opportunity to tick or flick on those final decisions.”
 
Mr Wood later returned to theme, asking about the process by which Dr Freeland became the nominee to chair the new EPA. “Could you say how long the expression of interest period went for; how many people sent in an expression of interest; and who assessed and recommended the final candidate for the job?” he asked.
 
This is how the answer went:
 
Mr Mills: Madam Speaker, I thank the Member for Nelson. I am on the record and acknowledge that there was a consideration of who could best fill that position. It was the view of many that there was an appropriate candidate. I will accept there was not the process you are referring to but, in this case …
 
Mr [Paul} Henderson: A CLP crony got the job.
 
Mr Mills: I will tell you, these assertions that come from those who see everything through a political prism, thinking these are all politically-motivated decisions, as I said, at the end of the day …
 
Members interjecting.
 
Mr Mills: … the fifth point [of the Country Liberals 5 Point Plan] is accountability. If this does not work, if it does not produce results, we will be accountable. I have made a decision and I accept the responsibility for that decision – judge us by the results.
 
Ms [Delia] Lawrie: You promised it in your 100-day plan.
 
 
Faster decision-making not necessarily more independent 
 
The Alice Springs News Online asked coordinator of the Arid Lands Environment Centre Jimmy Cocking (at right) about the Government’s proposed changes.
 
“We have concerns around the language being used in describing the ‘independence’ of the EPA NT,” says Mr Cocking.
 
“The EPA exists to ensure that development is ecologically sustainable. Ecologically sustainable development is based on the ‘precautionary principle’ which means if a proposed development is likely to cause irreversible damage to the environment, then it is better to not proceed with the development rather than attempt to remediate it afterwards.
 
“The concern here lies in the powers being taken away from a Minister who can be held accountable to the electorate and given to a Commission – about which the public generally knows very little.
 
“Environmental assessments do take time. Speeding up decisions is not an improvement unless the processes of decision-making are taking the environmental, as well as the social and economic implications into account.
 
“The EPA under the previous government could independently initiate environmental investigations and make recommendations to the Minister and then to the Parliament. The question is, how is a new and ‘independent’ EPA going to protect the environment and not just be a ‘tick and flick’ exercise for the mining, gas and petroleum industries?'”
 
On Dr Freeland’s nomination Mr Cocking says his main concern is the process: “There were no expressions of interest received and so we cannot assume that the best person got the job. From what I understand, Dr Bill Freeland is qualified for the job, my only concern is that without proper process it can be interpreted as a political appointment.”
 

Was Framptons real estate agent David Forrest considering a career change?

COMMENT by ERWIN CHLANDA
 
A decision on costs yesterday – awarded to the plaintiff as expected – brought to a conclusion the defamation case Framptons’ principal David Forrest (pictured below right) brought against me related to an article I published in September 2010. But the story’s not over.
 
The trial for fraud offences of Randal Carey, the builder associated with the collapsed Framptons New Homes Scheme, is scheduled to take place in February next year and may shed further light on what happened when about a dozen local families suffered the anguish of losing significant amounts of money and being left with uncompleted homes. The Alice Springs News Online will report on that trial as it proceeds.
 
In the meantime, I can reveal that Mr Forrest in the course of my trial made a bid for full ownership of the Alice Springs News. Although it could have settled the case and avoided a great deal of stress at the time and a large part of the impact that the judgment against me has had on me and my company, I rejected the bid. The trial went to its conclusion and the consequence was a $100,000 plus interest damages order against me and the costs awarded yesterday.
 
The approach to buy the News was made in the evening of the first day of the trial, on September 5 last year. That morning the final mediation had failed and the trial had commenced.
 
I have experienced proceedings in the Supreme Court many times, sitting in the public gallery as a reporter, but never before as a defendant. In preliminary hearings to my trial before several judges and finally at the trial before Justice Judith Kelly I was representing myself. I did not have the means to brief and engage counsel beyond drafting a defence.
 
I had been given leave to represent the co-defendant, my company, Erwin Chlanda Pty Ltd. My wife and chief reporter at the News, Kieran Finnane, was allowed to assist me and sit next to me at the bar table.
 
At one point a firm trial date had been set by Justice John Reeves, for him to hear the matter. Mr Forrest had already engaged Sydney QC Tom Molomby, a man reputed to be at the top of his field and who no doubt charges accordingly. He appeared on this occasion by video link, objecting to the date because he wasn’t available. Justice Reeves said he was not obliged to take into account counsel’s convenience in setting a trial date.
 
Nevertheless, the trial date he set was later changed – my objections notwithstanding – and Mr Forrest got his top QC. John Stirk, Mr Forrest’s solicitor, disclosed that he and Justice Kelly had been friends since university days. I did not object to her carriage of the case. Until about then I had thought Mr Stirk was my friend too. He certainly was someone who knew a lot about my business and financial position, him having often been generous with advice and his office having had carriage of formalising some of the more critical arrangements for my business and personal affairs.
 
For Mr Forrest, the array against us included Mr Molomby, Chris Dibb, a “junior counsel” (though by no means does this mean inexperienced) and local lawyers, Mr Stirk and Peer Schroter. For us it was the culmination of work spanning a year: formulating a defence, gathering evidence, sometimes by subpoena or court order, trying to learn the ropes and obtaining sporadic legal advice. I was fighting for my financial and professional life in a way I never had to before, on two continents and in half a century of journalism, the last 37 years in Alice Springs.
 
During a break in the hearing on that first trial day, as Kieran and I were under immense pressure to keep up with an unfamiliar process, Mr Molomby asked me if I wanted to discuss “selling” the Alice Springs News, as part of a settlement. His client could be interested, he said. I was stunned and said I would think about it.
 
He said I would have to make my mind up quickly as a settlement would only be useful if it avoided continuing further with the trial. I spoke to Kieran briefly. We were both appalled at the possibility of his client taking possession of what we had created in nearly 20 years of work, but by then we were also very apprehensive about the trial.
 
I may not be able to get into detail now, ahead of Mr Carey’s trial, about the information we gathered and attempted to put before the court as evidence in support of our defence. But I can say that much of what a layperson – for example, a journalist and his readers – would consider relevant to the case was struck out by the Judge out for legalistic reasons.
 
The full story behind the Framptons New Homes fiasco, which was the context for me publishing a string of articles including the one sued on, and for my defence, had been decimated. Had I been able to afford legal representation, by someone experienced in defamation law as well as the rules of evidence, I am quite confident that a lot more evidence would have seen the light of day, especially as in many cases the reason for striking out was “form” – the way we had put it. When the reason was “relevance” it appeared to us to be very narrowly defined, and hardly any explanation from me was sought by the Court.
 
So, we agreed to meet with Mr Molomby, at the end of the day at the Red Ochre restaurant. We expected to see only him but instead it was the full catastrophe – Mr Dibb too, and Mr Stirk and Mr Schroter. Mr Stirk and Mr Schroter – as locals familiar with the News –  led the discussion. Mr Schroter eagerly quizzed me about technical matters in relation to our online publishing. Both he and Mr Stirk wanted to understand our copyright arrangements and it was Mr Stirk who blithely suggested that Kieran’s copyright should form part of the deal, even though Kieran was not a defendant.
 
We were shocked by the apparent extent of the deal being proposed, shocked particularly that locals could be promoting it.
 
Nonetheless, we wanted time to think and asked for the proposal to be put in writing. The same evening we received an email from Mr Schroter outlining a detailed proposal – subject to approval by Mr Forrest: entry of judgment in favour of Mr Forrest, $20,000 in cash by way of damages, an apology in terms dictated by them AND the Alice Springs News in its entirety, its masthead, the website, phone numbers, email addresses, contact book, all archival material – more than five million words – and all copyright including that held by Kieran.
 
We didn’t actually think Mr Forrest was entertaining a new career in newspaper publishing. That wealth of material, our work of 20 years, a rich vein of the town’s recent recorded history, was surely headed for the dustbin. All this to bury my investigation into the Framptons’ fiasco? No doubt that was part of it. (Google our site for details.)
 
But there was more, which Mr Forrest made clear at the trial. Our archive also contains articles about his and his family’s involvement in the collapse of the Territory Tool and Gun company in 2001, an ongoing sore point for him. (PAWA sells land in bid to recover debt and PAWA land deal: still no answers. Both reports carry my by-line).
 
Accepting Mr Molomby’s deal  could have made something very unpleasant for us go away but we couldn’t do it. And so we went through the trial to the best of our ability and suffered its outcome and lived to publish another day. The judgement and now the costs decision have forced me into bankruptcy, but I don’t owe anyone a cent, apart from Mr Forrest.
 
Note: I offered Mssrs Molomby, Stirk and Schroter right of reply to this comment. They did not respond. We have lodged complaints with the NT and NSW law societies.
 
 
 

Palm Valley gas royalties will resume

By ERWIN CHLANDA
 
Royalties have temporarily stopped flowing to the NT Government and Arrernte traditional owners for gas from the Palm Valley fields west of Alice Springs, in the wake of reduced production.
After using Central Australian gas for some 25 years Power and Water Corporation (PWC) mostly switched to the Italian company ENI in 2010 which produces gas offshore in the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf.
Less than 10% of PWC’s needs continued to come from Palm Valley but this ended in January this year.
Merv Cowie, operations director of the Magellan Petroleum Australia Limited, which is the owner and operator of the field, says royalties – to the government as well as the Aboriginal interests – are paid on the wellhead value of the gas.
That is calculated by the revenue less production costs which at present exceed the revenue.
However, Mr Cowie says Magellan has a 15 year contract with Santos, production will be stepped up again next year and royalty payments are expected to resume.
Mr Cowie says the size of these payments are commercial in confidence but the government rate is 10%.
A spokesman for the NT Government says it does not release those figures.
The rate for the traditional owners is not being disclosed, says Mr Cowie.
He says the field has been in production for 28 years. As is usual for gas fields producing under their own pressure, it is highest at the beginning and drops as gas is removed.
The gas is delivered to Santos via the Amadeus pipeline which runs from Palm Valley to Alice Springs, Tennant Creek, Katherine and Darwin.
 
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Anderson says she is not in conflict with Chief Minister on bilingual schooling

By KIERAN FINNANE
 
Minister for Indigenous Advancement Alison Anderson says there is no conflict between her vision of schooling in the bush and the Chief Minister’s. In a long speech to parliament on Tuesday she said that teaching traditional culture and language “should not be done in schools”. This has been reported as in conflict with County Liberals policy, with Chief Minister Terry Mills stating yesterday that, while the objective is to teach English,  “you have to use the language that they bring into the school in those first two or three years”.
 
Ms Anderson told the Alice Springs News Online this morning that this of course is the “pragmatic” way to go: “You can’t start teaching bush children in a language they can’t understand. You use the traditional language to get to English, which is what schools do now. It’s called ‘scaffolding’. I believe in bush children being fluent in English, it’s what parents want. How to get there is a pragmatic matter for the schools.
 
“All through my speech I stuck up for culture and language. But no white man can teach you your language. Aboriginal people teach their children language in the first few years of life. Then at school they begin the journey of scaffolding into English.”
 
In her speech Ms Anderson identified the two goals she will strive for as Minister for Indigenous Advancement  – real education and real jobs, even though she is not  the Education Minister or the Employment Minister and she went to to explain why.  What follows is an edited version of the speech.
 
“Too much of the public discussion about Indigenous people has assumed, whatever the problem, government is the answer. It has been assumed that any problem can be solved with the right policies and the right amount of money. I would have no issue with that if it was correct but the history of the past 40 years, including the Intervention, shows it is wrong. I believe it failed because it came over time to treat Indigenous people as passive and, by treating us as passive, it helped make us passive. It also treated us as different and encouraged us to live in a parallel world that was supposed to be a dreaming but became a nightmare. The time has come to reject those beliefs and say that Indigenous people need to engage with other Australians. In particular, we need jobs and, for jobs, we need education.
 
“We Indigenous people need to be more like other Australians. I do not mean we should abandon our beliefs or our language but, like dozens of other cultures in Australia, we must learn to combine our own identities with participation in the broader society that will not weaken us. It will make us stronger in who we are. To preserve the old ways, we must embrace the new ones …
 
Indigenous schools’ lost generation
 
“Many people who have been to Indigenous schools in the past generation are so poorly educated they have never had a real job. In employment terms, they are the lost generation. Our schools stole their futures from them. All we can do now is fix the problem for the next generation. It is a huge challenge but I believe we can do it.
 
“The problem is this: we have been treating education politically but a good school is not political. What is taught and how it is taught should not be determined by the local community. A good education is like good policing or good health care. It is something most people in Australia recognise when they see it. It is the same in Geelong or Townsville, and people are happy for the government to determine its shape whether in public or private schools. Like good health, good education is the same everywhere and we do not need to debate it.
 
“The people of Perth and Brisbane do not want to run their local school or tell the teachers what the curriculum should be. They just want to send their kids out the door in the morning and know they are going to learn to read and write and count, to use computers, and find out about the world. That is real education and many of the schools in the Territory are not providing it; in fact, our Indigenous schools are a continuing disappointment.
 
“We tend to speak words of encouragement about the state of things and not confront the facts head on. In doing so, we patronise young Indigenous school students. We fail to tell their parents how poor the results really are. We fail to hold those parents responsible in a rigorous fashion for their part in schooling their children. We mask and soften the truth. At times, it seems as if we still operate a double standard of expectations. For remote communities, we are prepared to ask for, and accept, second best.
 
“I want to draw, for a few moments, on the research done by Helen Hughes and her son, Mark, published by the Centre for Independent Studies. Professor Hughes’ family escaped the Nazis and came to Australia where she became an economist and worked for the World Bank and the United Nations for many years.
 
“For the past five years, she has been researching Indigenous education and doing some work in East Arnhem Land and recently Mark and she wrote a paper about what the latest NAPLAN results were for year three pupils. They showed that the past rates for Indigenous pupils in the Northern Territory are 47% for numeracy and 32% for reading. That means over half our eight year olds cannot do sums and two thirds cannot read. No other state or territory comes close to that level of failure. If we do not change that, we will never improve the lives of Indigenous people in the Territory.
 

 
Remoteness not the problem
 
“So what is the problem? Is it that our kids are Indigenous? Obviously it is not. Most Indigenous kids in Australia live in towns and cities and do just fine in education. Is it because our kids speak a second language at home? No, it is not. Australia is full of kids who speak another language at home, but do well at school. Is it because there is not enough money? Unlikely. Indigenous kids here get 40% more spent on their education than other children. So what about remoteness? Are small remote schools the problem? Not really, according to Helen Hughes. She points out that while Indigenous pupils in remote areas have a reading pass rate of 25%, for non-Indigenous pupils, it is 93%.
 
“So what is the problem? Helen Hughes says, and I agree, that the problem is the quality of the schools, particularly the curriculum and the teaching methods. If we taught our kids the same way kids are taught in Newcastle and Fremantle, their results would skyrocket. The Hughes are not the only people to recognise this. Three years ago on Cape York, Noel Pearson and some colleagues did the report called the ‘Most Important Reform’ that came to the same conclusion. We need to fix our schools.
 
“A real education is a basic human right and it has been denied to Indigenous people of the Northern Territory for too long. The beauty of focusing on education is, it is one of the few things governments can actually do. At least if it has the will, there is a way. With the right curricula and policies and funding, we can get properly functioning schools with proper teachers. If you get the schools right other things will gradually fall into place.
 
The curse of truancy
 
“Take truancy, which is the curse of good education in the Northern Territory. At the moment we try to fix it with carrots and sticks, by trying to force parents to send their kids to school or by bribing the kids to come, but the Hughes’ research shows that once schools start to provide a real education, the pupils will come anyway. Not all of them, but most of them. Most people are not idiots, they want the best for themselves and their children.
 
“Let me describe how a remote community of the future might look. At its heart would be a proper school, just like a small version of school in Darwin or Sydney. There would be at least one full-time teacher with a university degree and five years experience. We would attract those teachers by paying them well and providing decent housing and community support. There would be a community committee to support the school. Not by telling it what to do, but by helping it run like other schools in Australia. The committee would help the teacher settle in, help care for the school grounds, help feed the kids and take them to the clinic if they were sick. Help make sure they come to school in the mornings.
 
“In other parts of Australia, the parents do those things. It is a sad fact, many Indigenous parents are like children themselves, that is something we have to face up to. For a while we are going to rely a lot on the grannies of the community to make our schools work. We need to ask the grannies who have already done so much, to do some more. To help us make our schools normal.
 
“I hope that one day, parents will start feeling ashamed of the situation, start looking after their kids a lot better, but that day is a long way off. We have to be realistic. I am hoping, if we start to turn our communities into places that welcome education, young teachers from other parts of Australia will want to come here for a few years. Look at the old missionaries and the American Peace Corps. Look at all Australians today who volunteer in third world countries. There have always been people prepared to lend a hand.
 
“The Northern Territory is Australia’s own third world. It is the nation’s internal colony. We have to ask other Australians to help us change that; we cannot do it alone.
 
Make remote schools normal
 
“One of the things we have to do to make schools normal is introduce normal curriculum just as they have in Melbourne, London, or New York. I am not suggesting we abandon our traditional culture or language, but teaching them should not be done in schools. It should be done after school and on weekends and during the holidays. That is when most of the other cultures in Australia teach their children traditional ways. The job of the teachers in our schools will be to teach what is taught in normal schools around Australia. You can buy the curriculum off the shelf from any state you like. That is the only way our children will grow up to be able to compete for jobs and work alongside people educated in other places.
 
“Another thing we have to do to make schools normal is to stop holding events that take kids away – no more sports events that go on for days. Some people say these events are traditional, but I have my doubts about that. Some have traditional roots, but they have grown because of the welfare world, because people have had so much empty time to fill. We need to educate parents to see that a new approach to education will involve some hard choices. There will no more excuses for children missing school. There is something government and local councils can help with. There should be no more support for any type of event that takes children away from home during school term.
 
“Let us imagine we can improve education; we can make it real. That will take many years even if the changes I am describing come in. It will be many years before the first group of kids to receive a real education leave school. However, let us imagine that happens. Where will they go? I see them going for interviews for jobs now automatically filled by non-Indigenous people who often come to the Territory from other places. I see Indigenous people starting to fill those jobs because they are well educated and, sometimes, because of their local knowledge. They understand this place and its people better than the other applicants for the position. That happens in many places; locals have an advantage. It should happen here. I am talking about real jobs, not blackfella ones.
 
Phase out blackfella jobs
 
“My sister-in-law has been a teaching assistant for 25 years and, although she is a good worker, it is a dead end. She can never use that experience to move up or on. We need to phase out all the jobs we created for Aboriginal people: the teaching assistants and the special positions for Aboriginal police and healthcare workers, and all the rest. They imply that Aboriginal people cannot do normal jobs. We need to replace them with real jobs that require real education; jobs that are not dead ends but that could lead on to other jobs, including jobs in other places if that is what some people want.
 
“In that way, education can set us free. It can make us independent for the first time of all the non-Indigenous advisors who have tried to control our lives. At the moment we are being advised into the grave by people better educated than us. This needs to change. We need education to set us free – free of dependence, unemployment, welfare and victimhood. Education has set billions of human beings free; it can do the same for us. Once we are independent we will have choices. Most 25-year-olds in Sydney can work anywhere in the world. They have the education and the work experience. I want our 25-year-olds to have the same choices.
 
“Of course, many young people will want to stay in their communities, but even to do that requires education, if they are to take advantage of the job opportunities that exist. There are opportunities, both existing ones and jobs we can create, to grow food, make bread, and fix cars. For people who can read and write and use computers to keep learning there are plenty of job opportunities in the communities.
 
“It always surprises me how hard it is to get fresh food in remote places. There has to be a potential to change that. We have the land and the sun, and we have the example of the old missions where food was grown successfully. I see hundreds of new jobs across the Territory in that one area. Again, we will need help. Again, I suggest we ask other Australians to assist us. Not bureaucrats or soldiers, but gardeners, bakers and mechanics to stay with us for six months and share their knowledge. However, that is a vision for the future. First we need to make our communities places outsiders would want to live in.
 
“I know there is much to be done; however, I believe the rest of Australia cares about what happens here and is just waiting for us to take the first step. It has more to offer us than a view of Indigenous people defined by their victimhood – more than welfarism or the intervention. We need to convince it that the Territory is not a museum and is not a nightmare. Above all, we need to show our fellow Australians we want to be normal. We want the right to be just like them and keep our identity, but to live fully in the 21st century.
 
“Today I have been describing a dream, but it is not a romantic dream. I hope it is not an impossible one. It is a dream based on looking at the past and being honest about what has gone wrong. It is a dream that does not aspire to the creation of some Utopia of a sort that has never been seen on the face of the earth before. My dream is we should get real and, for the first time since Europeans came to this land, Indigenous people should be thought of and treated just like everyone else. To someone in Melbourne, Shanghai or New York, that might sound like a very modest dream; however, as all of us here today know, it is actually a big one to suggest that Indigenous people in the Northern Territory should live normal lives with real education and real jobs. That is the most radical dream of all.”
 

Interest costs a 'dead weight' on NT budget, says economist

UPDATED October 25, 2012, 11.55 am.
 
Reducing debt means reducing the size of the public service 
 
 
By KIERAN FINNANE
 
Economist Rolf Gerritsen welcomes the Country Liberals Government’s “fiscal rectitude”: “Let us hope that [it] lasts longer than the Government’s first budget (which is as long as it lasted when the Martin Government was elected).”
 
He describes the Government’s intentions to return the NT budget to surplus by the end of its first term and then to begin repaying debt as “laudable”.
 
“Interest costs are a dead weight on the budget,” says The Northern Institute’s Professor Gerritsen, based on the Alice Springs campus of Charles Darwin University.
 
This is particularly so  “when the debts were not invested in activities or infrastructure that provides a productive return to the economy and thus, indirectly, to the budget – for example, the Darwin waterfront precinct.”
 
He describes the best way to rein in the total liabilities of the Territory:
 
• Reduce the size of the NT public service (which reduces the contingent liability of superannuation); and
• Contain fiscal outlays within current levels of general purpose grants (ie assume that the current level is the level at which the GST revenue will be in the intermediate term).
• Then (soon hopefully) when the Australian consumer starts to spend more and the Territory receives more GST-derived general purpose funds from the Commonwealth, this extra cash can be used to draw down debt.
 
“In the meantime I would support balanced budgets,” he says.
 
Government and Opposition exchanged blows over the budget on the second day of Legislative Assembly Sittings, with the Government’s focus on the size of the Territory’s debt and what must be done to reduce it while retaining affordable frontline services. In a media release Chief Minister Terry Mills described the state of its finances as “the biggest challenge facing the Northern Territory”.
 
“Already, the Renewal Management Board has discovered that the projected fiscal deficit for 2012-13 in May of $767 million is actually closer to $900 million,” he said. “That means Territorians are paying $750,000 per day in interest repayments alone to service our debt.
 
“The Renewal Management Board has also provided disturbing examples of where commitments were made by the previous government where activities were part-funded and not reflected in the forward estimates on an ongoing basis. For example, 90 child protection staff were employed but not a single cent allocated to meet the ongoing costs of paying these workers [“Not true”, said Ms Lawrie, when this was said in parliament].
 
“There are also worrying signs emerging from the Public Sector. Over the past 5 years the number of Executive Contract Officers employed has increased by 50%.
 
“This is simply not sustainable and the Renewal Management board is currently working to identify more efficient ways to deliver better frontline services for Territorians. Their recommendations will drive my Government’s mini budget to be delivered on December 4.”
 
Opposition Leader Delia Lawrie is sceptical about Mr Mills’ approach to “Cut Labor’s Waste and Reduce Debt”: “So far they have created ten new departments, hired ten new CEOs, paid out all the sacked CEOs and are relocating two Departments to Alice Springs,” she said in her media release. She was particularly critical of the move of Tourism to Alice – “1500kms away from Asia, where the future of Tourism exists”.
 
In parliament Ms Lawrie questioned Mr Mills further about the move: “You have taken key Tourism staff away from the small businesses they need to work with and moved the aviation unit away from our major international airport [Darwin]. How does this create the three-hub economy?”
 
Mr Mills replied: “Unlike the former government, we recognise Central Australia as a nationally and globally identified – most people around the world know this – tourism icon. We are able to consider the support for the regions and think for the whole Territory. We can operate the marketing of the Northern Territory with headquarters in Alice Springs quite well.
 
“The relocation of Tourism headquarters to Alice Springs will motivate a regional focus on the Territory. We have a plan and we have a vision to grow the Territory and strengthen, in this case, decision-making and marketing for the Territory from Alice Springs … We will be thinking for the whole Territory, marketing the whole Territory, and demonstrating that we are governing for the Territory, strengthening regional economies, and developing a broader focus for the Northern Territory.”

Namatjira descendants look to their future


Many Hands Art Centre going through a restructure after royalties cease
 
By KIERAN FINNANE
 
It was a gratifying moment: a Helpmann Award trophy, won by the production Namatjira, which told the story of their illustrious ancestor, was put into the hands of Kevin Namatjira and family yesterday. The national awards recognise excellence in live performance and  Namatjira won the Best Regional Touring Production category, against competition from the likes of Bell Shakespeare. The awards were announced at a ceremony on September 24 in the Sydney Opera House.
 
But there was something further on the artists’ minds yesterday: what will be the future of Ngurratjuta Iltja Ntjarra, also known as the Many Hands Art Centre? The art centre is going through a restructure after royalties from oil and gas mining operations on the artists’ country  ceased to flow. The royalties have funded the art centre for the last nine years. While it is still trading, it has down-sized and for the last three months artists have not been able to paint in its studio.
 
Their art is still highly sought after, if their interstate exhibitions are any guide: they are currently showing at Alcaston in Melbourne, CCAE in Darwin, the university gallery in Newcastle and soon at Tali Gallery in Sydney and Nyinka Nyunyu in Tennant Creek. An annual watercolour exhibition will also continue to be a feature at Alice’s Talapi Gallery.  In fact, in this transition period commercially the art centre is doing quite well, said its only current employee Iris Bendor, who attended yesterday’s ceremony.
 
Artists like Kevin Namatjira, Ivy Pareroultja and Lenie Namatjira used to be regulars at the studio, she explained, and would produce up to three paintings a week, yet the art centre could not sell as many. So there’s a lot of stock and with Ms Bendor solely focussed on promoting it, there is a similar or even higher revenue flowing to individual artists.
 
At right, back row from left, watercolour artists: Hilary Wirri, Kevin Wirri, Gwenda Namatjira, Selma Coulthard, Gloria Pannka (obscured), Ivy Pareroultja,Peter Taylor, Kevin Namatjira; front row, dot painters, Melissa Lankin, Rosalie Namatjira, Martha Namatjira with children, Rosabelle Namatjira.
 
But for the artists it’s about more than money. Yesterday Kevin Wirri expressed his frustration. He wants to “work, work, work” making paintings, he said. He has his artist materials at home in Abbott’s Camp but finds he can’t work there. His son, Elton, something of a star in the Namatjira production and one of the most sought after of the Hermannsburg School artists, is not painting either, said Mr Wirri.
 
There are significant plans afoot but they’re still under wraps. After the awards ceremony artists were meeting with Ms Bendor to be updated. Artist Selma Coulthard said that to date they had not been given any information and she was keen to hear the latest.
 
Some of the ladies are painting at home, she said, and sometimes they go to the mall to sell their work direct but they “miss being together to paint. We used to go two days a week. It was something everyone looked forward to. When it closed we were sorry”.
 
Cecily Hardy from Big hART, who presented the trophy to Kevin Namatjira, was to attend the meeting with artists. She said Big hART has been “working fervently behind the scenes” to ensure that there are  “positive outcomes” for the artists “moving into next year and beyond”.
 
The focus of Big hART is social change and the company’s partnership with the Namatjira family was “the most important” part of the project which began in 2009, Ms Hardy said. Its staging has been accompanied by exhibitions of their work and watercolour workshops led by the artists where interested people had a chance to have direct contact. These aspects of the project will be continued in its overseas tour, said Ms Hardy. Negotiations for venues and dates are well advanced in both Germany and the UK.
 
In Australia there were 130 performances – including two packed houses in Alice – of the production across six states and territories since it premiered in 2010, with two or more members of the Namatjira family involved at all times.
 

Below: Namatjira country, the huge chalk drawing by members of the family that was the backdrop to the staging of the Big hART production. This photo from the Alice News archive was taken at the presentation of the work-in-progress at Araluen in Alice Springs in 2010.

Do-it-yourself community development, 'funded' by faith

By KIERAN FINNANE
 
Last Saturday people of the Ba’hai faith were celebrating the birth of their prophet, known as the Bab (meaning ‘gate’). In Alice Springs local Ba’hai chose to share their holy day with children, any children. They set up at a neighbourhood park in Larapinta and offered a morning of activities and companionship.
 
They letter-boxed in the nearby streets and put a notice in the Larapinta Primary School newsletter. Some of their own children came along, like 10-year-old Oriwa Kaiwahia-Ponga, who said she wanted to help her uncle, Santana Ponga: “It was his idea”. Her little sister Serenity, six years, might not have put it like that but she was an animated presence everywhere I looked.
 
I chatted to Toby Gatenby, six years, and Jamie Heta, nine. They go to school at Larapinta but it was their first time at the park. They made a start by putting their hand-prints on a banner, reading “Unity in diversity”.  “They’re cousins!” piped up Serenity. “How do you know?” I asked. “I heard them say it,” she replied, quick as a flash.
 
Uncle Santana only recently moved into the area. He told me he’d been involved in children’s events in other parts of Alice but hadn’t seen anyone do a community event in Larapinta. “There’s a bit of sport at the oval and that’s about it,” he said. “So part of this event is about community development.”
 
At a table in the shade of a tree, there was cupcake decorating. Janelle Crosbie (at right) was there with her little children, Jayden and Da’nisia, as well as her cousin Sheena Baird. They live just up the road from the park. Janelle’s partner is of the Ba’hai faith, Janelle and Sheena are “still learning”: “This is the first public event I’ve helped out at. It’s nice and we should have a lot more. I love kids and love to get involved with kids’ events.”
 
Renee Harrison, eight years old, lives across the road. She doesn’t play in the park often but her mum saw the notice in the letterbox and brought her over: “It’s nice to have something to do here,” said Renee.
 
Sisters Jemma and Charlotte Hardy, nine and six years, arrived with their dad. They’d heard about it through the school newsletter. Jemma put her hand-print on the banner and was asked to choose “a virtue” to put alongside it. “Confidence,” suggested Oriwa, but Jemma preferred “kindness”.
 
Under a shade shelter some children and adults were making things with card and coloured pens, while Vicky Yaganegi (at left, Serenity by her side) was reading stories. Santana had explained that the stories were not  religious but had a moral content, so I was interested to see Vicky reading Blinky Bill. What is the interest of that story from a Ba’hai point of view, I asked her later.
 
“We believe it’s lovely for children to learn through the arts and stories and we learn from the children too,” she said. As for Blinky Bill, “the love of animals in children’s hearts is very important – that they understand them, don’t hurt them, are kind to them”.
 
A group of local children, two girls, 11 and 10, and a boy proudly “eight turning nine”, had been going past when “Miss Pinto called out”. That’s Michelle Pinto who teaches at Larapinta and has been involved with the Ba’hai for about four years. Soon the 11-year-old was helping do face-painting while her sister and brother joined in the activities. Before they went home they had some suggestions to make for next time, including a water fight – “Well, it’s the weather for it,” said Michelle. “Crazy hair” was another idea, involving hairspray. The 11-year-old was keen to come and lend a hand with that.
 
There will be a next time, in about a month. “This looks like a good focal point,” said Santana. “Quite a few kids walked past.”
 
This isn’t the only kind of activity the Ba’hai organise for children. They also run children’s classes and Junior Youth Groups for 12 to 15-year-olds, described by one youth present as “an empowerment program”. It’s based on the idea of service: it might be collecting and recycling cans, helping the elderly wash their cars or clean their gutters, visiting at the Old Timers, or at childcare centres.
 
At right: Sisters Jemma and Charlotte Hardy with Oriwa Kaiwahia-Ponga and their decorated cupcakes. 
 
“Young people get a buzz out of giving a hand,” said Santana. “It’s about contributing, connecting, supporting. We’re looking at starting a youth group in Larapinta by working with local parents.”
 
The Ba’hai  “acknowledge all faiths”, Santana explained. They believe their prophet, the Bab, is the most recent manifestation of God but acknowledge Jesus and Mohammed as also manifestations of God.
 
“Our faith actually does not allow us to proselytise”, said Michelle. “We believe in independent investigation and support people to do that.”
 
There’s no ‘church’ in the sense of a building. Their devotions take place in their homes or in community places such as the Town Library.
 
On Saturday evening the faithful were going to gather for a celebration – a feast, alcohol-free. Santana handed me an invitation, showing two white roses.
 
“In the garden of thy heart plant naught but the rose of love,” smiled Michelle.
 

 
 

Consumer watchdog warning to fuel price fixers

Fuel prices are not regulated by the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC), but the watchdog says if it had evidence of prices resulting from anti-competitive conduct in breach of the law, it may take offenders to court.
A spokesperson says for example, if retailers agree on prices, “the ACCC would take this very seriously and take action”.
She says the ACCC does monitor the price of petrol in Alice Springs, and over the last three months petrol prices were on average around 10 cents per litre higher in Alice Springs compared to Darwin.
“The ACCC’s monitoring also shows that it is common to have price differences between different regional locations,” says the spokesperson.
“This is due to a range of factors, including the number of service stations (and therefore the level of local competition), the volume of fuel sold (lower volumes lead to higher costs per litre), the distance / location factors (there may be additional freight and storage costs associated with different country areas), convenience store sales (these may be important for some retailers in achieving adequate returns).
“The most significant factors that contribute to higher petrol prices in Alice Springs would be the additional distance fuel needs to be transported for sale in Alice Springs and the lower volume of fuel sales in Alice Springs.
“In Darwin there are around 50,000 registered petrol vehicles and 41 petrol retail sites compared to around 15,000 registered petrol vehicles and 14 petrol retail sites in Alice Springs.”

Caught on private security camera

Detectives are requesting public assistance to identify the person the CCTV image at right.
The alleged offender entered a property in Gillen on the night of October 20 and stole items from a fridge at the rear of the dwelling.
A resident of the house disturbed the offender and he ran away.
Detective Sergeant Trent Abbott said the home had a private CCTV system and captured images of the alleged offender as he entered the property through a rear gate.
Meanwhile police have arrested a 14 year-old youth who they will allege is responsible for three separate unlawful entries in the town.
Operation Jedi members have charged the young man with offences including two counts each of unlawfully enter a building, of stealing and of damage property.
Detective Superintendent Brent Warren Jedi continued to target offending of this nature.
“The damage these alleged offenders do to business premises far outweighs the value of the items they are looking for.  We will allege this youth took part in the smashing of a front door of a business to steal cigarettes on October 11.
“We will allege this same youth, in company, forced his way into a licensed premise, damaging doors, locks and light fittings before stealing alcohol on the night of October 19.  While inside we will allege that he struck a guard dog with a broom handle until the animal cowered.
“Later the same night police will allege this youth in the company of several others forced an air conditioner from the wall before entering a business and stealing cigarettes.”
People with information were asked to ring Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or police on 131 444. – Police media release.

Housing prices rollercoaster

Housing prices in The Alice, especially units, have fluctuated wildly recently. Leave your comment in the box. Data courtesy Alliance Darwin.

Indecent assault on seven-year-old girl

Detectives from the Southern Investigations Unit are investigating the alleged indecent assault of a seven-year-old girl that occurred in Alice Springs yesterday (Sunday) morning.
Acting Sergeant Lewis Chown said the alleged assault took place at around 11:00 am near Lyndavale Drive in Larapinta.
The girl was walking along Holtermann Court, carrying a cooking pot, when she entered an alleyway linking to a causeway near Lyndavale Drive.
As the girl walked down the alleyway, she was approached by an unknown male on a bicycle who then allegedly offered her a lollie.
When the girl declined, it is alleged the man wrestled the pot out of her hands before covering her eyes and mouth with his hand while exposing himself as he tried to pull her onto his bike.
The girl has managed to fight off the man and run towards Lyndavale Drive, where a witness came to her aid and called Police. The man was last seen riding in the direction of Holtermann Court.
The male is described as being of Aboriginal appearance, mid to late teens, clean shaven and has short dark hair with blonde tips in the front and a thin blonde platted ‘rats tail’ of shoulder length.
He was wearing a black t-shit with large white bubble type motif / writing, black knee length shorts with a blue and white stripe pattern and black shoes with black laces and white on the front.
He was riding a silver mountain bike with blue, white and black colouring.”
Anyone who may have witnessed any suspicious behaviour in the area or anyone that may have further information please ring 131 444 or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000. – Police Media release.

Friendliness of games big hit, volunteers excel, numbers down

By ERWIN CHLANDA
 
Meeting new people and catching up with old friends was what the Masters Games were all about for the Whyalla Steelers.
“It’s a nice, small town. Everything’s close. It’s really good for these sorts of games,” is how Rob Muir put it.
What was the best thing, we asked Michael Rees: “Freedom away from home. Nah … everything! I don’t have any complaints at all.”
Chris Hanarakis: “First time at the games for me. First time in Alice Springs. I’ll definitely pop through with the kids, the family. From the tourism side of things it’s a good response.”
Was it the sports or the entertainment that did it for you?
“It was great to come with my mates, play the game, and have an opportunity of catching up with mates I played with 20 years ago. The whole atmosphere’s been great, and meeting lots of people, too.”
Steve Dunn said: “I think it’s fantastic but I think the PanPacs have taken a few competitive teams away. Maybe the timing needs to be looked at again. We had a lot of reports that many of the serious players from the east coast are going up to the Gold Coast.
“We met a lot of players from South Australia, Western Australia and the Territory, but not so many from NSW and Queensland.”
Mr Dunn was referring to the PanPacMasters on November 3 to 11 which bill themselves as “the world’s biggest and best biennial masters games”.
Games director Jim Lawrie said some masters competitors like go to both games and like these type of events being at this time of the year.
On the other hand, an arrangement could be for an event to be held every year, with Alice and the Gold Coast taking it in turns.
Mr Lawrie says the two games are very different: The PanPacs are much bigger – up to 200 netball teams are taking part, for example – and so is the Gold Coast.
The strength of The Alice is its friendly and familiar atmosphere which draws repeat participants.
A massive handicap Alice suffers is the cost of air fares, especially for teams, says Mr Lawrie.
Competitors from the eastern seaboard can fly to the Gold Coast for around $200 return – the cost to The Centre is a multiple of that.
The proudest statistic for the 2012 “Friendly Games” is the 700 volunteers who made the event possible.
The Alice games ending yesterday attracted 3186 competitors, a drop from about 3600 in 2008. There were 1720 or 54% participants from the NT, including about 1200 from Alice Springs.
The other states (rounded figures) were South Australia 14% (446 competitors); Victoria and WA 8% each (254 each); Queensland and NSW 7% each (223 each).
Just under 2000 (about 62%) of the competitors were from outside Alice Springs.
Mr Lawrie says it’s hard to calculate the money flowing into town through the games. The last economic impact study, in 2006, estimated earnings of $8m. He says this year is likely to have been the same. The hotels were full. Restaurants and day-tour and half-day-tour operators were doing well.
The NT Government kicks in $1.4m.
The Australian Masters, held in Alice Springs’ off-year, is a wholly different kettle of fish.
It’s held in a different centre each time – next year in Geelong – and caters for the serious competitors rather than those enjoying a great social experience as well.
Also, the lack of familiarity of the cities and venues each time is a disincentive for many mature sports practitioners.
In Alice the top ranking sports were golf (386 competitors), basketball (305), athletics (275), hockey (321) and swimming (188).
Pictured at top: The Whyalla Steelers (from left) Steve Dunn, Darren Quinn, Michael Rees, Chris Hanarakis, Scott Leverington and Rob Muir. Below: Locals settling in for the closing ceremony last night.

Prisoner escapes

Police are investigating the escape of a prisoner from the Barkly Work Camp near Tennant Creek overnight.
Alice Springs Watch Commander Darrell Kerr said Police were alerted to the escape at around 7:30 last night, when a head count preformed by corrections officers confirmed 29-year-old Scott Green (pictured) was not present.
“Mr Green has ties to Ali Curung and it is believed he may attempt to travel back to the community,” said Watch Commander Kerr.
“Mr Green is described as being of Aboriginal appearance, about 175 centimetres tall, medium build and has short black curly hair.  He was last seen wearing a prison-issue green t-shirt, black tracksuit pants and running shoes.
Police believe that he poses no risk to the community, however they advise that he is not to be approached if sighted, and for police to be contacted.
Police have issued a photo of Mr Green and anyone with information about his whereabouts is asked to call police on 131 444 or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000. – Media release.

LETTER: 50+1 old scholars’ reunion – Port Pirie High School

Sir – We reckon our fellow high school students might well have travelled some distance since we knew them. So, some of your readers might have had an association with South Australia’s Port Pirie High School in the years 1958-1961.
A reunion is being organised for students who finished year 11 at Port Pirie High School about 50 years ago. The organising group by-and-large entered PPHS in 1958 and left at the end of 1961.
The reunion will be held on Saturday 17th November, 2012 at the Alma Hotel in Norwood.
We look forward to hearing from anyone before Friday, November 2, who would like more information.
Richard Smith
margrich@senet.com.au or (08) 8353 0243
Ashleigh Allan
aallan20@optusnet.com.au or (08) 8338 6097

'Proof that the BDR did not work' – Attorney-General releases protective custody stats

Four people on the BDR had 376 PCs between them 
 
Department of Justice figures released by NT Attorney-General John Elferink show that there was only a drop of 366 protective custodies (PCs) between 2010-2011 and 2011-2012, the period of roll-out for the Banned Drinker Register (BDR). Mr Elferink claims this is “further evidence that the previous Government’s approach to dealing with problem drinkers simply didn’t work”.
 
The figures (only available for the whole 12 months and not by quarter) also show a high rate is recidivism: 8035 people made up the 19,988  PCs for 2011-12. 431 people had eight or more PCS over the 12 months. Four individuals had a total of 376 PCs: 74 for one, 88 for another, 97 and 117.  All four were on the BDR.
 
This shows “the BDR failed to stop problem drinkers from obtaining alcohol”, says Mr Elferink, claiming “an enormous gulf between the former Labor Government’s rhetoric about the success of the Banned Drinker Register and reality”.
 
“Without mandatory rehabilitation, there is simply no obligation on problem drinkers to break the cycle,” he says. “The Country Liberals believe the Banned Drinker Register offered no protection to problem drinkers, their families and communities because it didn’t mandate rehabilitation.
 
“The Northern Territory has an enormous problem with alcohol and the Country Liberals Government is determined to turn around issues of public drunkenness, anti-social behaviour and alcohol related crime.”
 
Source: NT Government media release.
 
UPDATE October 19, 2012, 10.40am
 
COMMENT: At the time of the meeting of stakeholders about alcohol issues in Alice Springs the public was in the dark about protective custody statistics, and the Alice Springs News Online drew attention to this fact.  We welcome this limited release of statistics by Mr Elferink. However, the Banned Drinker Register went from zero to  779 banned persons by end of its first month of rollout, July 2011.There were 2195 persons on it by end of December, 2011; 2,491 as of the end of June 2012. It is thus reasonable to think that if it were having an impact it would be greater later in the 12 month period than earlier. So it would be interesting to see a quarterly breakdown of figures, compared to the same quarters a year earlier.
 
The News has requested such a breakdown specific to Alice Springs, including figures for the September quarter when they become available. If figures are going to be used in the arguments – which they must be, as decisions should be based on facts – then let us have the figures presented in the most meaningful way. In fact for the September quarter it would be interesting to see the monthly figures, for whether there was an upswing (or not) in PCs after Terry Mills made it the first act of his government to dismantle the BDR, with no new initiative in its place.
 
The News has also requested the quarterly comparative wholesale consumption figures for Alice Springs in those quarters as well as the bar sales figures for the bars where ID was required, which are reportedly experiencing an upsurge in custom. – Kieran Finnane