TIO mum on massive premium hike

Erwin Chlanda
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TIO mum on massive premium hike

By ERWIN CHLANDA

Territory Insurance Office “We’re for Territorians” hiked the premium of a long-time customer in the Alice Springs rural residential area by about 40%, from $2382 to $3206, a difference of $824.

That’s even taking into account a no claim bonus of 30%.

Territory Insurance Office (TIO) is a trading name of the insurer Allianz Australia Insurance Limited. Neither TIO nor Alliance would answer questions about the massive hike.

The Insurance Council of Australia said it would respond but 24 hours after emailing questions, following a discussion with a media person, we still have no replies.

We asked: Are there increases in home insurance premiums in the NT? If so, for what reason? If so, by how much?

And: Do they differ between Darwin and Alice Springs? Give figures, please. Are there occasions of around 50% hikes? If so, based on what?

Withholding of information is routine behaviour by the industry, says Tom Abourizk, head of policy at Choice.

He says the increase in the case of the Alice Springs person is “very perplexing”.

It is common for insurance companies to treat their assessment process as confidential.

It is often a result of changes to insurers’ own re-insurance arrangements, at times with multinational companies.

Mr Abourizk says it’s not uncommon for insurers to hike premiums a year or two after a client signs on, in the usually safe knowledge that people are confused by insurance and keen to avoid going through the hassle of changing suppliers.

This absurdly is punishing loyal customers.

It is increasingly common that premiums are set for individual clients rather than by region.

Mr Abourizk says knowing what the reasons are for the premiums would enable the customers to take measures reducing the risk: Selecting flood safe areas for their homes, installing security devices against people breaking in.

It’s not clear if the industry is reacting to actual pay-outs or to what the media are reporting, including crime.

“Choice has called for a risk database so people can understand what risks insurers are concerned about, engage with them, and if they can address that risk, have a right to get a better price,” he says.

Consumer’s weapons against ballooning premiums include shopping around.

Mr Abourizk says page 60 of the Northern Australia Insurance Inquiry by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission simplifies how insurers set premiums.

IMAGE from TIO brochure: “Customers” who are smiling.

DECLARATION OF INTEREST: The writer is a customer of TIO.

Could it have a nuclear bomb on board?

Erwin Chlanda
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Could it have a nuclear bomb on board?

By ERWIN CHLANDA

If a US Air Force B-52 Stratofortress drops into Alice Springs – as American transport planes regularly do to supply Pine Gap – on the way to Tindal near Katherine where it will be based, it could have a nuclear bomb on board.

Local aircraft spotters will have no trouble to tell whether that B-52 is nuclear capable: Just look for the blister with a small fin.

“The presence of [the] fins on a B-52H aircraft indicates nuclear-capability, and the absence of fins indicates conventional-only capability,” says Richard Tanter, a senior researcher with the California-based Nautilus Institute, a frequent visitor to Alice Springs and prominent peace activist with the Independent and Peaceful Australia Network (IPAN).

“The horizontal triangular fins are about 30 cm in length, attached to blisters mounted on the middle of the rear section of the port and starboard sides of the fuselage, several metres forward of the beginning of the tail structure.”

Professor Tanter and Vince Scappatura, using open sources, have disclosed this information in a report commissioned by the Nautilus Institute, formed in Berkeley, California in 1992.

A release from the report authors states: “Where governments, as in the case of Australia, refuse to state whether visiting nuclear-capable B-52 bombers may carry nuclear weapons, citing the US neither-confirm-nor-deny policy as justification, it amounts to a state of wilful ignorance on the strategic implications of supporting such operations.

“Of the 76 B-52H bombers currently in the US active fleet, 46 can deliver strategic nuclear weapons. Another 30 have been converted, under the 2011 New START Treaty with Russia, to conventional-only capability.

“How will Australians know if US nuclear-armed aircraft are deployed to Australia?” ask the authors.

“The Albanese government has said it ‘understands and respects’ the US doctrine to neither confirm nor deny the presence of nuclear weapons on US aircraft.

“The first step is to identify which US aircraft entering Australia are capable of delivering nuclear weapons.

“This study provides a reliable and transparent source for Australia and other host countries to distinguish between nuclear-capable and conventional-only B-52s bombers.

“This research study, based on open sources, could have been – and should have been – carried out by the Australian government and provided to the public.”

[ED – We have asked Defence Minister Richard Marles for comment.]

Lia’s law & order: Cops make their case

Erwin Chlanda
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Lia’s law & order: Cops make their case

By ERWIN CHLANDA

The new Chief Minister wasted no time getting down to what she called “the number one issue”: Law and order.

Only hours after her impressive election win, Lia Finocchiaro met with Police Commissioner Michael Murphy in what may have been a tense encounter.

Earlier this month, when she was still the Leader of the Opposition, she said: “The CLP acknowledges the Commissioner’s apology [to the Aboriginal people] but understands this is not the focus for frontline police officers who are dealing with ever escalating violent crime and anti-social behaviour on a daily basis.”

A media statement after Sunday’s meeting did not reveal a lot except that there will be controversial minimum sentencing provisions for assaulting frontline workers.

Ms Finocchiaro also said: “Work is underway to ensure Declan’s Law and other measures including criminalising bail breaches, electronic monitoring for people on bail, ram raid legislation, reducing the criminal age of responsibility” in the first week of Parliament.

The conversation between the commissioner and his new boss – Ms Finocchiaro is also the Police Minister – is likely to have included issues raised by Nathan Finn (at right), president of the Police Association, at its annual meeting on the eve of the elections.

“The Joint Emergency Communications Centre is overwhelmed with demand for an emergency police response,” he said.

“It’s estimated there were almost 200,000 triple-0 calls in the last financial year. That’s a 13% increase. Recently, the agency was forced to issue a call for volunteers to cover overtime shifts.” 

Mr Finn was scathing about the use of police officers at bottle shops: “Our members have been clear: They want to be out there, helping people who require an immediate police response – but it’s hard to do that when you’re stuck in a bottle shop, turning away drunks.”

He addressing Brent Potter, still the Minister: “Why do you keep ignoring our members – and the experts? Instead of ensuring licensees take responsibility for their own compliance and security services, you’re more concerned with keeping alcohol retailers happy than supporting police.

“Your Government has chosen to spend millions of dollars on private security guards to patrol the streets, while at the same time we have frontline police officers standing out the front of bottle shops as security guards. You’ve got your priorities all wrong and the community is suffering.”

Mr Finn described police officers “our greatest strength and our greatest asset” and welcomed the funding commitment for additional 200 officers but said he remained “concerned the Police College currently lacks the necessary staff, infrastructure, and accommodation to support this level of recruitment, placing “significant pressure” on the college forcing the postponement of internal courses to accommodate new recruits”.

Mr Potter had informed him in May that the police attrition rate was 6.1%, “a surprising drop from over 9% the previous financial year.

“However, he admitted that the figure he was using excluded retirements, dismissals, and terminations.

“I requested clarification on how these figures were calculated and was promised a response by the end of the day,” said Mr Finn.

“Despite repeated follow-ups, including phone calls and emails to the Minister, three months have passed, and I’m still waiting. This prompted the NTPA to conduct its own analysis, resulting in a higher attrition rate.

“Instead of providing us with the information as requested, the Minister has publicly alleged I falsified the attrition rate for the NTPA’s betterment.

“Noting that is a serious allegation – Minister, I invite you to explain your comments. Alternatively, you can withdraw them, and apologise.”

Mr Potter was in the meeting audience on Friday night.

Mr Finn claimed the current work conditions were forming a vicious cycle: “The lack of a fatigue management policy, safe minimum staffing levels, or single officer duties, combined with record levels of crime, leads to burnout.

“Burnout then results in sick leave, which causes workplace absences and forces members to undertake overtime.”

At March 31, the police overtime expenditure was $15.2m 170,347 hours which is an increase of 7% on the previous year, Mr Finn said.

“Members have been loud and clear in consecutive surveys: poor quality housing, lack of staff and little respite is why they don’t want to go bush.

“The Kelly Review recommended a long-term remote infrastructure investment of $192m. That recommendation was accepted by Government in principle, but whittled down to $125m over five years.”

The association’s demand is notwithstanding the per-capita level of numbers: The NT has 2.7 times more police than the nation.

In 2023, there were 372 assaults on police, “kicked, punched, spat at, belted with rocks and iron bars, threatened or stabbed with sharp edged weapons. That’s a 45% increase compared with the previous year.

“Despite strong maximum penalties for assaults on police, it’s the Sentencing Act which lets police down, time and time again.

“Other employees in Australia have access to tribunals where the appeal process is completely independent of the employer. That is what our members should have access to – a process that members can have confidence in, not an appeal process controlled by the Respondent.”

On the bright side, Aboriginal Community Police Officers (ACPOs), after years of lobbying for requests to clearly identify their roles and responsibilities “just two days ago, the department formalised a framework for this this to occur, and is providing a clear career pathway for ACPOs to transition to Constable”.

PHOTO at top: Ms Finocchiaro with police officers, pictured in June 2024. All images from Police News, the quarterly magazine of the association.

The Territory pattern of politics

Erwin Chlanda
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The Territory pattern of politics

FROM LEFT: Joshua Burgoyne (Braitling) and Bill Yan (Namatjira), both CLP, retained their seats. CLP candidate in Araluen Sean Heenan lost to the incumbent Independent Robyn Lambley. Lia Finocchiaro, the new Chief Minister. (Image from a CLP how-to-vote card.)

By ALEX NELSON

In the NT elections of June 2005, the ALP under Chief Minister Clare Martin (pictured) trounced the CLP, reducing the party to just four seats.

Two of these – Araluen and Greatorex – were based in Alice Springs, held by Jodeen Carney and Dr Richard Lim, respectively.

The seat of Blain, in the former CLP stronghold of Palmerston, was retained by Terry Mills.

The neighbouring seat of Brennan experienced a boilover, with former CLP Chief Minister and later Opposition Leader, Denis Burke, losing his seat to Labor.

Burke’s defeat prompted my Alice Springs News article on August 3, 2005 “Pollies’ holy grails: an ALP Alice seat, Darwin CLP boss” where I noted that historically leaders of political parties whose electorates are based outside of Darwin always result in failure.

The list began with CLP Majority Leader, Goff Letts, who lost his seat of Victoria River in August 1977.

Others to follow were Ian Tuxworth (Barkly) and Labor opposition leaders Bob Collins, Brian Ede and Maggie Hickey, who all led Labor to its worst election defeats last century.

I neglected to mention this trait commenced as long ago as 1965, when the Member for Alice Springs, Colonel Alfred Lionel Rose, announced his leadership of the North Australia Party – and promptly lost his seat to Labor’s Chas Orr in that year’s Legislative Council elections.

When my article was published, Jodeen Carney was the new Opposition Leader, the first female leader of the CLP.

I wrote that being the CLP leader based in Alice Springs posed “a real danger for her long-term electoral prospects” but, as it turned out, history probably proved kindest to her, as she resigned from that position early in 2008.

Terry Mills took over the role of Opposition Leader, with the CLP losing creditably to Labor in 2008 but eventually leading the party to victory in 2012 (winning, it might be noted, 16 seats of the NT Legislative Assembly).

And that’s when it all came unstuck, as only seven months later Mills was ousted as Chief Minister by the Member for Braitling, Adam Giles (at right).

Things went from bad to worse during the term of the Giles government, resulting in a catastrophic defeat to Labor in August 2016, with the CLP reduced to two members and Giles becoming the second sitting head of government in the NT to lose his seat (and the third CLP leader to do so).

Giles lost Braitling to Dale Wakefield, the first Labor member in Alice Springs since Chas Orr in the 1960s.

Gary Higgins, the Member for Daly (a large Top End bush seat), took over the CLP leadership.

Like Jodeen Carney (at left) a decade earlier, Higgins resigned as leader of the CLP in January 2020, handing the role over to his deputy, Lia Finocchiaro. He retired from politics in August 2020.

Meanwhile, Terry Mills successfully campaigned for his old seat of Blain in the elections of 2016 (having resigned in 2014), and in 2019 announced the formation of a new political party, the Territory Alliance.

Echoing the misfortune of Colonel Rose way back in 1965, Mills lost his seat in August 2020.

Lia Finocchiaro was the Member for Brennan in Palmerston for one term after 2012 but transferred to the new neighbouring seat of Spillett in 2016.

She was succeeded in Brennan by Labor’s Eva Lawler!

Eva Lawler took over as Chief Minister in late 2023 but – as we all know – her tenure in that role lasted only eight months (slightly longer than Terry Mills in 2012), and she too has lost her seat.

There is perhaps something of an irony that Denis Burke’s daughter-in-law has “returned the favour” to NT Labor.

Even though it’s on the outskirts of Darwin, Palmerston now has a decided history of being a “death trap” for Territory political leaders based there – even more so than for other regions outside of the capital.

In Lia Finocchiaro (at right), we have yet another Chief Minister whose electorate of Spillett is a part of Palmerston, leading a new government with 16 members at latest count.

Far be it for me to put the knockers on her leadership of the CLP after just achieving such a convincing election victory over Labor.

However, if Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro is conscious of the consistent cycles and patterns of Territory political history and maintains her wits about her, there’s no reason why she should fall victim to the twists and turns of events that will inevitably come her way.

Animal shelter now a council responsibility

Erwin Chlanda
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Animal shelter now a council responsibility

LETTER TO THE EDTOR

According to the administrator, the Alice Springs Animal Shelter registered charity has been liquidated. The ASAS will no longer be able to trade including soliciting donations.

Ratepayers will now fund its activities, minus income from animal registration fees.

Last year, the Shelter expenditure was $466,800.

Multiple crises beset the Shelter, some of them from the dumping of pets as people left town. To cover the cost, the Shelter imposed a higher surrender fee. Some people threw their pets, especially cats, over the ASAS fence.

Staff were burning out and hard to replace.

The Shelter had $120,000 in the bank but their costs were escalating, when the committee decided they could not continue.

They approached the Council at which point it would have been smart to offer funding for more staff and loan some rangers to get the Shelter through its crisis.

The Council seemed unaware that it was responsible under the Local Government Act to take over the core duties of the Shelter if it folded.

The Council is looking for another charity to run the Shelter but is unlikely to find one.

The liquidation of the ASAS wasn’t inevitable, and its loss will affect us all.

Ralph Folds, Alice Springs

UPDATE August 29

According to a media statement, the Council has resolved to take on the functions of ASAS until the end of the financial year “to make sure the animals receive the care and attention they need”.

 

CLP tipped to win, but what about the Greens?

Erwin Chlanda
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CLP tipped to win, but what about the Greens?

By ERWIN CHLANDA

Alice Springs based CDU Professor Rolf Gerritsen and local historian Alex Nelson agree the CLP is likely to win the election on Saturday but they disagree about the impact of the Greens on the poll.

“I think the CLP will win. I think crime is the huge issue, and the economy,” says Prof Gerritsen.

“The economy is pretty much a sentiment in the electorate which says we’ve given them eight years, things are not better, so we try the other one. Great Australian reflex.”

Mr Nelson says: “I think the Greens and Independents are going to stand with a strong showing.

“In part that’s due to the two major parties being indistinguishable with their main policies, and voters will be looking for alternative options.”

In Braitling, which the CLP took off Labor in 2020, this could lead to the Greens getting a seat in The Centre, says Mr Nelson.

“Braitling covers an area of town which has long been thought of a good prospect for either Labor or the Greens, particularly where it covers the Old Eastside,” says Mr Nelson.

“Still, Dale Wakefield winning the seat for Labor in 2016 with an extremely narrow margin, was an exceptional event.

“This time a lot of people will be casting their vote for an alternative to the major parties. I note with considerable interest the number of people on the ground volunteering for the Greens.

“I’m told that they have more volunteers than they know what to do with. If that translates to wider support throughout the community there could be a surprise in the offing.

“Braitling is by no means a safe seat for Josh Burgoyne. It could be the case that preferences of the Greens’ Asta Hill will win the seat for Labor or the other way ‘round.”

Unlike Mr Burgoyne, as a lawyer Ms Hill would bring a background of frontline experience  both as a prosecutor and defence counsel over many years to the sometimes virulent law and order debate.

But Prof Gerritsen says: “On Saturday night Josh Burgoyne will have a grin from ear to ear. His majority will be huge.” He predicts the same for the CLP’s Bill Yan in Namatjira.

NEWS: How will the Greens go?

GERRITSEN: If you look at the Territory elections they really have about 10% and to win a seat they’ve got to get a vote higher than the CLP or the ALP candidates. And I don’t think they’ll do that.”

NEWS: In that case, are they likely to hold the balance of power?

GERRITSEN: Absolutely unlikely.

The Greens and Labor are exchanging preferences in all seats in The Centre.

Braitling first preference votes in 2020 were Joshua Burgoyne (CLP, 1548 votes); Dale Wakefield (ALP, 993); Kim Hopper (Ind, 648); Scott McConnell (Ind, 199) and Marli Banks (Federation Party, 140).

Burgoyne (2256) defeated the incumbent Wakefield (2139) on preferences, by 117 votes.

GERRITSEN: I’m predicting the CLP will get 13 seats. In case they only get 12 the balance will be held by Robyn Lambley.

NEWS: Are you confident she will get back in?

GERRITSEN: Yes.

NELSON: I’m hard pressed to believe that Robyn Lambley would be unseated in this election.

GERRITSEN: The CLP will win back seats like Port Darwin and Fong Lim. Karama, which has nearly 9%, that’s Ngaree Ah Kit’s seat, I think the CLP will win it. Karama has the suburb of Malak in it, and that is Crime Central in the northern suburbs of Darwin.

Mr Nelson says the vote in Namatjira will be a toss-up: “I think the Greens’ Blair McFarland stands a top chance of polling extremely well.”

Namatjira first preference votes in 2020 were Bill Yan (CLP, 1066 votes); Sheralee Taylor (ALP, 977); Matt Paterson (Territory Alliance, 809); Nikki McCoy (Greens, 279); Catherine Satour (Federation Party, 344) and Tony Wells (Ind, 131).

It took the distribution of all preferences for Yan (1814 votes) to beat Taylor (1792 votes) by just 22 votes.

Mr Nelson says turnout in the western bush seat Gwoja is likely to be extremely low: “It’s difficult to say whether Chansey Paech will retain the seat although the odds will still be in his favour. There is an Indigenous candidate running for the CLP.

NEWS: Paech is Indigenous.

NELSON: Yes. And he has incumbency on his side. But I think everyone in the Labor Party is concerned about their prospects. There is a lot of disillusionment with their government as it’s been operating, especially in the bush seats which is reflected in the generally poor turnout of voters in election these days.

Says Mr Nelson: “We’ve been in this territory before. In 1990 we had a Government with 14 members, Opposition with seven, there were four independents or minor party candidates, three of whom had been members of a major party previously.

“The economy was in trouble and crime was skyrocketing and we had several Chief Ministers in the lead-up to that election.

“So we have an identical situation occurring right now with the twist that the party in government in 1990 was the CLP, which retained office comfortably. I’m not convinced that that would be case this time ’round for Labor.”

Mr Nelson is a former CLP member and candidate but resigned from the party in 1995 and “other than a brief dalliance with the Democrats in the late ’90s I’ve not had any involvement with any political party”.

McCarthy on the poorest owning half the NT’s land, tourism icons

Erwin Chlanda
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McCarthy on the poorest owning half the NT’s land, tourism icons

The Greens and Labor are exchanging preferences in Saturday’s NT election, with candidate Blair McFarland claiming that the major problem for local Aboriginal people is poverty.

Yet they own half the Territory’s land, about 700,000 square kilometres. How much of this is used or leased for commercial purposes?

Editor ERWIN CHLANDA put this question to Australia’s new Minister for Indigenous Australians, Malarndirri McCarthy, one of the Territory’s two Senators since 2016.

She deflected several questions to the Central Land Council but its CEO, Lesley Turner, declined to be interviewed.

McCARTHY: I have to get the figures for you but what I can say is that I have raised the issue of poverty consistently, especially the cost of living situation.

NEWS: What’s the annual earnings of enterprises on Aboriginal land?

McCARTHY: I can certainly get those issues for you. Look at organisations such as the Arnhem Land Progress Association, which has an incredibly high turnover, in the millions, in the shops they have, not only in Northern but also a couple in Central Australia. I believe Mutitjulu is one of them. These organisations have been run significantly well. I can certainly get other examples for you.

NEWS: The MacDonnell Ranges (pictured, Finke River and Mt Sonder) are probably the biggest tourism magnet in Central Australia. They are owned by Aboriginal people. Yet there are just minor Indigenous enterprises there, the Standley Chasm restaurant, a canteen at Ormiston Gorge and sometimes the small Glen Helen resort.

McCARTHY: We also have tourism businesses, you only have to look at the awards in Alice Springs on Saturday night. You’ve got a whole list of businesses that won awards.

The Minister was referring to the 2024 Blak Business Awards when the 14 category winners included these from Alice Springs: Kungkas Can Cook; Ltyentye Apurte Traditional Craft Centre; Angkerle Aboriginal Corporation (Standley Chasm); No Fixed Gallery; Rachel Ellis Centre Pest Management; Courtney Summers SUMTIMESSAD and Penangke Cultural Consultants.

NEWS: Do you think the Central Land Council (CLC) should have a leading role in setting up businesses on Aboriginal land?

McCARTHY: Under the Aboriginal Landrights Act the initial statutory responsibility of the land councils is supporting traditional owners with what it is they wish to do on their land. There is no doubt the CLC plays an important part to assist traditional owners in that. You would need to ask them further questions. If you are a traditional owner or not a traditional owner you should always have the opportunity to find yourself in business if that’s the direction you wish to go.

The CLC says online its “multi-disciplinary team includes Aboriginal people with expert traditional knowledge, rangers, community development professionals, ecologists, lawyers, anthropologists, geologists, accountants, bookkeepers, librarians and trades people”. Business managers or advisors are not mentioned.

NEWS: Should the CLC have expert staff who either set up Aboriginal businesses for the traditional owners or attract them to Aboriginal land?

McCARTHY: Some traditional owners may not want to set up businesses. They may wish to just set up homes to raise they children and to look after country, like in the role of a ranger program where they are caring for country, not just for themselves but the broader community, burning off, making sure there are no major bushfires, but also to look after our animal species. That is a really strong role. There are different capacities in which the CLC can be involved.

The Minister said we would need to ask the CLC whether they are involved in negotiations with major companies, and we should ask the gold mine Newmont in the Tanami how many local Indigenous people are working there.

NEWS: How much does Newmont pay in royalties under the Landrights Act?

McCARTHY: That would have to be a question for the Central Land Council.

NEWS: The CLC, Congress and Tangentyere are the shareholders of Centrecorp. Its assets, at least some of them, are commonly known. But their value and earnings are not, believed to be in the hundreds of millions. Should they be means tested? Should they spend their own money before they get taxpayers’ funds from your government?

[In March Centrecorp is believed to have sold its share in Peter Kittle Motor Company which now has a new owner.]

McCARTHY: Our investment in Congress is quite substantial because of the health gaps and the life expectancy of First Nations people. We recognise the enormous responsibility of Closing the Gap and Congress plays a massive part in that. If they want to take on other ventures or moving into other areas then those questions would have to go to the Congress board.

Minister McCarthy said she is impressed with Centrefarm’s operation in Ali Curung, and the quantities of produce given the “tiny” size of the community: “Hats off to them. They are doing a terrific job.”

NEWS: Some people say most of the harvesting is done by itinerant backpackers and others from outside the community.

McCARTHY: I can certainly say the day I visited they were all Aboriginal people from Ali Curung and they were very proud to show me around. There were certainly no backpackers when I was there.

Meanwhile some of Prime Minister Albanese’s $250m over four years is hitting the ground, including increasing funding for police, domestic violence services and youth services; expanding domestic violence services in remote communities; delivering Traditional Owner community night patrols in Alice Springs; improving access to preventative health services for children and families with early intervention, FASD and autism diagnosis and support; supporting more alcohol and other drugs treatment and rehabilitation services; increasing funding for every school in Central Australia, getting more kids to school and keeping them there; funding the construction of 20 beds to provide safe short-term accommodation in Alice Springs; improving lighting and safety measures at community spaces across Alice Springs; building better health infrastructure, such as the Todd Street Health hub and backing more youth programs and activities in Town Camps with a new purpose built Mobile Youth Hub Bus.

More than $216m has been allocated and the government is working with stakeholders to determine the allocation of the remaining $34m.

UPDATE 21/8/24 at 12 noon

A spokesperson for the Minister provided this statement:

The extent of land leased for commercial purposes is a matter for the Northern Territory Land Councils who have responsibilities under the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 (ALRA) to consult with Traditional Aboriginal owners about land use proposals on Aboriginal land and to negotiate with proponents about developments.

Annual earnings are a commercial matter for those enterprises who operate on Aboriginal land.

McFarlane goes down the path of a dual society

Erwin Chlanda
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McFarlane goes down the path of a dual society

COMMENT by DON FULLER

In my view Blair McFarlane’s policies are short on policy suggestions – besides they need more funding for the Basics Card.

It is dependence on government to provide failing solutions again!

There is no mention of the essential importance of education and the need for employment to reduce the devastating impact of a welfare based society and how these vital areas can be improved.

Employment needs to be driven by more joint venture and partnership arrangements with the mainstream business community.

There is no mention of the key role and responsibility of Aboriginal organisations in assisting overcome the major social issues.

I don’t think the problems will be solved by throwing more government money at the problems.

The results of such approaches are clear over an extended time.

This would have further and continuing impacts on an almost dysfunctional Territory Budget.

The fundamentals need to be tackled to build self-reliance in partnership with the wider community institutions.

Currently, with an increasing size and influence of Aboriginal organisations, receiving large amounts of government funding, we are proceeding down the path of a dual society.

 This can be expected to further increase dysfunction and division, as we can see in Alice Springs.

In addition, there is no mention on vast amounts of government welfare money spent on alcohol – although perhaps this is envisioned with the Basics Card. This is essential.

Many would argue that poverty is self-inflicted in many cases. Australia is at the international forefront in the very high level of resources provided to Aboriginal people.

It is not clear that if resources were doubled they wouldn’t end up badly misdirected and mis-spent.

Policies are needed to deal with excessive alcohol abuse. Those with severe alcohol problems almost inevitably suffer from poverty.

Top cop’s own PR

Erwin Chlanda
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Top cop’s own PR

By ERWIN CHLANDA

The Territory police chief is continuing his campaign he launched at the Garma Festival of apologising to Indigenous people.

Ever since the event ended on August 5, every police media release has been prefaced with this: “An apology to Aboriginal Territorians. I, Michael Murphy (pictured), Commissioner of the Northern Territory Police am deeply sorry to all Aboriginal Territorians, for the past harms and injustices caused by members of the Northern Territory Police.” And so on. See above.

The Police Association, from which Mr Murphy has now resigned, has made it clear that the members under his command who have not inflicted harm nor injustices upon Aboriginal Territorians are unimpressed.

Meanwhile the police media section, which puts out the releases, is giving Mr Murphy’s personal propaganda more attention than dealing with media enquiries.

The News sent this email to PFES.Media@pfes.nt.gov.au on July 12:

“The commissioner said yesterday that during the curfew that ended yesterday some children were taken by the police to a ‘responsible adult’.

“Without mentioning names nor locations, how many children were dealt with in this way; in each case describe the circumstances of the adult and the location; has there been a follow-up by the police; what has the child been doing since he or she was apprehended; what are the ongoing arrangements for the child.

“If the arrangements are linked to Families or another government organisation or an NGO, please let me know who to speak with.

“Also, with respect to the violent disturbance in Bath Street on July 10: Was the police aware that it was likely to happen? Does the police cultivate a network of contacts in the town camps and the multitude of Aboriginal organisations who are likely to have information about community, family, tribal tensions?”

We doubled up on both issues through the new portal for police media requests – yet no response at all.

The portal includes the ridiculous mandate that no response deadline of less than two hours is accepted. Mobile numbers go straight to voice mail but there is no reply.

The News is now investigating without collaboration from the police the vexed issue of adults “responsible” for children committing crimes that have destroyed, together with social media, the reputation of the town, halving the number of tourists and doubling the number of homes for sale.

Preventing crime by easing poverty

Erwin Chlanda
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Preventing crime by easing poverty

By ERWIN CHLANDA

The elephant in the room is poverty, says Greens candidate for Namatjira, Blair McFarland, in the election campaign mostly focussed on what to do about crime.

“We’re already the most over policed region in Australia. If public safety depended on police numbers we’d be one of the safest places in the world.”

Declared the Northern Territory’s Australian of the Year 2024 for his involvement in the development of Opal, a non-sniffable petrol, he says: “The success was in our prevention strategy in reducing sniffing. We didn’t get tough on sniffers, nor fill up the gaols with them in an endless revolving door arrangement. We prevented it.”

In November 2004 Supercheap installed a cage (in the background) to prevent the theft of inhalants. Pictured are (from left) the store’s manager; Jane Vadiveloo, Tangentyere’s manager at the time; Attorney General Peter Toyne and Mr McFarlane with a manual for retailers about preventing sales and thefts of inhalants. Mr Toyne had declared an emergency due to sniffers moving into Alice when avgas (which also cannot be sniffed but ruined cars) rolled out in the bush.

Mr McFarland says while reducing poverty with welfare is a Federal responsibility, the NT can do its part by lobbying Canberra and even by diverting money. However, he doubts that a Labor government in Darwin would take to task the one in Canberra.

“Aboriginal people are doing what any really poor subset of people will do. They steal, break the law,” he says.

“Poverty is the driver for all gap indicators, substance misuse, chronic illness. Some people are at the very bottom of the social order. They scramble from day to day to live and eat and put electricity into their houses.

“The poverty we impose on people on Centrelink is an absolute national disgrace and we cop the consequences. What we’ve got is an increasingly alienated subclass of people who have no respect for the system.”

NEWS: How do you fix it? Simply give them more money?

McFARLAND: Pretty much. Remember in Covid? Suddenly everyone had $550 a fortnight extra. Crime went down. There were other factors as well. Pubs were closed. People moved back out bush. People could live out bush. They could shop. The shops out bush are the most expensive shops you find anywhere in Australia. And they are servicing the poorest people in Australia. So they come into town, exacerbating the problems, because they literally can’t feed their kids in their country.

NEWS: How do you define poverty?

McFARLAND: The Federal Government hasn’t got a poverty line, if they did they’d have to acknowledge how many Australians are underneath it, and that the money they give them deliberately impoverishes them. If it doesn’t have a name it doesn’t exist.

The Melbourne University has worked out that inclusive of housing costs, the poverty line is $1145.61 per week for a family comprising two adults and two dependent children.

A couple with no children gets $691.80 a week from Centrelink, just over half of the Melbourne University’s poverty line.

“There was a 16th century English Lord who said the English legal system in its bountiful fairness prosecutes rich and poor alike for sleeping under bridges and begging for bread,” jokes Mr McFarland.

Referring to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, he says governments frequently spend money in a counter-productive way.

Maslow states the basic needs must be met first – air, food, water, shelter, clothing, reproduction and sleep.

Once these are in place security, education, employment, resources, property and health can be taken care of.

After that come friendship, love, intimacy, family and community.

These are followed by self-esteem, respect, status and freedom recognition.

And ultimately, self actualisation can occur.

NEWS: Is the Prime Minister Albanese’s special grant of $250m being spent along these lines?


McFARLAND: They are hitting the ground two layers up. They are not addressing food security, or energy security. It’s really cold. If you have consistently not enough money to both feed your family and to keep the power on, then what respect are you going to have for the system?

NEWS: Some people prefer being in gaol in winter.

McFARLAND: There is power and blankets and food. It’s a crazy system.

He says the budget of a bush school funded from the Albanese grant shot from 1.4m to 3.3m a year and from two teachers to nine.

“Because of poor alcohol policies over generations, there are kids needing specialist support, and without this it will burn the teachers out and the kids will just be floating around, having nothing.

“These are the kids who will be in and out of gaol.”

McFarland says the NT Government, as a remote area food subsidy, could put money into people’s Basics Card, which cannot be used for alcohol, instead of spending it on such projects as the national Aboriginal art gallery in Alice Springs.

“Instead we have people coming in from bush and stealing and we’ll have this big empty mausoleum, a monument to a tourist industry that’s lapsing as nobody wants to come to Central Australia because of the crime,” he says.

“Government could be allocating money more cleverly, on things that make sense in that Maslow way.

“We already have so many tourist attractions. But what we also have is a reputation that we’re a dangerous place.

“The Territory doesn’t have the scale, money and the political capacity to make the big changes, but if you can mobilise the NT Government to do it, you could put pressure on the Federal Government, in the election year, to make those changes.”

The Federal elections have to be held on or before September 27, 2025.

Mr McFarland came to The Centre in 1986 doing volunteer work for the Conservation Commission as a tracker and snake catcher. Then he worked for Corrections for eight years and worked for Tangentyere supporting night patrols from 1995.

He spent three years in Papunya as the Western Desert Corrections Officer and founded the Central Australian Youth Linkup Service 2002.

Mr McFarland and fellow Greens candidate Asta Hill between them have decades of experience with troubled young people.

[FOOTNOTE: See also our profiles of Independent Robyn Lambley and the CLP’s Bill Yan. We invited Labor’s Gagandeep Sodhi and Allison Bitar to be interviewed but they did not respond.]

Robyn Lambley: Compassionate but robust on social issues

Erwin Chlanda
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Robyn Lambley: Compassionate but robust on social issues

Mrs Lambley’s monthly newsletter is quite a production, some 2000 words of news and opinion, some community advertising and a bit of cheek. FACT: The fine for not voting in the NT Election is $25. Or: Expansion South of the Gap – Is it Siberia or common-sense? “If people can drive to Bunnings for a sausage sandwich and a browse, then they can easily drive to modern new sporting facilities at Kilgariff to enjoy sport.”

Araluen Member Robyn Lambley clearly takes great pleasure in not being in a party: Her thoughts are her own, and as the longest serving of the current crop of politicians in The Centre, those thoughts are based on unparalleled experience.

When DON FULLER spoke with her this week he found her views on crime and social issues to be compassionate but resolute and untainted by sentimentality.

Mrs Lambley – yes, Mrs not Ms – entered Parliament with the CLP in a by-election in 2010 and was at various times the Deputy Chief Minister, Treasurer and Minister for Health. She became an Independent in 2015 and is seeking re-election.

FULLER: With regard to community crime, your recent August Newsletter makes the point that the NT Police are over extended in Alice and having difficulty dealing with issues. You mention the need for more government support from the NT government. What sort of things?

LAMBLEY: We need to ensure the conditions offered to NT Police in Alice Springs are competitive and desirable and encourage them to stay in Alice Springs and the Northern Territory. We used for example, to offer a good housing package but, I have heard that this has slipped compared to other jurisdictions.

FULLER: Anything else that the NT Government could be doing?

LAMBLEY: We know that police are subject to break-ins like the rest of us. Police also need good quality housing with security. But one of the main problems with government in the Northern Territory is that you never get clear, honest answers regarding the numbers of police operating in a particular area and the amount of attrition, for example. The numbers are always rubbery.

FULLER: In what way?

LAMBLEY: For example, the government may claim that it is going to spend $570 million over the next four to five years on policing. This is really hard to believe or understand. Often the figures provided by the government do not agree with those provided by the Police Association. We need far more honesty on numbers such as recruitment rates and attrition rates. I am at the point where I know what I am hearing is not the truth. We would all appreciate more honesty in this.

FULLER: Do you think the Police could involve the community more by letting people know what their strategies are and how the community can assist?

LAMBLEY: Yes. They don’t involve me at all, for example. I have been excluded from all discussions over the last eight years.

FULLER: That’s ridiculous. Is it for political reasons do you think?

LAMBLEY: I have no doubt it is for political reasons. Once you criticize this government in terms of how they are operating you are quickly left off invitation lists.

FULLER: That could be one of the problems of how governments in the Territory approach their government responsibilities. Rather than taking on board criticism or suggestions not meant to be destructive or negative they react against the messenger. They don’t seem to handle this at all well.

LAMBLEY: No. The result of actively ignoring me for eight years is that they didn’t listen to my concerns that crime had been escalating from 2017, despite the fact that I was yelling and shouting about the emerging problems at every opportunity. Michael Gunner, as Chief Minister and Nicole Manison as Police Minister and Deputy Chief Minister, used to laugh and dismiss me.

FULLER: What has been the main effect of this?

LAMBLEY: This behaviour toward me and Alice Springs in general, has led to the dire position we are now in as a community. But now crime has extended to Darwin, all of a sudden it is on the agenda. Hansard will show how over the last eight years I have been demanding they take action to prevent crime from escalating – but to no avail, because the government ignored me and other people from this town.

FULLER: Why do you think crime escalated from 2017?

LAMBLEY: One of the reasons in my view, was the release of the recommendations of the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory in 2016. These recommendations were tabled in the NT Parliament in 2017 and a main thrust of the recommendations was to soften the approach toward children and juvenile offenders. So, these recommendations were rolled out in good faith.

FULLER: What were the implications?

LAMBLEY: Blind Freddy could see that the unintended consequences of the Royal Commission’s recommendations, was that crime was going to increase and that all hell could break loose, and that is exactly what happened.

FULLER: Were there other reasons?

LAMBLEY: Another important reason was due to social media. Around that time it became commonly used by everyone, including young Aboriginal people, living in remote communities. I think this generated anger, particularly amongst young Aboriginal people, who feel that they live in horrible conditions and they don’t think that is fair, leading to a sense of injustice and anger.

FULLER: I would like to come back to that but before leaving comments about policing, do you think that the senior ranks of the NT Police have become politicized? If so, this is going to impact on their ability to perform according to the Law.

LAMBLEY: I think the NT Police Executive has had a terrible run for a very long time, with serious leadership problems. Now we have the Police Commissioner parading around at Garma making political statements and apologies.

FULLER: What should be done about this?

LAMBLEY: Law and Order is a massive problem. It has always been challenging in the Territory, but 10 years back we didn’t know it was going to get to this point. Given the position the community is in, the Police Commissioner and the Executive need to not worry about their image. Rather, they should be operating so that they can deliver on their core business. They need to remember that they are public servants and just get back to work.

FULLER: Going back to your comments about Aboriginal young people feeling there are significantly different living conditions they have compared with other people in the community – a lot of people might say they are provided with education, health care, a lot of job opportunities in communities and housing. They are not taking advantage of these things. What would you say to this?

LAMBLEY: We all know that a huge amount of funding and resources are thrown at closing the gap, particularly in the Northern Territory. Outcomes remain abysmal and an embarrassing failure to all governments involved. We can only conclude that what we are doing is not working. It’s time we had governments that were frank and fearless about this and we need to try different approaches.

FULLER: What sort of things should we do differently? For example, do you think governments should aim to have Aboriginal people address some of the consequences of their behaviour?

LAMBLEY: I think to change things we need to do a complete audit of where all this money is going. If organisations that have been given government money are not delivering, then that money should be taken away and redirected. Continuing to provide funding to organisations based on relationships with particular government ministers and politicians is a big part of the problem. There is nepotism, conflicts of interest we see all the time. It is wrong and needs to be stopped.

FULLER: There are two possible areas of concern here aren’t there? First you have the government departments delivering education, health and other services. Second, we have Aboriginal organisations receiving very large amount of government funding. How would you first deal with the public sector. It is very large compared with other jurisdictions and does seem to be inefficient and ineffective.

LAMBLEY: There is an optimal size for any public service. Once we get beyond this optimal size it becomes very wasteful in using resources to maintain itself rather than using resources to deliver to the community. I think that is where we are and we can’t sustain this.

FULLER: Are there other problems associated with such a large public service?

LAMBLEY: A very important issue associated with the giant size of the public service is that it is killing private enterprise in Alice Springs and the Northern Territory. Private enterprise cannot compete with the public service in terms of employment terms and conditions.

FULLER: Are there examples where this has caused problems?

LAMBLEY: In a place the size of Alice Springs you see local businesses that require particular skills and expertise. For example, an IT company may have to look interstate or overseas for staff to recruit people. Within 12 months they are working for the NTPS because of better terms and conditions. This has to stop. NT governments have to recognise that this is a problem and this needs to change.

FULLER: With regard to the need for audits are you also including Aboriginal organisations?

LAMBLEY: Anyone who is getting public money. But in the NT where we have a large number of Aboriginal organisations, more and more we see funding going to Aboriginal organisations and businesses. A lot of people have been calling for greater transparency and accountability from Aboriginal organisations for a long time, including the CLP in opposition. I have heard Jacinta Price talk about it. I have too, as an Independent.

FULLER: What about the current government?

LAMBLEY: The response we’ve had from the NT Labor government is that audits occur. They say that there are checks and balances and that every contract needs to be reported. But, I think it’s time for a closer inspection of what is actually happening on the ground, not what is in a report.

FULLER: A huge amount of public resources appears to be going in to Aboriginal organizations. Some people are saying that some of these organizations, including the Central Land Council are becoming involved in land and property development and acquiring large amounts of assets. Why aren’t they providing more support to Aboriginal people in Alice Springs?

LAMBLEY: I don’t have an answer for that. I have never understood how the Central Land Council works. I have had quite a bit to do with the Tangentyere Council over the years. Under Adam Giles the CLP government took away some of the funding for their big contracts for managing the houses on Town Camps and their maintenance, because they were not delivering. But under this government they have these contracts back and have been given additional funding. However, life on the town camps has not particularly improved. While this organisation receives a very large amount of government funding they haven’t put in an annual report for years and many people in Alice Springs are very concerned about this organisation, calling for greater accountability and transparency.

FULLER: You mention that with regard to the Central Land Council it is very difficult to get an understanding of what they do. But isn’t this unacceptable given their control of significant land and resources in the NT? Hasn’t the time arrived where organisations such as the Central Land Council need to be a lot more open and transparent and work a lot more in partnership with the wider community? Shouldn’t this be a major focus of government in the NT?

LAMBLEY: Yes. I agree with that premise. They seem to operate as another layer of government in the NT.

FULLER: Is the trouble is that if this dual government happens in Alice Springs and the NT, then it acts to undercut efforts toward social cohesion and can result in quite a destructive situation?

LAMBLEY: Yes. We are seeing this more and more in the Territory – the separation between white people and black people.  Policies that are meant to be a form of positive discrimination are often creating further division and animosity.

FULLER: With respect to alcohol you mention the need for mandatory treatment as an important way forward. What does this involve?

LAMBLEY: In 2013-14 I was the responsible Minister that rolled out mandatory treatment for the CLP. A main result was to get drunks off the street. But, it also gave those with a habitual alcohol problem and addiction an opportunity to stop drinking, seek medical treatment, to have food and accommodation and the basics of life necessary to improve decision making.

FULLER: Why did this program stop?

LAMBLEY: Labor chose to argue that the program was not effective and a waste of money.

FULLER: Was this reasonable?

LAMBLEY: No. I maintain it was effective, particularly compared with what we have now, which is nothing! We worked closely with the Central Australian Aboriginal Alcohol Programs Unit (CAAAPU) in a very good, collaborative program. We need something similar again. Currently, the town is back to where we were in 2012. We have set the bar so low over the last eight years that we are almost normalised to public drunkenness and disorder. It wears us all down to the point where there are 300 houses for sale in Alice at the moment. People want to move out but can’t sell their houses. Economically we have been smashed by crime.

FULLER: What about the cost of a mandatory alcohol program?

LAMBLEY: I would argue that the money we spent on this program is only a fraction of the current and past costs of the damage to the community caused by the major problems we face in terms of crime and disorder. Labor has ruined our town by not addressing crime when they should have and the cost of this is astronomical.

FULLER: You also mention in your newsletter that laws can be strengthened. Do you have a view as to which ones should be?

LAMBLEY: We have gone the full circle with bail laws in the Territory as a result of the Royal Commission. The bail laws need to reflect community concerns. In addition, laws around alcohol need to be strengthened because alcohol is at the core of the problems in Alice Springs.

FULLER: What do you think of the CLP policy of bringing down the age of criminal responsibility to 10 and the idea of a Skills Training Centre for young juvenile offenders because of the current gap between action on more minor offences and those that go into detention?

LAMBLEY: In an ideal world children as young as 10 should not be held criminally responsible for their behaviour. But how we live here is not ideal. I think what you see on the ground is kids under the age of 12 involving themselves in crime with absolutely no consequences. From a behavioural perspective then, kids are not learning to change their behaviour and understand the consequences.

FULLER: What has the current government done about this?

LAMBLEY: Although the current government said they would provide the necessary support services for kids under the age of 12, this just hasn’t happened. And given that young offenders are given the soft option over whether they attend services after they are involved in crimes, that doesn’t work for obvious reasons, as many don’t bother to attend.

FULLER:  Will this result in more very young kids being locked up?

LAMBLEY: I don’t think the CLP is saying that they want to lock up more kids. Rather, that those involved in crime can be directed in a mandatory way, to participate in a training program and a form of rehabilitation. I think that makes sense. I don’t think you can expect kids to change their behaviour without some support and training and if that’s optional I don’t think kids are going to participate. While the Royal Commission and Labor’s approach may be well meaning it has no practical application.

FULLER:  But these kids are still very young.

LAMBLEY: Yes. I do feel conflicted about this. I wish we didn’t have to talk about very young people involved in crime. But, unfortunately we need to. There is no future in “hoping for the best”. We need to address what is actually happening on the ground.

FULLER:  Is this due to a lack of parental responsibility?

LAMBLEY: Yes. Trying to make some parents accountable for their children is extremely difficult. Interestingly during the curfews, I was told by government officials that some parents welcomed that fact that the government was telling their children that they couldn’t roam the streets of Alice Springs at night. They welcomed that their kids stayed home.

FULLER:  Under existing legislation it is possible that a parent can be held responsible for their children.

LAMBLEY: Yes. There is existing legislation where a parent can be held responsible for an amount up to five thousand dollars for criminal damage by their children.

FULLER:  Do you think that should be activated?

LAMBLEY: This sounds great in theory but would be very difficult to recover from many families.

FULLER:  Finally, I would like to ask an overall question about governance in the Northern Territory and in particular, the NT Budget. Is the extremely high level of debt sustainable? We have had two previous Prime Ministers refer to the NT as a “failed state” and the first Chief Minister of the NT say that it is now time for the Territory to return under the Commonwealth.

LAMBLEY: I agree this is a major concern. When I was Treasurer in the CLP government we were hell-bent on reigning in the Budget in 2012. We thought we had a significant debt problem back then. In hindsight that was very low compared with now. When the CLP lost government in 2016 we handed over a debt level less than two billion. Now under Labor we have a debt level of around 11 billion.

FULLER: Should people be worried about this?

LAMBLEY: It is extremely concerning but what I learnt when I was Treasurer was that many people have no interest in this as long as the cost of living and doing business by government does not impact them. This view has been reinforced over the last eight years, watching how Labor has behaved in terms of the Budget and debt.

FULLER:  How has this been?

LAMBLEY: Quite frankly they are like kids in a lolly shop. They show no restraint. They have no understanding of money and business and accountability and the implications of getting the Territory into serious levels of debt. They do not care. They make a mockery of past efforts to stop this major problem from occurring.

FULLER:  What then does the future hold for the NT?

LAMBLEY: I don’t think the debt level will be addressed by either government. If the CLP for example, were to come in and try to implement an austerity program, or pass on the real costs to consumers of some services, like power and water for example, that is likely to have a major political impact, as it did with the previous CLP government. The future is likely to be that we will continue down this path I suspect for some years, until a courageous Federal government steps in and says this has gone way too far and makes a decision around mismanagement of finances in the Northern Territory.

NT election: Model predicts CLP win

Erwin Chlanda
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NT election: Model predicts CLP win

Crime and social unrest are major electoral problems for the Labor government, not helped by social media tirelessly, and often misleadingly, bombarding the public with information.

By Professor ROLF GERRITSEN

Later this month we Territorians will vote in the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly election. Recent opinion polls indicate a tightening contest as the Labor Government rallies under the surprisingly effective Ms Lawler.

Currently the CLP Opposition has a small lead and is generally tipped to win a majority of seats.

Normally, to predict elections psephologists and would-be pundits, like myself, rely on opinion polls. These are usually quite accurate about the general electorates’ voting intentions but sometimes misleading, even confounded, by the results in any particular electorate, which may produce an outcome that does not conform to the generality of the opinion polls.

Usually this is interpreted as the Member having a strong personal vote. The most-recently reported opinion polls here indicate that there is a recent swing towards independents.

Personally, I doubt that will carry through to election day. This is just some voters becoming aware an election is due and registering opinions designed to give their party a ‘wake-up” call.

Remember, a month before the 2020 election, the polls showed that the Territory Alliance had a higher primary vote than the CLP. We know how that turned out.

However, an American political scientist, Professor Lichtman of the University of California, has developed a model of predicting presidential elections that is highly accurate. He has correctly predicted nine of the past 10 presidential elections (in fact 10 out of 10, Gore really beat Bush Junior, who benefited from the crucial judicial exclusion of Democrat votes in black Florida districts).

Curiously Professor Lichtman has developed his election model from the models seismologists have developed to predict earthquakes. I have adapted Lichtman’s model in this case, to take account of institutional differences between the USA and Australia.

For instance, I have removed the variables relating to whether the President has won or lost a war. This does not seem germane to the Chief Minister’s role.

This is an exercise in whimsy. I do not want people stopping me in the street if my adaptation of Lichtman’s model does not accurately predict the coming Territory election!

So here are my 10, Lichtman-adapted variables.

Party Mandate

This category is included to take account of mid-term elections (in the NT context, by-elections).

Labor has won the two by-elections held since the last general election. So that category indicates some superiority to Labor. However, the CLP machinery has been overhauled since the former Chief Minister Shane Stone became President.

His reputation and recent donations declarations, suggest the Opposition is now better organised and attracting money from a wide spectrum of businesses. Consequently, this factor is probably neutral in my calculations.

Incumbent has no serious leadership challenges

The Chief Minister has the Labor Party unified behind her. This is as much an electoral necessity as the preference of at least one parliamentary colleague. Despite rumours of some dissatisfaction with Ms Finocchiaro, her feisty performance in the 2020 poll means she is secure in her bid to become Chief Minister. Again, I suspect that this factor is neutral.

Third Party

The presence of a significant third party may damage either of the major parties. In Australia that manifests via preferences. For example, Labor and other preferences for the Teals in the last Federal election led that Liberal-insurgent group to secure several seats and doomed the Liberal government to defeat.

In the Territory the Greens are the most permanent third party. They have never won a seat, which they could only do if they secured more first preference votes than either Labor or the CLP.

Effectively a Green vote is a Labor vote. Currently the Greens are very unhappy with the Lawler government. However, they face the “less-worse-of-the-alternatives” situation regarding their preferences. At this election, the Greens vote will probably be down and so reduce their advantage for Labor.

Consequently, the third party advantage to Labor is unlikely to affect the election result.

Current Economy

Here the CLP Opposition has a clear advantage. There is no economic growth at present, as the recent ComSec report starkly illustrated. Poor economic growth makes Labor vulnerable to CLP criticism. This is a strong variable against (deservedly or not) the current Labor Government.

Long Term Economy

From next year, the Territory economy will pick up as the implementation of several large projects will accelerate economic growth. However, that does not advantage Labor.

Appeals to future economic growth will not attract votes. Labor’s post-2020 election dithering with regard to economic growth, deferring decisions (eg on Beetaloo) has pleased neither the business community nor the conservationists. Chief Minister Lawler’s change of policy is not too late for the economy but it may be too late for the election.

Policy Change

This variable looks at whether the incumbent government is seen as responsible for significant change/s in policy. Major policy changes usually create new coalitions of supporters for a government.

Whether the incumbent government has achieved major changes in policy and outcomes is debatable. The suspicion/opinion that this Labor government has drifted since winning in 2020 has become entrenched.

It is a moot point whether the current Chief Minister has fully reversed that perception. The Greens are clear (and dismayed) about the government’s new economic and environmental policy directions, but I doubt the general electorate outside of the policy community are much aware of this “developmentalist” policy shift.

On the balance of probabilities, I doubt whether being in charge of the policy agenda has advantaged the government.

Social Unrest

Applying this Lichtman variable to the Territory we, inevitably, consider crime. This is a major electoral problem for the Labor government. The CLP is simply more believable with their “tough on crime” trope.

CM Lawler has promised more police, for an eye-watering cost of over $500 million.  However, anyone who knows anything about police staffing levels knows that continuing attrition makes raising staffing levels harder than just accepting new recruits. Anyway, despite its intellectual vacuity, the CLP policy is an electoral winner.

Scandal

There have been minor scandals dogging the current Labor government. These have been covered in detail in the NT Independent but largely overlooked in the mainstream media. However, they were the ostensible reason for the previous Chief Minister’s resignation.

These scandals are markers of either a longer-lived government arrogantly getting careless with the detail or being too lenient with mates. Consequently, these minor scandals propel (and confirm?) the “been in for too long/time for a change” lines the Opposition has been running.

Incumbent Charisma

This Lichter variable reflects that Presidential elections in America are more about two individuals competing than it is about their parties. The Labor leader, Eva Lawler has adopted a no-nonsense approach and definitely made Labor more competitive. She has taken credit for curfews and described her policies as “tough love”. Lawler has made Labor competitive after early polls showed a landslide against the government.

Challenger’s Charisma

The current Opposition Leader, Finocchiaro, was the only CLP parliamentarian in a greater metropolitan seat to survive the electoral rout of 2016. She must be a capable campaigner.

In the 2020 election when she was – by lack of alternative – the Opposition Leader, she surprised with a feisty campaign that restored the CLP’s base vote in the greater Darwin region, where this coming election will be won or lost.

I think that Finocchiaro has performed respectably, has not spooked the public servants and has led the debate with some imaginative policy proposals.

I regards these last two “leadership” variables as about even in terms of impacting the result of this election.

If I presented this interpretation of his model to Professor Lichtman, he would conclude that the CLP will win the election.

[Alice Springs based Professor Rolf Gerritsen is Adjunct Professor at the Northern Institute Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Society, Charles Darwin University.]

Bill Yan: The way to the top for the CLP

Erwin Chlanda
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Bill Yan: The way to the top for the CLP

The quest for reaching dizzying heights is not limited to politics for Namatjira MLA Bill Yan (CLP), seeking re-election this month: He’s pictured in 2019 standing on the Himalayas summit of Island Peak (Imja Tse) at 6200m, with Nepalese climbing guide, Nema. Mr Yan has also walked to the Mount Everest base camp three times, including on January 5 this year.

Crime and anti-social issues will – unsurprisingly – be a major election focus for the CLP, Mr Yan told DON FULLER who probed how the party would deal with what the candidate says is “having a huge impact right across the community, whether that be people in homes, businesses or people going about their daily life”.

FULLER: Give me examples, please.

YAN: We had a forum with the candidates at the Chamber of Commerce and we heard from a woman who has been a victim of crime and threatened in her own home. As a result, she and her family are looking to leave town. People feel like they are living inside a prison and that they are trapped inside their own homes and too afraid to go out. We are also seeing anti-social and criminal behaviour in the work-place. Just recently the community bank in town gave notice that it was closing its doors due to safety risks to its staff, who have been subject to a number of threats of violence and intimidation.

FULLER: Is there enough information out there?

YAN: There has been a problem with the new IT system introduced by police and recently, we have not been able to get accurate crime statistics. This will need to be fixed quickly if Police are going to be able to direct their resources to the main areas of concern. But, besides dealing with the outcomes of crime we need to have a major focus on prevention and education, as well, to deal with issues before they happen.

FULLER: What are the side issues of crime?

YAN: The other main issue is cost of living but unfortunately this too, is being badly affected by crime and anti-social behaviour because it is increasing the costs of doing business and these costs are passed on to the consumer. Businesses are bearing the effects of criminal activities with break-ins and thefts, for example. Unless we can control crime we will see a steady decline in the social fabric of our community. This needs to be turned around so that Alice can return to the vibrant and healthy community it was.

FULLER: Does the CLP have plans to better deal with making offenders face the consequences of illegal activities? How can illegal activities continue without consequences for one group of the population at the expense of other people?

YAN: From my wide experience working in Corrections I have seen that there is a huge gap at present between kids who are first coming into contact with the justice system and the end result of youth detention. For those coming into contact with the Justice System for the first time there are a limited number of diversionary and low level programs in place. So there is little available to youth offenders beside Detention that works well. But offending has to be very serious before Detention takes place.

FULLER: But some wonder why it is that young Aboriginal people can commit crimes of violence more than once. You can go through all the “soft options” but what have these options achieved for the community?

YAN: The Justice System takes into account the disadvantages faced by these young people.

FULLER: But it could be argued that many have suffered disadvantage regardless of their origin and decisions based on racial origin, where people do not experience the consequences of their illegal actions, show no signs of working. The Justice System should make decisions based on legislation. Does the CLP have any plans to strengthen legislation so that people, regardless of racial origin face the consequences of their actions?

YAN: We have tried to bring forward legislation in Parliament around youth crime that Labor didn’t support. One that we are concerned about are the consequences of breach of bail, where currently there are no offences attached for doing this. We will change the legislation to bring back breach of bail as an offence. We also intend to reduce the age of criminal responsibility from 12 years to 10 years.

FULLER: That’s very young.

YAN: This is not about putting kids in detention. Currently, all that can happen if a young person 10 to 12 commits an offence is that they can be recommended for a diversionary program. However, there is no requirement to attend the program. By bringing the age back an order can be made by the criminal justice system for the child to undertake an activity. Based on this, the CLP wants to create a Skills Camp. We are calling this “Sentence to a Skill”. We plan to bridge the current gap between first contact with the Justice System and Detention with this concept.

FULLER: How would it work?

YAN: Kids would go to this Camp. They would engage in educational activities and cultural activities, and be able to connect with elders and the community. Traditional “chalk and talk” education doesn’t work with many of these kids. We want to use vocational education and training so that they can learn applied skills, with their hands and visual skills, so that they can contribute to the community in good jobs. We will also concentrate on building literacy and numeracy skills. This should help turn their lives around so they can gain self-esteem and self-respect.

FULLER: What support will be available to these young people once they leave the “Skills Camp”? Will on-going parental and family support be necessary? (Mr Yan has already urged earlier that parents need to have a far more important role.)

YAN: Absolutely.

FULLER: What part should the government play?

YAN: That is the role of the department, Territory Families. They need to be more pro-active working with these kids and their families. Sadly, they need to do more to provide support to these families than is being done at present. Areas such as education and training in parenting and household and income management. A lot of this is just not happening.

FULLER: Is that a lack of competence or cultural understanding by the department?

YAN: I think Territory families has become too big and it’s become quite stagnant. It makes it very difficult for the department to become dynamic and to respond to what is happening. We think Youth Detention should be taken out of Territory Families and this function should be placed with Correctional Services. Currently the areas of responsibility are blurred and confused.

FULLER: Moving away from the responsibilities of government departments I would now like to turn to the responsibility and effectiveness of Aboriginal organisations. These community based organisations have received a very large amount of funding from the Federal and Territory Governments. Are they contributing to solving the problems facing Alice in an efficient and effective manner with taxpayers money?

YAN: I am asked by people all the time why, with hundreds of millions of dollars going in to these organizations, more outcomes are not being achieved. It is quite heart breaking that outcomes don’t seem to be achieved for those in need of help.

FULLER: What do you think are the main reasons for that?

YAN: I see a number of these organizations as very top heavy in management and administration. A lot of the money gets burned up there with vehicles and everything else. That takes money away from services being delivered on the ground.

FULLER: Do you think the people who manage these organizations have the necessary training and skills required to deliver these complex programs?

YAN: I would like to hope so but I haven’t got into the management of these organizations. While a number of these have been funded by the Federal government it is up to the NT government to pressure the Feds to make sure these programs are run properly and achieve outcomes. More and more people are concerned about organizations such as Tangentyere Council whose main function is to deliver services to Town Camps. The amount of money which has gone to this organization compared to the outcomes achieved for those in the Town Camps just don’t add up.

FULLER: What’s the response of the NGOs?

YAN: Attempts by the Council and myself to work with Tangentyere have not been encouraged. They have proved difficult to work with in any cooperative sense. There has been quite a degree of turmoil in this organization and nepotism within the management and Board. Similar problems have been experienced with NAAJA, with infighting and management problems. One of the shining lights in Aboriginal run organizations in Central Australia has been Congress.

FULLER: Is there enough control over how public funds are spent?

YAN: If the CLP wins government I want to make sure that any Territory money that is provided to Aboriginal organizations achieves outcomes and that it is properly spent and accounted for. We can’t keep throwing money out the door with little idea on how it is being spent.

FULLER: What measures would you put in place to encourage business and jobs growth in Alice?

YAN: As mentioned, crime needs to be controlled. It affects among other things, the ability to attract staff. We want to look at tax incentives to encourage business and people through zone taxation allowances. We want to work with the Federal government to put these incentives in place. We also want to look closely at payroll tax arrangements so that they don’t work against small business growth. We would also like to arrange for businesses to receive tax breaks for employing apprentices and trainees.

FULLER: What should be the role of immigrants?

YAN: We would like to address the changes that have occurred to visa requirements with the Federal government. These previously benefited remote regions such as Alice Springs but have been changed so that other less remote regions are now included as working destinations for immigrants. This has disadvantaged remote regions such as Alice and it needs to be changed back.

FULLER: There is a slump in tourism.

YAN: We need to encourage tourism in Central Australia which has been suffering badly during Covid and post Covid. We also need to encourage mining and agricultural activities. To do this we need to reduce the amount of approvals and red tape that are required for projects to proceed. Within mining, gas will be essential for the future growth of the Territory.  We need also recognise and support small business as these are at the heart of the Territory economy.

FULLER: How would that be governed?

YAN: We want to set up a position outside government called “The Territory Controller” to push important projects through so that they are not held up by unreasonable government processes and time-lines. This position would be a champion for important projects.

FULLER: How would you bring the debt laden Territory budget under control?

YAN: The Territory Labor party has blown the debt out in wasteful spending and wasteful projects. We need to drive our own source revenue and build our industry sectors to provide this tourism, mining and agriculture. To do this we need to rebuild our reputation to attract the required investment. It need to return to the “can do place” that it used to be rather than the “can’t do place” that it has become. The public sector has to become more dynamic and efficient and able to work better supporting business.

FULLER: The public service is very large in the NT relative to other States and Territories. Do you think it needs to be reduced if the Territory is to become viable?

YAN: We have given a commitment that we will not axe any government jobs or assets.

FULLER: But doesn’t the huge public service act as a break on diversifying and developing the Territory economy?

YAN: Part of the reason for the high levels of employment in the public sector is due to the tyranny of distance in the Territory. But the service has to become more dynamic and efficient to meet the development needs of the Territory. But I am aware that the Langoulant Report did recommend in 2019 that the size of the public service needed to be reformed and capped if the Territory was to achieve economic viability and reign in debt. However, the Labor government has ignored this recommendation and employed an additional three thousand public servants since the Report was submitted to the Labor government.

FULLER: A lot of government initiative seem to be on the never-never.

YAN: The practice of the Labor government of putting infrastructure projects on the books but not actioning them until some years later, when prices have increased sharply, has also had the effect of boosting the debt levels. This also serves to inflate the level of infrastructure projects undertaken by the government because many of them are in fact, not “new” projects.

St Mary’s ghost village: demolition by neglect

Erwin Chlanda
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4
St Mary’s ghost village: demolition by neglect

St Mary’s, south of The Gap, is where many locals spent part of their youth. They have fond memories of the Children’s Village. When it became known in 2022 that the Anglican Church is going to sell the land, with the deal’s details withheld from the public (see story links at the bottom of this page), former residents made impassioned pleas for their former home’s history to be preserved in a dignified way. When historian and writer ALEX NELSON last weekend visited the site, now reportedly owned by the NT Government, he found it in a derelict and vandalised state and at risk of destruction in a major fire. 

Tall, dry buffel grass inside the boundary fence is dominating the property, growing hard up against the walls of buildings.

Well over a year ago, St Mary’s was vacated and put up for sale by the Anglican Diocese.

The real estate “for sale” signs have long vanished, the property (apparently) purchased by the Northern Territory Government.

Both parties, as the Alice Springs News has reported, remain studiously silent on how much St Mary’s was sold for and what exactly the government’s intentions are for the property.

Whatever, St Mary’s is now effectively abandoned and increasingly derelict – it’s a ghost town.

Last weekend I decided to take a closer look. My immediate concern was the extent of the completely unmanaged grass cover smothering much of the property and posing a major fire hazard.

My worst fears were realised – St Mary’s is a time bomb.

Internal road and tracks may serve as fire breaks but will be insufficient if a wildfire ignites in the dense metre-high dry grass, especially on a windy day.

Augmenting the hazard are numerous pepper trees (pictured), their green leafy canopies full of volatile oils that can erupt like napalm. (By the same token, pepper tree timber is excellent firewood!).

There are no fire breaks inside the boundary fences facing the Stuart Highway, Mt Blatherskite, and the Todd River.

There is no active management of St Mary’s at all.

Despite all the buildings’ doors and windows either padlocked and/or boarded over with plywood panels, nearly all have been broken into and vandalised.

This includes a building nearest the highway with asbestos contamination signage.

Windows are smashed and fixtures have been ripped from the walls.

There is no-one and nothing to prevent trespassers at St Mary’s.

The low front fence facing the highway, although repaired and gated, is no impediment.

Equally so, the high fence facing Mt Blatherskite boasts a large hole torn through the wire netting at one spot and an entire panel flattened by vehicles a bit further along.

Judging by the deteriorated chairs and furniture dumped by the major fence line breach, it’s obvious the boundary hasn’t been inspected for years.

Significantly, St Mary’s Chapel is unaffected, with intruders appearing to show some respect to leave it alone. There is, of course, no guarantee this will continue.

St Mary’s Chapel is home to the renowned heritage-listed Robert Czako mural, long championed by centenarian Jose Petrick and painstakingly restored with the aid of volunteers (including myself) in 2021.

Reportedly, the Minister for Art, Culture and Heritage, Chansey Paech, has nominated the chapel itself for heritage listing.

I’ve no idea where that’s at but it’s a moot point if St Mary’s continues to remain effectively abandoned.

I know from recent first-hand experience what I’m describing.

It’s just over seven months ago a wildfire swept over much of near-by Pitchi Richi, where I live, narrowly averting destruction of major assets and directly threatened neighbouring properties.

Luck was on my side – it wasn’t windy and there were no other fires that day, but it took virtually every available fire-fighting appliance (including a water bomber) to bring the blaze under control over a 3.6 hectare property.

Importantly, as the resident caretaker, I was on hand when the fire erupted and raised the alarm in sufficient time to prevent a major catastrophe.

St Mary’s has no-one looking after it and is an eight hectare property at extreme risk of destruction.

Given St Mary’s is acquired by the Territory government, it is now a publicly owned property and all its buildings and infrastructure are public assets.

As the property owner, the government is obliged under the NT Heritage Act to ensure the protection of the Robert Czako mural.

As the property owner, the government is obliged to ensure reasonable management is taken to mitigate the fire hazard posed by the tall rank grass dominating the site, including provision of fire breaks.

As things stand at present, St Mary’s is suffering from “demolition by neglect” a concept well understood in the building and property sectors.

St Mary’s is a place of immense local historical and cultural significance but is now in an appalling state.

The degradation of St Mary’s is in full view of the south Stuart Highway where thousands of people pass by every day.

Now that the election campaign is in full swing, the NT Government is in caretaker mode.

There needs to be urgent caretaking of the long cherished institution before inevitably it becomes too late to do so.

EARLIER REPORTS

St Mary’s sale: Anglican Church asked to give guarantees

St Mary’s sale: Time for the church to comment, says former Anglicare NT manager

Aboriginal organisations must cough up: St Mary’s supporters

Anglican Diocese: Silent night on St Mary’s sale – Alice Springs News

St Mary’s just a piece of real estate for Anglican Church?

Chansey Paech silent on what he told the ALP about St Mary’s

St Mary’s news just for a few

Garma apology: Police union canes Commissioner, MLA calls it a croc

Erwin Chlanda
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Garma apology: Police union canes Commissioner, MLA calls it a croc

By ERWIN CHLANDA

The NT Police Association has condemned the apology speech delivered by Commissioner of Police, Michael Murphy APM, at the Garma Festival yesterday.

Acting President Lisa Bayliss says in a media release: “It is important to confront, acknowledge and learn from the past, without letting it define the NT Police (NTP).”

And Independent Member for the Araluen electorate in Alice Springs, Robyn Lambley, described the apology on social media: “What a croc! Garma has become a ridiculous display of patronising political rhetoric and pantomime.”

Says Ms Bayliss: “It is disappointing the Commissioner did not communicate the content, and intent, directly with the membership well in advance of his speech. In fact, the speech in its entirety was sent to the media before the membership.

“It is also not the role of police to assess the success or otherwise of Federal Government-directed policies of Closing the Gap, the Stolen Generation and the Intervention, as the Commissioner has done.

“If the Commissioner is genuinely committed to achieving the goals he has outlined, it is essential that the entire agency is included in this process and fully supported in its efforts to serve the community.

“Our members deserve the backing of the senior police executive, ensuring they are not unfairly overburdened with blame but rather empowered to continue their vital work for the benefit of all Territorians.”

Ms Bayliss pointed to changes Commissioner Murphy should be making to enhance job opportunities for Aboriginal people within the force.

“The Commissioner’s focus should be not only on Indigenous members of the public but also on the wellbeing and development of the NTP’s own members. This includes providing Indigenous employees within the NTP with opportunities to advance as far as they aspire within the organisation.

“Currently, members of the NTP employed as Aboriginal Community Police Officers (ACPOs) can only progress to the rank of Senior ACPO. If they wish to advance further, they must wait for a transition squad, or resign their position and apply as a recruit constable, as there is no existing ACPO to Constable transition career pathway.

“The association calls upon the Commissioner to address this gap by immediately.”

Ms Lambley said about the event in the Top End: “Politicians and political apparatchiks lining up in their droves pledging their commitment (and apologies) to Aboriginal people.

“The theatre and ceremony of this star-studded, red carpet glamping experience obviously impresses a lot of people, mostly from outside of the NT I dare say.

“With the situation on the ground getting worse for Territory Aboriginal people, it is hard to take any of this very seriously.”

IMAGE: Police Commissioner Michael Murphy at Garma on Facebook.

UPDATE August 6

Commissioner Murphy has resigned his membership from the Northern Territory Police Association.

He said in a media release: “The association should be strong and should be representative of membership.

“I am incredibly disappointed by the statements made by the association [on August 4] in response to my apology to Aboriginal Territorians at the Garma Festival on Saturday.

“I love policing. I know you do too, and I am proud to be your Commissioner.

“I have a vision for the future of NT Police; and in order to achieve that future, we need to be able to understand and acknowledge our history.

“Our shared mission is to serve and protect all Territorians.”

The answer to crime is work

Erwin Chlanda
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4
The answer to crime is work

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

I would like to address the problem of crime in Alice Springs. The solution I think is NOT mentioned on the TV, in newspapers, on the radio and I cannot see it about Alice Springs anywhere on the internet (when googled).

There is also no discussion amongst friends or relatives on this subject. Whenever I mention this, people just go silent and do not even have a comment. I feel like I am pissing into the wind!

The solution to the crime problem is that all unemployed people in Alice Springs should be working like you and me!

Working at a job has many mental and social benefits. The mental benefits would include feeling useful which gives one mental stability. There are other numerous mental benefits as well. The social benefits of course include having money and learning and developing new skills.

I was born in Alice Springs and have lived in the centre of the Northern Territory all my life, and I have not seen any programme replace working at a job. Not one! All the programmes and schemes just don’t work, people say they do but they don’t! A considerable waste of time and money.

So, what is the answer to our high level of crime in Alice Springs and elsewhere? I propose an open-ended Commonwealth Development Employment Programme type of work scheme.

The old CDEP was a closed end. There was normally no prospect graduating or advancing out of the scheme with some sort of skill. There must be skills developed for people to go on with all the requirements to do a career or job, i.e. carpenter, plumber, electrician, secretary, nurse, teacher and the numerous other jobs that people do every day.

There are a few problems that the very long term unemployed have developed. One is that you hardly care about anything much at all!

You hardly care about looking after the house you live in, looking after the car you drive, the clothes you wear, that your kids going to school and to a very few or some only your kids on the street, looking after your very own health, or the amount of personal debt accumulated.

An Alice Springs family I know owes $80,000 plus to Centrelink. Robo debt is nothing compared to this setup; $40,000 plus to Jacana Electricity for a one household and a large unknown accumulation of useless effect court fines.

It also does not help that the Reserve Bank Centrelink payments are at 11.30pm at night creating a booming midnight nighttime economy that have whole families getting a meal. (Hamburgers Alice Springs is nearly number one in Australia).

Almost all do not even recognise that by not working at a job or career that it is doing psychological damage. It has been so normal not to work people think it is normal! This is not new at all; it has been documented all over the world, see examples in England coal mine country, North and South America, even China).

So, how would you start? Gently of course. First there must be a clear understanding that working at a job is good for you. Educators can find and point out all the benefits. A scheme that is designed to greatly encourage and educate people to learn how to work and to even learn how to learn new skills.

I realise the costs may be high to run such a scheme, but the benefits would be enormous. What is the generally the first things that an employer asks his or her employee? His or her tax file number! Paying some tax. Would there be enough jobs in the centre to support extra workers? Deal with it when we get there, who knows people may be keen to work elsewhere.

The way I see it, it really MUST be done, no ifs and buts because we cannot continue the way we are. The costs associated with the way we are going (law enforcement, damage done) will rise.

Of course, one does find on the internet studies that conclude where full employment is there is a low crime rate!

Bruce Clough, Alice Springs.

IMAGE: Facebook posting entitled before and after

Council runs animal shelter in a shambolic manner

Erwin Chlanda
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13
Council runs animal shelter in a shambolic manner

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

The Alice Springs Animal Shelter has a proud history as a low-kill refuge for lost and abandoned pets in our animal-loving town.

That is now all but gone.

Not long ago, the Town Council took over the running of the shelter with much self-congratulatory fanfare. The understaffed shelter was on its knees after an influx of pets and parsimonious support from the Council despite many pleas for assistance over the past few years.

The shelter urgently needs a long-term plan for its future and funding for facilities and staff.  Instead, the Council has assigned the Rangers to run the shelter. Yesterday afternoon there was an injured dog in the Mall being looked after by kind-hearted locals.  

They wanted to transport it to a vet but it couldn’t walk and Rangers were needed to drive up the Mall. Over two hours, calls to the seven Rangers including to their mobile went unanswered and finally, the dog had to be carried to a vehicle.

Instead of funding the shelter to recruit more staff and expand its facilities, the Council prefers to splash our rates on a range of expensive but dubious infrastructure projects.

Meanwhile, the shelter is run in an ad hoc, shambolic manner. Currently, it is closed and not taking animals.

There is no point calling the Rangers if you see a lost pet, they have nowhere to take it.

Many pets have been dumped onto local vets whose services are now hampered by the influx.

There is a rehoming event that may save some animals but the likely outcome of this long-term neglect and failure to urgently respond to the crisis is mass euthanasia. 

Ralph Folds, Alice Springs

IMAGE YouTube.

UPDATE 19/8/24 at 10.30am

The News asked the Town Council on August 4 to respond to this Letter to the Editor from Ralph Folds but the Council did not reply. However, when asked, it stated today that it has stepped in to operate the facility and it is still fully functioning.
“There have been no changes with the Rangers ensuring it’s business as usual for the public.”

UPDATE 19/8/24 at 11.15am

That is in conflict with a comment we received from Mr Folds this morning. When asked he said his belief that Shelter is closed was prompted by this Facebook notice (pictured), possibly posted by the Shelter organisation which is in receivership. Mr Folds says he was trying to get clarification from the liquidator but the quoted telephone number wasn’t working.

A few minutes ago Mr Folds called at the Shelter, found it closed and locked and a sign saying temporarily closed, until further notice, contact Council 89 500500.

 

Brawl over Singleton ground water continues

Erwin Chlanda
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1
Brawl over Singleton ground water continues

By ERWIN CHLANDA

Fortune Agribusiness is again the controversial winner in the Western Davenport Water Allocation Plan 2024-2027 announced by Environment Minister Kate Worden yesterday – a day before her government entered caretaker mode ahead of the election this month.

The government’s decisions about the use of groundwater from the 24,500 square kilometre basin 350 km north of Alice Springs have vehemently been opposed by the Arid Land Environment Centre.

It lost a court case but the decision is being appealed by the Mpwerempwer Aboriginal Corporation. 

CEO Adrian Tomlinson says the case highlighted that plans are non-binding: “We need an urgent amendment to the Territory’s water laws to ensure water allocation plans are binding.” 

He says while the new plan has marginally reduced the allocation to businesses like Fortune but they have a freer hand in how to take the water.

Two-thirds of the resource is set aside for industrial use, to 92% of which the Chinese backed company, at Singleton Station, now seems set to have the rights for the next three years.

This is about 1.4 times Darwin’s annual water supply, says Mr Tomlinson.

The remaining one-third is used for smaller existing agricultural ventures and for the Aboriginal Water Reserve which can be used or traded.

Mr Tomlinson says the licence, which is still subject to environmental impact assessment, “needs to be stopped.

“It will result in the widespread destruction of groundwater dependent trees, soaks and wetlands which depend on shallow groundwater.

“Sacred sites are at risk and salinity impacts the long-term viability of the water.”

PHOTO: Groundwater dependent tress are at risk. Image courtesy Arid Lands Environment Centre.

Wally McArthur was denied the chance to win Olympic gold

Erwin Chlanda
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4
Wally McArthur was denied the chance to win Olympic gold

By MARK SMITH

A top athlete denied a chance to compete for Olympic Gold, Wally McArthur, lived at The Bungalow – the Overland Telegraph Station –  in Alice Springs before being evacuated to NSW during WW2.

After the war he went to St Francis House in Adelaide, became a rugby star in England and was a member of the Aboriginal rugby league team of the century.

Wally McArthur was an inspiration. His younger cousin, John Moriarty, who was taken from the same Borroloola area of the Northern Territory, has said: “He could have been one of the world’s great athletes. He just exploded with fire and grace.

“He was a leader. He looked after us younger kids. He was such a humble compassionate person. Wally set a standard for us, as to what could be achieved in sport.”

Born in 1933 McArthur’s father was a policeman named Langdon, but the authorities, who registered many of these births, gave him the name of McArthur, after the river at Borroloola.

McArthur recalled his removal from his family in a 1998 interview with John Pilger: “It was a government car, because only the government had cars at that time. The driver put me in the front seat with him and he drove around while I waved at my family.

“I have never seen them since, you know. They were sitting around the camp fire. They didn’t understand what was happening.”

In a 1999 interview McArthur said: “I don’t feel angry about it. I can’t. I just had to get on with my life.”

The bombing of Darwin in February 1942 by 188 Japanese planes prompted the rounding up of children in Borroloola who were then piled into army trucks and taken to Alice Springs.

The planes launched from four aircraft carriers, some the same as those which attacked Pearl Harbour. More bombs were dropped on Darwin than at Pearl Harbour killing 253 Australians and sinking four major warships.

The Australian Government feared Aboriginal people would collude with invading Japanese, similar to the internment fear which imprisoned thousands of Germans and Italians, and it became a justification for the forced removal of Aboriginal children.

John Moriarty, aged four at the time, recalled his removal from Borroloola: “I can remember getting on a truck in a yard. There were a number of other kids in the truck who were also being removed from their families, including Jim and Rose Foster, Wally McArthur and Wilfred Huddlestone.

“The truck went all the way down to Alice Springs. It took several days. In Alice Springs we went to the Bungalow, which was the original Alice Springs Telegraph Station.

“The next thing I remember is the railyard. I was there with my cousins Jim Foster and Wally McArthur and a few others, we all went to see this big long rail line. I just remember seeing one seemingly endless track.

“We were standing there, Wally with khaki shorts on, and in bare feet, we were all bare footed.”

The children were bundled onto the train to Adelaide before being sent to Sydney enroute to Mulgoa for the duration.

McArthur studied at Penrith highschool and in 1948 won 12 of the school’s 13 athletic events and was NSW highschool champion in the 100 yards, long jump and 440 yards. 

Aged 14 he ran barefoot across the Sydney Cricket Ground completing 440 yards (402.21m) in 52 seconds, which was the world’s fastest for his age group.

After the threat of war had passed McArthur was sent back to Adelaide and lived at St Francis House where he became athletics champion of Le Fevre Boys Technical High School.

A 1949 newspaper report said St Francis House boys including Harry Russell, Cyril Hampton, Ken Hampton dominated the school sports carnival including McArthur who won the senior cup with seven firsts. The article states that McArthur “is hailed as an Olympic possibility”.

The NSW Amateur Athletics Association agreed and in 1949 described McArthur aged 15 as the “greatest Olympic Games prospect.”

Running was a passion for McArthur: “I have no idea how many records I broke. I just ran because I enjoyed it. I never got a lot of recognition for what I did as an athlete.”

It was a talent that came naturally to him: “As a kid back in Borroloola fishing in the waterholes, you always had to be on the lookout for crocs. You had to be fast on your feet.

“There was also this emu that used to hang about the cattle station and he always went for me. He frightened the hell out of me. But I learnt to outrun him!”

His running career began to soar. In 1951 he was the South Australian Under-19 champion over 100 and 220 yards.

John Pilger wrote in 1998: “Those who have since studied Wally’s times believe he was one of the fastest athletes of all time, the Carl Lewis of his day. At 14, and running without shoes, he was the fastest teenager on earth.

“Known as the Borroloola Flash, he was unbeatable in two states, yet he was left out of the South Australian state team to tour Tasmania, although others he had beaten were included.

“He complained, and was told that he could go if he paid his own fare. A friend paid it, and Wally duly won the national 100-yard title.”

This national championship victory boosted a growing feeling in athletics circles that McArthur was a good prospect for the 1952 Olympic Games.

“[Kevan] Gospar came second, but it was he who was selected for the Helsinki Olympics the following year,” said Pilger. Gosper went on to win a Silver Medal in the 4 x 400 metre relay in Melbourne in 1956.

However, McArthur was left on the sidelines. Aged 18 and in the prime of his running career he was not selected for the Australian team for the 1952 summer Olympic Games in Helsinki. There was much anger and disbelief.

There was no clear answer for his exclusion from the Australian Olympic team. At that time no Aboriginal athlete had been chosen for an Australian Olympic squad and it wasn’t until the 1960s that Aboriginal athletes represented Australia at the Olympics.

“I would have liked to have run for my country,” McArthur said.

“I was in Wales when the 1958 Commonwealth Games were held in Cardiff. My times were a lot better than the Australian runners who competed. It made me a bit sad.”

After missing out on Olympic selection McArthur shifted his focus to rugby league. Despite Australian Rules football being the popular game in South Australia Semaphore did have its own rugby league side.

It wasn’t long before he was one of the leading league players. In 1952 McArthur was voted the South Australian Rugby League’s best and fairest player.

The Semaphore team was undefeated through the 1950 and 1951 seasons and he scored more than 900 points for the club over his career.

In 1953 he was selected to play for South Australia against Western Australia, where he won the Man of the Match award. International rugby league scouts began to take notice.

As early as 1950 McArthur had been spotted by Paul Quinn, a former Rochdale Hornets player in England, who was living in Adelaide. Quinn facilitated McArthur’s recruitment to his old side and on November 19. 1953 McArthur flew to London from Sydney airport.

He arrived to much anticipation and the news was revealed by the Daily Express the following day, headlining: “A new Black Flash is on his way to England.”

The rugby league historian Graham Morris remembers the excitement created by McArthur’s arrival: “Tall and slim, Wally had the look, grace and speed of an outstanding athlete which, combined with a classic side-step, made him a great crowd pleaser.”

The former Leeds player Jack Lendill who had emigrated to Adelaide described McArthur as “probably the fastest winger in football boots”, he predicted,

“He will be a sensation in English football. In a league final in Adelaide, the club I played with [Railways] were defeated by Wally’s team [Semaphore] thanks to Wally. It was simply impossible to catch him and he turned the heat on that day with a bag of tries.”

A feature article in the Rochdale Observer focussed on his upbringing: “From boyhood, Wally McArthur has been in the midst of one of the greatest Christian and social experiments ever attempted in Australia. Wally appears to be one of many proofs of the success of the experiment.”

He made his debut for the Hornets on 12 December 1953 against Salford, playing on the right wing, scoring three goals. He started the 1954 season by equalling the club record for most points in a match against Blackpool, scoring three tries and kicking eight goals for a total of 25 points.

From 1953-59 McArthur played a total of 165 games for English league clubs Rochdale, Blackpool Borough, Salford and Workington Town. He had been the first Aboriginal Australian rugby league player to play for an English club. 

Despite not being selected to represent Australia as a sprinter he was selected in an English team to play The World, scoring four tries during the match.

In between rugby commitments he did run competitively and in 1957 was the North England sprint champion, winning both the 100 and 220 yard titles.

He also won the 100-yard sprint in the 1957 Highland Games. Members of the Royal Family were among the spectators and he was later introduced to Prince Phillip, the Duke of Edinburgh.

In his 1990 biography Charles Perkins, who lived at St Francis’ House with McArthur, recalled reconnecting with him when playing soccer in England in the 1950s.

One night they stayed so long in a pub that they drank their bus fare. The hour walk home gave them time to concoct an improbable story about broken-down buses and stopped watches. When they finally arrived home at about 1.30am Mrs McArthur was waiting. Perkins tried to explain: “Well it’s like this Mrs McArthur …” he began as a dinner plate flew over his head.

In England, Perkins and McArthur had a new social experience. They could walk the street with a white girl. They were served in public venues, cafes and restaurants without question. It was one of the first times they were treated with equality and their Aboriginality was not an issue.

McArthur’s rugby achievements were recognised with a place in the inaugural induction to the Aboriginal and Islander Sports Hall of Fame in 1994. He was named in the Aboriginal Australian rugby league team of the century in 2008.

McArthur returned to Australia in 1959 and worked as a fitter and turner at Port Adelaide and then moved to the industrial town of Whyalla working as a labourer and a welder in the shipyards for more than 25 years. He also worked for the Australian National Railways maintaining the Indian-Pacific line on the Nullarbor Plains.

Tragically in 1977 he was involved in an accident that left him with crippling injuries. After leaping from a worker’s rail cart to escape an oncoming train he suffered bone fractures in his legs and feet.

His feet remained badly disfigured and had to walk with the aid of a walking stick for much of the rest of his life. He was unable to work after the accident and shifted his focus to his family. He died in 2015.

A 1949 Adelaide News captioned this photograph four “part-Aborigines” from St Frances Mission house in Semaphore dominated Lefevre Boys’ Technical school sport, all from Central Australia: Wally McArthur (front right), 16, won the senior cup with seven firsts. Two Hampton brothers, Ken (third from left) and Cyril (fourth from right) won the junior and intermediate cups, respectively. Harry Russell (front left) won the senior high jump.

Mark Smith is the grandson of Father Percy Smith (1903-82) who was the first resident Anglican priest based in Alice Springs from 1933 and founder of St Francis’ House home for Aboriginal children with his wife Isabel Almond. He is making a film called Finding Miss Almond about his grandparents and their lives of service to Aboriginal people with accomplished Hollywood Director Mark Webber.

Crime: Numbers say the town’s not winning

Erwin Chlanda
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1
Crime: Numbers say the town’s not winning

ABOVE: Red line – number of offences against the person. Green line – number of offences against property. (Source Department of the Attorney-General and Justice, Police). Blue line – wholesale alcohol in Alice Springs (Source Department of Industry, Tourism and Trade). For example, last March we drank booze containing 59,041 litres of pure alcohol.This clearly does not include any or all alcohol obtained by mail order.

By ERWIN CHLANDA

There has been no reduction in the catastrophic number of offences against the person (red line) in Alice Springs in the 12 months to March this year and the offences against property (green line) have increased.

The June figures are not available yet but anecdotal evidence suggests crime in that quarter was getting worse, especially as aggravated assaults are now frequently at the point of a weapon.

The restrictions from January to the alcohol trade (blue line), likely damaging to tourism and other industries, have clearly had little effect.

This can be concluded from crime statistics provided by the government and the police.

One sale per day per person, alcohol free days on Monday and Tuesday for takeaway purchases, and limiting hours of alcohol being sold between 3pm to 7pm except on Saturdays, were introduced on January 25 by then Chief Minister Natasha Fyles.

“These measures will be coupled with an increase in compliance using tools already available, including an on-premise Banned Drinker Register blitz,” she said.

“We know this is a tool that works.

“The Central Australian Regional Controller will be responsible for developing an Alcohol Management Plan for the region.

“Businesses and members of the community including town camps, will be able to have input into this plan and into how they want alcohol managed in their community.”

In November last year the government changed the compilation of crime statistics, claiming that the new system “cannot be directly compared” with the earlier one.

This Alice Springs News report relies on just two numbers – offences against the person and against property, respectively, summarising subgroups such as sexual assault, abduction, robbery on the one hand, and house break-ins, motor vehicle theft and property damage on the other.

We have asked the police: If there is any reason why the totals from the old and the new systems cannot be compared, please explain why.

A spokesman replied: “General consistency is maintained, my understanding is that any large scale system change in how data is collected will affect the ability to compare data accurately, especially amongst small sample sizes like in the NT.

Booze restrictions, bottlo queues: Are we achieving anything?

“Crime data in particular is highly susceptible to change and even small changes in how its collected could potentially affect how trends are inferred.   

“For accuracy, any comparisons need that caveat added.

“From a police perspective, we wouldn’t use the data like that just yet.”

The spokesman says Commander John Atkin, in an April news conference, said that there is potential that once the system has settled, police may be in a position to begin making year on year comparisons again.

Mayor goes it alone on buffel

Erwin Chlanda
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Mayor goes it alone on buffel

By ERWIN CHLANDA

Mayor Matt Paterson told the Alice Springs News on July 16 that the Town Council did not have a position on declaring buffel grass a weed, which occurred on July 5.

What he did not tell the News was that he himself had a position, namely that the declaration should not be made; that he had told Environment Minister Kate Worden as much, and that he had acted without informing the other elected council members.

This came to light when the News raised the buffel issue with councillor and environmentalist Kim Hopper who in the November 2023 council meeting successfully moved a motion – seconded by Mayor Paterson – to ask the NT government for advice on how to deal with the management of buffel.

When asked for clarification Cr Hopper pointed out to the News a letter dated February 19 from Mayor Paterson to Minister Worden in which he said, in part, he was “concerned about the potential economic burden that declaring buffel grass a weed … could place on land owners and occupiers.

“Depending on what classification and zoning the Weed Action Committee (WAC) determines, the cost of implementing its recommendations could result in significant financial impost, and negatively impact rate paying businesses and households in Central Australia.

“As an example of cost, Council has estimated the mowing and maintenance of the grass area of the Todd and Charles river[s] three times annually would require 44 additional staff at a cost of $3,900,000 per annum – this does not include plant and machinery cost.”

The council has been adamant that it wants to be the custodian of the Todd and Charles rivers.

Mayor Paterson wrote to the Minister: “While dependent on the final advice from the WAC, Council would anticipate the cost for complete weed management for the entire municipality would be much greater.”

Mayor Paterson proposed cost-sharing, exploring alternative management approaches and financial assistance to landowners and local government.

Cr Hopper says: “The Mayor sent this without consulting elected members.

“We didn’t see the minister’s request that’s referenced in the letter. I requested the letter be sent to the elected members and we received it by email. But by then the Mayor had already sent his letter to the Minister without giving us an opportunity for input.”

PHOTO: Dry buffel grass in the Todd River surrounding a tree at risk in the event of a wildfire.

UPDATE July 26:

Mayor Paterson texted the News:  “The assumption that ‘I went alone’ is completely untrue and frankly insulting.”

He provided this except from council meeting minutes in support of his claim:

As this does not mention buffel nor declaration of a weed, the subject of our report, we invited him to explain in what way this minute supported his assertion that our report was “categorically” wrong.

Mayor Paterson did not reply.

The Alice Springs News quoted from the Mayor’s letter to the Minister accurately and fairly, on a subject of major public interest.

The News stands by its story.

Public trust in the courts

Erwin Chlanda
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2
Public trust in the courts

COMMENT by BOB BEADMAN. Part three.

I’m still seeking answers to the question, is the law an ass? Our horrific rates of domestic violence have dominated the news this year, yet it is regularly reported that the offender was on a Domestic Violence Order (DVO). Are they useful?

And in May 2024 there were up the four-month delays in providing counselling services to offenders around Australia. There is clearly a disconnect here.

Immigration detention: Of course, the High Court stepped in. It is common sense that you cannot keep a person in detention indefinitely without trial or conviction. Charge or deport. Amend the legislation if necessary to enable these processes to be fast tracked.

Whistle-blower protection? People with information on illegal activity are in a terrible quandary on whether to come forward with the evidence. Governments have spent years in orgies of self-congratulations about protections offered to whistle-blowers and encouraging them to report wrongdoing.

Legislation establishing the Australian Securities and Investment Commission, and the new National Anti-Corruption Commission (to name just a couple of provisions) both contain specific measures to protect people who are brave enough to come forward.

Yet internationally Mr Assange has occupied the headlines for two decades, and nationally the Government pursued Witness K and Mr Collaery through the courts for about the same length of time. And in May 2024 Mr McBride was sentenced to over five years in gaol.

In the same month Mr Assange’s lawyer, Jennifer Robinson, describes the long, meandering court process he has faced as “punishment by process.”

So, is pub talk going to encourage people with the dirt to come forward?

Respect for our Institutions: One struggles to understand the Trump phenomenon in USA, even allowing for possible bias in reporting. Occasionally a commentator will catch my eye with their analysis that Trump attracts the protest votes at the establishment and the ruling class families.

And then one turns their eye to what is happening at home. In recent weeks in the Northern Territory serious allegations were levelled against our Chief Minister, Minister for Police, Commissioner of Police, and the Independent Commissioner Against Corruption. Allegations only, but very damaging.

The last thing I want to be accused of is spreading these stories. But if I failed to mention the obvious, I would be accused of a cover-up.

Unfortunately, coming as this does in the aftermath of the failure of The Voice referendum, Indigenous confidence in the establishment is at its lowest point ever.

Conclusion: As well as the matters discussed above, I also had in mind the (mis)trial of Bruce Lehrmann, and my repeated astonishment at the regular revelations of ineptness. To the casual onlooker it seems about everybody who had any involvement is tainted – the ACT Government, Director of Public Prosecutions, Australian Federal Police, a Federal Minister, a former Queensland Supreme Court Judge and of course the alleged victim and accused.

And just when you think the case has finally run out of fuel, there is more!

  • The Australian Capital Territory Integrity Commission announced an investigation into the conduct of Walter Sofronoff KC during an inquiry into the prosecution of Bruce Lehrmann. (Mr Sofronoff KC was a former Solicitor General for Queensland, and President of the Queensland Court of Appeal).
  • Five members of the Australian Federal Police are suing the former Director of Public Prosecutions in the ACT, Mr Drumgold, for $1.42 million over critical comments he made about their handling of the investigation.

What is the total cost of the entirety of this omnishambles? (Thank you, Justice Michael Lee, for the word.)

The Robodebt Royal Commission and the associated investigations that preceded it and followed it, is another spectacular case. Recently, the National Anti-Corruption Commission has wiped its hands of the case. Is now the time to open the sealed section of the Royal Commission Report? Else, all this effort, and cost, and no consequences?

Can any connections be made between the diversions of resources into cases like these and the unreasonable delays in conducting court cases?

Will anybody claim these are examples of “the law” working effectively? What have cases done to destroy the confidence of the person in the street?

The Northen Territory: By now readers may be questioning whether I have swept our problems under the carpet. No. But the topic lends itself for someone to write a book, rather than incorporate a paragraph or two in this paper. The book might cover:

  • Aboriginal Customary Law (Lore) and the banning of practices considered barbaric.
  • The Anunga rules (requiring that Aborigines be properly cautioned by police and that a suspect be offered a prisoner’s friend to assist him with the interview, as well as an interpreter, if necessary).
  • Court interpreters.
  • The shooting in Yuendumu, west of Alice Springs, and murder trial of a police officer.
  • Role of the Office of Public Prosecutions, Independent Commissioner Against Corruption (ICAC), Chief Minister, and Commissioner of Police.
  • Duration of the Inquest (the death occurred in November 2019, and in May 2024 the Inquest is ongoing – I am not pointing the finger at the Coroner, but at the processes of the “Law”).
  • The ICAC finding of serious racism within NT Police force.
  • The broader role of the Independent Commissioner Against Corruption over the life of the Office.

Final questions: Are we going to maintain the pretence that everybody is equal before the law? Is the law an ass?

The adequacy of judicial sentencing

Erwin Chlanda
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1
The adequacy of judicial sentencing

COMMENT by BOB BEADMAN

Part Two. 

I suspect that statistics will confirm many of our trivial convictions referred to in Part One would not result in a custodial sentence interstate.

Yet all too often a light sentence that defies logic is handed down in a serious case. That fails to pass the pub test. We are told that we were unaware of all the mitigating circumstances. Perhaps so. But when the Director of Public Prosecutions appeals a sentence as “manifestly inadequate” (Sunday Territorian May 2024), something is clearly wrong.

Whatever, the perceptions of soft sentencing renew the crescendo for mandatory sentencing.

Mix in the controversial (excessive) use of bail provisions, and you can really get an argument going.

So, on the one hand there is a view that the courts are too harsh. The social reformers, a few academics, and the unaffected in the suburbs of our major capital cities subscribe to this view, I suspect.

And on the other hand, the victims of repeated break-ins, or home invasions, regularly by repeat offenders on bail, believe the courts are too lenient. The victims of crime are screaming at the politicians to extend mandatory sentencing. There is no doubt that the police are frustrated at arresting the same offender multiple times.

I repeat. In a nutshell, social reformers are appalled by mandatory sentencing, but the victims of crime are disgusted by soft penalties, and bail, handed out by the courts.

How do you begin to reconcile those opposite, deeply held views?

Parliaments are in the middle, and it is quite easy to see how the Legislatures arrive at mandatory sentencing.

The cost of incarceration – a couple more copy and pastes from Google: “Australia spends more than $5 billion per year, which amounts to over $330 per prisoner per day.”

“The Department of Communities and Justice have today revealed in NSW Budget Estimate hearings that the per day cost of keeping a person under 18 in prison is $2700, totalling an annual cost per child of $985,500 and with 212 young people presently in custody in NSW, the State is currently spending $208m per year on young people in prison. The Department also disclosed that of the 212 children in custody, 129 are First Nations young people. “

Now governments, and their treasuries are funny things. They can produce money out of a hat to meet the ever-expanding costs of imprisonment, and hospitalisation.

If an unfortunate is sentenced by a court to prison, or hospitalised by a doctor, government just meets the cost of prison on hospital. It is non-discretional. It cannot be denied or deferred until next year or the one after. There seems to be a bottomless impress account. In other words, not programmed, therefore not “expenditure”.

It is extremely difficult to get approval to SPEND money in anticipation of a SAVING later. Like immunisation programs to save hospital costs. Or diversion programs to save gaol costs. Try asking for $10,000 now to fund a program that will save you $100,000 next financial year, and you strike the closed minds of money managers. People who deal in numbers that add up and balance NOW do not think like that.

Not only are the costs of incarceration draining our finances, but the ineffectiveness of this practice as a deterrent is obvious.

A series of eye-opening reports published in March 2024 by the Justice Reform Initiative (which includes four former high court justices, three former police ministers and four former state premiers) said that gaoling people was deeply misguided: “The assumption is dangerously wrong. The idea that by dispatching men, women, and children to prison we are preventing them from committing further crime is deeply misguided. Instead, gaol is too often a training ground for violence, populated by a ready network of future co-conspirators.”

It is imperative that we change but what are the alternatives? I will outline the obvious examples.

Aboriginal Customary Law was reported on 40 years ago by the Australian Law Reform Commission, focussing on the states’ justice processes. It resulted in various efforts around the country to adopt different structures, or to co-opt senior Indigenous authority figures, into judicial proceedings. More study, and more work is needed.

Restorative Justice work has been done in various locations around the country, but the approach has not got a decent foothold despite success. It makes so much sense to make the offender face the victim (and vice versa).

Justice Reinvestment is another thoughtful attempt to divert people from the penal system. (The Australian Law Reform Commission said a justice reinvestment approach to criminal justice reform involves a redirection of money from prisons to fund and rebuild human resources and physical infrastructure in areas most affected by high levels of incarceration.)

Family Responsibilities Commission is a spectacular example of justice reinvestment developed by an extraordinary man in North Queensland, Noel Pearson.

It directly addresses the concerns I expressed earlier in this paper about the Australian government processing huge payments fortnightly then looking away. He convinced both the Queensland and Australian Governments to legislate to create the commission.

The ultimate tool available to the commission is a Community Income Management (CIM) order. Commissioners can determine what proportion of welfare payments is managed on the person’s behalf.

It also overcomes the fatal flaw in the former Basics Card approach (in various guises) where ALL residents in a remote locality were put on the card. It had the effect of penalising those community members who led an exemplary life and left no incentive for those who did not to improve their ways. The Basics Card also saw the development of ingenious ways to navigate around it.

Justice Reform Initiative says jailing is failing. The Northern Territory News on 23 May 2024, in an article clairvoyant in its timing, posted a story titled: “CLP forced to backflip after repeated digs at NT Deputy Chief Minister Chansey Paech over ‘Jailing is Failing’ T-shirt.”

What generated this latest heat is a Justice Reform Initiative Group. At the risk of being repetitive I want to stress that this is a serious group of professionals. It is chaired by one of my former Federal ministers, includes several more, along with a who’s who of politics, the legal profession and Indigenous leadership. (In other words this is not a group of contrarians likely to show up at every protest demonstration.)

The group has said: “The evidence is very clear that jailing is failing as a deterrent, it is failing to reduce crime, and it is ineffective at addressing the drivers of criminal justice involvement.” Governments cannot simply dismiss these people.

All these alternatives lend themselves for adoption as easy cultural fits into Indigenous cultural practices. They are bound to produce better outcomes than Correctional Services.

Internationally, the jury is in! Through the adoption of more modern thinking like this Norway has been able to reduce the re-offending rate from 70% to 20%.

NEXT: Other obvious anomalies with the administration of the law.

Wine, not climb

Erwin Chlanda
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Wine, not climb

By ERWIN CHLANDA

Sixty five thousand years. The world’s oldest living culture. One of the things that make Australia great. Aboriginal people and the tourism industry are clearly made for each other.

Well, no.

Danial Rochford (pictured), CEO of Tourism Central Australia, says the industry lobby is looking at options for greater involvement of Aboriginal people, possibly through entrepreneurship as well as CDEP-style initiatives with government support.

However, these moves are in an early phase. Mr Rochford estimates “roughly about 10%” of the region’s tourism operators are Indigenous owned.

Meanwhile the current relationship between Indigenous people and tourism seems more hostile than cooperative.

In October 2019 traditional owners banned climbing The Rock, a favourite adventure for millions of Australians and visitors since the 1930s.

The mountain range between Heavitree Gap and Honeymoon Gap, or Mt Gillen, was declared a registered sacred site in December 2020.

The range was a favourite walking area in the immediate vicinity of the town. Its southern flank features about a dozen magnificent gullies, the nearest one just 20 minutes walk from the tourism precinct.

“Custodians have asked that the site not be climbed,” the Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority states.

The long-planned mountain bike track in the Aboriginal-owned West MacDonnells national park has still not received the traditional owners’ approval.

And the elephant in the room is the secretive Centrecorp Aboriginal Investment Corporation Pty Ltd, owned by the Central Land Council (three shares) as well as the Central Australian Aboriginal Congress and Tangentyere Council (two shares each). It has investments estimated in hundreds of millions of dollars, but little or none in tourism.

Its website says in the early 1980s the Central Land Council was considering an investment corporation “that would allow Aboriginal people to participate commercially in the inevitable resource and tourism development projects … rather than simply observing this development take place around them.” Yes, tourism.

According to its website, Centrecorp’s principal investments are in: Peter Kittle Motor Company, Yeperenye Shopping Centre and other properties, LJ Hooker Alice Springs, Milner Road Foodtown, Mercure Alice Springs Resort (according to Mr Rochford that is no longer current), Alice Springs Memorial Club property (currently being developed by Congress as a “health hub”), Properties at 75 and 82 Hartley Street Alice Springs, and Hertz Commercial Vehicle franchises in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide.

“Centrecorp does not receive any operational grants or royalties,” claims the company on its website.

This is an interesting statement: Centrecorp may not but Aboriginal royalty associations do, including from the Tanami mine, owned by Newmont, the world’s biggest gold miner.

It is understood the associations elect to invest the royalties through Centrecorp.

We were unable to get replies from Centrecorp to these questions: What is the total value of Centrecorp assets? What percentage of this is in tourism assets in Central Australia? What are the main ones? Is Centrecorp planning to invest in further Central Australian tourism assets? If so when? Costing how much? What assets (e.g. Wilderness Lodges in the MacDonnell Ranges)?

Mr Rochford says: “Tourists are looking for the culture, the histories and the stories and to immerse themselves in understanding that 65,000 years of culture.”

NEWS: Generally speaking, they are not getting it directly from the Indigenous people. Why not?

ROCHFORD: We’re on a journey. It has started, it is fair to say, with a small number of Indigenous tourism businesses. We’re working with a lot of micro to medium size businesses.

He says these include Standley Chasm, Ormiston Gorge, Finke River Adventures and KARKKE at Kings Canyon.

ROCHFORD: Visitors want to hear indigenous cultural stories and hear firsthand from traditional owners but we now need to think how we can meet that demand. We know there are many interested in tourism, it is something new for most who have not worked in tourism before, many who are not in the industry don’t really understand the industry very well. That’s the challenges for agencies like ours.

NEWS: You say the tourism’s brand has been immeasurably damaged by some elements speaking out loud in national media about the worsening youth crime rate in Alice Springs, now often featuring aggravated assaults at knifepoint. Taking a broad view of Aboriginal influence on tourism, let’s not kid ourselves, behind every eight or 15 year old offender are Aboriginal parents neglecting their children.

ROCHFORD: We have to face the reality that we have to, as an agency, work with our industry, work with government and partners to try and reverse the damage to our brand.

NEWS: Who actually goes out into the Aboriginal camps and says, where is Johnny? Is he still in trouble? What can we do?

ROCHFORD: In my four years here I’ve seen agencies working more closely with one another. All relevant agencies. The community expects it.

NEWS: What is Tourism Central Australia itself doing to reduce crime, something your members’ future in business depends on?

ROCHFORD: Whoever is committing a crime must face the full force of the law.

NEWS: More law, more police? It’s not working, is it?

ROCHFORD: If someone is breaking into an 80 years old person’s house, the full force of the law should be applied.

NEWS: Could crime not be prevented?

ROCHFORD: That dovetails into two points. We have been very long and loud talking about preventative policing. Having enough boots on the ground to ensure crime doesn’t occur in the first place. That will have a flow-on effect that fewer young people don’t get into the justice system and then into prisons. We need to focus on housing, health and poverty issues, economic empowerment. Traditionally that has been the role of the CDEP programming in remote parts. Tourism plays an absolutely important opportunity.

NEWS: How many Aborigines does the local tourism industry employ?

ROCHFORD: I’ve never seen that statistic broken down. In a recent review of the CDEP program we stated tourism could be a jobs factory for Indigneous Australians.

NEWS: How will that work?

ROCHFORD: There needs to be some form of support to encourage Indigenous Australians into opportunities to work for Indigenous and non-Indigenous tourism businesses.

NEWS: Is there anything stopping this?

ROCHFORD: There are cultural reasons.

NEWS: Define those, please.

ROCHFORD: Tourism does bring with it a bit of rigidity.  If you have a nine o’clock tour there is a need for someone to turn up at 9am. Other regions have realised the challenges of cultural sensitivities. I’ve seen other regions using Indigenous owned labour hire firms. If somebody can’t turn up for that 9 o’clock tour they make sure someone does turns up.

NEWS: Should people being offered a job have their dole terminated?

ROCHFORD:  A lot of people talk about the employment issues. I like to talk about entrepreneurship. I want to see more Indigenous tourism entrepreneurs.

NEWS: How would you encourage them?

ROCHFORD: The first thing is finding out who is interested in getting into tourism and I would openly encourage anyone to reach out to Tourism Central Australia and other agencies. There are a lot of support packages from governments and NGOs.

PHOTO Instagram.

Crime is killing the economy

Erwin Chlanda
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Crime is killing the economy

COMMENT by DON FULLER

The health of the business economy is fundamental to the on-going health and survival of a society and a region. The failure of the economic system and the businesses that sustain it, leads to major social breakdown.

Importantly, such major negative effects can also commence in the opposite direction. That is, the failure of government institutions to maintain law and order and to govern in a competent manner, resulting in social instability, can lead to the failure of the economy.

This is apparent in a number of developing countries such as Haiti, Sudan and a number of African and South American states.

Such failure commences a dangerous, reinforcing cycle where subsequent economic failures lead to increased unemployment, poverty, further social breakdown and associated higher levels of crime and violence.

Discussions with leaders of Territory business indicate that a number are asking whether this is the future of the Northern Territory. The signs are ominous.

Businesses are being forced to shut down in centres such as Alice, Darwin, Tennant Creek and Katherine. One only has to observe the increasing number of empty and boarded up shop fronts.

Such closures are particularly important in the Territory given the fragile nature of the business sector.

Nearly 50% of the economy in the Territory is employed in government and community services.

The private sector is fundamental to the future growth and development of the Northern Territory and it is essential that this sector be encouraged to grow further and mature, so that the Territory economy can diversify away from an overall dependence on government.

However, increasing social dislocation and violence amongst mainly Aboriginal people, now has Alice Springs rated as one of the most dangerous cities in the world. It is preceded only by several South African and South American cities and Port Moresby.

This is having a major impact on the tourism sector, one of the main drivers of private sector growth in the Territory. It is also having a major impact on the running costs of a range of small to medium sized businesses and leading to major recruitment shortages of skilled staff.

Small to medium sized businesses are another important driver of economic growth and development. Many of these are being badly affected as they are located mainly in urban areas where the problems of social disruption and violence are being experienced.

As businesses close, less products and services are available to the wider, mainstream community, compared with other Australian centres and the push and pull factors to leave the Territory increase. The destructive cycle intensifies.

A number of business leaders are asking how this can be allowed to occur as the once safe, prosperous, vibrant, happy Northern Territory with an enviable life-style, is fractured and destroyed before peoples’ eyes, by a lack of competent governance and a confused police and judicial system.

How, they ask, can there apparently be a different law for people based on racial background, such that in the face of violent demonstrations with weapons for example, no arrests are made?

Such major concerns would have to explain why the business sector in the Territory has been recently reported as providing around twice the amount of donations provided to the governing Labor party. This is surprising given the advantage possessed by the Labor party with access to union funding.

However, it is important to appreciate that these negative economic effects will escalate and impact on wider society. Such difficulties are likely to cause increasing problems to both Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal people, as the future development of the Northern Territory flounders.

Uncultivated vastness a refuge from cacophonous cities

Erwin Chlanda
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Uncultivated vastness a refuge from cacophonous cities

Part 2 by MIKE GILLAM

Flights in a light aircraft enhance my perspective of the lower Lake Eyre Basin. This view of country recalls the epic presence of water in a landscape often portrayed as barren in Coober Pedy’s literature, film and art history.

In the surrounding desert there are certainly significant creeks with occasional coolabah fringed waterholes that in good seasons satisfy our traditional expectations of a billabong. But we must begin our journey hundreds of kilometres upstream to sense some of the contextual grandeur of Australia’s greatest treasure, the Eromanga / Great Artesian Basin, situated beneath the Lake Eyre Basin, and extending across 30% of the Australian continent.

Palimpsest and patinated, the surface terrain is both sparsely vegetated and yet deceptively rich in focal points, patches, swamps, colluvial catchments, micro basins and subtle intermont valleys. Fluvial processes, complex and vast continue, albeit diminished from a time when the Finke River flowed strongly into the Macumba and on to Kati Thanda / Lake Eyre, with the most recent flow recorded at 700 years ago. The desert pavements and dominant rocky features of generally low elevation defy my simplified rendering.

Overall, the land is intensely braided with micro-channels (normally dry) that feed into creeks and watercourses of growing stature. I look down as we pass over a circular feature with clearly defined concentric ripples cast in stone, surely some kind of mound spring, an “extinct” oasis once fringed with lush vegetation.

To my inexperienced eye, phrases such as “braided river channels” resonate but there are so many variations that I risk raising the ire of geomorphologists by using such phrases too loosely. Suffice to say descriptions such as anabranching, anastomosing, macrochannels, multi-thread river styles and much more are referenced in the literature of lacustrine and palaeodrainage devotees.

Crossing the border into South Australia the country reads as a heterogenous topography featuring clay soils and a complex of low silcrete regolith and uplands, surfaces sharply incised with micro channels and modest drainages, gradually trending southerly and feeding into a series of significant creeks, the Indulkana, Maryatt, Agnes that gather and grow as they feed into the Neales and Macumba, eventually reaching the terminus of Kati Thanda / Lake Eyre.

This vast country is intensely marked by the harvesting, infiltration and passage of water. Elevations are variable at a local scale but the southerly trend is very gradual overall.

The absence of higher elevation mountain ranges is beguiling so we don’t instinctively think of this country as a vast water catchment of more subtle horizontal relief. Minor drainages carry rainfall down the flanks of stony rises and across claypans into meandering creeks that combine to form major rivers, like the mighty Neale.

In this country, rivers and creeks are often comprised of numerous channels that can be exceptionally wide overall and slower moving than the deeply incised rivers we know so well; the headwaters of the Finke, Palmer, Hugh and Todd in the upper Lake Eyre Basin.

My aerial reveal is mostly the colour of dry clay, a few isolated pools, miracles in the middle of nowhere but the widespread presence of water in this variegated catchment remains episodic in nature.

Water moves inexorably towards Lake Eyre during flood events and there is barely a single hectare that does not carry the “recent” marks of water harvesting, collection or transport. Patches of darker vegetation mark those places where sheet flows lingers a while and water penetrates to the clay subsoils beneath. Trees appear on the banks of the largest watercourses such as the Neale, where hardy coolibahs replace the red gums of the headwaters further north.

Modulating, rushing and slowing down to a whisper, the wind in this landscape is an almost constant force of nature. That low rumble, the sound made by a vehicle approaching from a great distance, rising and falling in response to contours of the road.

Is this the drumming of rubber tyres on corrugations of gravel and clay? Parked up on a high point to admire the setting sun I’ve looked in the rear view mirror many times expecting the approach of a four wheel drive that never comes. At sunrise and sunset this is one of my favourite places, just east of Coober Pedy where the town’s margins interface with a hint of wilderness on the William Creek road.

Sound-shifting as it echoes through the complexities of an undulating landscape, a gentle yet forceful wind eddies and flows through ravines and over denuded mounds of crushed and exploded sandstone.

It really is the wind of an ancient shore line and the rusty detritus of the miners, their excavators, trucks and conveyors, listing and abandoned, do resemble ship wrecks teetering and trapped on a treacherous reef. Here and there corrugated iron verandahs, shacks and old buses serve as modest porticos to fabulous underground homes.

Is it any wonder that the occasional restless sailor, retired from a life on the ocean finds solace, serenity and the freedom of uncultivated vastness in their final years at Coober Pedy. The birds and kangaroos that share this place are more than enough company for hardy people, jaded and restless, refugees from cacophonous cities and crowded suburbs.

Overlooking Kanku Breakaways and the Eromanga Basin the light show is always changing. At day’s end, rank after shifting rank of alternating shadow and light stretch tens of kilometres to the horizon. Horizontal lines and highlight waves that reflect shifting shorelines and river flows of the Cenozoic or perhaps the relentless push pull between south easterlies and northerlies.

Overhead, a pair of kestrels somersault and soar while in the far distance a line of emus following the dog fence (the subject of a future essay) materialise from the heat shimmer.

Located 850 km north of Adelaide and 680 km south of Alice Springs, Coober Pedy clings doggedly to its claim as Australia’s opal capital and many of the 2,000 residents were bitterly disappointed when the NSW State Government took the initiative to create an “Opal Centre” at Lightning Ridge.

Designed by revered Australian architect Glen Murcutt, yet I can’t help thinking, in the parlance of Coober Pedy, maybe the town dodged a pit fall. Visitor centres are notoriously expensive to operate with costs rarely covered by the funds they generate from tourists.

Of more desperate need, perhaps a generous philanthropic entity might employ Murcutt to design an aged care centre, where the Octogenarian miners might be sustained socially as they seek comfort in the rich languages of their childhood.

On a positive note, Purple House has established in Cobber Pedy, offering renal dialysis services to all residents who would otherwise be forced to travel to a major population centre.

Recently there’s talk of a film history centre and my concern is aroused once more. Coober Pedy still has an operational drive-in cinema, one of the last film venues of its type in the Australian inland.

I can’t help thinking all that film industry memorabilia could be simply arranged in a perimeter arc at the drive-in, some protective shelters added. Unlike the monolithic approach taken at Lightning Ridge, the town’s ad hoc built environment, like a shell midden on an ancient shoreline, lends itself to a dispersed scatter of attractions, with existing surface and subterranean options in abundance.

I can well imagine a film festival, with the drive-in cinema as flagship supported by improvised indoor spaces and inspiring underground venues, showing different classics from Coober Pedy’s unparalleled film history and revealing new Australian releases.

The built environment eschews the orderly grid of town planning principles. The predictable main street is named after Hutchinson, the boy who famously found opal. However the road network at large has adopted the unofficial tracks made by miners with their ready access to earth moving machinery and little patience for the formalities of civic survey.

This gives the town a large degree of anarchic flair and the popular navigation aid Siri uses language such as “slide right” to guide me through the maze of “goat tracks” to find a reclusive miner at his or her dugout.

Intriguing place names like Ice-cream Hill, Potch Gully Road, German Gully road and Tom Cat Hill have proliferated, a clear indication the community of Coober Pedy have chosen to ignore dignitaries and immortalise the banal. Even then as I search out my friend I must look for a certain derelict blower truck signposting the correct driveway and the house beyond, jack-hammered under the brow of a small hill.

Impressive architecture exists alongside impoverished suburbs of vernacular construction that don’t always meet modern building codes but add so much richness and verve to the town.

A fascinating array of commercial and domestic dugouts have been carved with laser precision and others with flamboyant curves and a touch of Raiders of the Lost Ark abandon. Indeed many of my favourite Coober Pedy creations are officially unapproved but I have no doubt they will outlast compliant residential towers of less maverick charm that crowd our cities.

With its vaulted and scalloped sandstone ceilings, a tribute to the skill of tunnelling machine operators, the underground Serbian Church is beyond extraordinary and the Desert Cave, a touch of luxury conceived by Robert Coro of a pioneering Italian family.

Modern facilities including a theatre and the Big Winch restaurant overlooks the town and attracts a sunset viewing crowd of locals and tourists. In the absence of “big” supermarkets, the local IGA is outstanding and he prehistory exhibits of the Umoona Museum are a tribute to the outreach efforts of the South Australian Museum.

Another neighbour sits outside, in the shade of a modest verandah. He moved to Coober Pedy for the dry air that agrees with his lung and heart troubles. His home is hidden, although airshafts poking through the rocky roof suggest a spacious building envelope beneath the silcrete rubble.

This unique habitat of desert dwellers has created subterranean suburbs that provide a great sense of space because so much of the surface still reads as buffer zone and open “bush”. On matters of sustainability, Coober Pedy is a shining example.

At least half the town’s residents live underground and require little or no power for air-conditioning or heating. During my visit in January 2019 the evening news reveals disheartening failures in a western Sydney suburb, officially the hottest place on earth!

An aerial perspective reveals a neatly conceived suburb with charcoal grey corrugated iron rooves, minimal eaves, heat storing block walls and narrow interspaces between neighbours.

There’s little potential to plant a shady tree anywhere and a distressed migrant being interviewed on the verge, observes that he can’t continue or afford to live in his house. Doubtless the split system air conditioning is running flat out while the adjacent verge is clad in heat retaining green astro turf.

“At 48.9 degrees, Penrith was officially the hottest place on Earth on January 4, 2019. But heat loggers placed at 120 locations around the local government area for heat research commissioned by Penrith City Council found that on that day the mercury rose to 52 degrees in the suburb of Berkshire Park, 51.5 in Agnes Banks, and 50.1 in Badgerys Creek.” (Angus Thompson, Sydney Morning Herald, posted 5-12-2020).

This moment exemplifies the tragedy of Australia’s failures to address climate change, of Government planning and Council regulators, that enabled commercial imperatives to triumph over science.

The cost is borne by society at large but most acutely by those conned into buying or renting a corrupted version of the great Australian dream. On this day the temp at Coober Pedy, a supposed cauldron in the desert was in the mid 40s with negligible humidity and I was exceedingly comfortable in the cool of my dugout.

Lines of clouds, an ever passing parade, immense thunderheads, the drift of virga and the artful tracery of cirrus against an impossibly blue sky, tantalise the senses. Hovering on a distant horizon, the stratocumulus formations over a thousand metres high are measured by the thickness of my index finger.

Rain out of reach more often than not. To those who live in arid country, they offer luminous beauty or towering grandeur but not misplaced hope. Distance and visibility are too great; rain is rarely expected (a clear advantage for well situated outdoor events) and disappointment a fool’s occupation.

At sunset the light creates a dramatic step change, slender highlights growing in colour and intensity and then finally collapsing back into shadowlands. In the “fields” surrounding Coober Pedy the sharp-edged square silhouettes of warning signs come to the fore and combine with a backdrop of black pyramid mounds set against a shiraz sky, a startling Nolan sunset for this photographer.

Sunsets and sunrises, those daily phenomena in colour and choreography, are appreciated by every resident in much the same way that coastal denizens are nourished by the transient moods of the ocean.

As any jaded photographer can attest, colourful clouds, even when they’re crowning the soft hues of crushed sandstone are unworthy. And yet Coober Pedy seems to feed the inner child. Is it really possible that I’m photographing the night sky and sunsets with the abandon and excitement I felt looking through the lens of my very first SLR camera?

The sky truly is ascendant here and for Coober Pedy’s surfeit of dreamers, for its pilgrims and worshippers of every faith, for atheists and agnostics, for every seeing person, resistance is futile.

PHOTO AT TOP: Serbian underground church in Coober Pedy.

Earlier stories by MIKE GILLAM

The surprising abundance of Coober Pedy Jul 12, 2024

Survivor of atomic crimes in The Centre Apr 30, 2024
Night drive Apr 19, 2024
Moving closer to that elusive miracle of life and light Mar 24, 2024
Flash flood of budgerigars Mar 18, 2024
Following feathered dancers into the desert Mar 13, 2024

The surprising abundance of Coober Pedy

Erwin Chlanda
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The surprising abundance of Coober Pedy

By MIKE GILLAM

Capturing one of the largest internally draining river systems in the world, the Lake Eyre Basin occupies more than 16% of the Australian continent.

Deeper still, the Eromanga / Great Artesian Basin covers 30%. Within this landscape context of ephemeral rivers and epic wetland catchments there is much, much more to Coober Pedy than its promotion as “the opal capital of the world” or otherworldly manifestations of its lunar-cum-Martian landscapes.

Elevations here vary between 103 and 238 metres above sea level and the average annual rainfall, at 140mm is about half that of Alice Springs, 680 km up the road.

The opal fields of Coober Pedy were revealed in 1915 by Will Hutchison, a 15 year old travelling with a party of gold prospectors. His story is immortalised in “The boy who discovered opal”, an enchanting children’s book by retired teacher and local author, Sue Britt.

A rush followed soon after and the mining community variously expanded and contracted in response to world events, the opal market and availability of water. The opal field attracted returned servicemen after WW1 and boomed post WW2 with an influx of European migrants wanting a fresh start.

Coober Pedy, absorbed a great deal of this post war pain and trauma and the small frontier community received an abundance of education, ingenuity and creativity in return.

While a miner’s life was typically frugal, war impacted refugees from Europe found the peace they craved and I can well imagine the attraction of this small dot of humanity in the centre of the continent, far away from congested cities. For strangers arriving in a strange land, no one felt conspicuous in a town of 50 or so nationalities, united in their obsession for opal and an appetite for work.

“During 1920, Coober Pedy received its name. We formed a progress-cum-vigilantes group because of lack of law and order. The first night we met we decided on a name for the field; an old White Cliffs miner suggested Coober Pedy, which meant white men living in a hole. As 90% of us were living in dugouts we thought it very appropriate so we notified the authorities in Adelaide.

This is from the book ‘Wilful Murder in the Outback” by Arch Burnett. For those who view Coober Pedy in a negative light, I should clarify that Wilful Murder was the name given to the author’s model T Ford by the paying passengers he carted cross-country to the opal fields.

The White Cliffs connection does broaden the scope for the precise language origins of the name bestowed on Coober Pedy. Certainly, Aboriginal people were attracted to the area by the activities of white pastoralists and miners and the potential for paid work.

Some travelled from afar and this nomadic passion continues today. According to Wikipedia the name Coober Pedy may also have its origins from the Kokatha-Barngarla term kupa-piti but I can’t confirm a source for this.

At Innamincka, in the basin’s south-west, a 1906 Government report notes: “Aborigines are in the habit of crossing the South Australian border and seeking relief at the … depot, owing to there being no depot in their own state (Qld.) nearer than 200 miles.”  Station manager Artie Rowlands made it clear that any Aboriginal stockman was as good as a white, “and not to forget it”. (Circa 1924) from Fred Blakeley’s book Hard Liberty, published in 1938.

At first glance the opal mining town of Coober Pedy looks dishevelled, about as far away from the style and order of South Australia’s capital Adelaide as you can imagine.

Three wind turbines and a solar array make a statement at the southern entrance to the township and a local engineering invention, the legendary blower truck, greets visitors at the roadside.

The northern approach is perhaps more dramatic, a man-made pyramid desert with rhythmic echoes of Namibia. Its shallow reputation as the wild west fits the picture for those travellers who search out places of reassuring familiarity and predictable comforts and don’t bother to explore Coober Pedy for themselves. Endlessly stereotyped as a place of lawlessness and violence, winnowing fact from fiction is a daunting task.

It’s true, the celebrated opal wealth of Coober Pedy attracted rogues and others of criminal bent in the seventies and eighties but their presence has waned. It’s also true that an inadequate investment in policing and a tendency to summarily dismiss “minor” crime reports as “bullshit disputes between miners” allowed anarchy to flourish in the opal fields.

As their pegged claims were raided or machinery sabotaged, miners were often left to take matters into their own hands. On one memorable occasion two detectives arrived from Adelaide to investigate the use of explosives to destroy valuable earth moving machinery. They failed to locate the culprit while confirming a popular theory, that police attention is much more diligent if a national insurer is exposed to significant losses.

Viewed from ground level, through horizon touching days and infinite starry nights, the sky is ascendant here. Cloud formations tower above a natural landscape of heterogeneous hills, mere strokes of colour at the vanishing point. Maze-like with rubbly flanks and distinctive silcrete hard cap, larger formations may appear as plateaux remnants and steep sided mesas deeply incised with gullies and drainages.

Terra firma or more accurately T.infirma owes much of its character to the small scale workings of the Coober Pedy opal miners, of excavations, numbering in the millions. The tent sized pyramids created by miners hoping to strike it rich, form a rhythmic vista of light and shade, in pastels of yellow, white and red. Noticeably absent are the huge open cuts that swallow battalions of trucks with wheels as tall as a house and yet in combined surface area these workings do actually dwarf many open cuts.

This Pyramid desert opalises our first impressions of Coober Pedy and its industrial spirit; a contradictory experience that taunts my mind’s eye as it oscillates between absolute destruction and windswept beauty.

Patterns of time, wind and erosion, the horizon touching pyramids somehow transcend stereotypical vistas of mining devastation. In truth this desert has been turned upside down and the spoil of exploratory drilling reveals the colours of the cross bedded marine deposits up to 90 feet deep.

Filtered through a fine haze of airborne dust, shadows are open and soft in the midday sun, and the white highlights of the conical peaks retain a vestige of detail. Thanks to the legislated modest size of exploration drilling parcels at a maximum 400m by 400m and actual mining leases of just 100m by 50m, the mine workings retain a vestige of human scale. Not-withstanding these limits, I’m reminded by my miner friends that the nature of opal hunting is more about nuance, knowledge and phenomenal luck, than having huge machinery.

It’s undeniable, I have an aversion to mining, amplified by stories of sacred rivers mined and diverted, of priceless aquifers threatened and wildlife lured to their death at tailings dams across the inland.

Once, a friend discovered a dense carpet of budgerigar carcasses around such a dam at a gold mine near Leonora, WA where a poisonous drink of cyanide had destroyed a super flock. I wonder how many of these events are reported to compliance authorities and how mining corporations can justify their profiteering short cuts, underwritten by such failures? Thankfully, I’ve not encountered such negligence within the Coober Pedy opal mining fields.

The town’s industrial aesthetic is further enhanced by old blower trucks, drill rigs and conveyors of every conceivable make and vintage. Improvised, grafted and hybridised, the distressed machinery layer of Coober Pedy creates a gallery of public sculptures, engineering surprises and inventiveness in every street, marvellously free from a curator’s oversight. Time, rust and decay help to blend ecological and mechanical realms with mosaics of cracked paint that speak of arid country and the forces of nature.

Beyond Coober Pedy’s impact zone, the unscarred topography speaks of earlier epochs, a time of shallow estuarine environments, of basins and low rocky headlands. Breeding colonies of water birds flourished here feeding on squid, crabs and mussels. These intriguing life forms persist in the fossil record, often imbued with the opalised colour so highly prized by collectors. In 1987 an almost complete 2.5m skeleton was discovered by a Coober Pedy miner. The carnivorous reptile was duly named Umoonasaurus demoscyllus, an aquatic species from the early Cretaceous, approximately 115 million years ago.

There would be no Coober Pedy if not for the events of the Cretaceous Period (146 to 66 million years ago). Deep layers of muddy and sandy sediments formed beneath the shallow Eromanga sea and marine biota flourished. Over time the ocean gave way to plains, lakes and rivers, until tectonic movement exposed the Eromanga rocks to strong chemical weathering.

During the Cenozoic (66 million years ago to the present day), the global climate became more arid and unstable. Major rivers covered the Eromanga rocks in sands and gravels until about 42 million years ago. After that, a long history of alternating cold, dry glacials and warm, wet interglacials created the landscape we know today.

During weathering events, dissolved silica moved in groundwater beneath the landscape and hard silcretes formed. Elsewhere hydrated silica spheres captured in faults and voids, retained rich and colourful catchlights. These are the hidden treasures sought by miners within formations of opal bearing potch.

More valuable than opal, the bed of the vanquished Eromanga Sea would ultimately form the confining layers of Australia’s greatest treasure, the Great Artesian Basin. This marine legacy also formed the building blocks of Coober Pedy’s unique social history and development. Certainly the sedimentary sandstones and patchy layers of chalky white Alunite can be viewed within the walls of most underground buildings.

Experienced drillers talk of the locally variable rock, of layers often jumbled, from the striking jasper that can occur in reddish clay, bands and hard caps of silcrete, calcrete, and gypsum higher up, with layers of sandstone beneath that are soft in places where moisture is present and harder lower down with higher concentrations of silica. Mudstone lies at the very bottom of this typical sandstone profile.

Out of every opal hunter’s reach lies the Kanku-Breakaways Conservation Park (above), a place of airbrushed beauty, of sculpted formations in whites, yellows and reds. Giant sandstone dingos are represented by two starkly different hills, one white and the other tan, sacred ancestors resting side by side. Kanku forms part of the traditional country of the Antakirinja Matuntjara Yankunytjatjara people. At 15,000 hectares the untouched fragility and sweeping lines of Kanku are a wonderful contrast to the disturbance of the mining leases that cradle the town.

The Breakaways are a culturally rich example of pristine uplands in the surrounding desert catchments. These striking landforms reveal a picture of watershed and movement best appreciated from the air. Where localised runoff infiltrates surrounding gibber plains and shallow basins of cracking clay soils, disjunct swamps and ephemeral wetlands appear as isolated green smudges. The heterogenous silcrete formations, eroded and only sparsely vegetated, harvest rainfall across vast landscapes of low topographic relief.

“Silcretes are hard silica-rich duricrusts that occur widely across the Lake Eyre Basin. Their key geomorphic characteristics are their capacity to protect underlying softer rocks from erosion, and the water-shedding that can significantly influence flow hydrology. Silcretes form during weathering … (and)  were exposed at surface by erosion of softer overlying regolith during continental aridification two to four million years ago … (Silcretes occur) as semi-planar rough layers, lumpy boulder piles, or broad areas of rounded rocks (gibber plains or stony mantles).” From: Gresley A. Wakelin-King, Landscapes of the Lake Eyre Basin: the catchment-scale context that creates fluvial diversity; Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia; DOI: 10.1080/03721426.2021.2003514

From steep sided redgum creeks such as the Maryatt, Agnes, Indulkana and Alberga, floodwaters converge in the mighty Macumba before coursing onwards to Munga Thirri-Lake Eyre. The hard surfaces of colluvial slopes harvest rainfall and combine with sheet-flow, gathering into the Arckaringa Creek and Neales River.

From the air these can appear as a wild complex of channels, twisting and tangled, like long tresses of human hair. The flood prone nature of this hard country and the Neales River in particular inspired construction of the spectacular Algebuckina railway bridge, an engineering marvel and testament to the dynamism and force of ephemeral waterways it was expected to weather.

From 3000 feet, reefs of gypsum glint in the sun and I recall the curious nature of such country when viewed at ground level. Amplified by glittering sheaves of gypsum, the heat shimmer flows in a visible wave that evokes an incoming ocean tide meeting a gravel beach.

Trees, birds and mountains are distorted by the shimmer wave, a painterly texture that helped me to resist the example of my desert friends beguiled by the lure of seaside retreats. At Coober Pedy, in this land of raking shadows, beneath an immense sky of drifting colour and gradations, the Eromanga Sea is sublime and yet unfathomably, this place is seriously under-valued.

On this visit the springtime seed load has consolidated after several wet years and the ancient lagoons are now awash with flowers. Bright magenta Swainsona, blue bush with burnished copper discs and pop saltbush, its seeds protected within a “marshmallow” foam designed to float and disperse during rainfall events. The birdsong is sparse but captivating, led by the wonderful electronic calls of dusky wood swallows as they converse with each other across the gibber plains.

Photographers and film-makers often portray Coober Pedy as a stony wasteland: that much celebrated “moon plain”. Conversely I delight in the incredible transformation that comes with modest rainfall, a vegetative mantle of blue, yellow and every hue of green, crowned by a riot of wildflowers. A tiny herb with yellow star flowers catches my eye and I must endlessly confront the limitations of my plant knowledge. Fortunately there is a field guide, Wildflowers of Coober Pedy written by Tim Webb, a retired mariner who lived here once.

Is it my imagination? Are these larger than life flowering plants more desperate to attract pollinators compared to their relatives inhabiting the MacDonnell Ranges, where vegetation luxuriates in a rainfall regime twice that of Coober Pedy? The blue bush spines are huge, perhaps a defensive response to kangaroo ancestors such as Protemnodon viator or rhino-sized Diprotodon related to the southern hairy nosed wombats that still occur in palaeoenvironments near Kingoonya, two hundred kilometres further south.

Scattered mulga occurs throughout and within a few kilometres of the town in any direction, dry creeks and occasional waterholes support graceful coolibahs, the shadiest of the local trees, their nesting hollows a haven for budgerigars. A spectacular form of Pittasporum (inedible “native apricot”) occurs here, its bright yellow fruits, fabulous baubles that would look right at home on a Christmas tree.

Within 50 metres, the plant community changes in response to soils, drainage and light. Trees, sparse and stunted, are replaced by low shrubs such as Witchetty bush and Eremophillas, that offer pools of precious shade if you’re a diminutive dragon or cryptic invertebrate.

Denied adequate old growth hollows, corellas frequently nest in rock niches, crows colonise machinery masts and power poles, while kangaroos, owls and bats thrive in temperature stable mine shafts. Several of our friends have “pet” kestrels that perch under verandah roofing and most provide water for clouds of zebra finches that gladden the collective spirit of this community.

Ptilotus (Mulla mulla) in soft pinks or green, crowd subtle indentations, creases and gullies concealed by the stubble plain of native oat grass. A mass of Parakeelya (above), tens of thousands of succulents, tall delicate stems supporting showy flower heads that wobble and sway in the hot breeze. Hot pink petals surround the yellow centre and within this dancing multitude a single plant, pivots like the prima ballerina, its petals an attention seeking snow white.

Links to stories by MIKE GILLAM in the first half of 2024:

Survivor of atomic crimes in The Centre Apr 30, 2024
Night drive Apr 19, 2024
Moving closer to that elusive miracle of life and light Mar 24, 2024
Flash flood of budgerigars Mar 18, 2024
Following feathered dancers into the desert Mar 13, 2024

Fight with nulla-nullas, spears, a baseball bat and a machete

Erwin Chlanda
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Fight with nulla-nullas, spears, a baseball bat and a machete

COMMENT by DON FULLER

The NT Government’s incompetence to provide even the most basic level of public safety, its huge police force notwithstanding, was predicted by Bob Catley who said 20 years ago that the Territory would be unable to achieve Statehood.

Police reported yesterday it responded at 1.15pm to a large group fighting with various weapons on Bath Street. That is the street in the middle of the CBD, between Coles and Woolworth.

A number of weapons including nulla-nullas, spears, a baseball bat and a machete were seized.

Prof Catley is a highly published author in the fields of politics and economics, worked in the early 2000s as a professor at CDU, and at a number of universities in Australia and New Zealand,

He felt it was far more likely to end up as a “colonial type region” with town centres such as Port Moresby and a wider region such as PNG, with associated high levels of social dislocation and problems. 

In this scenario it would be dominated by badly organised and managed Aboriginal interests as most whites will leave – as in PNG.

He advances a number of reasons for this, including a lack of economic development, high welfare and government dependence, a very high and rapidly growing Aboriginal population and poor governance.

Such characteristics he argues, are typical of many colonial states. In the case of the NT we have a colonial state within a country!

A defence presence will be the main core interest that remains.

He argues that this will accelerate as governments in the NT have not been able to get a model going where whites and Aboriginal people can work together in the mainstream economy.

This outmigration of the white community is certainly what is happening in Alice with house sales  are at record levels as whites vote to leave.

This is also likely to be happening in other urban centres such as Darwin and Tennant Creek, for example.

Immigration levels to the NT can be expected to continue to fall as governments are not capable of addressing the fundamental requirements of including Aboriginal people in the mainstream economy. 

I am sure my old sparring partner Bob Beadman would agree with this. 

If governments continue to ignore the dangers of this “separate development” both Aboriginal and non- Aboriginal communities will suffer. So will the NT more generally.

PHOTO AT TOP: The first Northern Territory Legislative Assembly, 1976, was meant to be  the first step towards statehood. It’s unlikely to turn out that way, claimed a leading academic 20 years ago. Today the chronic and out of control crime puts it even more into doubt. PICTURED in the back row, from left to right: Ron Withnall, Grant Tambling, Milton Ballantyne, Eric Manuel, Marshall Perron, Ian Tuxworth, Nick Dondas, Roger Steele. Middle row: Hyacinth Tungatalum; Roger Vale; Roger Ryan; Paul Everingham; Dave Pollock; Rupert Kentish. Front row: Geoff Letts; Dawn Lawrie; Les MacFarlane; Liz Andrew; Jim Robertson. Eric Manual replaced Bernie Kilgariff in the 1976 Alice Springs by-election. Photo taken on March 17, 1976. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository.

Youth crime: Parents need to act, says Yan

Erwin Chlanda
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Youth crime: Parents need to act, says Yan

By ERWIN CHLANDA

It’s time parents of delinquent young people took control of their offspring, and if they don’t, laws need to be brought in to oblige them to do so.

CLP Member for Namatjira Bill Yan said this in an interview with the Alice Springs News on Show Day, two days before “about 20 male youths” allegedly assaulted, at 2.15am, four off-duty police officers, including three women, walking home at the end of night on the town.

The police media release says: “One female was pulled to the ground and had her bag stolen, another female was punched in the face and kicked multiple times and had her mobile phone taken while the male was also punched and kicked multiple times.”

We asked Mr Yan: “Do parents have responsibilities and are they committing crimes by failing care for their children?”

YAN: There are a number parents out there who are not looking after their kids and are handing over their responsibilities to grandmothers or aunts. Part of our policy platform is to hold parents accountable for their children. That’s where it starts. What we see now is police picking up children and taking them back to the same situation, and at times to harmful and dangerous situations because of the policy of taking them back to a “responsible adult”.

NEWS: How do you fix that?

YAN: There has to be somewhere for those kids to go and it can’t be short-term, whilst parents and families are worked with to provide that safe place for a child. We’re putting children into harmful and dangerous situations and a government should not be doing that.

NEWS: What do you do instead?

YAN: One of our platform is “sentenced to a skill”. Very early when the kids first come in contact with the justice system you put on some diversionary work with Saltbush, for example.

NEWS: Does that work?

YAN: For the odd kid it probably works. But there are others where it’s not working. Then kids will have interaction with the justice system, racking up offences until the absolutely last option is to put them into detention. There doesn’t seem to be anything in the middle. We want to do stuff in the middle area. We have a lot kids who don’t want to engage with mainstream education. You can engage people in education but through vocational education. They like doing things with their hands. We need a facility where kids can come, a live-in facility, but also include parents, elders, community, a wholistic approach to working with that child. When a kid comes out, a period of time later, the aim is to change these behaviours, change where they see themselves in the community, with usable skills for getting a job. I’ve seen it work in a custodial setting.

[Before politics Mr Yan was the superintendent of the Alice Springs prison.]

NEWS: Are you saying the kids would be obliged to do this. Can they say no?

YAN: We would see this as a tool for the courts to send a child to, rather than detention.

NEWS: What if the kids don’t play ball. Apprenticeships are available now. So is trade school. Why aren’t they using that? Would these children be obliged to go to your facility and stay there?

YAN: If the court says they have to go there then that is a court order. Their behaviour there is part of the nitty gritty and we haven’t really looked at that yet.

NEWS: Will that be in draft form before the election next month?

YAN: We are starting on that stuff now. There are a lot of players who need to come to the table.

NEWS: Why hasn’t this been done a lot earlier?

YAN: This has been a policy position of ours for some time.

NEWS: Do the parents have to be involved?

YAN: The parents have to be there, working with the kids to make it successful long term. The parents should be at court hearings as part of what’s happening with the child, as part of the court system. All too often this doesn’t happen, it is not a requirement. I’ve been an advocate for many years now on strengthening the banned drinkers register. If the young person in trouble is taken back to parents who are under the influence of alcohol, then those parents are not able to care for their child. They should be put on the banned drinkers’ register. They should forego the right to purchase alcohol.

NEWS: Do parents commit an offence if the don’t provide the necessities of life for their children?

YAN: That’s been spoken about for some time. I don’t know whether it’s a grey area within our legislation. There are things that can be done but the government are not doing. Families not caring for their children can be put on income management. That exists right now, today. We asked in Estimates of how many families have been put on income management for failing to look after children. It’s fewer than 10 Territory wide. That is certainly a blight on government. Here is a tool that can benefit kids that’s not being used.

NEWS: The next question would be, have these parents committed a punishable offence?

YAN: I don’t know. I’d have to look at the legislation. A fine or imprisonment is not the outcome we’re looking for. I wouldn’t use punishment as a term. You’ve got to keep the family together as much as you can, but there have to be some consequences.

NEWS: Yet parents know there are no consequences for not looking after their children.

YAN: We see so many parents blowing all their money on alcohol. Some of these kids are doing things just to get food, they are hungry, and that should not happen in any modern society. We shouldn’t see that happen in our town. That’s where that education management of parents needs to come in.

NEWS: Education is a voluntary thing. Anyone can reject it.

YAN: That may be where we need to look at legislation. If we have a parent who doesn’t look after the child properly, does the legislation exist to compulsorily require that parent to do something? If it doesn’t, do we then go and look at that legislation and actually change it so it is a compulsory for a parent to do whatever may be ordered to make sure they are providing adequate care for their children. It’s children who are losing out here. We’re having an abused generation. Every child has the right to be safe.

PHOTO: Mr Yan at the Show last Friday, orange top, taking part in the sawing competition.

Corporate buyers may end family cattle industry

Erwin Chlanda
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Corporate buyers may end family cattle industry

By ERWIN CHLANDA

How come the value of cattle stations is skyrocketing? The bar of the Centralian Beef Breeders Association was a good place for a pub test.

Some of the biggest pastoralists from The Centre, and agents from interstate, were having beers at the end of the Show, just days after the sale of the 65,000 hectares Woolner Station in the Top End for by an overseas corporate buyer $49m, according to the Cattlemen’s Association’s newsletter.

The News spoke to several of the bar’s patrons on the condition of not naming them, about what is clearly a historic switch from a 150 years old family-based industry to investment opportunities for big companies, some from overseas, and superannuation firms.

The question by the News was always: “How come the sale prices are going thorough the roof?”

The answers:

“I’ve got no idea. Prices of cattle are down. Nobody knows the answer. I’m not from here.”

“We’re not making any more land.”

“You’d better ask the blokes who are buying them. They obviously know something nobody else knows.”

“No comment. They clearly have a bigger cheque book than the next bloke.”

Are purchases in line with the earnings being made?

“Sometimes you make a dollar, sometimes you don’t.”

“Ask the guy with the blue hat over over there. He bought a couple.”

“I tell you one reason is because the families are getting out, family people are leaving. Kids want another life. Companies are coming in. We’re all pretty naive here. We live in Australia, Alice Springs, if you look at the world there is only so much land. The reality of economics, it does not make sense.”

“Look at the Canadian prices at the moment. What we are getting for a kilo they are getting for a pound over there.”

“Because the corporates are buying them. Not with borrowed money.”

“They are people who want to expand but they don’t stand alone on their purchase price. They are bought by people who are prepared to buy because they want to expand, but they don’t stand alone, they have other properties that are paid for. Just to have the income from their other places to pay the interest.”

Isn’t it simple to calculate the income – carrying capacity of two head per square kilometre, three years to be ready for the market and bring $1000 a head? This kind of calculation?

“That’s what I’m saying. They won’t stand alone. If you purchase a property you need other properties to generate the income to cover the interest and over time, as you pay down your debt, you start to break even as your interest costs are reduced. The corporates buying them have seven or 11 year plans and they don’t intend to keep an asset. If they are a superannuation company they put their money into various industries and they get out at a pre-determined time and the capital growth is what they are chasing. So they only need to break even while they own them. When they sell them they move the money into another industry.”

“We buy them and the intention is never to sell them. These people, the corporates, they buy them with the intention of selling them. We buy them as our families expand, we need more country. We’re competing with them. They are not emotionally attached [to the land]”.

“[The stations’ prices are going through the roof] because they are good things.”

“I have no idea. Somebody is keen … I have no idea.”

“Land value is rising Australia wide. They are not making any more land, Central Austraia is the biggest organic pastoral region in the world.”

“It must be a culmination of factors, I suppose.”

“It’s not because of the cattle prices because the prices are not that good, they are OK. I don’t know why [the station values are going though the roof]. We were only talking about this yesterday.”

“A lot of our part of the world is superannuation investment funded.”

“A lot of overseas money.”

From China?

No. Canada.

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