By ERWIN CHLANDA
While most of Alice is grumbling about the decline of the tourism industry, a new wing worth more than $3m of the Flying Doctor base is nearing completion.
It includes a mini department store, with a life-size replica of the service’s Pilatus PC12 workhorse (you can sit in the pilot’s seat), and a 70 seat theater fitted with all that opens and shuts for watching movies to video, audio and data links for remote conferencing.
Manager Michael Toomey says the store will be an upgrade of the souvenir shop and benefit from “co-branding” with R M Williams.
The theatre will be where visitors watch the movie about the legendary service founded by Reverend John Flynn in 1928 with a De Havilland DH50 aircraft leased from Qantas for which he paid two shillings per mile flown.
Today the service has 61 aircraft around Australia and employs 900 people.
Alice has a staff of 25 (in the operational side) plus 10 (in the tourism side), and four PC12s worth $6.5m each when purchased new.
The Swiss-built turbine powered planes are well suited for dirt strips and are powerful enough to take off from relatively short runways.
Although the “flying doctor” label is only half true these days – the doctors and the tasking comes from the NT Department of Health – the organisation continues to make the most of its glorious history, while expanding its services to the local community.
For example, the theatre and its gadgets will be for hire to users ranging from local fundraisers to businesses training staff to hotels keen to get into the smallish convention market, without themselves having the facilities.
Will this be in competition with the Convention Centre?
“We’ll work with them,” says Mr Toomey.
The RFDS sees this kind of diversification as the key to survival of the local centre as a tourist magnet.
Mr Toomey says visitation is down about 20%, and that applies about equally to domestic and overseas visitors.
Tour travel is about 60% of the base’s business.
The industry is incredibly fine tuned: gone are the days when it talked about getting people to stay an extra week.
The task now is get them to stay an extra 20 minutes.
The tour companies set an unbending time table: 40 minutes for the RFDS. Admission $12.
Mr Toomey wants to stretch that to 60 minutes but it will take a year: “We will educate them this season so they accept it in the next.”
Most group tourists stay in Alice one night but some don’t even do that.
The extension to the base is a bid to boost income from the tourism operation, in part by offering a longer movie and better shopping.
Mr Toomey says the base is in a “good corner” with the Pioneer Women’s Hall of Fame next door and the Reptile Centre across the road.
He is also meeting regularly with about a dozen local operators to enhance the town’s offerings to visitors.
Fingers crossed they come up with something soon.
PICTURE: Mr Toomey at the entrance to the new building which takes its inspiration from an aircraft wing and struts. The semi-circular entrance hints at the shape of a hangar.
Our woman-made environment
By KIERAN FINNANE
An exhibition on the theme of women architects, town planners and landscape architects in Central Australia ran the risk of being a little thin, feared Anne Scherer when she voluntarily took on the task to mark Australian Women’s History Month – March, of course – at the National Pioneer Women’s Hall of Fame.
The theme is set nationally by the Australian Women’s History Forum. Ms Scherer was well aware of architect Susan Dugdale, whose imprint can be seen in many corners of Alice Springs, but who else? She uncovered quite a diverse history, including the existence of Helen Tippett, likely to have been the first female architect to practice in town, back in the 1950s, after completing her training in Melbourne. She was interested in the concept of ‘sustainable housing’ long before it was fashionable, went on to practice in the Middle East and to have an illustrious academic career in New Zealand.
Ms Scherer’s research, attractively presented in the women’s cell block of the old gaol that houses the Hall of Fame, reminds us of other women who have left their mark on the built environment of Alice Springs, broadening the terms of the exhibition to include artists such as Cedar Prest, who executed the stained glass window at Araluen after a design by W. Rubuntja; Kaye Kessing, who with Bob Kessing painted the Coles supermarket mural facing Railway Terrace; Pip McManus, who has contributed ceramic and sculptural work to some of our major institutions; Sally Mumford whose 2008 exhibition This Place was a thoughtful reflection on the changes wrought over time on the place, Mparntwe, and the town, Alice Springs.
She has noted the contribution of the women who worked in the early hotels, taking them from rough bush pubs to more hospitable places, and of women like Sister Jean Finlayson who had input to the design of Adelaide House and in the present, Sarah Brown, who has driven the “adaptive re-use” of a suburban house, The Purple House, to provide a dialysis clinic but also a home-like meeting place complete with bush medicine garden.
And of course along the way architects such as Deb Fisher (Raptor Building, Desert Park) and Jane Dillon (Congress Medical Centre) are honoured.
Susan Dugdale, who arrived in Alice in 1994, establishing her own practice in 2000, was present at the opening on Sunday. She reflected on what had made her stay – it came down to job satisfaction, being able to make a contribution through her designs to people’s lives. She contrasted her last Melbourne job, which was working on a four bedroom house renovation for a couple whose children had left home, with the social purposefulness of many of the projects she has worked on here. The “Lolly Houses” for the Yuendumu Old Peoples Program (the name refers to the bright colours favoured by the residents), the Hospital Staff Units (next to the Hall of Fame), the refurbishment of the Yeperenye Shopping Centre (now 10 years old), and the Stuart Highway Fence are a few examples, all of them mindful of the environmental, historical and social context in which they stand.
This is a rewarding exhibition, reminding us of a whole range of rich contributions to, in this case, the woman-made environment of The Centre.
Pictured, left to right: Anne Scherer, Miriam Wallace, and Susan Dugdale. Ms Wallace works for Susan Dugdale and Associates. In the wall text dedicated to her, she sums up the lessons she’s learnt from Ms Dugdale: “how to design buildings appropriate to the place, both in scale, materials and methods of construction” and also “about the complexity of remote community work and client /contractor relationships”.
Below: Susan Dugdale’s Stuart Highway Fence, constructed in 2008.
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Bedlam in the eye of the beholder
My mum, who in terms of Australian travel has never strayed beyond the reaches of the east coast, has booked her flights to Alice today. This has got me to looking about the house and thinking, I really need to clean that, rearrange this, put these away and definitely get rid of that red back spider. It’s that thing of seeing your space through somebody else’s eyes and of course I want her to be comfortable whenever she stays with me. Something she definitely would not have been, had she woken up as I did with a bearded dragon lizard shuffling about the room, fixing me with his little eye and imposing stance.
In the past I’ve loved having overseas or interstate visitors. They renew your dulled perspective with their fresh gaze. So how does that play out in an amazing and troubled place like Alice?
Riding my bike home after work I skirted around broken glass, dodged drunken ramblings and staggerings, rode past the cops who had just pulled over to a bunch of people sitting by the river. I turned into my street and my housemate was on the phone to the police. A woman and her male companion had been having a fight out the front of our house. She was completely pinned to the ground with the man on top of her trying to tear her mouth at the corners with his bare fingers. She was screaming “Call the police!” after my housemates intervened and were also aggressed. The woman had a sit down and glass of water and didn’t want the cops called anymore, by that stage however the phone call was in full swing.
She was perhaps lucky my housies were in our front yard, laying out sheets of cardboard and weighing them down with bricks, to kill the couch. We’ve since replaced the bricks with big pot plants not wishing to contribute to the sea of violence that flows past our house between Eastside shops and the river.
I’ve been here nearly a year and will go to Uluru for the first time with my mum which I’m really looking forward to. But I guess what I’m wondering is, how will my mother’s gaze fall upon this town and what will that reveal to me?
Before these last two years in the Territory I too had always lived somewhere or other on the east coast. I remember coming back earlier this year after six weeks away and, with a fresh gaze, found some white couples walking their dogs along the river (on the foot paths), the young mums power walking with prams, older couples and lovers strolling, and some Aboriginal people fighting in the river bed. All this on a regular Monday afternoon. I don’t know if I’ve started to live alongside the violence with blinkers or with a dulled gaze that has become accustomed to it. It makes me sad though to see people inebriating their lives away.
There are all sorts of hypotheses and anecdotes about why there has seemed to be such angst in town recently, lots of funerals, people stuck in ruts because of town life initially reserved for a visit and maybe becoming trapped due to rains. I don’t know, it’s evidently incredibly problematic and I hope that my mum will see the reasons why I love this place and maybe through her gaze I will learn something too.
Pictured, above and below: The peace and natural drama of the Todd River are among things I love about Alice.
Antics and elegy guide tour into a bright land of shifting shadows and memories
REVIEW by KIERAN FINNANE
When Australian novelist Kate Grenville opened Obscured by Light, a collaborative exhibition by Pamela Lofts and Kim Mahood showing at Araluen, she referred to the landscape that they have made their stage as the “scary stuff”. It was lightly said but nonetheless an interesting echo of the long held popular conception of the Australian interior as a great and threatening unknown.
A merit of the Lofts and Mahood show is its playfulness and humour in counterbalance to this kind of apprehension, even if there is mostly a comically satiric flavour to their antics in the Tanami Desert. These are mostly enacted by one Violet Sunset (performed by Mahood), a parody of the feminine in gorgeous cocktail frock and kitten heels, created and directed by Lofts.
Sometimes though, Mahood the artist and child of the desert peeps through and this sets quite a different emotional tone for the work. This happens partly in the images such as the pair showing twinned, finely sculpted shapes – reminiscent of boats, seed pods, coffins – scooped out of the earth, one of them containing a naked female form (her); partly through fragments of text from her pen, such as: “She would have found it impossible to imagine as a child that one could love a place as she loved this one, and still not be able to remain. That failure has rendered her homeless.”
Even if we did not know the facts of Mahood’s biography – that she grew up on a cattle station in the Tanami and has written about the experience in an elegiac memoir, Craft for a Dry Lake – this strand of the work importantly suggests the possibility of the desert as an inhabited place, even if it means living close to absence, death and abandonment, a theme of many of the images.
Woven into the loosely suggested narrative – made up of 53 images and almost as many text fragments – is the elusive figure of The Inland Sea. The preoccupation of early explorers has a contemporary form, suggests the work: “The people in the city where she lives believe that answers are to be found in the desert, although none of them have been there. Although she is not confident that this is true, Violet decides that it is worth finding out.”
There’s nothing like actually being there, the work contends, with all the risks of madness, loneliness, fear, and hardship as well as the rewards of stillness, spaciousness, beauty and joy. “Blue as an eye, curling round the rim of the world” – here is their ‘inland sea’, an ephemeral lake. “She found it in the end just by being there at the right time.” A fundamental lesson of desert living.
Lofts’ photographic images are as gorgeous as the frock – saturated colour, high gloss – and finely attuned to both the drama of the landscape and the story-telling nature of the enterprise. Lofts excels at work in this vein: viewers may recall her wonderfully evocative 
Country Love series, and more recently, the haunting Requiem for Another.
The Obscured by Light series is edited from many hundreds of photographs taken during the artists’ joint travels in the Tanami over 15 years. It is a treat, both entertaining and thought-provoking, to be taken on this condensed journey with them.
Shows until March 25.
Mayoral debate cancelled
The five mayoral candidates will no longer face one another in a single forum.
Charles Darwin University had advertised a debate, Vote 1 4 Alice, for March 20.
An invitation had been sent to Mayor Damien Ryan but challengers didn’t get an invite, according to one of them, Steve Brown.
They meanwhile accepted the invitation of Mez Elliott who described herself as a part-time announcer and producer with Radio 8HA, to a meet-the-public occasion at the RSL on the same night.
Radio 8HA manager Roger Harris says Ms Elliott is not a producer with 8HA but “occasionally stands in on shifts when an announcer is away”.
Hosted by Territory Today presenter Adrian Renzi, the RSL function will not be a debate but a question and answer session, also open to councillor candidates.
Mayor Ryan, however, will not be present, as once he became aware of the CDU cancellation, he accepted another invitation, addressing a visiting group.
A media release from CDU says: “The university accepts that no one’s interests are served in having two debates on the same night and that there is insufficient time to organise an alternative date.
“The university apologises to the mayoral candidates and to anyone else for any inconvenience.”
UPDATE: Following the cancellation, Mayor Damien Ryan and Deputy Mayor Liz Martin will be hosting a ” Meet the Candidates” night in Stuarts Bush Kitchen at the National Road Transport Hall of Fame on Thursday, March 22 from 6pm to 9pm.
Alderman Martin says this is not an Alice Springs Town Council initiative.
“We have invited all mayoral and councillor candidates to participate with equal opportunity and have had a good response to date. This is a casual evening that will allow members of the public, particularly those from various associations and industry groups who have already issued questionaires, to chat in an informal setting one on one with candidates to find out where they stand on issues that are important to them.”
The evening will include a free sausage sizzle and transport can be arranged for those that dont have it by calling Ald Martin on 0429 201 549.
Native title group Lhere Artepe: bombshell briefing note – and fresh hope
By ERWIN CHLANDA
An internal document details exhaustively the events over the past several years which tore apart the native title organisation, Lhere Artepe Aboriginal Corporation, and threatened the commercial entities linked with it.
The document, briefing notes for the directors of the corporation and Lhere Artepe Pty Ltd, the ultimate owners of the group’s assets, was obtained exclusively by the Alice Springs News Online.
It details efforts to stabilise the group’s finances and business dealings, and forecasts a brighter future.
But it also confirms what has been reported by the Alice Springs News Online investigation for over a year, drawing on a range of sources – and a lot more.
The conduct of the person referred to as the “former CEO” – Darryl Pearce – rates a frequent mention.
The document reports:-
• An estimated $7m loss arising from a failed investment in a civil engineering firm, CDE, arranged by Mr Pearce.
• A $3.5m loan, negotiated by him with an Adelaide company, ACA Finance: “The former CEO apparently negotiated a deal by which this loan would be reduced to $1 million in return for transferring three of the Mt Johns blocks to Guistozzi [the head of the company], but the agreement for this deal was not signed. As a result, the full $3.5 million remains payable and is in fact overdue,” the briefing note says.
• Delays with the Mt Johns residential real estate development pushed it to the brink of the National Australia Bank taking control of the project.
• At the time of the briefing only seven buyers were left (of the touted near-sellout) who hadn’t claimed back their deposits.
• The mess Mt Johns turned into was secured by the three IGA supermarkets (Flynn Drive, Hearne Place, Eastside) bought for about $14m in part with a Federal grant: “These arrangements were also negotiated by the former CEO and we have been questioned by Commonwealth public servants whether this is contrary to the terms of the Federal Government grant that partially funded the purchase of the supermarkets business.
“The former CEO did not inform the Lhere Artepe Enterprises board of any of these proposals in advance, nor seek the board’s views or approval.”
• “An additional mortgage was placed on the supermarkets unbeknown to Commonwealth Government which put the grant funds in jeopardy,” says the note.
• A deal over maintenance required in one of the supermarkets, involving blocks of land provided by the vendor, also apparently went pear shaped: “Without reference to the board of Lhere Artepe Enterprises, the former CEO arranged to transfer the land, for no payment to Lhere Artepe Supermarkets, to Lhere Artepe Services Pty Ltd. It is therefore apparently no longer available to Lhere Artepe Supermarkets to fund the maintenance work.”
• The Board and members were being kept in the dark, it is claimed. There were just two meetings between April and August 2011.
The note says: “At neither of these meetings did the former CEO provide a proper written report to the board to explain the significant obligations and expenditures he had negotiated over the previous several months without reference to the board.
“An oral update was provided on each occasion. Despite continued requests to the former CEO for formal reporting and updates on the main activities of Lhere Artepe Enterprises subsidiary companies, the Board only received its first written report late in November 2011.
“Even then, it clearly did not fully inform the Board of the current state of play for Lhere Artepe Enterprises. The information provided was incomplete, poor quality and generally too late.”
The Alice Springs News Online invited comment from Lhere Artepe executives, including chairman Ian McAdam, and Mr Pearce, who was sacked late last year.
No comments were received by deadline but any replies coming to hand will be considered for publication.
[ED – The Alice Springs News Online is publishing this because we have received countless complaints from native title holders about being kept in the dark about their assets and their land.
These people have encouraged us to keep up our investigation.
Also, significant public funds have flowed into the various enterprises, so the public in general has a right to know.]
The following is an excerpt from a briefing note for the Directors of Lhere Artepe Pty Ltd and Lhere Artepe Aboriginal Corporation given in February.
This briefing note … provides information … on the main operational and project issues that have arisen within Lhere Artepe Enterprises and its subsidiaries over the past six months.
Key points on the Mt Johns subdivision:
• The completion of the Mt John’s subdivision has fallen so far behind schedule that it has threatened the profitability of the venture. Following management changes and the Board’s reengagement of key stakeholders, financiers and regulators, Part 5 approval for the Mt Johns Subdivision was granted on 23 December 2012, and titles are expected to issue shortly [ED – Titles for the first stage have now been issued.]
• Loans acquired to fund various aspects of the Mt Johns project have been serviced from cash from the supermarkets business, which is now causing a cash flow problem within that business. Steps are being taken to alleviate the effects.
• The purchase by Lhere Artepe Nominees Pty Ltd of the CDE group, and subsequent insolvency of CDE Civil, has resulted in a capital loss of approximately $7m.
• Pat Miller, Andrew Ross, Christine Charles and Peter Holden all agreed to become directors of the three Lhere Artepe Enterprises subsidiaries to provide a more consistent direction and approach across the group
• Over the past two months, the board has been meeting at least weekly by phone to provide more structured direction for the Lhere Artepe Enterprises group, greater support for the supermarkets management and to address some critical issues that had arisen, including delays in approval for the Mt Johns subdivision and the imminent prospect of the National Australia Bank exercising its right to step-in a take control of the project.
• External stakeholders such as the NAB and Alice Springs Town Council have shown greater confidence, and relationships with them have markedly improved since the Board of Lhere Artepe Enterprises assumed greater oversight and control of the Lhere Artepe Enterprises businesses.
• Although one of the independent directors, Phil Camens, resigned toward the end of 2011, he has agreed to return to the Lhere Artepe Enterprises board, bringing back with him the financial expertise and corporate history that could have been permanently lost to us.
• As from 19 January 2012, Ian Conway has been appointed as the third Lhere Artepe director on the board of Lhere Artepe Enterprises to fill the casual vacancy left by the resignation of Chippy Miller in 2011.
Mt Johns Project
• The Mt Johns subdivision was not completed by the August 2010 deadline as expected, which meant existing purchase contracts could have been withdrawn by potential purchasers.
• The Board has kept abreast of the number of sales contracts – it is important to note that only 7 contracts remain on the site and a number of contracts have been rescinded because of the delay in the issue of titles.
• Since early December 2011 the Lhere Artepe Enterprises Board has secured the funding and approvals necessary to issue title to the Mt John blocks so that they are available for transfer to purchasers.
• To ensure the completion of Mt Johns subdivision and issue of titles the Board has:
• Met with Regulators to ensure part five approval was gained – this was achieved on the 23rd December after the Board was able to regain support and commitment by regulators that the unfinished works and defects would be carried out.
• Secured a bank guarantee from the NAB to ensure defects and unfinished works could be completed.
• Secured the services of a conveyancer so that titles could be issued for the allotments.
• Renewed the contract with Framptons the estate agent which is charged with selling the allotments.
• Reviewed and agreed the arrangements with Opus as the site Superintendents to ensure final works are carried out in accordance with the requirements of the bank guarantee.
• Negotiated with the NAB to pay outstanding invoices to local suppliers of services to Mt Johns.
CDE Civil and Mining and CDE Equipment
• CDE was providing services to the Mt Johns project in 2010 when it encountered financial difficulties. The former Lhere Artepe Enterprises CEO [ED – Darryl Pearce] negotiated the purchase by Lhere Artepe Nominees of a majority shareholding in CDE, which was part-funded by a $3.5 million loan from ACA Finance, a company associated with Tony Guistozzi, who at the time was a director of CDE.
• The former CEO apparently negotiated a deal by which this loan would be reduced to $1 million in return for transferring three of the Mt Johns blocks to Guistozzi, but the agreement for this deal was not signed. As a result, the full $3.5 million remains payable and is in fact overdue.
• The ACA loan is secured by a range of mortgages, charges and guarantees not just over the Mt Johns assets, but over the supermarkets business and real estate as well. These arrangements were also negotiated by the former CEO and we have been questioned by Commonwealth public servants whether this is contrary to the terms of the Federal Government grant that partially funded the purchase of the supermarkets business.
• The former CEO did not inform the Lhere Artepe Enterprises board of any of these proposals in advance, nor seek the board’s views or approval
• CDE Civil and Mining became insolvent and was put into administration shortly after its purchase by Lhere Artepe Enterprises. Its shares are worthless, which caused a capital loss that the former CEO estimated at $7 million
• When questioned by the board about the reasons for acquiring CDE, the former CEO said that it was imperative that CDE finish its work at Mt Johns and that the only way to guarantee that, given its financial problems, was for Lhere Artepe Enterprises to buy it. The Board did not endorse this.
• To the best of the Board’s knowledge, the former CEO remains the sole director of CDE Equipment. We understand that it has effectively ceased trading and equipment has been sold to cover loans and guarantees held against the equipment – the Lhere Artepe Enterprises Board understands that no profits will be made from these sales.
• It is the Board’s view that a decision needs to be made urgently about whether CDE Equipment is, or is about to become, insolvent and if so, it must cease trading. If the company continues to trade when it is not able to pay its debts, the director and Lhere Artepe Enterprises as the majority shareholder may become liable for the debts
Supermarkets Business
• An experienced general manager for the company’s supermarkets business has been recruited, Peter McGannon.
• Mr McGannon has made a number of staffing changes which will assist the success of the supermarket businesses.
• Stock changes and changes in suppliers have also been made.
• It is important to note that supermarkets are currently trading well although much of cost of servicing the debts associated with the Mt Johns project and CDE purchase is being met by cash generated by the Supermarkets. … This will only be rectified when sales of Mt Johns increase and current debts to the bank decrease. …
• The board has recently become aware of some quite serious maintenance issues at the supermarkets premises, particularly the Northside store. Several hundred thousand dollars will need to be spent to rectify these in the near future. Lack of cash caused by the arrangements described in the previous paragraph is preventing the remedial work being done more quickly
• Loans were obtained from IBA [Indigenous Business Australia] to assist the purchase of the Supermarkets – those loans are currently being serviced through the Supermarket cash flow.
• A Grant was also received from the Commonwealth Government ABA [Aboriginal Benefit Account] program for $5.8m.
• A further loan was received from CentreCorp for $500k – this money is due to be repaid before the end of 2012.
• Part of the agreement with the vendor (Paul Venturin) to purchase the three Supermarkets included the transfer of 5 blocks of land in Burke Street Alice Springs from the vendor. We understand that the land was included as acknowledgment by the vendor that the maintenance work referred to above would need to be funded by Lhere Artepe Supermarkets in the short term, and the land could be used to provide the funding. However, without reference to the board of Lhere Artepe Enterprises, the former CEO arranged to transfer the land, for no payment to Lhere Artepe Supermarkets, to Lhere Artepe Services Pty Ltd. It is therefore apparently no longer available to Lhere Artepe Supermarkets to fund the maintenance work. Given the cash drain on the supermarkets business described above, the funds that could be released from selling the land would be the only source of money to fund the maintenance work and we would like to discuss with the Lhere Artepe Pty Ltd Board an appropriate way to rectify the inappropriate transfer of land out of the Lhere Artepe Enterprises group.
Lhere Artepe Enterprises Governance and Corporate Issues
• The Lhere Artepe Enterprises Board did not hold its first meeting until April 2011, despite a number of requests from board members that a meeting was needed. Even then, Peter Holden was not informed of that meeting.
• The full board (without Chippy Miller, who had resigned) met for the first time in August 2011. At neither of these meetings did the former CEO provide a proper written report to the board to explain the significant obligations and expenditures he had negotiated over the previous several months without reference to the board. An oral update was provided on each occasion.
• Despite continued requests to the former CEO for formal reporting and updates on the main activities of Lhere Artepe Enterprises subsidiary companies, the Board only received its first written report late in November 2011. Even then, it clearly did not fully inform the Board of the current state of play for Lhere Artepe Enterprises. The information provided was incomplete, poor quality and generally too late.
• By that time, the lack of structure and lack of respect for normal governance had caused the Board to become seriously concerned with the conduct of the former CEO. He was taking major decisions without informing the Lhere Artepe Enterprises board and was not implementing the board’s requests. For lengthy periods, he was absent without leave and uncontactable. At the same time, some board members were dealing more directly with external stakeholders and becoming aware of information that was alarming. In particular, the financial position was much worse than had been understood and external stakeholders such as the National Australia Bank had lost confidence that Lhere Artepe Enterprises was able to manage the Mt Johns project.
• Toward the end of November last year, it had become apparent to the Board that urgent action was necessary. Despite many attempts to contact the former CEO by phone and email to engage him in discussions about how to manage the situation, he did not respond.
• In early December, the board resolved to make the position of CEO redundant as the ongoing expense could not be afforded.
• To address significant business challenges, in particular the slippage in timing of completion of the Mt Johns Stage 1 Project, the board then became much more actively involved in the management of Lhere Artepe Enterprises …
• The Board has been meeting on at least a weekly basis since November to ensure the Directors are fully abreast of current issues and how they are to be handled, and also the financial and legal implications of past decisions which were not part of the Board approval processes.
Conclusion
In the view of the Lhere Artepe Enterprises Board, clear progress has been made on some critical issues in the last two months. The state of the Lhere Artepe Enterprises group has demonstrably improved in that time. Probably the turning point was the grant of Part 5 approvals for the Mt Johns project, which was a great relief and enables us to be more confident that the debts that are currently a burden on the supermarkets business will be paid down in the foreseeable future. Our increased optimism was reflected in a Board meeting in Alice Springs last week at which, for the first time, we were able to start considering options to grow the supermarkets business once it overcomes the cash flow hurdles it is facing in the immediate future.
Proper governance is important for an organisation like Lhere Artepe Enterprises, on many levels. In the view of the Board, the serious problems that developed during 2011 were directly attributable to a lack of governance and accountability. We welcome closer relations with Lhere Artepe Pty Ltd and Lhere Artepe Aboriginal Corporation and will be happy to agree a reporting timetable with Lhere Artepe Pty Ltd for the future. …
PHOTOS: Top – Publicly funded supermarket acquisition props up Mt Johns development. Above right – Darryl Pearce. Above – Proposed development for Mt Johns.
Melanka project not quite hot to trot
By KIERAN FINNANE
Cold water was poured on the idea that construction would go ahead on the Melanka site as soon as mid-year in the Town Council meeting last night.
The Centralian Advocate ran a front-age story on March 6, quoting real estate agent Doug Fraser, that the plans have been down-sized and the owners hope to start selling “off the plan” in June with building to begin soon afterwards.
The large site on the edge of the Alice Springs CBD, once home to the Melanka backpacker hostel, has been standing vacant since the hostel was demolished in 2008.
Mr Fraser, the manager of L J Hooker, says: “The owners have had discussions with the Town Planning Authority and have received a positive response.
“Obviously the project needs to be approved by the DCA with council having their input. We would hope that council would not unduly delay the project.”
Greg Buxton, council’s Director of Technical Services, in response to an enquiry from Alderman Eli Melky, said if the plans have been changed by more than 10% the developers may be required to make new submissions to the Development Consent Authority (DCA).
In any case, there is still a planning process to go through with final plans and as it is now mid-March, a mid-year start date is “not possible”.
Says Mr Fraser: “We did not say that construction would start in June.”
“Nothing has gone to the DCA yet,” said Mayor Damien Ryan at the meeting.
Once it does, the plans will still have to come back to council for tick-off on the things it governs. And that’s not a one-stop process. Officers prepare a report for aldermen, which then goes through their committee process before being put to a vote in their monthly meeting.
PICTURED: A drawing of the complex as it was planned originally.
Besieged businessman stands for zero tolerance but also calls for more 'joy and laughter'
Candidate for councillor backs Eli Melky for mayor
KIERAN FINNANE talks to leading light from Action for Alice lobby
“It’s hard to stay positive,” says businessman Geoff Booth, manager and owner (with partners) of two licensed venues that have experienced a shocking run of break-ins. Town & Country, a bistro in the mall, was broken into in the early hours of this morning, twice. Club Eastside was the target of a ram raid in the wee hours of March 8, while Town & Country, also had a rock through the window, just a few hours later.
On that night Mr Booth (pictured at left with bollard protecting the club’s entrance) was called into Club Eastside at 1am, went home at 3.30, was called into Town & Country at 4.30, then went home at 5.45. In neither case did the police attend – the night of March 7 and 8, as we know, was a busy one in Alice, for all the wrong reasons.
Town & Country was attacked again in the early hours of March 11. On all occasions thieves took a few bottles of liquor and some RTDs – of insignificant value alongside the damage they caused .
A ram raid of a few weeks ago (pictured below) caused $10,000 worth of damage to the club entrance, prompting the installation of the red bollard. Five more bollards have now been installed to protect the front wall of the club. The raiders used stolen cars, says Mr Booth.
Last year’s damage bill for both venues came to $50,000. To date this year Mr Booth has had to spend $28,000.
By anyone’s standards, these are intolerable conditions in which to do business. But Mr Booth, who came to town 13 years ago as a golf professional to work at the Golf Club, remains resilient. He has put his hand up to run for council. A leading figure in last year’s Action for Alice campaign, his views on law and order are what you would expect: he stands for zero tolerance; he considers the outgoing council and Mayor Damien Ryan have failed the community on this issue; temporary solutions like Operation Thresher are only “bandaid solutions and short-term fixes if a few weeks later everything is turned upside down again”, he says; council has to make every possible effort to lobby the NT and Australian Governments for a longer term strategy and resourcing.
Yet he admits to not having all the answers and understands the importance of listening to different groups, having “everyone at the table”. This could be suspected to be empty rhetoric but one of my first contacts with Mr Booth was in the context of a small discussion group thinking about how urban design could contribute to a better and safer experience in town. Mr Booth wasn’t an obvious fit in this context but he was there, listening and contributing.
I ask him about the often polarised debate around social issues in Alice.
He suggests the divisions have their roots in a loss of direction for the town.
“We are not a very proud town right now. We can’t sell ourselves because we don’t really know who we are. We can no longer hang our future on The Rock. They have direct flights from Sydney now and their own nine-hole golf course, they don’t need us.
“We have terrible law and order issues, the rubbish around the place is disgusting.
“I want the town to stand up and be proud of who we are and what we’ve got.”
What would it take?
Beyond tough policing, a youth curfew for under 18-year-olds and maintaining high standards in a clean and tidy town, he talks of the importance of a mood change:
“Let’s get some joy and laughter back into the place!”
He suggests a big street party in the mall, no alcohol, full of kids, non-profit organisations selling food, local bands.
“Do this a few times a year!
“Have 20 night-time markets a year!
“If the culture changes, business will get its confidence back.”
We need to work on local economic development: “Take a deeper look at Indigenous cultural tourism, see if there are areas where that can grow.”
There are “tough challenges” ahead for tourism operators, “probably another two years of pain”: “Work closely with them, make sure our voice is strong when we need to lobby on the issues that affect them.”
The best person to do this on behalf of council and the town is Eli Melky, says Mr Booth.
He also likes Steve Brown, indeed he likes all Mayor Damien Ryan’s challengers, but “it’s not a personal thing”: “Eli is very passionate about the town, he’s had 12 months of experience on council, he understands the processes and policies, it would be good to have some continuity.
“Damien Ryan has done a fair job in certain areas, he carries the role of dignitary extremely well but on other issues I believe he has let the town down.”
On a future council’s position in the liquor debate, Mr Booth is not quite as predictable as you might expect: he would be “quite happy” about the introduction of a floor price – that would be “a move in the right direction”.
But he characterises restrictions on take-away trading hours as “prohibition” and he is 100% against them.
He agrees that consumption in Alice – currently around twice the national average – needs to come down. When I ask him how, he talks about social clubs on Aboriginal communities, starting with the Growth Towns where they would make up part of the picture of a normalised town. Their operation could be tied in with alcohol education programs and social bargains, such as “no work, no club”: “Kids would see their parents treating alcohol responsibly and the profits from the club could be put into developing facilities for the towns.”
I put to him that non-Aboriginal drinking in the NT is also significantly higher than the national average – 52% higher is the figure quoted by researcher Professor Denis Gray. Social clubs on communities would do nothing to address that.
He’s not aware of this statistic but “if it’s one and half times, that’s quite strong,” he concedes. He can see why it might be the case – a lot of social gatherings and barbecues, given the relative dearth of other entertainments, lead to a lot of drinking – but he doesn’t suggest the need for any action.
On improved management of the Todd and Charles Rivers, he’s “fully behind” it.
“I love the Todd. It’s very unique and should be treated with the respect needed to show we care about its dignity.”
On tree protection, it’s ‘yes’ to what it takes to protect street trees, but ‘hands off’ trees on private property.
On graffiti removal, he says property owners, whether business or residential, are responsible for looking after their property and therefore for graffiti removal. And council has it about right if it provides assistance when a property is repeatedly targeted.
On the CBD revitalisation, he’s not confident that the current projects – opening the northern end of the mall to traffic and the redevelopment of Parsons Street – will have a big impact if the social mood and evening activities don’t change.
That’s a bit of a chicken and egg situation. The mall needs “lots of restaurants, bars and cafes”. He also likes the idea of casual vendors, for instance of coffee, icecream, pancakes, flowers – whatever it takes to bring people into the area, especially after hours. But to get business to the point of confidence where they will make that investment, anti-social behaviour needs to be dealt with.
Daytime, another issue in the CBD is carparking: “People are always complaining to me about it.” He wants to identify more carparking options but would also like to investigate the possibilities of improved public transport.
If elected, he would want also to scrutinise rates and charges, such as dump fees, to see whether they can be held at current levels or even decreased.
Last meeting of 11th Council descends into chaos
Relationship between Mayor Ryan and Alds Melky and Habib Bitar has become unworkable
By KIERAN FINNANE
The final meeting of the 11th Alice Springs Town Council started with fine sentiments and a few tears but descended into a brawl before the night was out.
The aldermen not seeking re-election – Murray Stewart, Sandy Taylor and John Rawnsley (Jane Clark was absent) – were presented with framed certificates acknowledging their service by Mayor Damien Ryan.
They all spoke, with undoubted sincerity, about the privilege and honour of the role and Ald Taylor cried, as she did on the day of her investiture four years ago.
The meeting then proceeded fairly calmly, often even blandly, until questions without notice, when Ald Rawnsley demanded of Ald Samih Habib Bitar an apology for what he considered a “highly offensive” remark.
Ald Habib Bitar, who is seeking re-election and also running for mayor, had apparently compared council’s approach to graffiti removal (requiring the property owner to act, with penalty for non-compliance) to a measure of Adolf Hitler’s Germany. He refused to apologise, arguing that the comment was historically accurate – a comparable measure had been introduced in Germany in 1941, he said. Council’s by-law was a “re-victimisation of the victim” and an attack on human rights, he contended.
The ensuing slanging match saw Ald Rawnsley accused by Alds Stewart and Melky of “electioneering” by using the meeting to attack a mayoral candidate, with Ald Rawnsley becoming increasingly upset and Ald Taylor leaving the chamber.
Ald Stewart suggested that Lebanese-born Ald Habib Bitar should be cut some slack as he comes from “a very different environment” and may understand the reference to Hitler’s Germany differently. Ald Habib Bitar didn’t much like this line of defence, reminding the chamber that he had lived in Alice Springs a very long time. Somewhere in his on-going heated exchange with Ald Rawnsley, which continued no matter who else was trying to say something, Ald Habib Bitar apparently swore and was reminded by the mayor of the code of conduct for the chamber.
Mayor Ryan alternated between joining in – he too was unimpressed by Ald Habib Bitar’s comparison – and trying to restore order, finally calling a five minute break to allow things to cool down. The relationship between him and Alds Melky and Habib Bitar has become unworkable and will provide an ongoing distraction in the new council if it’s not sorted at election time.
The tense atmosphere over-shadowed the more worthwhile initiative of Ald Rawnsley that followed: pale-faced and almost unable to speak, he proposed a motion to call on both the NT and Australian governments to provide more policing resources to Alice Springs “on a sustainable basis”. He linked the call to the announcement yesterday that the Australian Government has provided $53 million to deliver 94 more police to Darwin, primarily to ensure good order at the city’s immigration detention facility. He also linked it to the “continued role of Australian Government policy in this region”. He said that it’s “a fact” that the town’s law and order issues are related to the Intervention.
The motion was carried unanimously. An additional motion by Ald Habib Bitar to have the federal police intervene in Alice was defeated.
PICTURED clockwise from top right: Aldermen John Rawnsley, Samih Habib Bitar and Sandy Taylor.
Alice Springs News defamation case needs to be put into context, says prominent author
COMMENT by BARRY HILL
When historians come to write the history of central Australia, the archive of the Alice Springs News will be uniquely invaluable. For the last 19 years it has been the most intelligent and fearless of the newspapers, one that goes after the news—political AND financial— in ways that its rivals, almost invariably owned by Rupert Murdoch, do not. It is also a paper with a special touch for the cultural life of the community in and around Alice. It is therefore lamentable that the paper has received a judicial heavy body blow.
I am in no position to challenge the details of the judgment except to say that paper’s professionalism has in the past impressed me, as has the quality of its motivation with regard to whatever it is reporting. If the paper was in the wrong, legally, I feel sure that one should also take into account its previous general demeanor and its tenacious regard for the public good. Those who know and like the paper will of course be able to put this moment in the necessary historical context. Those who do not, or those who feel they have their own reasons to even be pleased with the judgment, will probably be indulging resentments that have little to do with the public interest. We might want to say, for argument’s sake, that this was a case of fearless reporting that got carried away with itself and deserved punishment, but not punishment at the top of the range, which this seems to have been. What we can’t say is that the paper is one of those that has at last got what was coming to it. On the contrary, it has long deserved prizes for its achievements in journalism.
I should also add, in the interests of transparency, that I am a friend of the paper’s editors. Is also crucial to say that I became their friend very much out of admiration for what they have been doing in this wretched period of Central Australian history.
One last point. As things stand a poorly resourced paper, one that created itself out of grit and social conscience, is in massive debt to a flourishing real estate agent. What is the paper’s future? A deadly question created and left hanging from this case is this: would the Territory be better off if the likes of an Alice Springs News were owned by real estate agents?
Dr Barry Hill (pictured) is the award wining author of Broken Song – T G H Strehlow and Aboriginal Possession. His books The Rock: Travelling to Uluru and The Inland Sea (poems) also arose from a decade of work out of Central Australia.
Horror week of violence puts law and order centre stage in council election campaign
New talent to tackle challenging times?
KIERAN FINNANE talks to two new faces in the councillor contest.
Law and order has moved to centre stage in the local government election campaign, following a horror week in Alice Springs: two suspicious deaths (March 6 and 9, the latter in Antherpe Town Camp), two serious assaults around midnight on March 7 at Little Sisters Town Camp (over one of which star footballer Liam Jurrah has been charged), a domestic violence incident on March 9 in which two people sustained knife wounds at Mount Nancy Town Camp (a stronghold of the Shaw family, usually among the more peaceful town camps), and a daylight attack on March 6 on a teenage girl in an Eastside suburban laneway. And these are only the worst incidents of personal violence. There were also house and vehicle break-ins, property damage and vandalism.
The above list of violent attacks was not complete when Mayor Damien Ryan on March 8 reported his contact with the Chief Minister and the assurances received that a strike force was to be mobilised, bolstered by Darwin officers. “Too little too late”, accused Alderman Eli Melky, seeking re-election and also campaigning for the top job. He wanted to know why Mayor Ryan had not supported him on the issue of a youth curfew; why he had “repeatedly declared” law and order is not the job of the council.
Such is now the fraught atmosphere of this election campaign, with no sign that anytime soon Alice Springs authorities will get a chance to rest on aspired-to laurels. Good work was done over the summer holidays, as noted by Mayor Ryan, with the combined efforts of the NT Government, Police, Town Council and local youth services, but with this latest spike of violence and other crime following close on the heels of the attack on a TV crew and Aurora hotel staff, the spectre of a lawless town is looming large. It’s not new, of course, and it’s interesting to observe the strong field of candidates that has emerged in response to these challenging times.
It fills candidate for councillor John Reid with hope: “This is a very passionately contested election. I feel very positive about many of the other candidates, their passion to represent the interests of the town, the policy-driven perceptions driven by strong research of people like Edan Baxter. We need that.”
Mr Reid, a researcher himself at the Centre for Remote Health, has lived in town for 25 years. That’s almost as long as Jade Kudrenko has been alive. Yet the 29-year-old, who works as a trainer for the Central Land Council’s Indigenous Ranger Program, talks the same language: “I’m for evidence-based approaches,” she says, careful to not commit herself on issues where she feels she doesn’t have the knowledge.
Council not ‘lead agency’ for crime
Ms Kudrenko expresses “real concern” over the spike in violence but says council is not “the lead agency” in dealing with crime and needs to work closely with the NT Government and police. She suggests candidates who feel very strongly about law and order issues should consider running and “having that debate” in the Legislative Assembly elections, due in August.
She doesn’t support a youth curfew: “I grew up in Alice Springs. I went to St Philip’s and had great family support but I also had a wide network of friends from all sorts of backgrounds, many of who are achieving great things.
“I don’t see the need to put all youth in the category of criminals, that will only further marginalise them.
“I prefer collaborative approaches such as the one that occurred over the holidays, in which council got involved, providing the aquatic centre and the library as venues for activities for young people.
“I’d like to see that happening more, year round and involving the schools.”
The town’s youth are close to her heart, a matter of daily commitment: despite their own young age she and her husband are foster carers. They have a very active and delightful 11-year-old living with them at present, quite a change from the pre-schoolers they’ve mostly had in the past.
“We’ve got a three bedroom house with a big yard – it’s nice to have children there with us,” she says simply.
Mr Reid is also opposed to a curfew and is interested in the Port Augusta approach, where he says youth have been drawn into decision-making and problem-solving. He would like to see “a coalition of seniors and youth” as one of council’s advisory committees, working together to come up with solutions to problems such as graffiti and vandalism. Such a committee would engender “respect, reciprocity and relationships” – “these are core missing values in our decision-making processes”, he says.
“If Aboriginal youth are displaying anti-social behavior, could it be to do with a lack of leadership and role models to demonstrate respect and reinforce basic values within their family units?
“Simplistic law and order approaches are not going to be able to deal with this. In my 25 years in Alice, I’ve seen them come up time and again. I don’t want to be still talking about the same issues with no progress in another 25 years – if I get to live that long!
“It’s invigorating to see the new talent putting their hands up. It’s high time we get to hear these different voices.”
The outgoing council has been made up of predominantly small business people – not that they all agree with another, far from it. Only Alds Sandy Taylor and John Rawnsley are in the NGO sector. It’s interesting to note that the fresh talent that excites Mr Reid – Chansey Paech, Aaron Dick, Ms Kudrenko, Matt Campbell and Mr Baxter – are all, like himself, from the NGO sector. The remaining new faces – Dave Douglas, Geoff Booth, Dianne Logan, Steve Brown – all have small business backgrounds, with the outlier being Vince Jeisman, long-time electorate officer for Labor MHR Warren Snowdon. The incumbents seeking re-election – Alds Liz Martin, Eli Melky, Brendan Heenan and Samih Habib Bitar – are all small business operators.
Port Augusta’s collaborative approach
Small business interests are certainly important, says Mr Reid. They, like other sections of the community, should be drawn into having an active role in the development of the town. Again he looks to the Port Augusta model, a town with demographics and a profile similar to Alice. In the face of its economic decline and social upheaval, back in 2000 a consultation was conducted in the form of “participatory action research” over two months, bringing all sections of the community together. They collectively developed a Social Vision and Action Plan, with a focus on “social well-being and social capital”.
The collaborative model has stuck, says Mr Reid: as an activity of council, agencies and groups from across the town continue to meet every month to ensure that they’re all making progress in their different fields. Little by little, they have turned the town around, pitching it as the gateway to the Flinders Ranges. The town centre is clean and attractive, the waterfront redeveloped; new industries, such as fishing charters, have been started.
“What we do needs to be driven by strong research,” says Mr Reid.
“The economics of our town need to be understood. Exactly why are all these shops empty? Is there enough economic activity to cover the expenses of the leases? Is there a case for rents to fall?”
Economic arguments are often invoked in the alcohol debate – a tourist town shouldn’t restrict access to alcohol, the argument goes.
Ms Kudrenko again calls for “evidence-based approaches”. What research supports this argument about the impact of restrictions on the tourism industry, she asks. She believes the focus of policy has to be the well-being of the community, first and foremost: “Change needs to happen and if our community becomes a better place, that will promote tourism.”
Mr Reid argues similarly: he calls on the anti-restrictions lobby to “do the research, present the evidence”. This has to be more than an “emotional debate”, he says, and clearly council, like the other tiers of government, is obliged to look at “the bigger picture” and “has a social responsibility to look after those who can’t look after themselves”.
Thinking big picture has to be at the heart of all council business, says Mr Reid. He notes the existence of council’s Indigenous Employment Strategy. (Council has a target of 20% full-time Indigenous employees – in January Indigenous staff accounted for 13.75%. It was 13.6% when the outgoing council took office, with fluctuations throughout the four year term.)
If Mr Reid were elected he would like to look at how this strategy could be strengthened. For example, with council now delivering municipal services to town camps, could employment of camp residents be built into those contracts?
He has spent much of his professional life working in the field of Aboriginal education, training and employment. The success stories are all too few but that’s no reason to throw in the towel: a work ethic needs to be developed amongst Aboriginal people certainly, but there are other issues that need to be addressed, he says, such as racism in the workplace.
No need to reinvent the wheel
Getting away from these thorny issues, we head for the weedy one: council’s trusteeship of the Todd and Charles Rivers.
On this Ms Kudrenko is on solid ground: no need for council to reinvent the wheel, she says, the expert work has been done and forms the basis of a detailed document, the Urban Todd and Charles Rivers Masterplan, dating from 1994. What council has to do is to negotiate with the NT Government to make sure it has the right level of funding to do the job, she says.
“The Todd is the heart of Alice Springs, it has many different values for different people and we need to be able to look after it. It also has a huge impact when it floods and that needs to be managed in an appropriate and safe way.”
On flood mitigation, she says she is glad to hear that the outgoing council has been gathering information. With the dam moratorium to be 
lifted this year, the issue will need to be carefully considered in all its dimensions – cultural, environmental and community safety.
On tree protection, she urges the development of a tree register, especially for the CBD, including trees on private property, where mature trees have “shared values for the whole community”.
If trees have to be removed, there should be “a robust replanting effort”, she says, noting that in the street where she has lived for the last five years at least a third of trees have been removed without being replaced.
“Perhaps if suitable natives had been chosen in the first place, termites would not have affected them,” she adds.
Mr Reid is very mindful of the need to work with Traditional Owners in regard both to tree protection and management of the river. He sees room for a public awareness campaign about council’s dealings with the Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority, to build “a more respectful relationship”.
With the CBD revitalisation, council also has extensive research to fall back on, says Ms Kudrenko. Only two projects are going ahead at this time, but a detailed vision has been developed to guide progress from hereon in.
However, at least one area of council’s management of public space needs revisiting, she suggests, and that’s the ‘removal of graffiti’ by-law. She says many people have talked to her about it and are feeling resentful over what they see as “a re-victimisation”.
“I appreciate what council is trying to do but it needs to be re-addressed to find a better solution.”
Mr Reid agrees with candidate Dianne Logan that the whole CBD, not just the mall, needs attention, including traffic management: “Sometimes the area is in grid-lock.”
But the townspeople need to look at their own behaviour too: “Do they really need to get in their car and drive into town for a loaf of bread?”
Council might look at ways to encourage people to use the walking and cycling paths more and to take public transport, he says.
‘Endearing’ Mayor Ryan
On the leadership question, both candidates given Mayor Ryan a tick.
“I don’t know the other candidates well but I’d be happy to work with Damien Ryan,” says Ms Kudrenko. “He’s invested a huge amount of himself in the role, and has maintained a consistent position – people know what he’s on about.”
She believes that, where disagreement has arisen within council, he has “provided respect to both points of view”. (This is something that would be hotly contested by those who have been on the other side of arguments with him, particularly Alds Melky and Habib Bitar.)
Mr Reid says the “confrontational environment” within council has been hard for the mayor.
“There are tensions in most workplaces. You can deal with it by adopting a cultural safety policy, where at all times you don’t play the man, you play the ball.”
He says it’s essential for the council to have a good working relationship with the other tiers of government – “it’s what the mayor is supposed to be doing”.
“At the end of the day, voters should ask themselves, who do they want to be representing the community when there are negotiations with the NT and Australian Governments to get the funds we need to develop our infrastructure and other services and activities.
“Damien Ryan’s record in this regard speaks for itself.
“I’ve never heard him talk the town down and he seems to be able to move comfortably between all different groups in the community. I think that’s partly down to him being a born and bred local. He communicates in an emotional way, with a positive approach. These are endearing qualities.”
Neither candidate has yet finalised preference deals although they are very much in the air, with Mr Baxter issuing an invitation to all candidates to enter into discussions with him in the course of the coming week.
Ms Kudrenko is an endorsed candidate for The Greens and thus in natural alliance with Mr Campbell, but even they have not decided on whether they will issue how-to-vote cards beyond exchanging preferences with one another.
On her membership of the party, she says it represents “a broad alignment of values” but “we are encouraged to be ourselves”.
If she were elected, there would no need “to go back to the party” on specific decisions. The advantage however is to have a group of people to hand “to bounce ideas off” as well as to support her campaign.
Another important network for her will be her fellow participants in the Desert Knowledge Leadership Program: “We’re all going back into the community now to reinvest the knowledge gained from the program and each other in the different areas we work in.”
One of the program’s most important lessons was in “how to work together”, she says.
“This is what I have to offer at council. I’m local and have a good grounding in the town, an understanding of the place, but I’m young and don’t know it all. I’m very open to working with others.”
Pictured from top: Jade Kudrenko – she wants “evidence-based approaches” and a tree register for the CBD to protect our mature trees. • John Reid – he says Port Augusta’s collaborative approach to arresting the decline of their town has lessons for Alice. • Date palms on Wills Terrace in the CBD, reflecting the town’s Afghan heritage. The tall tree is over 100 years old and sits on the border of council and private land. The squat tree on the corner was the victim of a suspicious fire in the early hours of February 18. It remains to be seen how it will recover from the attack. Tree protection is on the agenda for the new council to deal with.
UPDATE: Police last night arrested and charged a man in relation to the death at Antherpe Camp. He will appear in the Alice Springs Magistrates Court this morning. The dead man, who appeared to have suffered fatal stab wounds, was 36, the man charged, 31. Detective Senior Sergeant Peter Malley from the Major Crime Section confirmed that the two men were known to each other.
Top End cash for containers depots close doors
NT Recycling Solutions (NTRS) yesterday closed the doors of its three depots operating in the Darwin area under the Cash for Containers scheme.
Managing Director Leon Schulz says his firm had paid 10 cents refund for more than two million containers but the reimbursement from the drink manufacturers has either been not paid or not in full.
“NTRS advised the Government of these issues early in the scheme’s existence, however they failed to make any significant efforts to help us resolve the matter until several weeks after the issues arose,” says Mr Schulz.
“The Government’s offer of mediation, which we have accepted, is too little too late. Steps to amend the Act to provide clarity for all parties need to be taken immediately.”
This follows serious concerns about the scheme expressed by the Alice Springs based operator.
Mr Schulz says from January 3 until yesterday his firm operated three depots, Shoal Bay, Berrimah and Yarrawonga.
“A number of issues have arisen within the operation of the scheme, both because of the lack of clarity in the legislation and the failure of the government to properly regulate the scheme and penalise coordinators for breaches of the Act.
“To date there have been issues with the acceptance of containers by the coordinators and payments for the refund amount and reasonable handling fees. Although a small number of invoices have been paid by the coordinators the majority of funds have not been paid and are significantly late.
“We apologise to the individual members of the public, sporting clubs, community groups, charities and all others effected for any inconvenience this has caused however our hand has been forced in this issue and we cannot continue to run the scheme on a charitable basis.
“We encourage them to contact the Minister responsible for the administration of the Act, Karl Hampton (pictured) and voice their concerns over the failure of the scheme to date.”
On Friday Mr Hampton issued the following statement:
“The Government is advised that independent mediation will be undertaken next week between parties in relation to the Container Deposit Scheme.
“Claims made by the parties continue to be thoroughly investigated by the Department.
“As is often the case with commercial disputes, investigations often reveal other sides to the dispute.
“Like South Australia, we have an industry run cash for containers scheme
“We have a good framework in place through the legislation.
“Under this legislation collection depots operate as businesses and need to form appropriate contractual arrangements with the relevant scheme coordinators
“The investigation thus far has not demonstrated clear wrong doing under the legislation in the manner alleged.
“All parties are entitled to some fairness and when there is claim and counter claim around the facts at hand, the most appropriate course of action is to get the parties around the table to try to find solutions.
“That is why Government has made the offer to pay for mediation.
“Government remains ready and willing to assist in resolving the issues faced by parties.
“Darwin and Palmerston continue to remain well serviced for families to get their 10 cents back with collection depots operating through three companies in Winnellie, Berrimah and Pinelands.”
It has now been confirmed that the mediation will be before Tom Pauling, former NT Administrator, early in the week.
PHOTO at top: Part of the depot in Smith Street, Alice Springs.
Sporting identity lashes out at real estate figure over boycott of children's charity.
By ERWIN CHLANDA
The chair and founder of the Desert Sports Foundation, Murray Stewart (pictured), says Framptons Real Estate principal Andrew Doyle had withdrawn two teams from his company from a children’s charity event.
Mr Stewart says he had a call from one of Mr Doyle’s staff this morning saying Mr Doyle did not wish to “give money to Murray’s charity”.
The exchange followed the publication yesterday of a comment by Mr Stewart and his wife, Brigida, on a story in the current Alice Springs News Online edition.
Mr and Mrs Stewart expressed support for the News following this week’s Supreme Court decision in a defamation case brought by the other Framptons principal, David Forrest.
Mr Stewart says Mr Doyle phoned him yesterday, expressing his annoyance over the Stewarts’ comment.
Mr Stewart says after the cancellation today of the Frampton teams’ participation he left a message for Mr Doyle about the matter but did not receive a response.
When asked by the Alice Springs News for a comment Mr Doyle emailed today: “It’s not true, publish at your own peril.”
We put this to Mr Stewart and he has subsequently spoken to Mr Doyle.
Of that phone call Mr Stewart says: “He said, with great clarity, ‘following the phone call I had with you yesterday, I’m not prepared to spend David Forrest’s money on that’.”
The Alice News also put to Mr Doyle the following questions: Did any of your staff members cancel the nomination of the two teams? If so, who? Are these teams now participating? If so, why the change of mind?
Mr Doyle provided the following comment: “Congratulation Erwin you continue to prove what a fantastic journalist you are. You have again found a reason to have a shot at Framptons.
“This is major breaking news Framptons Boss withdraws one social bowls team.
“After 50 years in the industry this must be one of your biggest stories. Glad I could assist.”
Mr Stewart has confirmed that the teams will not be participating in the charity event.
The defamation case against the News arose from one article that was part of news coverage over more than a year about the Framptons New Homes scheme and collapsed building company, Carey Builders.
Mr Stewart, formerly a client of the now defunct Framptons New Homes scheme, says: “I personally am in disbelief that Mr Doyle would seem to have seen fit to hurt his staff, who I know were looking forward to participating in this event.
“Surely he is not seeking to involve our great foundation in a matter which the foundation has never sought and will never seek to be involved with?
“This community never ceases to amaze me. The quality of our people is what in my view makes this town iconic.
“Despite our differences, our many challenges, and our varying positions on how meet those challenges, we’ve always rallied around one another to support a good cause.
“This is why today I am very appalled by having been told that Andrew Doyle has pulled his two teams out of the Mista Shaun Challenge Cup which is a Desert Sports Foundation event.
“This cause is to support families in meeting the costs associated with sending children away to compete in sporting events, which we believe aids in creating strong and mature young men and women.
“The event is also in honour of Mista Shaun who contributed so much to our community.
“In my time in this town this is the first occasion where a corporate identity has apparently sought to wreak vengeance on a local charity in this fashion.
“I hope and I trust I will never ever come across such apparent behavior again.
“We must all rise above these matters when a good cause such as this is paramount in welding our community together.
“I have never perceived the foundation as ‘my’ foundation.
“It belongs to the community of Alice Springs.”
Solar-powered butterflies and robo-bees
One morning this week I arrived to work to find the entire mall off power. This meant that we couldn’t roll up the electronic security shutters and open for trade. It also meant that I could have stayed in bed an extra half hour.
Following last week’s eating locally challenge it was good to be challenged in anther way that brought to light the incredible dependency we have on electricity. I guess we all know that in theory without power things come to a grinding halt pretty quickly. I mean we didn’t have any candles at the café, so to even be able to see inside we needed to buy some, but none of the supermarkets were able to trade either.
My boss had been running fingers crossed on empty the last few days and thought she had better not continue to tempt running out of fuel. She left her car at the servo in the end, as they couldn’t trade either.
As I sat out the front of Soma waiting for the whir of the electrics to resume I wondered what sort of back up security systems the banks have and what does Alice Solar City really mean? I wondered about the increasing mechanization of things, with so much electronic stuff beyond the manual manipulations of most people.
In what I found to be a great show of irony the Australian Photovoltaic Association’s website was experiencing technical difficulties and I couldn’t bring up the report on impacts for the grid in Alice Springs as PV system installations continue to grow.
Anyway, for a while now I have been following the plight of bees: numbers are in rapid decline and very few countries are left with healthy bee populations. The incorporation of bacterial disease, Bacill Thuringiensis (BT), into genetically modified corn by companies such as as Monsanto has been linked to Colony Collapse Disorder. The BT is intended to kill any insects that eat the crop. In the case of bees however, contact with BT pollen has a delayed side effect, weakening the bees’ immune system. Bees start not being able to survive regular run-ins with mites and parasites. The short story is the resulting abandonment of hives. At the moment GM corn is not grown in Australia though I have heard rumblings about changes to legislation to allow greater export opportunities for GMO products.
I was going to take a snazzy macro shot of a bee in my garden but surprisingly (no sarcasm intended, I do have a flourishing garden) I couldn’t find one. All is not lost though what with the Robo-Bee or Micro Air Vehicle. Geared for pollinating, espionage and dropping nano-technology sized bombs, the Robo-Bee is another example of the science’s mastery over our natural environment. Further along this demented garden path, I saw a solar-powered butterfly at a local nursery, life sized and realistic! Online they are advertised as, “a must and will bring your garden to life!” Really? Maybe, but I’m pretty sure that without the real deal pollinator squads, the feeding of seven billion people is set to become an even greater challenge.
It’s really no wonder that I am passionate about food from dirt to dish – it’s an area of bottomless interest and intrigue with good guys, bad guys, cloak and dagger and smoke in mirrors type of goings-on. I sometimes feel a little dizzy at the spectacle, particularly around something that intuitively ought to be so much simpler. I mean, Robo-Bees and solar-powered plastic butterflies? I guess though that even historically the meeting of basic needs (and rights) hasn’t always been at all straightforward either.
Photo: Solar-powered plastic butterflies or the real thing? I know what I’d choose.
How can we all be winners?
KIERAN FINNANE talks to three candidates for the upcoming Town Council election.
Work together, get past the difficulty of differences of opinion, work with the whole community, for the good of the whole community: sounds obvious, sound perhaps soft, but it was a message delivered with convincing emphasis from all three Town Council candidates I spoke to for this article.
They are an assorted lot. Greater diversity is on the cards with the change to the way votes are counted in local government elections, and perhaps the likelihood of a diverse council is delivering candidates who welcome the opportunity of working with its inevitable challenges.
Despite their varied backgrounds, Aaron Dick, Dianne Logan and Matthew Campbell share a number of broad aims: rejuvenation of the town centre, doing what council can to stimulate business in the CBD, developing a greater connection with the river, protection of mature trees, much more shade, more activities for young people.
Alcohol policy and flood mitigation – in this, the year when the 20 year moratorium on a flood mitigation dam north of the Telegraph Station will be lifted – were recognised as thorny, perhaps the latter even more than the former.
While none wanted to comment too much on the mayoral race, all expressed respect for the way Mayor Damien Ryan has handled his role.
Aaron Dick (also known as Charlie) manages the Alice branch of the disability organisation, Life Without Barriers. Before that though he worked as a project officer for the NT Government on the development of the Alice Springs Alcohol Management Plan. He says so with a rueful smile, fully aware of what a long way we have to go to get on top of this problem. His familiarity with the issues means he’s not shy of discussing them.
He sees alcohol abuse as a national problem, experienced in a concentrated way here and particularly so amongst Aboriginal people. However, he says the community needs to recognise that Aboriginal people themselves have long been trying to grapple with the issues and that there are many good Aboriginal people who either do not drink or who do not abuse drink and want to see solutions.
Town Council has a role under Liquor Act
He says the Town Council has an important role in communicating to the NT and Australian Governments about the way alcohol issues are experienced here. Indeed the council is written into the Liquor Act as the body to be taken into account when gauging local views.
He thinks the focus of the debate on restrictions versus no restrictions is unhelpful.
“The current restrictions are workable.
“Like many Territorians, I don’t mind having a drink and if I want one, I can certainly find one.
“People are kidding themselves if they think there’s a problem gaining access to alcohol in this town.”
He supports a take-away free day and broadly the approach of the People’s Alcohol Action Coalition (PAAC), though he is not entirely convinced of the usefulness of a floor price.
He says a practical step that council can take is to help the other tiers of government work out what is actually going on in Alice Springs with people coming in from the bush.
Originally from the Western Australian wheatbelt town of Goomalling, he lived in the Kimberley before coming here seven years ago. In Kimberley towns, councils were better able to manage the influx of visitors, because, it seems to him, they came in smaller numbers – perhaps a group of 20 to 30, in contrast to “whole communities of 50 to 100 people” arriving in Alice.
“We all need to understand the actual situation. I would suggest the local Arrernte people are bemused as well about what’s happening.
“Everyone has a right to access the facilities of Alice Springs – that’s a given – and while we advocate for tourists to come to our town, we can’t be seen to be advocating against visitors from our own region.
“A key strategy for council is to work with outlying communities to come to an agreement about acceptable social norms while people are in town. With some diligent work, that’s achievable.
“It’s about what everybody wants. There’s a degree of ill-informed views on both sides of the social/racial arguments.”
He says council’s relationship with the native title body, Lhere Artepe, is not as strong as it should be, though he recognises that Lhere Artepe’s “internal issues” have been partly to blame. But the new council should work closely with Ian McAdam and the new leadership group in Lhere Artepe.
Curfew ‘not supported by youth’
He recognises alcohol-related crime as a serious issue for the town but doesn’t want to see other issues – for instance, young people out on the streets at night – bundled up with it. He rejects the idea of a youth curfew for the simple reason that “it is not supported by youth”.
“We were all young once. They’ll just say, ‘I’m going out – try and stop me!'”
He also challenges candidates who advocate a curfew to “call it what it is – an Aboriginal youth curfew”.
“We need to tease the issues out in council and look for solutions.”
These can be found, at least in part, in a youth activities program – it certainly seemed to work over the summer, particularly the well-attended police-run Blue Light discos.
The Town Council is trustee for the Todd and Charles Rivers. I ask Mr Dick for his views on council’s work in this role.
By way of broad comment, he says council should support any processes that protect the environment. More specifically though, council could better assist the community to understand the significance of the many sacred trees in the river whose protection is “important for everybody”.
There’s work for council to do to capitalise on the Todd’s potential as a river in the town’s midst: “It should be recognised and appreciated like the rivers are over in the east.”
Work in the river and throughout the CBD could “feed into improved tourist numbers”. The revitalisation process has been “extremely slow”: “The internal mechanisms of councils and governments are a mystery to the world!”
Getting cracking on the revitalisation projects “must be a primary concern for council”.
The new council should also make serious progress on a cultural centre: not just an Aboriginal cultural centre – “we have outgrown that need” – but a solar-powered cultural and historical centre for the whole community.
An an ideal place to locate it, he says, is in the new subdivision of Kilgarrif, south of the Gap: “Make it the first thing tourists see when they get off the plane.”
And while we’re at it, let’s build “the world’s biggest amphitheatre”, he urges, with a fantastic calendar of events to take advantage of our ideal weather for outdoor entertainment during much of the year.
From the macro to the micro: let’s have more trees.
Town is ‘devoid of shade’
“We need trees and shade. This town is devoid of shade, not only in the streets but in the sporting ovals. It’s abysmal!” says the keen cricketer and footballer.
And we need fewer carparks in the CBD: “There are way too many”, occupying many of the corner sites of the town centre.
Would he support a tree protection by-law, covering not only street trees but mature trees on private property?
“What could be the harm in doing that?”
When I suggest that there are some who think that nobody should be able to tell a private property owner what to do, he comments on our “culture of complaint”: “You’d give some of these people a $10 note and they’d complain that it was too crinkly!”
On flood mitigation and the possibility of a dam on the Todd he said the issue is certainly topical, with the extensive flooding that being seen in the eastern states. But here in Alice, while “it shouldn’t be an afterthought” for councillors, he says that at this stage he doesn’t have the information he needs to be able to make an informed comment.
All that in an interview with little notice, without a note, a policy paper or any hesitation to respond to questions – in short, a lively discussion with an engaged citizen.
Dianne Logan’s approach is different, perhaps because of her professional work in event organisation: she likes to be well-prepared. And on the question of rejuvenation of the CBD she is. “Let’s get it happening” is her slogan, designed to energise what has been quite a drawn-out process (dating back to mid-2008). The council’s $5m kitty for revitalisation projects at the northern end of the mall, made available by the NT Government, is only part of what needs to be done. Her focus is on the whole CBD and not so much on infrastructure works as activities to “make a place for community – the whole community, incorporating our history, culture and art”.
“We can’t go backwards, we have to work with what we’ve got.” And that’s already not bad – “Look at our weather!” – and really “we’ve got a lovely town” that needs to be restored to its status as a “premium tourist destination”.
Vibrancy can’t be a once a fortnight matter: “There have to be things happening all the time, day and evening.
“Everyone needs to work together to make that happen – there are too many groups working separately.”
The Town Council needs to work hand in hand with other groups. Such as? She names business, industry, the Territory and Australian Governments.
What about Aboriginal organisations?
“They are part of the community anyway. I don’t want to focus on divisions.
“Let’s draw on the ideas that have been successful elsewhere, like the Renew Australia movement, and let’s make this successful for our town.”
“My town”, adds the born and bred Alice Springs woman.
She sees beautification of the Todd River as essential to the rejuvenation of the town centre: shops, cafes, activities need to face the river to bring it into the CBD.
She sees models for the development of the river banks in the sections along Sturt Terrace in Old Eastside and at the Gap.
Her ideas for a town-wide “Adopt a park” scheme could perhaps be extended to sections of the river.
‘Work with what we’ve got’
As for council’s management of fire risk abatement and the protection of trees, again, “work with what we’ve got, work within the guidelines, it’s not that hard”.
And generally, more attention needs to be given to keeping the town looking tidy – street and footpath maintenance could be improved.
She is reluctant to comment on liquor issues, seeing them as a minefield: “If I get onto council, I’ll have to do a lot of research and work with other councillors to see what could be done.”
On law and order, a perennial topic for council at least in regard to its lobbying power, she wants to see more police but also feels that a more vibrant town centre would take care of some of the problems.
It would be “a bit sad” to see a youth curfew: “I grew up here, we had issues in those days but we never had a curfew.
“I wouldn’t be pushing for it.”
On the other hand she would push for a community centre with a focus on youth and recreation.
As for trees, she loves them and hates to see them go.
“We have some experienced arborists in town who can show us how to protect our trees in public and residential places – let’s work with them.”
On flood mitigation, she’ll wait to do more research.
Matthew Campbell has done his research on the history of putting a dam on the Todd. Once the moratorium is lifted, the key to going forward is to work with Traditional Owners, he says.
“Given the incredible importance placed on those sites by custodians, we can’t hope to come up with a good outcome for the town without working with them.”
It may come down to a values balancing act: weighing up the costs to social cohesion and cultural heritage as opposed to the potential costs of a destructive flood.
To work through such a debate it would be “important to have the values out in the open”, says Mr Campbell.
A research officer for Charles Darwin University, he works in the area of community engagement and conflict resolution – certainly relevant for council business. An insight he has gained from his work is that conflict has a better chance of resolution if it is tackled early: “When the seeds are there, that’s the time to do something about it. Once it’s fully emerged, it’s almost too late.”
He hopes the new council can start afresh with its relationships, going well beyond an attitude of “for me to win, you have to lose”. If the approach to decision-making is “how can we all be winners”, then the decisions have a better chance of being “implemented, owned and sustainable”.
“I’d be prepared to try and work with anybody,” says this committed member of The Greens, “but I’ll have to wait and see if that’s achievable in the real world.”
Social cohesion – the prism for all decision-making
His emphasis on good decision-making processes and relationships is not just idealism. Working towards “social cohesion” is written into the Local Government Act as a key role for council alongside the delivery and maintenance of facilities, infrastructure and services, resource allocation, working cooperatively with the other tiers of government and providing a “voice” for Alice Springs. That all needs to be done “well and collectively”.
Mr Campbell, originally from country Victoria, near Benalla, where his family still have a beef stud, has lived in the Territory since 1999 and in Alice since 2005. He’s the father of two young children and this town is the place where he wants them to grow up. That’s another reason for him to set a premium on social cohesion: “Everyone wants to feel positive and safe in their town. Council needs to look at alcohol policy through that prism.”
In principle, he doesn’t support a youth curfew but again, council would need to thoroughly examine all the issues and make its decision “through prism of social cohesion”.
He’s all too aware, at this time of his life, of the issues surrounding child care (he’s active on the Braitling Child Care Centre management committee) and this area together with youth services and activities is thoroughly deserving of council’s attention and long-term planning.
If he were elected to council he’d be having a good look at council’s masterplan for its sporting facilities. He plays sport himself – football for Pioneers when he first came to town, tennis still. The town is well-endowed with facilities and they provide important venues for people of all backgrounds to come together, he says.
This is also how he sees the town centre: it needs to express the town’s sense of itself as a vibrant place for people of all cultures and ages, where “the things that unite us are stronger than the things that divide us”.
Linking the town centre to the river is “a really good idea”: “As long as the town faces away from the river there is no great incentive to look after it.”
The centre also needs better connection with the suburbs. The revitalisation vision already talks about better connection to the three hills; spreading out from there, especially via a network of bike and walking paths, would also foster greater vitality.
Looking after trees needs a strategic approach: council needs to make decsions based on technical advice, taking public safety seriously but recognising also that “shade is incredibly important”.
Mr Campbell is one of two Greens candidates in this election (the other is Jade Kudrenko). He feels that The Greens is the political party that best reflects his world view. If a situation on council brought him into conflict with the party in any way, he would hope to apply a good decision-making process to that situation: work out what the values at stake were, as well as the objectives and the criteria on which a decision was to be made.
“The Greens are not telling me, or Jade, what to do. We’ve been through a pre-selection process and from there they trust us to be good spokespeople and representatives.
“The main motivation for me in standing for this election is be involved in participatory democracy.
“If I were elected, I’d see the most important part of my job as talking to people, all sorts of people and agencies, to find out what they are thinking and take that into the council decision-making process.”
Pictured, from top: Aaron (Charlie) Dick – we need more trees and shade throughout the town, and fewer carparks in the CBD! • Dianne Logan – “Let’s get it happening!”, she says of rejuvenation of the CBD . • Matthew Campbell – as long as the town turns its back to the river, there won’t be much incentive to look after it.
Wanted: big fresh tourism ideas
Out of a lot of ideas put on the table there were no new major ones at a poorly attended meeting on Tuesday.
It was called by the government’s Tourism NT, in the lead-up to its new strategic plan.
Tourism in Alice Springs mostly dropped from 2009/10 to 2010/11, according to figures released this week by Tourism Research Australia.
Domestic visitor nights declined 5.9% although visitor numbers rose 6.3%.
International visitor nights declined a massive 21.3%, and visitor numbers, 5.7%.
Long-time industry figure Ren Kelly, who attended the meeting, says the 20-odd people present put forward a national indigenous culture centre, an idea raised many times before.
It was suggested it may be located at the western side of The Gap, at the base of the northern flank of the ranges.
People attending deplored the loss of Alice Springs’ outback character and suggested suitable architecture should be mandated when new building permits are issued in the CBD.
And “adventure tourism” should be enhanced, offering such sports as abseiling, mountain bike riding and skydiving.
Mr Kelly says the idea of a cultural festival, similar to the one staged to mark the centenary of federation, was raised again.
The spectacular event featured hundreds of corroborre dancers from across Australia, performing on simple sand stages, and stealing the show from stars including Christine Anu, who were performing on a vast stage some of which was flown in by cargo aircraft at massive expense.
Meanwhile the Fair Work Ombudsman has recovered almost $50,000 back-pay for 136 hospitality workers in Alice Springs.
Fair Work inspectors recently door-knocked 11 hospitality businesses in Alice Springs to ensure their compliance with record-keeping and time and wages obligations.
Six of the 11 were fully compliant, while five businesses recorded contraventions relating to the underpayment of minimum hourly rates of pay and penalty rates.
Pictured: Arrernte men doing Alice proud at the Yeperenye Festival in 2001. From our archive.
Police seek public assistance after girl, 15, attacked, woman found dead
UPDATE
Detectives from the Southern Investigation Division have released the name of a person who may be able to assist with inquiries into the suspicious death of a woman on March 6.
He is 48 year-old Frank Eggley.
He’s described as Aboriginal, 175cm tall and of a heavy build.
He also has a medical bandaging (or similar) on his left shoulder, with his left arm hanging by his side.
Detective Acting Senior Sergeant Leith Phillips said Police are seeking the whereabouts of the man: “Frank Eggley is believed to be the partner of the deceased and Police would like to talk to him in relation to this incident. We request anyone who knows where he is to contact Police.”
The body of the 42-year-old woman was found in a unit at the Mokari Flats on Nicker Crescent.
Police have released descriptions of two men they are searching for in relation to an attack on a 15-year-old girl yesterday afternoon.
Detective Sergeant Trent Abbott said both men are suspected to be in their 20s.
“One was described as being of solid build, dark complexion and wearing a black hoodie with the hood pulled up.
“The other man had a very dark complexion, skinny build and was wearing a white cap with hair sticking out from under it. The man had a long rat’s tail with yellow and black beads, long enough to reach his shoulders.
“If anyone saw these men yesterday or knows them from the description could they please contact police on 131 444 or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
“The teenager was walking through an alley between Winnecke Avenue and Wallis Street in Eastside at about 5pm yesterday when one of the two men pushed her to the ground,” Detective Sergeant Abbott said.
“One of the offenders held a hand over the girl’s mouth and punched her to the face while the other tried to grab her handbag and a laptop.
“The girl managed to hold onto her bag and struggled with the offenders, biting one on the right arm.”
Detectives have also released the description of a person who may be able to assist with inquiries into the suspicious death of a woman.
Alice Springs News loses defamation case
The Supreme Court this morning decided in favour of David Forrest, a principal of Framptons First National Real Estate, who brought a defamation action against Alice Springs News Managing Editor, Erwin Chlanda, and the publishing company, Erwin Chlanda Pty Ltd.
The decision is in the sum of $100,000 plus interest. The issue of costs is yet to be decided.
The action arose from one article that was part of news coverage over a period of more than a year, of a situation affecting some 12 local families, home buyers, clients of the Framptons New Homes scheme and collapsed building company, Carey Builders Pty Ltd. The home buyers suffered significant financial losses and anguish.
This is not the end of the story but at this time I make the following statement:-
It is the first time in my half century working as a journalist that I have had to stand trial for defamation.
The arduous experience of conducting my defence without legal representation, and with a minimum of legal advice, is motivating me to do as much as I can to get behind the current push for reform of the way our society deals with defamation.
The present system is a great impediment to freedom of speech.
There is a vast gulf between what the law and the courts can demand, and what the readers expect from us, the journalists, and our duty to inform.
Rich people are vastly more likely to win than poor people. They can set on to journalists and publishers, lawyers receiving extraordinary levels of remuneration in a rigid court process that can result in the ruin of a medium and its staff.
With the recent Finkelstein Review, these issues are well and truly in the public arena nation-wide.
This case cost my wife and colleague Kieran Finnane, our family and myself not only the small amount of money we could afford for limited legal advice, but more than a year of sustained effort and anxiety.
We will be doing our best to assist reform efforts that will serve our readers, the people we write about and our profession.
The Alice Springs News Online will continue publication and maintain its five million word (and growing) online story archive dating back to 1997. (The hard copy archive dates back to 1994.)
Erwin Chlanda, Editor
See also prominent author Barry Hill’s comment on how the loss needs to be put in context.
How the new counting system may give us a more diverse town council
By ERWIN CHLANDA
A new system of counting votes may result in a more diverse town council after the elections on March 24.
Diversity certainly isn’t a feature of the Mayoral poll: To a man – pardon the pun – the five candidates are male, white, middle-class, middle-age small businessmen.
The only apparent distinction is that the four challengers of incumbent Damien Ryan have links, some tenuous, with the vocal Advance Alice movement, and that they all want to get rid of Mr Ryan.
How this will translate into preferences as the campaign unfolds remains to be seen.
However, the new voting system is very likely to generate more diversity among the eight councillors, to be chosen from a field of 15 candidates representing much of the town’s broad social spectrum.
Unlike in the previous system, candidates for councillor will not need to reach 50% plus one, but a smaller quota, a key factor in the new system.
This makes it less likely for people from powerful groups – interest, commercial, regional, ethnic, for example – who have many electors, to dominate the councils.
It is more likely for smaller groups to get their candidates up.
The new voting system – the Single Transferable Vote Proportional Representation (STVPR) counting – is a bit of a mouthful but it’s quite simple, at least so far as the Mayoral count is concerned.
The count for Mayor (one vacancy only, of course) works like this:-
Alice Springs has 14,239 enrolled voters. Let’s say 70% cast valid votes – which is about the norm – this would result in 10,000 ballot papers to be counted.
Let’s say the candidates are, in order of first preference votes, Fred, Julie, Gus, Anna and Harry.
In the first count none of them gets the “quota” which is 10,000 (the number of formal ballots) divided by the number of vacancies plus one, and add one – that’s 5001 ballots.
If no-one is elected in the first preference count – they all fail to reach the quota – the candidate with the least number of votes, Harry, is eliminated.
On ballot papers where people were voting “1” for Harry and have put “2” (their second preference) against another name, that vote now goes to the candidate indicated by the “2”.
A new count is done.
If the quota is now achieved by a candidate, that candidate is elected and we have a Mayor.
If not, then whoever is now the candidate with the least votes will be eliminated.
This may not be Anna, because the distribution of Harry’s preferences may have advanced her in the count.
Again, the bottom-scorer’s preferences will be distributed.
Further counts will take place until one of the candidates reaches the quota.
The count for Councillor, however, could be a quite a brain snapper.
The election of Councillors follows similar lines to the Mayoral counts, except that preference votes are transferred but not necessarily at their full value … and this is where it gets tricky.
Again, the formula for the Quota will apply: In Alice Springs – in the reasonable assumption that there will be 10,0000 valid ballots – it will be 10,000 divided by 8 vacancies plus one and add one, that’s 1112 or approximately 11% of the vote.
Anyone getting that number of votes or more is automatically in. (If no-one gets quota, the candidate with the least number of votes is excluded).
If a candidate is elected, the next thing is the distribution of the votes the elected member has received in excess of the quota.
For example, front runner Rita got 1217 votes which means a surplus above quota of 105. Her preferences went to Amy (252), Myrtle (428) and Jim (537).
Now a factor is applied to work out what fraction of these votes is passed on to the other candidates.
That factor is Rita’s excess over the quota divided by her total vote, namely 105 divided by 1215 which equals .086419.
So Amy gets 252 times .086419 equals 21votes, Myrtle 36 and Jim 46 (no rounding).
The same is done with the excess votes for any second candidate already elected.
The new vote totals are checked to see if any candidate has now reached quota. If they have, they are elected and any surplus votes are distributed. If not, the process reverts to the elimination of the bottom scorer and the allocation of his preferences until enough candidates reach 1112 to fill the remaining vacancies.
For further exploration go to the Electoral Commission’s website then > all information click here > Alice Springs Town Council > Proportional Representation System where you will find three useful links.
Or view an animated presentation “How Your Vote Counts” on the Electoral Commission of South Australia website.
PHOTO: Mayor Damien Ryan – strong on ceremony but soft on leadership, his critics claim.
Big field for local government elections in Alice, candidates short in the bush
In Alice Springs, which has 14,239 eligible electors on the 2012 roll, there is keen participation in the local government elections on March 24, with five candidates vying for the position of Mayor and 15 for the eight positions of Councillor.
It’s different in the bush: In the Central Desert Shire, (2583 electors), the Akityarre and Northern Tanami wards had only as many nominations as vacancies.
In the Anmatjere Ward a supplementary election will be required to fill three remaining vacancies.
In the Southern Tanami Ward an election will be held on March 24, with six candidates for four positions.
In the MacDonnell Shire (3314 electors), the Iyarrka and Luritja Pintubi wards had only as many nominations as vacancies.
In the Rodinga Ward a supplementary election will be required to fill one remaining vacancy.
An election will be held for the Ljirapinta Ward, again with six candidates for four positions.
Candidates are:-
Alice Springs Town Council
For Mayor
RYAN, Damien; BROWN, Steve; MELKY, Eli; BITAR, Samih Habib; DOUGLAS, Dave.
For Councillor
PAECH, Chansey; DOUGLAS, Dave; DICK, Aaron; MARTIN, Liz; JEISMAN, Vince; MELKY, Eli; HEENAN, Brendan; KUDRENKO, Jade; BOOTH, Geoffrey; REID, John; CAMPBELL, Matt; LOGAN, Dianne; BITAR, Samih Habib; BROWN, Steve; BAXTER, Edan Ross.
Central Desert Shire
Elected unopposed:
Akityarre Ward – SCHABER, Louis; BIRD, Liz.
Anmatjere Ward – DIXON, Adrian. (A supplementary election is required to fill three remaining vacancies.)
Northern Tanami Ward – JOHNSON, William; PATRICK, Norbert.
Candidates for election in Southern Tanami Ward
WILSON, Georgina; MARTIN, Dianne; MARTIN, April Nangala; POULSON, Christopher; SPENCER, Jacob; ROBERTSON, Robert.
MacDonnell Shire
Elected Unopposed
Iyarrka Ward – KULITJA, Selina; ABBOTT, Marlene.
Luritja Pintubi Ward – NANGALA, Irene; ABBOTT, Lance; ANDERSON, Sid.
Rodinga Ward – SHARMAN, Greg; HOOSAN, Jacob; DOOLAN, Richard. (A supplementary election is required to fill one remaining vacancy.)
Candidates for election in Ljirapinta Ward
KENNY, Roxanne Mary; INKAMALA, Mildred; ABBOTT, Barry; INKAMALA, Carl; WILLIAMS, Braydon; KENNY, Quinton.
PHOTO: The last time Alice Springs voted in a town council election was a year ago when Eli Melky was elected alderman in a by-election for one vacancy, contested by seven candidates.
Do-it-yourself rescue of battling outback town
A shop for $100,000, a house for $50,000.
By ERWIN CHLANDA
South Broken Hill and Alice Springs have a lot in common so far as their problems are concerned.
They couldn’t be more different in their quest for solutions.
Empty shops, people leaving town, public facilities needing a facelift, the outback magic failing to lure the tourists in numbers aspired to.
The reflex to this in The Alice is for a hundred or so people to go to a public meeting. They complain about the town council or the government not doing their jobs. They clamor for more public money or services, come up with a great many ideas about which they do very little.
There are a few new enterprising businesses people but these are solo efforts, not part of a community push.
At best the council or the government may allocate some funding, engage a consultant, get a report and shelve it.
It seems The Alice could take a leaf out of South Broken Hill’s book.
The poor cousin of the iconic mining town., South Broken Hill is separated from the main part of the city by a hill. As if out of sight, out of mind, the symptoms of decline set in two decades ago: shops in the main street closed. Some were turned into dwellings, some just stayed empty. Of 21 shops only 16 are occupied.
The push is on to get tenants, and some short-time occupancies have been offered to artists and exhibitions.
When the city lost more than one third of its former population of 35,000, the effects were felt most sharply in Broken Hill South.
You can buy a shop – the real estate – for under $100,000 in Patton Street.
The average in Argent Street, the main drag in North Broken Hill, is around $200,000.
Jason King (pictured) says two-bedroom homes go for $50,000, a “nice house” for $200,000 and $300,000 will buy a “very nice” home with a pool.
Now even Coles is abandoning South Broken Hill.
Mr King says the mines are producing more now than ever before but they can do so with far fewer miners: “They don’t need 8000 blokes to go down and do it like they did before,” he says.
Mr King owns Bell’s Milk Bar and Museum in Patton Street. He bought it eight years ago after it had been on the market for three years.
It’s one of the born-again businesses in the main street of what’s now called Patton Village, the ongoing creation of an extraordinary, never-say-die community effort.
Mr King, as one of the leading lights, is spreading the message around the nation, especially through the Desert Knowledge Australia Outback Business Network.
Mr King says the town council is doing its job, looking after a park, refurbishing the rotunda in it, getting more seats, managing the pool and the library which has a pre-school attached.
A local councillor was elected on the back of promises to represent South Broken Hill.
The council and the state government are regarded as stakeholders, “but we have to drive the changes,” says Mr King.
To bring Patton Village back to life, its people would have to do it. No-one else would.
A group, Patton Village Community and Business Association, was incorporated in 2010.
The dynamics developing within the group are unusual.
It’s based on the conviction of the locals that Patton Village is a nice place.
“It’s laid-back, relaxing. When you go there you feel like you’re part of the community, compared to a shopping centre,” says Mr King.
“Tourist villages are a very popular model right around the world.
“
The group’s objective is “keeping what the town already has.
“We don’t want a poor man’s version of a main street nor our park to be a smaller version of the premier park in the town.
“
Decision making is bottom up rather than top down, getting people together, consulting with … I hate that word, actually,” says Mr Hill.
No consultant was employed.
Funding?
The group received the princely sum of $6500, part of which is still in the bank, from the Broken Hill Community Foundation, a capital fund set up by the mines.
It contributes to small start-up businesses an
d micro-funding of innovative projects, says Mr King.
Money plays a surprisingly minor role: rich or poor, the knack is to mobilise all assets that are available – no matter how big or small, he says.
“We don’t rely on anyone’s effort. We achieve what we can with what we’ve got. People are encouraged to contribute.
“
Sometimes only two of the 12 committee members turn up to a meeting. But these two will leave the meeting with a project, a task, a job and they will go and do it.
Given that, patience is a virtue that can be indulged in with confidence: “A dozen empty shops isn’t going to be fixed in a week,” says Mr King, but in time it will.
The group may pay for materials and then volunteers take over.
“Many have never been in a project like this before and they are getting right into it. Sometimes it’s hard to stop them,” says Mr King.
“Hey, we’ve got enough signs now. We don’t need any more!”
Apart from sign-painting other projects so far have been production of a postcard promoting Patton Village, producing radio commercials, a website and a Facebook site.
The group is big on community gatherings, has run film nights in the park and is planning a two months movie festival, screening every Friday.
In The Alice funding, usually from the public purse, is a preoccupation when anything needs to be done. By contrast the SOS group will apply for grants, but so far, this is high finance, Patton Village style.
They held a fete and 16 businesses contributed $2000 worth of prizes.
The one doing the best trade – the pharmacy (“they do OK”) – kicked in a $500 cash prize.
“It was converted into Patton Village dollars which had to be spent in the street,” says Mr King.
“You had to be there on the day to win it, so we had a lot of people coming.
“
It turned out to be a great day: the school choir performed, the 16 businesses were open, three or four community organisations took part and there were 15 to 20 market stalls.
“For our little precinct it was a lot.”
Getting serious about eating local
Last week was One Planet Week, a week in which to challenge our habitual resource use and to live in line with the resources of one planet. In Australia the majority of us consume at the rate of three to four planets … meaning we need to find that many more resources if we want to keep up our current lifestyles. For One Planet Week a partner and I set ourselves the challenge of eating locally for the week, not driving and using as little electricity as possible. This included no air con and in the heat that I’m sure you all remember of last week, this was no small feat. Not switching the air con on at work resulted in an entirely different approach where the day started earlier; lunch was later and longer with a few hours back at the office in the cool of the afternoon. I am all for the type of lifestyle that accommodates the siesta.
I thought I would do a daily journal of our locally sourced culinary adventures. Day one started well enough with mint-from-the-garden tea and eggs on Kankun but after day three of every kind of variation of these ingredients it was getting rather repetitive.
I think that my planet partner was getting quite hungry as she floated the idea of killing one of the house chooks (she is usually vegetarian). And to be honest I was in favour of the chook killing not because of hunger pangs but because I think it had gone mad from the heat. Since that conversation though the chicken pulled itself together and is behaving fairly regularly (I think it overheard us) and also in its favour were a couple of delicious dinner parties to attend.
Now I should probably state that I was not as committed to this challenge as my friend. I pretty quickly decided that discounted food in the specials bin was fair game as too was stuff going limp in the fridge or gathering dust in the cupboard.
Dinner on day three was going to be OK: I pulled out a dusty jar of laksa paste combined with the limp vegies from last week’s veggie box. Oh, if only we had remembered to get an order in for this week! You actually need to be quite prepared and organized for this sort of challenge, which is ironic as it is all in an effort to reduce and simplify consumption.
Have you tried your locally bow-hunted camel jerky yet?
Anyway it wasn’t looking good. A desperate call was put out over Facebook looking for any spare locally grown produce. The response was pretty impressive: locally bow-hunted camel jerky, heirloom eggplants, spinach, grapes, heaps of basil (I’ve made jars and jars of pesto), bush cucumbers and sweet potato leaves, rock melon, cucumber, sage, lemon grass and garlic chives.
I guess the point of One Planet Week was about raising awareness around resource use and it certainly brought us closer to the reality of food security in Alice Springs. My partner in chicken culling thoughts told me that she really got a sense of how “supermarket culture and living across the road from the East Side shops where having imported wine, Dutch butter and organic haloumi at your fingertips at pretty much any time of day gives a distorted perspective of the world.” For me eating locally and steering clear of shops just made for a really different living experience.
The grand finale of the week was a local produce dinner party. Friends came with all sorts of tasty things, fig pumpkin and polenta pie, roasted veggie salad, spinach and beetroot super salad and pesto pizza. I know the flour and polenta weren’t local! That just served to further highlight my already heightened sense of insecurity in Alice Springs when it comes to food. Anyway dinner was great, lubricated with dumpstered-apple cider and a local food home restaurant was born in the course of discussions. We lit candles instead of switching on the lights and wondered at the embodied energy used in the manufacturing process of candles … Either way I think that the failings met during the week were offset by the permaculture blitz at a friend’s property that has created a great big 50 square meter veggie plot!
The harvest of farming illusions
COMMENT by ALEX NELSON
Do we need the Army again to make large-scale farming in the Territory a reality once more?
The World War Two events described in the Alice Springs News story “After Darwin’s bombing, the Army made the desert bloom” sure seems to suggest it.
It was an era of huge population gyrations as the military moved in and out.
And the Army showed that some no-nonsense resolve can indeed make the desert bloom.
Historian Peter Donovan wrote: “From 8 September 1940 to 30 October 1944, the number of troops that passed through Alice Springs totaled 194,852” (a town with less than 1,000 residents before the war).”
However, as the war drew to a close and the military departed, the Territory’s population plummeted.
W. Granger, of the Department of Territories, reported: “In June 1961, the population of the Territory was estimated at 44,500, of whom some 17,500 were aborigines.
“About 12,200 people live in Darwin … and some 3000 at Alice Springs.”
These figures are rubbery as census figures for Alice Springs are recorded as 2,078 in 1947 and 5,124 in 1961, according to Mr Donovan.
The NT’s population did not reach wartime levels until the 1970s; and by 1981, according to that year’s census, it had reached 124,500.
There’s no question World War Two triggered a boom (pardon the pun) for all primary industry sectors in the NT, including farming.
According to historian Alan Powell, the Army commenced purchases of fresh produce from three farmers in the Top End in 1939 but these were hopelessly inadequate to meet the military’s requirements.
After ministerial approval in September 1940, the Army initially acquired 107 acres of land at Adelaide River, and harvests were underway only three months later.
A year later seven more farms, each of 50 acres, were established in the Top End to as far south as Mataranka, plus poultry and bee-keeping, under the auspices of 1 Australian Farm Company.
This was well before the first Japanese air raid on Darwin of 19 February, 1942.
2 Australian Farm Company was formed in October 1943 and was based at Katherine.
Writes Prof Powell: “By mid-1944, a string of farms totaling 345 acres stretched from Coomalie Creek to Spinifex Bore 1100 kilometres further south and army units ran their own piggeries at Alice Springs, Adelaide River and several staging camps between.
“In that year production rose to peak level: 1.7 million kilograms of vegetables and tropical fruit. Honey, chickens and 53,000 dozen eggs came to army stores from the Katherine region.”
Private farms added to this productivity; and the pioneering beef cattle industry was enjoying its first ever sustained profitability with the aid of Army constructed and operated abattoirs.
There was also an experimental platoon that conducted agricultural research with the assistance of CSIR scientists (forerunner to the CSIRO).
It remains a query in my mind whether the Australian Army’s 1 and 2 Australian Farm Companies operating in the NT during World War Two are unique in the history of modern warfare.
Whatever, it’s tempting to think the Army should be returned to complete control of the NT these days, too, as it was in the early 1940s: “The army farms may not have fed the multitudes entirely but in contrast with the previous dismal record of Territory agriculture they were remarkable.”
But Powell also points to inherent problems that bedevil horticultural enterprises in the NT to this day: “Only shortage of suitable labour prevented further expansion.”
In the peak production year of 1944 manpower restrictions were eased “and army labour of any kind became scarce.
“Attempts in mid-1944 to recruit Aboriginal labour – additional to between twenty and thirty already working on army farms – failed through lack of suitable applicants”.
Colonel J. K. Murray, a former Professor of Agriculture at Queensland University, wrote a report in March 1944 highlighting some of the difficulties experienced with labour; for example, “the officer commanding 1 Farm Company estimated that he had forty “bludgers” in his command “who reduce the efficiency of the remainder.
“Farming is an art,” asserted Murray – a truth self-evident to all who have tried it – and he demanded that experienced farmers be sent to the north. “They were not to be had.”
The military’s earlier agricultural success is also illusory “as the army had more farm workers than acres and no need to consider the cost of production”.
At the height of the farming operations in early 1944 there were over 600 personnel involved, a comparatively minor contingent out of the multiple tens of thousands of troops stationed in the north.
Lieutenant N. Kjar, a botanist who provided technical advice for the army farms, warned “the Northern Territory … is definitely not a land of milk and honey waiting to be tapped by the first agricultural adventurers,” says Prof Powell.
It needs to be noted, too, that the Army’s major farming focus in the Territory was at Katherine and predominantly in the Top End, not Central Australia. This reflects the reality of geography as the Territory’s northern region enjoys substantially higher and more reliable rainfall.
The Army’s establishment of its headquarters in Katherine for 2 Farm Company has proven to be an accurate assessment, as this region is now dominant in farm and horticultural production in the NT.
However, the apparent potential for horticulture in Central Australia, recognized as long ago as 1915 by the Rev. John Flynn (no less), has so far failed to come close to meeting expectations.
The current problems besetting Central Australian horticulture is just the latest chapter of a saga stretching back a century, and maybe longer; and this begs the question why this is so.
Until the history of agricultural research and enterprise in Central Australia is fully accounted for, I believe that fondly held tantalizing promise of potential will continue to be a mirage.
PHOTO above right: a great crop of silverbeet at Haasts Bluff Aboriginal community, mid last century. Courtesy Gross Collection – Strehlow Research Centre.
Huge real estate project at stalemate
By ERWIN CHLANDA
A deal to develop 260 residential blocks, a retirement village and shops just outside The Gap is at a stalemate.
The picturesque land, 150 hectares on the southern flank of the ranges, off Ragonesi Road, is owned by Ron Sterry.
The project has been limping along for some 10 years with some of the roads, sewerage and storm water drains in place, but no work in progress at present.
Last year a consortium of local and interstate interests made an offer to Mr Sterry with the intention of starting work immediately towards the completion of the development.
The head of the consortium, David Cantwell, who co-owns a project management and certifying business in Alice Springs, says the offer is worth $15m.
Contracts were drawn up following an undertaking by Mr Sterry to proceed.
However, Mr Sterry pulled out of the deal at the “very last moment”.
Mr Cantwell says the offer had been to assume Mr Sterry’s current obligations, and then pay him a percentage of the value of each building upon completion.
Mr Sterry says: “I rejected the offer because I felt it was not it was not good enough. Contracts were drawn up only in draft form.”
Mr Cantwell says engineering drawings as well as most of the permissions from the government and service authorities had already been obtained by the consortium, at considerable cost, when the negotiations stalled in May last year.
The project was conceived at the height of shortage of residential land in Alice Springs.
PICTURES: Top left – The site from the air. Above right: Planned lay-out and staging of the development. The green square at bottom left of the plan is for use by businesses, tourism and a retirement village. The white rectangles bottom centre are rural residential blocks not part of the Sterry development. To the right of these is the Steiner School. The blue areas are retardation basins, and the mauve ones, sacred sites. The stages of residential development are (from 1 to 6) light green, pink, darker green, yellow, orange and dark green.
More money main means to fix education, no urgency on self-help: Gonski report
By ERWIN CHLANDA
The Northern Territory is mostly at the bottom of the heap of national education indicators, and the nation itself has slid downwards compared with other countries.
The Gonski Report, the Review of Funding for Schooling commissioned by the Federal Government, makes dismal reading.
For example, the Territory has the nation’s lowest proportion – just under 70% – of the 20 to 24 year-old population with Year 12 or equivalent attainment (2008).
That’s for the non-indigenous population.
For the NT’s indigenous population the figure is 24%. The corresponding figure for the other states is at least double that (see graph).
The fix advocated by the report is spending more money – at least an additional $5b – with only very general reference to other measures that could lead to improvements.
True, the brief for the report was to focus on money, but does that make sense when there is much discussion about issues such as the role of parents in study results and – more basic still – school attendance.
The report gives an “indicative estimate” for 2009 of the annual “schooling resource standard” of $8000 for primary school students and $10,500 for secondary.
The report suggests disadvantages such as are hugely common in the Territory should be dealt with by funding loadings.
The scheme, if implemented, would be a bonanza for some bush schools.
There are four categories for the loadings to apply:-
• Size: 10% loading for medium-sized schools in remote locations and 100% for very small schools in very remote locations.
• Low socioeconomic status (SES): 10% if less than one-tenth of students in the lowest SES group. 100% if more than 75% are in the lowest SES group.
• Being indigenous: 40% for schools with between 5% and 25% indigenous students. 100% for more than 75% indigenous students.
• English language: 15% to 25% for each student with limited English language proficiency.
If all four categories apply, the cost per primary student, for example, could rise from $8000 to $30,000 – an investment still without results if parents don’t get their kids to school.
The report limits itself to platitudes when discussing this: “Parental engagement (including carers and legal guardians) has a large and positive impact on children’s learning … parents and teachers should work in partnership to set high expectations and support children in their learning and development … parents should also be supported by the school to contribute to the school’s culture and operation. This works best when the parental engagement strategy is part of a whole-of-school approach, and teachers are offered professional learning on how to effectively engage with parents.
But what if the parents don’t co-operate?
The report is silent on that – and so is the NT Council of Government School Organisations (COGSO).
It welcomes the call for an injection of $3.8billion dollars into public schools and for greater transparency and consistency to public schools funding.
COGSO president Mark Brustolin says the report also “conveys that our schools need to forge connections with parents and the community, as key partners in children’s learning”.
But he stops short of commenting on measures to deal with the reluctance of a significant number of parents to engage in such a process.
Haggle over empties and crushing questions about town council's glass machine
By ERWIN CHLANDA
What’s an empty beer can worth?
And why did the town council spend $850,000 – a grant from the NT Government – on a glass crusher which can process the town’s annual requirement in four days, while rejecting an option costing a quarter of that? The container deposit saga goes on.
Back to the value of a can. As scrap it is 1c.
To the manufacturer now obliged to pay a container deposit levy: 20c.
To the consumer who redeems it at the container deposit depot: 10c.
To the depot doing most of the recycling work: The Alice Springs one is looking for 6.6c but are not getting it as yet. Anything below that, they say, would see them out of pocket.
To the coordinators of the process: 3.4c – or more.
The last two numbers are the subject of an escalating argument: They must add up to 10c which is what’s left of the 20c funding the scheme after the guy dropping in the can to the depot has been paid.
The argument is about how much the depot should get.
In Adelaide it’s 5c average.
But the Alice operator, Stewart Pritchard, of Territory Recycling Depot, says in Adelaide only eight separations are required, whereas in Alice there are three times as many.
Of course that’s taking much more time, and anyway, operating costs are higher in The Alice.
What’s a separation?
Containers redeemed at the depot must be divided up into eight categories (in Adelaide) or 24 (in Alice Springs), and be put into as many different bags or boxes. What’s more, each and every container must be individually recorded.
For example, there are four different categories for aluminium cans, nine for glass (brown, clear and green, respectively, for three different manufacturers); liquid paper board (LPB) times two; plastic times five, steel cans and containers of opaque plastic (HDPE), times two.
Having meticulously separated all that, which requires five full time staff in Alice Springs, the containers are taken interstate where – for recycling – all aluminium cans are put into one heap, and so are all glass containers and all plastic ones, and all liquid paper board and all steel.
So what’s the point of having laboriously separated all this stuff in the first place?
It’s so we know which manufacturer has got to pay how many lots of 20s to fund the new scheme mandated by the NT Government.
Is there not an easier way to find that out?
Yes. The government could mandate disclosure from each manufacturer of how many containers they each send up here, and then charge them 20c per container. (About 70% of containers embraced by the scheme are redeemed at depots, for the 10c deposit per item.)
And then we could go down to one aluminium, three glass colours, one LPB, one HDPE and plastic bottles, one steel cans – eight separations instead of 24.
The money saved by cutting down the number of separations could be used to raise the fee paid to people dropping the containers to the depot, and keeping Alice Springs beautiful.
Also a bit of a puzzle is what’s happening, now that the council is getting out of recycling, to the glass crusher it bought and set up for $850,000 (the machine itself cost $450,000).
It “will remain an important component of council’s facilities at the landfill, particularly with the upcoming redevelopment. This facility will play a vital role in council’s future recycling strategy,” a council spokesman told us last week.
Mr Pritchard estimates that his depot will collect six tonnes of glass a week, or 312 tonnes a year.
The council’s crusher can put through eight to 10 tonnes an hour.
That means the town’s yearly crushing requirement can be met in 34 hours which is a little more than four eight-hour working days.
And remember, the town council isn’t in the glass recycling business any more, at least not the kind glass for which deposits apply.
From Saturday the council will accept glass but not pay for it. Crushed glass can be used in concrete for footpaths.
An agreement to use the town council crusher could not be reached: the asking price of $98 per tonne was not acceptable to the coordinator of the container deposit program. Mr Pritchard has obtained a crusher from an allied company, Veolia, whose cost he estimates at $10,000. That’s one-eightieth of the cost of the council crusher.
This is all the more bizarre when considering an offer to the town council by Andy Lines, of North Concrete, for a joint venture.
He installed a crusher capable of 45 tonnes an hour, processing not just glass but rocks, old concrete from demolitions, and so on. The deal he suggested, talking to Mayor Damien Ryan and a council officer in several conversations, was to share the cost of the machine, with the council paying around $200,000 instead of getting its own for four time that cost.
Mr Lines’ offer was not accepted by the council.
But council CEO Rex Mooney says: “There was just one brief phone call to the Mayor that was referred on to the Director of Technical Services.
“On hearing the details of the request, the Director deemed the machinery not suitable for Council’s purposes and therefore declined the suggestion.
“There was no formal proposal put forward at any point.”
None of this stopped Minister for Central Australia Karl Hampton from gushing, at the launch of the council’s machine in June 2010, as reported by the ABC: “This is the largest glass crusher in regional Australia, what we have here in Alice Springs,” he said.
“This will put Alice Springs well and truly on the map of being a place that is innovative, is looking at ways we can recycle our waste.
“I’m looking for some great results for this glass crusher.”
This crushing story may very well put Alice Springs on the map, but for all the wrong reasons.
UPDATE March 2:
NT Environment Minister Karl Hampton says the NT Government gave the funding to the council to pay for the glass crusher “for use in their recycling efforts at the time when they were running their voluntary cash for containers scheme.
“The crusher belongs to [the council and any questions about its “use and plans should be directed to them.
“We encourage recycling, and provided assistance and in this case and it is a good thing that there is a local option for glass recycling rather than sending interstate.”
Meanwhile the beverage manufacturer Lion Nathon issued a media release firmly rejecting allegations of profiteering in implementing the the NT government’s container deposit scheme.
The statement says: “While suppliers such as Lion have no role in determining shelf prices, we have consistently said that the container deposit scheme would force us to increase wholesale prices to reflect its costs and it’s clear this has led to NT consumers paying more for their beverages.
“This is something Lion has been open about from the start and we have made an absolute guarantee that we will pass on no more than the scheme costs over time.
“It would be far more constructive for the architects of this scheme to focus on fixing the problems they have created, rather than criticising suppliers for trying to manage the implications of their expensive and poorly designed scheme.
“Lion’s prices have risen to reflect the 10c per container deposit fee plus system costs that must be covered.
“These include the costs of establishing collection infrastructure, labour, freight and collections from both central and remote NT communities. Collection and processing costs in the NT are significantly higher than in SA for a range of geographic and system design reasons.
“The handling fee applied already takes into account potential unredeemed deposits and is at the lower end of the potential spectrum of administration costs associated with the scheme.
“Lion will review these costs as the scheme is put into practice with a commitment to not pass on any more or less than the scheme costs over time.”
Meanwhile the Department of Natural Resources, Environment, The Arts and Sport claims scheme has had “a positive start with about three million containers already processed” and people would now get “recyclable green piggy banks as a further reward for bringing in empty containers.
“Cashing in your containers can add up to a lot of dollars and what better place to keep your money than a green piggy bank,” the department says.
PHOTOS: The “largest glass crusher in regional Australia” (top, courtesy Town Council) and Kym Schiller sorting empties into no less than 24 categories (above left).
Police seeking men after alleged indcent assault, invasion of dwelling
Alice Springs police are seeking a man after a woman was allegedly indecently assaulted on Undoolya Road. They say the 28 year-old was approached from behind while walking her bicycle up the stairs to her unit at about 4.30pm yesterday afternoon.
“The woman has struggled with the offender and attempted to use her bicycle as a shield during the assault. She screamed and the offender ran off,” police say.
The offender (pictured in this police comfit) is described as being of Aboriginal appearance and about 15 to 18 years-old. He was wearing knee length board shorts with multiple colours in a triangle or square pattern. He wore a faded black, flat brimmed cap and a dark blue faded t-shirt.
He was clean shaven, with short dark hair, brown eyes and about 170cm tall.
Police are also seeking information about a man who entered a unit in Holterman Court overnight.
Police say a resident woke to discover a male person in her unit at about 5am this morning.
The man fled after being confronted by the resident, running away in the direction of a laneway at the cul-de-sac of Holterman Court.
Police say they believe the alleged offender took items that are unique, including a black Pentax digital camera and a small black pouch containing a blood sugar level testing kit.
People with information were asked to ring 131 444 or contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
Environment loser in container buy-back scheme starting next week?
By ERWIN CHLANDA
The jury is still out in the debate whether the environment will be the winner in the introduction of the new container deposit scheme.
The Alice Springs Town Council’s cans and bottles buy-back initiative makes way next week for the government mandated container deposit scheme which started on January 3.
At the moment the council pays 5c for any can or bottle people drop off at the council’s depot, although some conditions apply.
The new scheme, paying 10c per item, doesn’t cover containers sold before January 3 nor does it accept wine and spirit bottles.
But Stewart Pritchard, the owner of the depot set up for the new scheme, says the range of containers is greater than the council’s scheme.
He estimates that the bottles not covered by it amount to just 5% of the container volume.
Under the new scheme containers are accepted only if they bear the markings 10c SA, 10c SA/NT or 10c NT.
This will include beer and soft drink cans, plastic and cardboard containers, including mixers and energy drinks, glass stubbies and beer bottles, but not, for example, wine and spirit bottles or two litre milk containers.
Mr Pritchard estimates his firm will be receiving 12 million to 14 million containers a year, paying out $1.2m to $1.4m.
The council’s scheme has received 17 million cans and bottles since its scheme started in July, 2009.
Many of these items were collected from public places, making a significant dint into the town’s litter problem.
The collection point for the new scheme is provided by Territory Recycling Depot in 106 Smith Street.
Mr Pritchard says the scheme is modeled on the one long in use in South Australia.
The consumer pays an extra 20c per container. He gets back half of that if he takes the empty container to the depot.
The other 10c is split between the manufacturer and the depot operator. It’s a work in progress, says Mr Pritchard: For example, to apply the SA scheme in the NT isn’t entirely fair, because here the containers have to be separated into 24 categories whereas in SA there are only eight separations.
The new scheme has no significant financial input from the NT Government whereas it financially supported the council’s scheme, contributing $600,000 over the scheme’s life. The council put in $346,000, says council CEO Rex Mooney.
This includes, from the 2008/09 financial year to the present, $56,000 in salaries and $89,000 in overtime.
The total cost of the scheme was $1.066m, including $834,000 paid out to the collectors – 5 cents for each of the nearly 17 million items.
The income was $119,000 for selling the cans as scrap and the NT Government’s $600,000.
Will there be more use for the glass crushing machine bought especially for the council scheme at a cost of $800,000?
“The glass crusher will remain an important component of council’s facilities at the landfill, particularly with the upcoming redevelopment. This facility will play a vital role in council’s future recycling strategy,” says a council spokesman.
Some people are unhappy about the new scheme.
A woman, who spoke to the News on condition of not being named, says she and her husband collected 50,000 cans.
All had been dumped in public places.
They won’t get $5000 for them, as they expected, because these cans may not have been bought before January 3, and may not carry the required markings.
They can still – until March 3 – get $2500 from the council, provided that they can get 100 friends to drop in 500 cans each (the maximum allowed per person), and provided that all these friends live in the Municipality of Alice Springs and the cans came from the Municipality of Alice Springs of Alice Springs.
The conditions attached to either scheme seem to take little account of that fact that the couple’s work has liberated Alice Springs of a huge amount of rubbish. If protecting the environment is the objective, why attach all sorts of conditions?
The question of dates under the new scheme is causing tensions.
For example, does a use-by date of January 2, 2012 printed on a can prove it was bought before January 3, 2012?
Could it not have been old stock in the liquor store, purchased on January 3?
For that matter, could the same not have been the case with a use-by date of December 1, 2012 – or whatever?
There are also batch numbers on the cans, which can be tracked to stores and purchases, but how long would it take to check the batch numbers of 50,000 cans?
Mr Pritchard says clients generally accept the new rules but some try to pass off old cans for new ones – including some that are faded from exposure to sun.
How quickly does a VB can fade?
Mr Pritchard says his firm is giving a fair amount of latitude at the moment, and most customers are reasonable.
Up to 20,000 containers a day have been redeemed.
At least one client was not happy: “I’m going to take the stuff to the f…ing dump,” was his answer after an argument over old vs new cans.
A compromise has now been found, says Mr Pritchard, and it will all be easier when the pre-January 3 stock is used up and only clearly qualifying containers will be handed in.
What will not change is that many bottles cannot be redeemed: those not qualifying under the new scheme can be taken to the Smith Street depot or the council dump.
But you won’t get a cent for them.
How many will re-appear as dangerous litter, again blighting this town?
Meanwhile the government’s project manager Craig Ingram said: “We are disappointed the beverage industry in the Territory has chosen to increase its prices and blame the scheme.
“Territorians are encouraged to shop around for best prices.
“If you have questions about a price increase on containers as a result of the Cash for Containers scheme and feel that a retailer is providing misleading or deceptive statements about why the cost of a beverage has increased under the scheme, please contact Consumer Affairs on 1800 019 319 or visit us online.”
Photo: Tony Satour delivering empties to the council recycling scheme closing next week: Many glass bottles will not attract a refund under the NT Government mandated scheme.
Hot toothpaste and moonlight dips
I don’t know about the rest of you but things like hot runny toothpaste squirting out, sizzling, characterized my week. Jumping on my bike only to bounce right back off of it – why didn’t I park in the shade? Sweat pimples – great! Stomach bloat from drinking way too much iced water. I should note here that I don’t have air con at home or at work. So after six consecutive days where the mercury boiled above 40 degrees (!) I thought I would do a little review on the town’s swimming venues and other tactical attempts to cool down.
Unfortunately during the day the town pool is pretty much in the full sun, so the other morning I broke the Swimming Guild Code of lap swimming and swam my laps (in both directions) pressed up to one side in the only sliver of shade.
There are some places that have got the air con really pumping, places like the supermarkets. There’s nothing like a spot of shell-shocked meandering down aisles packed to overwhelming with stuff. There’s also the cinema, a great way to cool off no matter what the critics say. Great timing on behalf of the Travelling Sydney Film Festival with hours spent inside the chilled cavern of Araluen theatre.
My favourite though is the library – ooh lordy, it sure is cool in there! Instead of overwhelming aisles of stuff, glorious aisles of books and inspiration and information, all for free and free of perspiration!
When it’s too far to go to Two Mile or Ellery and it’s too late to get my five bucks’ worth at the town pool, one of my favourite swelter belter pastimes is visiting the various hotel pools. Sunset, a cold drink and, depending on the venue, maybe a banana lounge and a pool of cold clear water to get into when the going gets hot. This is by no means a comprehensive review. These are just the ones that are near enough not to ruin the whole experience by working up too much of a sweat on the bike ride home.
The Oasis Hotel has a fine pool characterized by its donut shape and the huge cabbage palms that stand around it. This pool has to be the coldest pool in Alice Springs! I don’t know if it’s the shade of those palms or the amount of chlorine; the more you add the colder it gets …
I often go the extra couple of hundred meters to The Gap View Hotel, which is a heavenly little haven from the heat. A choice of two pools, one a beach style entry with built-in bar (it’s all about lounging in the shallows) or the nice and deep plunge pool (no diving though for obvious safety reasons). Also in The Gap’s favour are their $7 wedges and the sporadic loud tune that will belt every now and then across the grassy, palm-shady poolsides.
Then there’s The Chifley. Now The Chifley in theory has a great pool facility, tables and chairs all around, it looks clean and is pretty shady. The weird thing is that I’ve never actually seen anybody swimming in there. Maybe I’m odd but I just don’t want to be the only one splashing around with all the other patrons staring at me. Not that they would have paid me any attention of course, but every time I have gone there, I’ve ended up heading off to one of my other favourites.
Now this one is on the quiet side so just quietly: the Crown Plaza Hotel. I’m not sure what the official policy is regarding the casual visitor and a beverage by the poolside accompanied by a swim. What I do know is that in the evening it is like slipping into cool blue silk, it’s unusually silent with very few punters moon bathing in the banana chairs all in a row. With a couple playing cards in a foreign language over in the shadows and bats swooping above this is a great spot for a night swim.
The verdict according to my itchy feet: The Gap View Hotel for a social swim and The Crown Plaza Hotel for after dark dipping.