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.
Hot toothpaste and moonlight dips
Scout's Honour!
Build a bridge? Head off on a nature walk, play a few games, enjoy the sausage sizzle – that’s how the local Scouts will join more than 30 million of them in 160 countries to mark the day when Robert Baden-Powell started the movement in 1907.
It’ll all happen in Frank McAllister Park at Araluen between 9 and 12 on Sunday, February 26.
If you’re no longer under 18 but still youthful and keen to be involved?
“Great! We’re looking for leaders too. Come on down and find out how you can help shape the future,” says spokeswoman Sharon Hutton.
Meanwhile today Sally Thomas AM made her Promise that she would be the Chief Scout of the Northern Territory.
The former judge is now the Administrator of the NT. She made her Promise in front of Chair of the Northern Territory Annie Black and the Chief Commissioner of Scouts NT Shane McCorkell (pictured).
In 2011, Scouting and Guiding combined had over 41 million members worldwide.
All groups meet at the Alice Springs Scout Hall on Larapinta Drive (on the right just past Lovegrove Drive when heading west).
Joeys (6-7 year olds) Thursdays 5.30-6.30pm; Cubs (8-10 year olds) Thursday 7.00-8.30pm; Scouts (11-14 year olds) Tuesdays 7.00-9.00pm; Venture Scouts (14-18 year olds) Thursdays 6.45-9.00pm.
Central Australia is perishing for a drink
This week’s Food for Thought is by RUSSELL GUY, commentator, writer and music promoter in Central Australia’s outback for 31 years. He is a frequent contributor to the comment sections of the Alice Springs News Online. He is also a keen aviator where “eight hours from bottle to throttle” is an unbending rule for pilots in command of an aircraft.
The debate in Alice Springs over the right to consume alcohol without restriction or discrimination, has largely ignored the cost of whether the community can afford not to increase restrictions. The Menzies School of Health Research Institute has stated that the challenge of tackling the serious alcohol-related issues in the NT is not to be underestimated. In 2006 – 2007, Australians aged 15 and over consumed on average almost 10 litres of pure alcohol per head. In comparison, average consumption in the NT by the non-indigenous population was over 14 litres, and for indigenous it was more than 16 litres, but Menzies says that Alice Springs is way out in front at around 20 litres per head.
A media release from the NT Government’s Enough is Enough Alcohol Reform Package (30/3/11), notes that 70% of all alcohol sold in the NT is sold as take-away liquor and that hospitalisation rates due to alcohol are the highest in Australia. The same research relates that alcohol-related deaths occur in the NT at about 3.5 times the rate they do nationally. 55% of road deaths are caused by high-risk drinking in the NT and that in 2009, there were 54,000 incidents of people taken into protective custody due to alcohol misuse.
The NT Government has revealed that among adults who consumed alcohol, 30% reported drinking alcohol at a risky or high risk level and added that if the NT were a country, then it would be up amongst those countries in the world with the highest rates of per capita consumption. Many studies have identified the correlation between high levels of alcohol consumption and shortened life expectancy.
Recent Federal Government research has revealed that indigenous people in remote communities saw benefits from the NT Emergency Intervention, including increased policing, night patrols, and income management, with some expressing concern that there would be a return to violence and abuse if these measures were removed.
There have been a number of reforms initiated by the NT Government in the past twelve months in an effort to deal with high risk drinking and its effects, including, in July 2011, the requirement for ID to be produced when purchasing take-away alcohol, banning notices for those taken into protective custody three times in three months, and a banned drinker’s register connected to the ID scanning system to ensure that those who are banned cannot buy take-away liquor. While it’s been said that this is easily scammed by another purchaser supplying the banned drinker, some are volunteering to be on it. The powers of the Alcohol and Other Drug Tribunal, part of these reforms, include the power to ban problem drinkers and to order treatment programs. Magistrates in the new SMART court deal with offenders (but excluding violent or sexual matters) with substance misuse histories. The NTG has also bought back two takeaway outlet liquor licenses, so far.
Critics of all this, may be surprised to hear that during the past twenty years, new research has revealed that both alcohol content and market share of wine have increased, to the point where electorates in which many vineyards are located, are marginal seats said to be holding a gun to the Federal Government’s head over liquor reform. Research released last year by the School of Population Health at the University of Queensland into the effect of increased tax on alcopop alcoholic drinks, revealed that over half of 15-29 year olds presenting to Emergency Departments at Gold Coast hospitals had alcohol-related conditions as opposed to a quarter for all other age groups.
Last year, the Salvation Army, as part of Alcohol Awareness Week, commissioned research to examine public attitudes in relation to alcohol consumption and mental health. The research revealed that 81% of respondents aged 14 years and over believes that drinking alcohol can worsen a person’s mental health. 10% of respondents stated that they consumed alcohol as a way of dealing with feeling down and anxious.
Even though surveys have consistently shown that indigenous people are less likely to drink than non-indigenous, those who do are more likely to drink at risky levels. The Overview of Australian Indigenous Health Status 2011 report, published in January this year, reveals that from 2004 – 2008, the death rate from alcohol-related causes was 6.3 times higher for indigenous people than for non-indigenous, while the highest level of disease burden attributable to alcohol was for injury (22%), mental disorders (16%) and cancers (6.3%). In December 2009, submissions to the Alice Springs Transformation Plan claimed that a significant proportion of Aboriginal ‘problem drinkers’ want to achieve safe drinking or sobriety and they are seeking support to do so.
The background to this, at least according to figures released by the Northern Territory Government in February, 2011, is the claim that Territorians consume alcohol at 1.5 times the national average and alcohol misuse costs the NT community an estimated $642 million per year. Alcohol continues to be involved in 60% of all assaults and alcohol abuse costs $4197 per year for every adult Territorian, compared to $944 per adult nationally. The NT, with just over 1% of the national population, represents seven percent of the estimated national alcohol-attributable policing costs of $747.1 million dollars.
Over the years, the social and economic costs of alcohol abuse in the NT alone run to the billions of dollars. Governments are now faced with the challenge of harm reduction strategies and the Federal Government has commissioned a report into risk-based liquor licensing laws. The Australian (16/2/12) noted that recommendations may be implemented if alcohol restrictions in the NT are judged inadequate. The report found that while the normal focus was on consumption and problem drinkers, there has been a recent trend towards supply-side measures, noting that Victoria, Queensland, NSW and the ACT had introduced risk-based liquor licensing and the NT could benefit from such a system, given its current regime does not fund cost recovery and the flow of tax revenue is limited.
In 2007, the Little Children Are Sacred report found that alcohol abuse was “destroying communities” and was the gravest and fastest growing threat to the safety of children. Extensive research has established links between alcohol and drug abuse and child maltreatment, while Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) among maternal alcohol consumers is attracting increased attention.
The Alice Springs based People’s Alcohol Action Coalition (PAAC) is preparing to direct more of its advocacy into protecting vulnerable children from the effects of alcohol misuse. PAAC had some success in 2011 with the withdrawal of cask wine and a voluntary, if varied, minimum price per unit on take-away alcohol sold by supermarkets. The two hotels, however, continue to sell cask wine, and unlike the supermarkets, trade seven days a week. PAAC believes that more restrictions on take-away alcohol are needed, wanting casks to be completely withdrawn, a regulated floor price of around $1.20 per standard drink and a take-away free day, although others advocate four days, stating that one day is hardly enough given the size of the breach, pressing for Sunday through Wednesday, inclusive. This would preferably be tied to a set welfare payment day which was a successful restriction in Tennant Creek in the late 1990s, known at Thirsty Thursday. When Centrelink payments began to be made on other days, the restriction was compromised, leading to its removal in 2006. Alcohol consumption in Tennant Creek which had decreased by 20%, immediately increased by 7.5% and has continued to rise, with Emergency Department admissions for mental and behavioral disorders due to alcohol rising by a further 56% in the first year, increasing to 61% in the second year.
PAAC’s Dr John Boffa, NT Australian of the Year in 2011, argues that there will be more money for government services for everyone, when less has to be poured into bearing the alcohol-related cost of services, hospitalisation, chronic disease, policing, courts and corrective services, welfare and other agencies, child neglect, violent offending and loss of productivity. The Central Australian Aboriginal Congress (CAAC) claims that the heart of the current social crisis is reflected in the enormous disparity in the social determinants of health. Put simply, the social gradient – the level of disadvantage that has to be overcome in terms of housing, education, employment, access to justice and empowerment – are directly linked to the disastrous health outcomes their clients face. CAAC acknowledges that these are also directly linked to the ongoing effects of substance abuse, family violence, child neglect and abuse.
The social gradient in Alice Springs and Central Australia is extreme. This is one indicator that the failure to acknowledge the existence of indigenous people in the Australian Constitution has had a major impact on their sense of identity, value within the community and the perpetuation of racial discrimination. National concern over Aboriginal Affairs is out of sync with alcohol-related statistical evidence; and all the while, indigenous people live 17 years less on average than the rest of the population. Add the extreme social gradient to the slippery slope of alcohol and it’s not difficult to understand why swift further action is needed.
A trauma surgeon’s documentation of the fact that there has been a significant decline in the number of women being treated for stab wounds – from 250 down to 146 – in 2010, has encouraged Dr Boffa in his belief that “Alice is beginning to turn around alcohol caused violence and it’s time to move forward on alcohol supply reduction in particular.”
(Mr Guy provided comprehensive background information and statistical references used for this article. Readers who want a copy of this material are welcome to email the Alice Springs News Online.)
Downward spiral or shuddering readjustment?
By KIERAN FINNANE
La Casalinga Restaurant, an icon of local dining, is now a solitary island in a sea of closed businesses along Gregory Terrace, at the southern end of Todd Mall in central Alice Springs.
Not all businesses have ceased operation – the last to go are two private Aboriginal art galleries, one moving to premises in the mall, the other to an address in Smith Street. The Smith Street/Hele Crescent area is in fact seeing something of a revival as the centre of the town goes through its shuddering readjustment.
L J Hooker is the property agent of the Gregory Terrace strip. Managing Director Doug Fraser suggested the twin evils of the European debt crisis and the high Australian dollar have impacted on tourist numbers to Central Australia and consequently on businesses geared to the tourism trade.
He said he could not comment on the “effect, if any, the number of vacancies have had on rental levels”.
As a sign of the impact of online trading, it’s worth considering that the first businesses to vacate this strip were tour booking agencies, the kind of business that would seem to be made largely redundant by e-commerce.
Meanwhile, “Bringing Business Back to Outback Australia” is the theme for a special meeting hosted by Desert Knowledge Australia Outback Business Networks this Friday. Among the four presenters is Marcus Westbury, who will discuss Renew Australia (Renew Newcastle), an innovative strategy which was used to rebuild Newcastle in 2008. Since then more than 70 new businesses and initiatives have been seeded and the town was hailed by Lonely Planet as one of the top ten cities in the world to visit in 2011.
Apparently by coincidence outgoing Alderman Murray Stewart, a native of Newcastle, suggested last week that the Town Council write to the NT Government requesting that it initiate a “Renew Alice ” strategy. He didn’t get support for his emotion but it seems that the spirit of renewal is in the air as a Facebook group under the name “Renew Alice” (adopted without knowledge initially of the Newcastle-grown strategy) is a lively and growing forum for all sorts of ideas about the future of the town.
UPDATE – COMMENT, February 22, 2012: Ald Stewart, and for that matter his colleagues, seem to be forgetting that the Town Council has a renewal process in train, funded to the tune of $5 million. But despite the hand-wringing about the on-going decline of the town centre, there is no sense of urgency about its implementation. Where is the enthusiasm for and communication of its promise – for example, a public note of congratulation and celebration of the international award won by the creative brief for Parsons Street, authored by Mike Gillam? Where are the early initiatives, such as tree planting, that could impart a real sense of renewal and determination now, when it is so keenly needed? A few small saplings have been planted in Hartley Street but without tree guards. It’s as though we are just waiting for them to be destroyed, to then throw our hands up and say it was all too hard. Then we’d be able to fill the holes in with concrete, following the trend of that has been the hallmark of this council’s urban works. – K.F.
Pictured, top: Further fields (in Todd Mall) were greener for this Gregory Terrace business. Right: A vulnerable sapling in Hartley Street. Set up to fail?
See our report from last year about other local enthusiasm for the ‘renew’ movement.
Defects at pool 'major problem'
Confidential report suggests they are …
Defects of the town pool have been described as a “major issue” in a confidential report to the Town Council. Consideration of council matters in confidential sessions is on the table as an election issue, with mayoral candidate Eli Melky accusing council of doing too much business this way.
The report says the solar system has been leaking, despite having been repaired in early January, and as such has been shut completely in order to prevent damage to the roof of the indoor complex.
High pressure in filter pots of the leisure pool “continues to be a major problem” and pool staff have “worked under crisis for most of the holiday period. The Plant remains a major problem,” says the report.
But the council’s technical services director, Greg Buxton, says the faults are being fixed by the builder, Sitzlers, under warranty, and at no cost to the council.
At no time was there any danger to pool users nor the public.
Despite the fault in the solar plant heating the pool water, the gas back-up wasn’t needed because of the summer temperatures.
“This needs to be running 100%, for the council and the YMCA,” says pool manager Iain Jones. The “Y” manages the pool under contract.
He says the second break-down of the solar heater has now also been fixed.
Hearing of charges against Barry Abbott again delayed
By KIERAN FINNANE
The hearing of charges against Barry Abbott, former NT Senior Australian of the Year, and four others was again put off today because the prosecution had still not received a full briefing from police.
There are aggravated assault charges against Mr Abbott, 67, and two counts of depriving a person of personal liberty.
He is best known for looking after young people in trouble with the justice system and particularly petrol sniffers on his outstation at Ilpurla. Over the decades he has helped rehabilitate hundreds of youths.
Mr Abbott’s co-accused – two younger men and two younger women – are facing multiple counts of deprivation of liberty as well as other charges. There are also aggravated assault charges against the men.
The matters had been listed for hearing on February 2 but postponed till today, again because the prosecution was not ready to proceed.
Magistrate David Bamber expressed some impatience from the bench, however as the missing prosecution material includes medical reports relating to the alleged victims of “serious harm”, it was not possible for the defence to object to the adjournment.
They were “not pleased” but “not in a position to oppose”, said the lawyers for the five.
Russell Goldflam, representing Mr Abbott, asked for one of his client’s matters to be able to proceed in the Court of Summary Jurisdiction. It relates to an allegation of aggravated assault occurring at a different time and concerning a different alleged victim from the other matters.
The Crown Prosecutor suggested that Mr Goldflam was putting on “a performance” for his client – angrily objected to by Mr Goldflam. However, for summary jurisdiction to proceed required consent of the Crown and Mr Goldflam was invited to put his submission in writing.
The matter was adjourned to March 6 for further mention.
Pictured: Mr Abbott outside the Alice Springs courthouse today.
Democracy is complicated in the shires
By KIERAN FINNANE
The new rule prohibiting shire employees from standing for election to the shire council will have a big impact in MacDonnell Shire, with at least five of the 12 councillors opting to stay in their jobs and not run again in the March poll.
In the Rodinga Ward – covering the communities of Amoonguna, Santa Teresa, Titjikala and Finke – this is the case for all four councillors.
The rule seems like a ‘no brainer’ if you think about conflict of interest issues, but as ever, conditions in remote communities put a different slant on things.
Councillor Joe Rawson lives at Titjikala. He works as an essential services officer (ESO), and will not run again. The rule will “put a big hole in the Rodinga Ward”, he said. Does he think other candidates will come forward in the ward?
“It comes down to employment – 99% of employment comes through MacDonnell Shire. To try to get others to nominate who are not on the MacDonnell Shire payroll is very hard … if they don’t have motor vehicles, the shire won’t supply motor vehicles. You have to maintain your own vehicle to get to and from the meetings.
“We get an allowance – sitting fees, travel allowance every time we travel , but … if you do a diff on the way, you might get $700 to come to a meeting but it’ll end up costing $1400 to fix the diff.”
Councillor Lance Abbott (Luritja Pintubi Ward) also raised the vehicle issue. He would like someone else to take over as councillor. It’s a long way to attend meetings from his home community of Kintore and very taxing on his car. Kintore is 530 kms west of Alice Springs and almost 400 kms are by dirt road. So perhaps it’s not surprising that when he asks people if they’re interested in stepping in, “they keep saying, ‘No, you’re right’.”
Peter Wilson (Iyarrka Ward) is not yet employed by the shire but is likely to be when he returns home to Areyonga from Mutitjulu. So he won’t be standing again.
“[At Areyonga] if a job comes up, nine times out of 10, it’s for the shire … whoever it was who decided that [employees can’t run] made a mistake in my opinion because a lot of the people who are on council are community leaders and mostly work and again, the shire being a dominant force in the community, they work for the shire. Maybe they didn’t think it through.”
Councillors Rawson and Wilson are among the more effective operators in council meetings that I’ve observed. Others who speak up and ask questions include President Sid Anderson (Luritja Pintubi) who will stand again and Cr Lisa Sharman (Rodinga) who won’t, as she works for the shire’s youth services. Cr Sharman loves to stir the pot and pursued with vigor a discussion over whether it would be possible to return the excised Ayers Rock Resort to the shire, making them subject to conditional rating. The council will be writing to the Territory Government, seeking further information about that possibility.
For the great part, however, meetings are focussed on reports form officers and their recommendations and most are adopted by councillors without much debate (this is even more the case at Central Desert Shire meetings). Cr Rawson pushed through a notable exception at last Thursday’s meeting. He had previously gained support for a shire trailer being put at the disposal of community members with their own vehicles, for collecting firewood. Anyone using the trailer would have to sign an agreement to pay for damage if it occurred.
On Thursday it was recommended to council, following contact by FaHCSIA (the Commonwealth Department of Indigenous Affairs), that they temporarily rescind the motion to allow for the FaHCSIA-funded CDEP to provide the service.
Cr Rawson wasn’t having a bar of that.
“CDEP doesn’t exist – they took it away from us years ago.”
He had no faith in the work-for-the-dole programs that have come in its place. One is run by Catholic Care and “all they want to do” is work in the gardens, said Cr Rawson. The other is run by CEA (Community Enterprise Australia) and “getting those blokes to work would be a miracle!”
He wanted the original motion to stand: “We live in the communities, we know what it’s like,” he insisted.
The shire trailer would only be used to collect firewood “for pensioners” – “not for the younger generation, they can get their own”. This arrangement would come at no cost to council.
He was supported by his colleagues and the original motion stands.
It may be a small issue but knocking back FaHCSIA and rejecting an officer recommendation was significant for the practice of representation.
After the meeting, I asked Cr Rawson whether he regrets the passing of the old community council system, whether it has meant a loss of local control. He was adamant: not at all.
SHIRES THE ‘BEST THING EVER’
“The shires are the best thing that ever happened to the community, they’ve taken away all the old entities that never worked – we always had vehicles and equipment out-dated, unregistered, unroadworthy. With the shire everything is roadworthy, registered and you must have a licence.
“That’s a good process to go forward with, so the younger generation know that when they get a job with the shire, they have to have a licence.”
To the same question Cr Wilson said “we could talk about that till the cows come home”.
“We’re here now. Get on with it. People have lost control of their own destiny to a degree but we’re here now and looking forward.”
Both men intend to remain active on their local boards, where the employment rule does not apply.
Cr Abbott urged patience with the shire system: “We’re getting there. There’s plenty of work for the shire, 13 communities … Sometimes it’s hard to get around, you can’t fix it straight away, you’ve got to be patient.”
The controversial issue of Section 19 lease payments for shire assets on Aboriginal land was considered in confidential session.
CEO Diane Hood, speaking to the Alice News afterwards, was less hot under the collar about it than her counterpart at Central Desert Shire. MacDonnell Shire councillors had endorsed the joint approach by the shires, reported on last week.
Beyond that she expressed no concern “at this stage” about timely progress of negotiations ahead of the August expiry of the Commonwealth’s five year township leases. As for possible financial impacts, they are “unknown until we go through the negotiations”, she said.
I asked individual councillors for their views on whether rent for shire facilities should be paid to Traditional Owners.
Cr Roxanne Kenny (Ljirapinta Ward), who is also Deputy Mayor and will stand again, said she thought that would be “all right”.
Even though it would be a cost to the shire?
“Yes.”
Cr Rawson agreed but he doesn’t want to see the money going into individuals’ pockets.
“Put it into some organisation that gives employment or education back to the kids, use it in schools, things like that. I don’t think there’s any benefit getting money if it doesn’t give your kids education out of it. All they see is their mother and father race off to town and do silly things with the money.
“If it can be adopted properly – ‘Righto, we’ll give $10,000 towards education of the kids’ – I’d like to see that happen. Don’t give the money away to people – stupidity!”
Where will the money come from?
“It’ll have to come out of local government money, won’t it?”
The joint shires are saying it will have an impact on services, unless it’s funded …
“Everything is funded from somewhere! All our funding comes from government.”
Councillors also considered behind closed doors a report back to them by the Northern Territory Government following their investigation of the shire over its proposed out-sourcing of an IT contract to India. Readers will recall from last year that councillors felt they had not been properly informed about the contract by officers including former CEO Graham Taylor, and they were very unhappy about the controversy it caused for the shire.
While they accepted that out-sourcing may provide benefit to the shire, they insisted that the contract remain on-shore.
Ms Hood told the Alice News that the investigation had found that there was “nothing illegal about out-sourcing” and that “the allegations in the media about the CEO’s remuneration were false”.
It also found that “internal communications could be better”; that the shire’s procurement policy “had not been followed to the letter of the law”; and that accounts processing and management could be improved.
Ms Hood said most of the government’s recommendations have already been adopted. She said since becoming CEO she has been trying to take a “simpler approach”: more “bite-sized” actions, focusing on “continual improvement rather than big bang solutions”.
UPDATE, February 23,2012: The Alice Springs News offered Community Enterprises Australia Ltd and Catholic Care right of reply in relation to Cr Joe Rawson’s comments on work-for-the-dole programs in Titjikala.
Carl Russelhuber, Employment Services Manager for Catholic Care NT replies: –
Contrary to Cr Rawson’s statement CatholicCare NT has in fact provided a number of programs which have had overall community acceptance and have produced positive results for the community.
Firstly, we are a Job Services Australia provider contracted by the Federal Government to deliver employment services, a part of which is Work Experience that is compulsory for a number of job seekers. Work for The Dole falls within work experience.
In 2009 shortly after the new JSA contract was rolled out I was invited to speak to the Titjikala Community at a community meeting and was asked what CatholicCare NT was going to do to get the people, particularly young people to work or do something. At this meeting I explained what we could and would do to assist the unemployed job seekers, and I also told the meeting that it would be compulsory for people in the Work Experience phase and for Early School Leavers to be engaged in an activity.
It was brought to my attention that the community had an existing market garden which had been run down and no-one was doing anything about it. I suggested that I could turn it into a work for the dole program where job seekers would learn real horticultural skills, and that there would be an opportunity to turn this into a social enterprise which would benefit the whole community and would create some employment. I added that social enterprise would only happen if there was a genuine commitment by the community to want to make it happen and people put their hands up.
There was an overwhelming response to accept my proposal for this activity to proceed.
I also stated that any fruit and vegetables produced should be distributed to the elderly people in the community at no cost.
This activity in Titjikala has provided 16 hours a week paid part time work for a male and female supervisor over a period of nearly 2 years.
In 2011 I engaged CDU to deliver Certificate I in Horticulture for work for the dole participant’s from the Market Garden Orchard activity.
In 2011 CDU was also engaged to deliver Certificate 1 in Business.
Commencing Monday February 27, 2012 in conjunction with Centre for Appropriate Technology and Charles Darwin University a Certificate II Automotive course is commencing which again has overall community support. There are 15 participants signed up to do this course and CDU who are providing a Language Literacy and Numeracy trainer have already conducted more than 6 LL&N assessments this week.
I am proud of what my staff have achieved in Titjikala.
CatholicCare NT has worked very hard to ensure that the job seekers and Titjikala community in general benefit from the activities and service we provide, and the general feedback from job seekers has been positive.
I have had previous contact with Cr Rawson and was not aware that he had concerns about our programs, although Cr Rawson is not contactable at the moment I will endeavour to meet with him to discuss his concerns.
Suzannah Kuzio, the CEO of Community Enterprises Australia Ltd says CEA is currently running “two successful projects at Titjikala”.
One is a CDEP Healthy Lifestyle program for women.
The other is a new men’s project “which involves a number of stakeholders on the community, assisting the men with setting up and re-engaging a men’s area”.
She says: “CEA will continue to meet its contractual obligations and provide CDEP programs and activities at Titjikala for the benefit of the community in accordance with FaHCSIA’s requirements for the duration of its contract.”
Pictured, from top: Councillors Joe Rawson and Roxanne Kenny – he will not stand again but she will. • Cr Peter Wilson won’t stand again. • Cr Lance Abbott will stand, but with some reluctance.
Cheap booze causes mountain of problems
The morning after, Alice Springs style: a mountain of wine casks in the dry Todd River, collected within just 200 metres of the footbridge (top left in the photo), put on display by the local alcohol control pressure group, People’s Alcohol Action Coalition (PAAC).
The group wants a “floor price” for alcohol pegged at the cost of the cheapest full strength beer, $1.20 per standard drink.
The booze sold by the Todd Tavern bottle shop (in the background of the photo), on the banks of the Todd, in these Renmano wine casks works out at 71 cents per drink, according to PAAC spokesman John Boffa.
But the manager of the Todd Tavern, Leonie Leach, says the correct price per standard drink for the Renmano cask wine is 90 cents.
Only the Todd Tavern and the Gapview Hotel are selling cheap cask wine. All other outlets in the town have voluntarily withdrawn the product from sale.
Alcohol restrictions are a major issue for the upcoming local government and legislative assembly elections.
Says Dr Boffa: “The Gapview also currently stocks four types of cheap McWilliams Sherry and a McWilliams Port.
“The sherry is 81 cents a standard drink, and the port is 90 cents.
“The two pubs, unlike the supermarkets, are allowed to trade on Sundays.”
PAAC says in supermarkets cask and fortified wine, maximum one litre, generally 750 ml bottles only, are sold one per person per day and not before 6pm.
Dr. Boffa appeared before the Senate Community Affairs Committee in Alice Springs today. His submission (number 253) also argues for “a take-away alcohol-free day preferably tied to a set welfare benefits payment day, but in any event to have one day a week on which take-away alcohol is not sold”.
The Alice Springs News Online has offered a right of reply to the Todd Tavern and the Gapview Hotel.
THIS POLICE MEDIA RELEASE, an addition, for good measure to yesterday’s story:-
A woman will face multiple charges after police allegedly found her drink driving and driving whilst disqualified while she had a two-day-old baby and a two-year-old child unrestrained in the back seat.
Alice Springs Sergeant Conan Robertson said Northern Territory Police continue to save people from themselves.
“The likely result of these circumstances was a serious crash,” Sergeant Robertson said.
Sergeant Robertson said the 20-year-old woman was pulled over for a random breath test at around 1pm today.
“The woman, who was disqualified from driving, returned a positive result and was arrested for a breath analysis at the Alice Springs Police Station where she was found to have a breath alcohol level of 0.167 per cent.
“If this isn’t bad enough, this offender was also on bail for another matter, one of the conditions being that she is not to consume alcohol.”
Sergeant Robertson said the two day old baby was being held by a rear seat passenger while the two-year-old was also in the back seat, unrestrained, along with another adult.
“The two day old baby does not even have a name yet and her life was in the hands of a 20-year-old drunken, disqualified driver,” Sgt Roberson said.
“Luckily we were there to protect this little girl.”
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 23: Media release from Opposition Leader, Terry Mills:
Despite introducing laws that mean anybody who buys alcohol must produce a driver’s license, Labor’s grog bans have seen no decrease in violent assaults in the Northern Territory.
The Chief Minister is conning Territorians that his grog bans are having a significant impact on alcohol-related crime.
In July to December 2010 there were 3373 violent assaults in the Northern Territory. A year later there were 3384.
During today’s Question Time, the Chief Minister repeatedly refused to answer my question about the number of assaults in the Territory for the September and December quarters last year.
The reason for this refusal became evident with the release of the Alcohol Reform Report from July to December 2011 which showed the lack of improvement in levels of violent crime.
With the car rental firm Hertz, it all adds up
You’ve just made an online car rental booking with Hertz in Adelaide and you’re feeling pretty good: $35.20 a day isn’t too bad at all.
Then come assorted charges and GST which add $15.45 and that doesn’t make it nearly as good – bumping up by almost 50% the quoted basic charge.
But then, as you walk into the Hertz office to pick up your car, there’s a surprise that will make your hair stand on end. It goes like this.
If there is any damage to the car, we’ll charge you $6000, you’re told.
You’ll have to pay that no matter how the damage is done.
If you put the car into a car park and walk away from it and someone hits it, you’ll have to pay us $6000.
We’ll sort the details later, they tell you.
However, if you pay us $29 a day you won’t have to pay us anything for any damage.
Or $27 a day and there will be an excess of just $700.
All this is enshrined in a legalistically formulated pamphlet that takes you half an hour to read and digest.
So, suddenly the car you’re hiring is costing you $80 a day, not $35.
The insurance component of this deal is 15 times as much as my insurer, Elders, charges me for comprehensive cover of vehicles I own.
The 12 months premium for a Toyota Camry (the car we hired) would be $717.28 with a $400 excess.
That’s $1.97 a day, compared to Hertz’ $29, which is 1470% higher.
No doubt Hertz is on a nice little earner. Nothing draws your attention to this when you make an online booking.
Hertz did not respond to requests for comment from Alice Springs News Online.
PHOTO: A Hertz advert – their insurance premiums are no laughing matter.
After Darwin's bombing, the Army made the desert bloom
By ERWIN CHLANDA
Here’s another question to elevate the Can’t Do Brigade’s blood pressure: Why don’t we channel our unemployed into growing produce? The correct answer: “Ohhh, it’s going to take decades, mate.”
We did, you know, 70 years ago, when the Territory just about became self sufficient in locally grown produce.
The population was 100,000, which remained much the same until the late ’70s. True, we now have more than twice that population. Are we growing half the fruit ‘n veg we need? Nope.
Is that because governments now prefer handing out sit-down money to mobilizing human resources?
A story maybe containing the answer was told in an interview this week with NT historian Peter Forrest, broadcast by the ABC on occasion of the anniversary of the bombing of Darwin.
While that event was tragic, not a great deal of military action followed. The large number of troops deployed in the Territory in anticipation of further hostilities didn’t have a great deal to do. They were a significant pool of labour.
This is not all that different from today: Many people are idle, except today we keep them on the dole. In The Centre and the Barkly alone there are about 1400 unemployed, not counting CDEP participants.
In the Territory of World War II, surplus manpower was put into growing food.
As Mr Forrest describes it, the Army set up 13 agricultural and horticultural sites along the Stuart Highway between the Top End and Spinnifex Bore, just north of Alice Springs.
And The Alice was self-sufficient in locally grown produce. For example, the hospital had a garden watered from the showers.
The Stuart Highway in those days, albeit sealed, was a narrow and winding affair and the trucks weren’t a patch on today’s giant pantecs thundering along at 100 kmph.
What’s more, many of these are empty on their south-bound journey. That means “backloading” is much cheaper than north-bound freight: NT Freight Service quotes $270 a tonne for Adelaide to Tennant Creek, compared to $160 for the return trip.
What an opportunity for exporting to the south Territory-grown produce!
Mr Forrest says the Army had “enormous resources” and money was clearly not an object.
How would these resources compare to what Canberra is spending today on maintaining people in a state of idleness?
Mr Forrest says the Army “had the labour, had its own specialist farming units.
“It recruited a lot of Aboriginal people to work on the farms.
“So it had a good labour force. Cost of production was not an object, I don’t think it was ever measured.
“And of course, it had an unlimited market, or a very, very big market, and a market that was very anxious to get fresh produce, for health reasons, apart from anything else.
“Having fresh produce was a great thing.”
The wartime farms grew water melons, lettuce, tomatoes: “They had a go at just about anything.”
By 1945 the annual production was 1.7 million kilograms a year, according to Mr Forrest. That’s 1700 tonnes.
Add to that the odd piggery and chicken run.
“The army almost achieved its goal of making the Territory self-sufficient in produce,” Mr Forrest recounts.
Cut to Central Australia of today.
Almost all produce is imported from “down south”.
The only commercial ventures in Alice are the Vietnamese market garden on Heffernan Road and the hydroponic lettuces being grown in Ilparpa.
The TiTree farms are struggling or fallow, but slowly correcting themselves, according to water expert Graham Ride.
He says there were “super profits” in table grapes at TiTree until the government removed import tariffs.
Growers have yet to diversify back into other crops that had been grown very successfully in that area.
However, the Hayes family’s Rocky Hill table grape vineyard, just east of Alice Springs, is still a nice little earner, the drop in margin resulting from overseas competition notwithstanding. Getting workers is the major challenge.
The Central Land Council (CLC) controls half the landmass. While it has had an agricultural production division for decades, it’s still mostly talk.
A CLC citrus project at Utopia had been on the drawing board for a decade when in 2001, Peter Toyne, Minister for Primary Industry and Fisheries, was told by his department: “A review of the Utopia Citrus project became necessary when joint venture partners were no longer able to meet equity in the project. DPIF began working with CLC and Department of Industries and Business in planning a revision of the proposal. Aboriginal agencies also withdrew funding for a large-scale project. The aim is to achieve horticultural development on Aboriginal land at Utopia initially, then onto other areas where water reserves have been identified, including Finke.”
The story about subsequent horticultural production at Finke is one of flagrant waste of public money, refusal to work and missed opportunities.
Russell Clifford is a local of 28 years’ standing, had run the power and water facilities in the community and now works as the school’s janitor.
He says a vineyard with 2000 vines was started with public funding, and advice from the Charles Darwin University, Alice gardener Geoff Miers and growers from TiTree.
Mr Miers says the venture got under way in about 2003 on a one hectare plot with a Federal grant of $440,000, under the auspices of the CLC and its agricultural production arm.
In 2004 a truckload of grapes was picked but there was no cool room to store them.
The next year a shed and two freezers were bought. They have never been been used, says Mr Miers.
Mr Clifford says the locals soon lost interest in the venture although “thousands of dollars was spent on fertilizer and machinery”.
Just two pallets of grapes were picked two years ago, as not sufficient workers could be found.
There was no picking at all in 2010 and 2011.
Les Smith, who now owns the Kulgera Roadhouse, was the Finke community’s CEO in 2008.
He says the birds and the horses were getting a great feed, as the fences and gates to the vineyard were down, and there was no organised picking.
“The shire wanted to get it going but the locals did not want to work on it,” says Mr Smith.
The NT Government worked for 10 years towards a horticultural joint venture where the Kilgariff suburb is now being built.
A $11m pipeline to recycle effluent from the sewage plant was built for irrigation but no joint venturer could be found.
An agricultural venture near Ali Curung, south-east of Tennant Creek, is doing well but has virtually no impact on local unemployment.
An interstate company is leasing the land from Aboriginal owners to grow melons and, recently, onions.
A local source says the operation is highly mechanised.
While the Aboriginal landlords are happily pocketing the lease payments, they’re not very interested in providing labor for picking.
That’s done mostly by itinerant backpackers.
Where does Ritchie Hayes at Rocky Hill get his labour from, for the vines’ annual pruning and picking the grapes?
They’re mostly Asian immigrants now living in Mildura.
FOOTNOTE: Annual production in 1960 of selected Central Australian communities.
Weights are in pounds. 1 lb = 0.453 kg.
Areyonga: 1800 fruit & veg, 174 dozen eggs.
Amoonguna: 3450 fruit & veg, 895 dozen eggs.
Papunya / Haasts Bluff: 16,250 fruit & veg, 42,250 net weight meat, 414 dozen eggs.
Warrabri: 11,400 fruit & veg, 1480 net weight meat, 419 dozen eggs.
Yuendumu: 6750 fruit & veg, 76 dozen eggs.
Source: Report of the Welfare Branch, courtesy Geoff Miers.
PHOTOS: TOP LEFT: Growing produce in The Centre is a breeze, says Ritchie Hayes who until recently grew cabbages as an easy by-product of a booming vineyard of table grapes. TOP RIGHT: This garden in 1944 was using water from the showers of the hospital. Alice Springs was self-sufficient in fruit & veg. From the Joan Higgins Collection courtesy Graham Ride. BELOW: Watermelons near Warrabri (Ali Curung): machines do most of the work; itinerant backpackers do the picking; the locals collect the rent – and get yet another form of sit-down money.
Eli Melky standing for mayor and councillor
Alderman Eli Melky has announced that he will be standing for mayor and councillor in the March 24 local government elections.
He is in his first term (having been elected in a by-election last March) and part of a minority faction – frequently voting with Aldermen Samih Habib Bitar and Murray Stewart – who are finding it difficult to get support for their motions.
Ald Melky has also had some memorable run-ins with Mayor Damien Ryan.
Ald Melky said in a media release: “Over the past four years Alice Springs has experienced an incredible downward spiral with lawlessness at an all time high where violent attacks on tourists are no longer restricted to late night attacks, but happen in broad daylight.
“Out of control youth roam the street at all hours of the night unchecked. A bedtime curfew for youth under 16 now is more than ever needed. The town’s businesses are closing at an alarming rate with confidence down, graffiti is everywhere, petrol is incredibly over-priced and the tourism industry not only has to deal with a global financial crisis and a rising dollar, but violent attacks on our visiting tourists as well.
“Four years of weak leadership has left the community with no choice but to form groups and call for action.
“Despite public protests their calls largely fell on deaf ears. The cost of criminal break-ins and vandalism to businesses and homes is in the hundreds of thousands.
“All the while this is happening, our leaders pander to the powers that be and continue to act as if nothing is happening and push governments’ line that all is well.
“I didn’t support keeping council business secret, I want to see the council take a proactive approach to the Melanka site, I am concerned about a risk of a rate rise due to possible agreement with NT government over delivery of municipal services to town camps.
“I want to see the penalty on residential property owners who don’t remove graffiti from their property abolished.
“I am against all restrictions on trading hours for licensed premises and liquor outlets.”
Graffiti by-law to stay
By KIERAN FINNANE
The graffiti removal by-law, requiring property-owners to remove graffiti or else face a possible fine, will stay. In a five to three show of hands at last Monday’s Town Council committee meeting his colleagues rejected Alderman Eli Melky’s motion to remove the by-law.
For his pains Ald Melky earned something of a dressing-down from CEO Rex Mooney, a rare intervention by the executive in aldermanic debate in my time of observing council meetings.
Mr Mooney objected strongly to Ald Melky’s challenge that the by-law offended against the Local Government Act. As the Solicitor-General of the Northern Territory had approved the by-laws, this could not possibly be so, said Mr Mooney and Ald Melky’s arguments were sending “the wrong message” to the community.
He asked that Ald Melky correct the public record by withdrawing this reasoning behind his motion.
This did not happen. Ald Melky stood his ground, supported by Alds Samih Habib Bitar and Murray Stewart, but it was losing ground.
Apart from his somewhat confused attempt to say that he was not challenging the legality of the by-law – to the intense irritation of Ald John Rawnsley – Ald Melky was also caught out on on the financial implications. He wants to see graffiti removed but does not want individual ratepayers to be responsible. That would leave it to council, in other words to the collective ratepayers. One way or another, ratepayers pay.
Officers estimated that the cost to remove graffiti from just the surfaces facing Alice Springs’ main and arterial roads would come to an annual total of $276,868.80 (including the one-off purchase of a vehicle for $87,500). Last financial year $71,797.16 was spent on graffiti removal.
The impost on the individual ratepayer of the by-law is also softened in a number of ways: council will provide a graffiti removal kit or $30 paint voucher. Council will also remove the graffiti if a property-owner has been hit more than once in the year.
Meanwhile, Ald Habib Bitar was successful on Monday in getting support for a motion that council write a letter the Minister for Police and Police Commissioner asking that Alice Springs be properly resourced to ensure adequate response times by police to calls for assistance. This follows controversy over the delayed response by police to a recent 000 call from the Aurora Hotel when a film crew took shelter there from two female assailants, who then turned on hotel staff.
PHOTO: Graffiti aren’t new to town – this one was on a wall in the industrial area in 2009.
Alice does St Val
Oh no! Please, not another rant about the true meaning behind a commercialized Christian calendar event. It’s OK, I’m not going down that path (well not very much), in fact I’m not sure what my take on Saint Valentine’s Day is. But bear with me and we will see how I fare, maybe I should start with a first valentine…
My first run in with the old saint was in high school, I remember the eve of Saint Valentine’s Day tossing in terror that I would be the only kid without a rose. As far as signifiers for cool and popularity go (and all those other really important high school things) it was hard to top carrying around a couple of red roses all day like it was a total drag. Anyway that’s all just a blurry distant memory.
Attempting some laps and trying to cool off a little at the town pool on Monday (the eve) I overheard a lovers’ quarrel: “But you said we weren’t ‘doing’ Valentines Day! Now I’ve got to get you a present!” So that is ‘doing’ Valentine’s Day, buying stuff. Christmas had barely been peddled from the shelves before gaudy Australian flag propaganda was being hawked and now it was poor old St Val’s turn to be flogged (who coincidently was apparently almost stoned and clubbed to death and failing that was in the end beheaded). I may as well start preparing now for the next commercial ‘shock and awe’ event that is Easter.
Anyway don’t get me wrong, I understand that every business has got to get out there to claim their share and perhaps under different conditions I too would have headed out to a Glen Helen or Ross River resort for a romantic weekend package deal. From Katja’s Kafe to The Chifley and Bojangles, they all were preening and theming up for the occasion, what with love heart shaped shortcakes, raspberry pink sodas and red single roses on every table. The florists have got to make a living too and St Val’s is the day! I certainly wouldn’t want to be proprietor of a shop full of unsold imported roses! The hallmark of a greeting card company’s success is also its sales on Saint Valentine’s Day.
I just like to think about how it could have been so different. How would every café, restaurant and bar have preened and themed if St Val had instead become more renown for his patron saintliness of epilepsy, plague or fainting? And instead of being represented by love hearts, roses or a bird was represented by a rooster, a convulsing child or a headless priest. I think such a feast would begin to more resemble the one with carved pumpkins in October.
And what about the bee? Also a busy type, that St Val is the patron saint of apiarists. How come with all their talents, good looks and downright usefulness did the bee not become the cover girl for St Val? All that pollinating and buzzing about, romancing of flowers, keeping them happy and the fruit fruiting. Not to mention their delightful black and yellow colour combo deftly moving us away from all those pink love hearts.
And don’t you think I’ve done well? Not to fly off on an anti over-commercialisation of every aspect of life rant. I’m not saying no to romance or to the odd flower or two, or to a Valentine’s card. Oh no, don’t you worry about that! I have my own romancing all schemed out, flowers plucked from side alleys and all.
Immerse yourself in this watery world
REVIEW by KIERAN FINNANE
A darkened room behind a heavy black curtain in a gallery adds something of the anticipation you feel at the cinema or in a theatre as the lights go down, heightening the usual anticipation of an art show. And typically the artist working in this space strives for immersion – the viewer’s in the artist’s work. How apt this context for Suzi Lyon’s work, Looking for Turtles. And how refreshing, invigorating – like a plunge into a deep pool – to experience work of this nature in Alice Springs where digital media and installation continue to be relatively rare.
You don’t need Lyon’s evocative artist’s statement (but do read it, at least afterwards) to understand, immediately, that this is a work about longing for transformative, transporting experience, to be taken out of the everyday.
All but one of her images – taken with a disposable camera – show the human figure or figures underwater, mostly not in conventional diving or swimming actions, but fully engaged nonetheless in moving through water. The freezing of this movement inscribes the images with a passionate expressiveness and intense physicality – arms and legs outstretched, hands and feet extended, backs arched, muscles clenched. You only normally see the human body as expressive as this in dance or sport or sex or dreams.
Most or possibly all of the images were taken in swimming pools. Among the most compelling are those where this is not immediately obvious and the figures seem to be in water-filled rooms, water pressing in on every fibre of their being, as they thrust against it, burst through it in moments of high drama.
The blue pool images are more expansive, less dramatic but with a dreamlike emotional intensity, some more captivatingly so than others. Lyon judged well in having her subjects wear street clothes (as opposed to bathers). This adds to the other-world feeling she has created, as does the subtlest animation of some of 
the images, for which fellow artist Ben Ward is responsible. This is so well done that I was not sure at first that I had actually perceived movement in the image, especially as only parts are affected, with the figures remaining utterly, and strangely, still.
The sole image of a watery space without figure is a fine still photograph of that unearthly perfect, somewhat claustrophobic world that is a chlorinated indoor pool. The animation of this image lends it an unsettling quality, a trembling tension ahead of who knows what …
Give yourself over to this show, be sure to watch it more than once and let its subtle power work on you before you return to your everyday.
Lyon’s artist’s statement locates her everyday here in the desert and equates it with a grind that is paralleled in the landscape – “bleached and glaring”, her dreams “sucked” from her and leaving her feeling “dry and gritty” and like she has “old bones”. None of this is concretely present in the actual work, in which the everyday is far more nebulous – it is simply what has been left outside, above water, and the work itself does not speak of its qualities, staying in this watery world of Lyon’s dreams.
Showing at Araluen, where Lyon and Ward will give an artists’ talk this Saturday, February 18, 11.15am.
How the town has changed in my time
LIZ BIRD, from Indiana Station, is pondering, from a little distance, the question of how The Alice has changed, in this week’s Food for Thought.
I’ve only been in Central Australia since 1990, came up from down south seeking adventure, like most people who come to the NT.
I didn’t realise that I would marry a local pastoralist and in doing so firmly entrench my future in this region.
Pastoralists – now there is a dying breed.
This town was founded by business brought in from the pioneers of the countryside, the graziers who risked their life and their savings to venture forth into the unknown to start up a virtually unknown business in the middle of nowhere.
Times must have been very tough back then, people were tough as well.
Nowadays the town seems to rely on mining, indigenous organisations and government staff and contracts to keep businesses afloat, with a bit of tourism thrown in for good measure.
Pastoralism seems to be forgotten at times, oh, except when the fires hit last year. The forgotten neighbors were soon remembered. Everyone was on the NAFI website looking at the fire flare ups and scarring. It was nice that people took an interest although at times it was hard for us on our slow satellite systems to get on the website – so that made firefighting a bit more difficult! I guess you could say that we appreciate an interest in our business, but don’t overcrowd us.
The long term locals usually have pastoralist links with generations of friendships and families going back many years. Other people in town may have relationships with bushies from contact in their work or in community events. Take for example the Harts Range Race Club. Our committee is made up of just as many townies as bushies. The skills from both groups of people help make this event the huge success it has been for over the last 60 years.
The Finke Desert Race is also shared by town motorbike heads and station people who train and develop their skills while mustering. Other groups like the Aileron Bush Club, the Saddlehorse Club, the Pony Club and the Centralian Beef Breeders Assoc all have active involvement from town and bush people.
I guess it is the sport and community activities which brings these groups of people together. I am sure there are many other events and organizations in town which do the same.
But how has the town changed in my time?
Well, I guess Alice has progressed with the times in many ways, but we’re also way behind in other areas. Take a trip to any city and recall that our largest building in town is three stories high; you know that development in the Alice is way behind.
Service and choice is also lacking, but that is what comes with living in a remote location with a floating population. But that is also kind of nice. It has not lost the “small town” feeling about it, not completely anyway. I imagine that 40 years ago when you went to town you would have known nearly every person in the street, except maybe a tourist or two. People came to the Alice, they built upon their dreams and they stayed. Those who didn’t burn out and headed back home.
It is far easier for interstate companies and contractors to come in take away the job from a local and then leave and take their money back to the city.
I guess to an extent you still see many people come and go and it is mainly the local business shop fronts that you really notice.
They start up and later they close down, or simply move premises to get more exposure or cheaper rent.
After a while you get to understand why so many “locals” (bushies and townies) can be hard to get to know.
They see people come into the town, make their money (or not) and then leave.
Where possible we need to support the smaller business in Alice because they are the businesses which support our community events; and are the ones we rely on for our own business to operate efficiently.
However, finding reliable support from some business suppliers has been a challenge in our industry over the last few years. I believe this is a staffing issue which we all share, both in town and out bush.
The world is much smaller now. The Internet has helped our life out bush by simply keeping us in touch with the rest of the world. It has brought the world into our isolated environment and we can simply take it or leave it. It provides us with choices on how we can manage the business. We can choose to learn or observe about how the world is changing but for now, it doesn’t directly affect us … long term it will, though. More and more rules and regulations are coming into our home and workplace (one and the same on a cattle station) and this will make running a business out bush a lot harder.
The Internet can have its downside for local businesses. I would like to think that most people make a conscious decision to try the local bloke first before getting on the internet to get that ebay bargain from an unknown who won’t care about the consumer once the freight has left his hands.
Alice Springs has some great people running successful businesses and locals will support local businesses that provide them with choice, quality service and after-sales support. We need to promote this concept and help build on it to continue the character of this great little town.
LETTER: Attack on film crew – should we defer to criminals?
Sir,- In regard to the attack on the ABC film crew in the Todd River on February 8 there seem to be many in the community who are criticizing both the camera crew and the police. These criticisms are unwarranted.
To begin with the film crew was not filming Aboriginal people, as some have suggested. They were filming Indian people as a part of a documentary.
However, had they been filming in the Todd River, it must be pointed out that the Todd River is one of the main tourist highlights of our town and it would be quite normal to take pictures of the Todd River, irrespective of whether there are people there or not, and irrespective of which race of people they might be.
No one would suggest that tourists (or anyone else) have a right to go into a town camp and photograph Aboriginal people, but in a public place like the Todd River, or the Mall, or the parks, we should all have a right to photograph these public areas without fear of attack.
Drinking in the Todd River is a crime. Do we defer to the criminals? Are we in a situation where we must tell tourists not to film in the Todd River because there are criminal activities taking place there, and the criminals will get angry if you film them?
The situation with the ABC film crew only highlights the high priority need to get rid of the drinkers in the Todd River. They are not just an eyesore to the tourists, but a physical danger to us all.
Dumping out grog is not the answer. It’s just pouring taxpayer funded alcohol into the sand, with no effect on the problem.
It’s a crime, and for the protection of the community the criminals should be arrested and removed, either to jail or a drying out shelter (for their own protection).
And finally, any criticism of the police for the time they took to respond is unwarranted. If people give the right information when contacting the police, they will get the right response.
If they had said that a drunk woman with a metal bar was in the hotel, having already attacked a staff member, who was bleeding from the head and in need of medical attention, and that the rest of the staff were in fear for their lives, and that the woman was still there wrecking the place and threatening bodily harm to all present, the police response would have been appropriate to the circumstances.
Jerry Flattum
Alice Springs
Fuel rip-off: Town Council challenged to put their hands to the pump
By KIERAN FINNANE
The Town Council has been challenged to go into the fuel retail business, possibly as a joint venturer. Failing that they should form a collective bargaining group with other regional councils to negotiate a better deal on petrol prices for the community.
So urged Frank Zumbo, Associate Professor of Business Law at the University of New South Wales (pictured at left), for whom a fairer price at the pump around Australia, and especially in the regions, is an enduring research interest.
Invited to speak to council at their committee meeting last night, Prof Zumbo said motorists in Alice, as elsewhere in the regions, are getting “ripped off” by major oil company and retailer price gouging.
“When margins get close to 30 cents a litre at the retail end, you start to think there’s something wrong in the whole process.”
This has a knock-on effect throughout the community, and especially on small business.
There are rip-offs in the metropolitan centres also, but they are greater and more often the case in regional Australia, said Prof Zumbo.
He based his estimation of the rip-off on a comparison of the average notional wholesale price of petrol around the country – 137.7 cents/litre – with the average retail prices in Darwin, Katherine and Alice Springs: these are 154.2, 146.1 and 165.5 respectively.
He surmised that the consistently lower price in Katherine is because the market has effective competition, while the consistently higher prices in Darwin and Alice are due to a lack of competition, with the major oil companies and retailers forming “a cozy club” with a “collective interest” in having their prices and profit margins as high as possible.
The argument that the costs to get fuel here mean that we have to pay a higher price is undone by the Katherine example. If this were the case, their prices would be higher than Darwin’s. Looking at the Katherine example, “you start to realise there is a lot of wriggle room here, there is a lot of fat in those margins”, said Prof Zumbo.
“We need greater transparency across the supply chain. We have fairly good transparency at the retail level [the prices he quoted are publicly available on websites] but we don’t have that level of transparency at the wholesale level.”
The presence of independent competition is critical to lowering prices, said Prof Zumbo.
This is where the council could make a difference.
“Where markets fail there is a proper role for government to intervene in some way … [and] where you have a rip-off the market is failing.”
Council could provide incentives for an independent player to set up in Alice. This could go so far as becoming a joint venturer to minimise that player’s risk.
“You only need one new player that can introduce meaningful competition and you will see lower prices.”
“Fat margins” normally attract competitors but they may be afraid of being ambushed by the established players.
Council could make money through such a venture, he suggested, and save money on its own fuel expenditure. There should be no question of council subsidising the operation with ratepayers’ money.
Alternatively, council could enter into dialogue with like-minded councils about doing some collective bargaining to get a lower wholesale price. Together councils could approach an independent importer: “Councils do have volume which I think independent importers would be interested in”.
If the councils had a tanker that met safety requirements they could buy at the wholesale price.
“I’m sure there’s a business case to be made,” said Prof Zumbo.
He much preferred these possibilities to going down the regulation path (with a regulator setting maximum wholesale and retail prices). Indeed he expressed cynicism about the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission: they “like to watch and watch and watch”, he said.
He has long been calling on them to conduct a national benchmarking study to clarify the situation with respect to wholesale and retail profit margins once and for all. And he has a standing challenge to the ACCC’s petrol commissioner to debate him on these issues, preferably in regional Australia.
If council takes the issue further, he will advise them in any way he can on an honorary basis: “I’m not on the lookout for consultancies … the university pays my wage.”
Now, there’s a ball for a new council to play with.
Darryl Pearce still has hand in real estate deal as titles are issued: We were kept in the dark, says native title holder
By ERWIN CHLANDA
Updated 19:20 CST Feb 14
Darryl Pearce, who was recently sacked as the CEO of companies which are carrying out the Mt Johns real estate development, apparently still has a hand in the multi million dollar project.
He is the secretary of Lhere Artepe Pty Ltd which – directly or indirectly – appears to be the owner of all the entities bearing a name including the words Lhere Artepe, the town’s native title organisation.
This includes the private companies tied up in the multi-million dollar Mt Johns development.
But late today, Michael Liddle (pictured), listed as a director of Lhere Artepe Pty Ltd, said: “I have never signed an agreement to join the company’s board.
“The board has never met. As far as I know, there are other directors in the same position as me.”
Mr Liddle says: “It was not until three weeks ago that I was informed that Lhere Artepe Pty Ltd was the most powerful entity, and that’s when alarm bells started to ring for me.
“It was one of the many entities created during Mr Pearce’s management, and unknown to the majority of members within the estate groups.”
Lhere Artepe Pty Ltd was first registered on December 11, 2008.
Lhere Artepe Pty Ltd owns Lhere Artepe Enterprises Pty Ltd which in turn owns LAE Nominees Pty Ltd to which last week titles to 27 blocks were issued by the government.
Lhere Artepe Pty Ltd is owned in equal shares by the three native title estate groups of Alice Springs who are represented by Lhere Artepe Aboriginal Corporation (LAAC).
Mr Liddle says all this is news to the majority of the native title holders.
He says because of the lack of knowledge about the many private companies that were created, members are “bewildered by the complicated business arrangements, and they don’t like being involved in the ongoing stressful disputes”.
The Mt Johns deal was the result of an Indigenous Land Use Agreement (ILUA) between the NT Government and LAAC.
In exchange for the extinguishment of native title over a block in Mt Johns Valley, between the golf course and the ranges, LAAC received freehold title over 7.2 hectares, about half the land.
The ILUA states that LAAC nominated LAE Nominees Pty Ltd as the company to carry out the project. That company has now received the titles.
Covering single and multi-dwelling blocks, they are worth an estimated $14m.
However, prominent native title holders query whether there was proper process within LAAC to authorize the nomination of LAE Nominees Pty Ltd, an issue that is part of a virulent and protracted dispute between native title holders.
The NT Government’s “Mt Johns Valley Covenants – Terms and Conditions” issued last week say: “The Traditional Owners of the Mparntwe, Irlpme and Antulye Estate groups who make up the Native Title Holders of the Alice Springs Region as represented by Lhere Artepe Aboriginal Corporation, through an agreement with the Northern Territory Government, are the developers of the Mt Johns Valley Estate.”
But senior native title figures in LAAC say they have no control over the Pty Ltd entities created with the Lhere Artepe name.
LAAC has cut ties with Mr Pearce, who acted as the CEO of LAAC “under contract” with Lhere Artepe Enterprises Pty Ltd.
And LAAC replaced president Brian Stirling with Ian McAdam.
But not only is Mr Pearce the secretary of Lhere Artepe Pty Ltd, Mr Stirling is still on the board of that company which – it appears – is the ultimate owner of all assets of the Lhere Artepe group.
The Alice Springs News Online understands that no matter how the deal between LAAC and the NT Government came into being, the land titles that have now been issued cannot be challenged.
The construction cost of the subdivision is not known.
It is believed that development costs were high, in part because of complex drainage systems required on the site at the bottom of the ranges’ northern slope.
A company engaged in the construction, CDE Civil, of which LAE Nominees Pty Ltd was the largest shareholder, was put into liquidation.
PHOTO: Current advertising promoting the land as “re-released” after considerable delays.
Unseating an incumbent: not easy but not impossible
COMMENT by ALEX NELSON
In 1992 former Assistant Commissioner of the NT Police Andy McNeill was one of two challengers against incumbent Mayor of Alice Springs, Leslie Oldfield (the other was Alderman Harvey Millard). This was a formidable task as Oldfield had won a by-election for mayor in April 1983 and easily retained the office in the council elections of 1984 and ’88. She was the town’s first female mayor and by 1992 was by far the longest serving in that role (a record she still holds).
However, Oldfield’s popularity as mayor had not translated into support for her when she ran as an independent candidate in the NT election campaign of October 1990, when she had stood against her former boss Roger Vale, the CLP’s immensely popular Member for Braitling. Vale trounced Oldfield but clearly did not forgive her for that sleight, one more in a list of grievances the CLP had against Oldfield, long a thorn in the side of the NT Government.
Andy McNeill always stressed he was politically independent in his tilt for mayor; nevertheless the full weight of the then mighty local CLP party machine (of which I was then a member), supporters and affiliates was brought to bear to assist in his campaign to oust Oldfield. I know this because Mr McNeill had asked me to join his campaign committee and I’d accepted.
By 1992 the CLP was on the rebound after several years of instability and infighting. The party had staved off defeat in the NT elections of 1990, and the race for mayor in Alice Springs provided the next opportunity to consolidate its strength in its old bastion of power.
The campaign went like clockwork. On Saturday, May 30, 1992, Andy McNeill won an absolute majority of 52 per cent of votes cast; and Leslie Oldfield suffered the ignominy of becoming the town’s first incumbent mayor to be defeated at the polls.
In the 41 year history of the Alice Springs Town Council, the 1992 election campaign is the only occasion an incumbent mayor has been defeated. It therefore deserves some analysis as to why this has remained a unique event.
It is a truism of politics that oppositions don’t win elections, rather governments lose them. This holds true for the mayoral race in 1992. Leslie Oldfield had prevaricated for a time on whether to run for mayor again, before finally deciding to do so.
IMPRESSIVE TRACK RECORD BUT NO NEW POLICIES
This uncertainty was followed by a crucial error of judgment, in which Oldfield’s campaign focused almost exclusively on her impressive track record in local government (she had been an alderman before becoming mayor) but offered no new policies.
This was a major tactical blunder at a time of national economic recession (which hit the Alice hard), a slump in tourism, endless controversy over rampant alcohol abuse, litter and vandalism, crime and anti-social activities (including youth crime); and extensive debate about the town’s future direction of growth and town planning, building height limits, revitalization of the town’s CBD, especially Todd Mall, and including the Todd River. (Incidentally, who remembers that in late 1992 the Town Council formally decided to re-open the north end of Todd Mall from the Parsons Street intersection to two-way traffic?)
Alice Springs was as much a focus of national media attention for all the wrong reasons in the early 1990s as it is today.
McNeill’s principal campaign slogan “Time for Change”, combined with “Let’s make council work”, clearly resonated with an increasingly exasperated voting public. He emphasized his qualities as “A Family Man” (Oldfield was divorced), “A Skilled Administrator; A People’s Man” and promised to be “A Full Time Mayor Dedicated to Action” with an “Open Door Policy” and would “Work for the Alice – not talk”.
Tourism, bike paths, litter control, pet by-laws and improved financial management were all key planks of McNeill’s election policy platform.
McNEILL FOCUSED ON THE FUTURE
The clear difference of the two major campaigns was that McNeill focused on the future while Oldfield relied on her past. Whether McNeill succeeded in implementing his vision is at best a moot point; however, he was untroubled in the subsequent council election campaign of 1996, where he increased his absolute majority against three challengers; and he retired from office at the elections of 2000 still clearly popular with many people.
McNeill was succeeded by Alderman Fran Kilgariff, who also was the mayor of Alice Springs for two full terms when she retired in 2008.
So what of the present? While most issues that the Town Council is grappling with today are virtually no different from those of at least three decades ago (for example, the current CBD revitalization is at least the fourth such scheme in this time), the current mayor Damien Ryan has only served one term and therefore still has time on his side.
I detect no major groundswell of opinion against him and (like McNeill but unlike either Oldfield or Kilgariff) he has no ambition to enter Territory politics – this counts in his favour.
Ryan clearly prefers consensus over conflict, and to some this is seen as being too weak to adequately represent the interests of Alice Springs; however, he is usually approachable and responsive.
By contrast, Steve Brown is a much more controversial public figure. Forthright and pugnacious, no one is in any doubt where they stand in relation to his views on many issues, consequently he polarizes the public. It remains to be seen whether he can generate sufficient support to upset Ryan in the mayoral contest but the portents of history strongly suggest this is highly unlikely.
However, it has been a common strategy employed by many candidates over the years to run simultaneously for mayor and alderman (this time it will be councilor); and this is a good means of gaining a higher public profile in the election campaign. By this method it is most likely Steve Brown will win a place as a councilor on the Alice Springs Town Council.
Pictured: Incumbent Mayor Damien Ryan. Photo from our archive.
'Spirit of Parsons Street' wins international award
The creative brief for the redevelopment of Parsons Street in Alice Springs’ CBD has won an international award.
The brief, titled Revealing the Spirit of Parsons Street, was prepared by photographer Mike Gillam who is also well-known for his long-time commitment to the preservation and protection of our natural and cultural heritage within the urban environment.
Mr Gillam was commissioned to develop the brief as part of the CBD revitalisation project.
The Green Dot Awards celebrate “excellence in green products and services”. Mr Gillam’s unusual entry stands alongside other first prize category winners such as the Copenhagen Wheel – an electric bicycle that generates its own energy while pedalling and braking – and the work of a Hong Kong based architectural firm, Aedas Ltd, specialising in sustainable design.
The awards were established in 2008 by the Farmani Group, which has galleries in Los Angeles and New York, is publisher of VUE Magazine and has founded a number of other awards and charities. The Green Dot Awards are judged by an international jury made up of business people, designers, artists, writers and editors with ‘green’ credentials.
Recognition of a project by the awards is designed to give consumers confidence that the project can be trusted as excellent in its environmentally-sustainable practices.
Mr Gillam described his brief to the jury as “an informing philosophy for designers, architects and artists who intend to work in Parsons Street”.
He wrote: “Alice Springs is a troubled and polarized town. Beyond the media stereotyping of stabbing deaths and racially motivated assaults, this is also a place of hope and promise, where inter‐racial respect and friendship has persisted against a backdrop of violence.
“This untold story of Alice Springs emerged gradually and grew unexpectedly through my research on Parsons Street and its namesake, Hon.J.Langdon Parsons, the most senior government official in the Northern Territory from 1884‐1892.”
An architect whom Mr Gillam had approached in the course of the peer review process of the brief urged him to submit this project to the Green Dot Awards.
He says the timing of the prize announcement has nothing to do with the upcoming Town Council elections.
A detailed account of the brief was presented on this site in October last year.
Pictured is Parsons Street now: this choked sightline will be de-cluttered in the redevelopment. Photo by MIKE GILLAM.
Bottoms up: A sign of the times
For those who think they have seen all the absurdity of liquor restrictions in the Northern Territory, we bring you this sign. The photo was sent to us by former Alice Springs identity Colin Saunders. The Liquor Commission says the sign is apparently near Daly River. There are no drinking paddocks in the southern half of the NT.
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Election 2012: Cheap first shots at Alison Anderson in Labor's fight for its life
By ERWIN CHLANDA
To get an idea of what’s ahead of us in this election year it’s instructive to read the final words spoken by government front bencher Chris Burns in the NT Parliament before the Christmas break.
Producing his own brand of Festive Season cheer, Labor politician Dr Burns was having a shot at Alison Anderson in the adjournment debate of the last Sittings of 2011.
That’s not surprising, because the colorful Member for MacDonnell had recently joined the Country Liberal Opposition, after having been an Independent, which was after having been a party colleague of Dr Burns’.
What is remarkable about his sniping is that his ammunition consisted mostly of alleged past transgressions by Ms Anderson which, while she was a Labor Member, his party either ignored or said Ms Anderson was not guilty of. And that was from then Chief Minister Clare Martin down.
So Dr Burns engaged in some robust mental gymnastics to explain his change of heart.
It’s all about the book by Melbourne journalist Russell Skelton, King Brown Country, The Betrayal of Papunya.
He’d referred to it previously, explained Dr Burns in December, but “I carefully avoided reference to personalities in that book”.
Why? Nothing to do with the fact that then Ms Anderson was still on the cross benches in a delicately balanced Legislative Assembly?
Why is he naming her now? Nothing to do with the fact that now Ms Anderson has joined the Opposition?
The reason, says Dr Burns, is “the very fact that [author] Russell Skelton now has a Walkley Award for this book”.
The award is for journalistic achievement in the long form, organised by the Media Alliance.
Taking his cue from the journalists’ trade union is surprising for a member of a government that prefers to conduct its business with the media through an army of minders.
Dr Burns ends his speech with a call on Opposition Leader Terrry Mills “to remove the Member for MacDonnell from her position as Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Indigenous Affairs”.
And in the process Dr Burns attaches Parliamentary privilege – protection against legal action – to a string of assertions in the book, further embellished by his own extrapolations.
The other irony is that many of the things the book alleges Ms Anderson to have done, are things that Dr Burns’ government should have known about, or should have stopped or prevented. Dr Burns’ colleagues have been in government since 2001. He became a Minister in 2002.
And before Labor gained power the CLP administration consistently fumbled the governing of remote councils, not just Papunya. Mr Skelton’s book acknowledges that, but then proceeds to take aim at Ms Anderson in particular.
Dates are interesting. The book appeared in September, 2010. According to it the main dastardly acts in the troubled community of Papunya, some 300 kms west of Alice Springs, occurred in the late 1990s and mid 2000s.
Many had been extensively – and largely exclusively – covered by the Alice Springs News, which the book mostly acknowledges.
This includes the significant accomplishments and ultimate banishment of school principal Diane de Vere, and especially, what the book calls “motorcar dreaming”.
The media coverage of that started with a leak of sensitive financial information to the Alice Springs News, raising questions about the dealings by the quasi local government body in used cars. All this went on under the nose of the government of which Dr Burns was a front bencher.
The council, while getting government money, wasn’t a local government body at all, but a social club.
Ms Anderson, who’s working on her own book about the events, says similar arrangements were in place in Haasts Bluff, Kintore and Mt Liebig, without attracting attention from the media, nor Dr Burns.
King Brown Country gives a thorough and easy-to-read account of the chaotic conditions in The Centre’s bush, in broad brush starting in the 1960s, and in useful detail from the mid-70s.
The situation Mr Skelton encountered would have been a good enough – amazing enough – yarn without him constantly having shots at Ms Anderson – shots that are frequently quite off target.
On the one hand Mr Skelton describes her astonishing skills: she speaks seven local languages, pops out the best political one-liners, has an acute strategic instinct for survival, and compelling persuasiveness: you should – I have – see her handing out how to vote cards. “No” is not an option.
Mr Skelton also describes her as invaluable to administrators, as an interpreter not just of languages, but of the complex situations in some of the nation’s poorest, remotest, least developed communities, grog and violence ridden, and hammered by tribal tensions.
And while her strong personality came into play a lot, she wasn’t reigning supreme – she was (for a time) part of a council and the council was at all times – supposedly – under the control of a government department under the control of Cabinet.
Given all that, making her always the baddie is a bit of a stretch. Who really needs to be fingered in the betrayal of Papunya?
The book makes much – most, really – of the so-called “motorcar dreaming”. This is how it worked.
The Papunya store, run by the local social club, set prices to make healthy profits which it donated to the so-called council which spent some of it on cars which were given to locals, on a kind of rotation basis, not necessarily guided by the strictest principles of equality.
There is no suggestion in the book that the Anderson clan benefited from the scheme more than others.
One of the store keepers, John Verek, who arrived in 1992, took issue with that arrangement, and so does Mr Skelton.
I had an opportunity of speaking with Mr Verek. The occasion was the NT Government’s decision to charge Papunya residents for electricity – raising Ms Anderson’s ire to boiling point.
I was producing a story for the Seven TV Network. Before flying to Papunya we interviewed the Central Land Council’s Tracker Tilmouth about the “outrageous” prices in the store – and now the poor people had to pay for power as well.
Later in Papunya, between getting vision of Power and Water staff with very long poles screwing fuses out of power poles where people refused to sign up, I went to see Mr Verek.
The conversation went something like this.
Can I please get some footage of your outrageously priced groceries?
Help yourself … OK, now you have your pictures, bear in mind that we could easily undercut Woolworths in Alice Springs. We don’t pay rent and the transport isn’t all that expensive. The prices are set by the elders and they get cars from the profit.
And that wasn’t little cars in cornflake packets. It was real ones. Big ones. Outrage.
I put this to a local. He said, we don’t have public transport. We always share the use of cars. How many blackfellers fit in a car? And sooner or later everyone gets one. It’s like a savings plan. What are you on about?
It was a bush solution. It was a no brainer to most, but Mr Skelton, in the book’s major example of apparent impropriety, came down on the side of Mr Verek who held a far more puritanical – and maybe, impractical – view.
The focus on Ms Anderson makes up a relatively small part of Mr Skelton’s book although in the Territory, at least, it is the part that has received the most attention.
He skillfully puts together the elements of the monumental events in the region at the time, how the politicians and administrators coped with them, or turned their backs, while throwing vast amounts of money at the “problems”: land rights, equal pay triggering the exodus from the cattle stations to the communities, the outstation movement, Labor gaining power after 26 years of Tory rule in the NT, the Intervention, the urban drift to town camps. This part of his book is a useful chronicle of Aboriginal policies and politics in The Centre.
But where the book deals with Ms Anderson it’s hard to shake the feeling that Mr Skelton’s efforts to put much of the blame on her are contrived: is he picking on her because she is an outstanding figure? Was there not a similar mess in dozens of other bush communities?
To be sure, to decline Mr Skelton’s repeated requests for an interview was a strategic mistake on Ms Anderson’s part – “no comment” is the worst answer you can give a journo on the scent of a story about public money, and issues in the public interest.
Much of the book relies on unnamed sources. The major informant is Steve Hanley, Mr Anderson’s former partner and father if her children with whom she was embroiled in a bitter separation.
The Alice Springs News in 2005 and 2006 published several reports about Mr Hanley’s role in the financial dealings of the Papunya “council” – google his name in our online edition.
None of this stopped Dr Burns from sinking in the slipper a bit more: “I understand that none of those [police and other] investigations [into Ms Anderson] were conclusive. But this book is conclusive, this book is conclusive in a political sense now.” What would Mr Skelton say about that?
More from Dr Burns: “Verek said he once tried … to lower store prices, but Anderson flatly rejected the idea, saying it was not what the majority of councillors wanted. Alison and Handley, who is Anderson’s husband, avoided the store, doing most of their shopping in Alice Springs, yet Verek said they benefited from the profits via, amongst other prizes, a $35,000 Toyota Landcruiser.
“So here is someone who not only was aware of price gouging in their local store, but actually required it, actually ordered them to price gouge.
“To price gouge the most disadvantaged people living in a remote area, and rip them off of funds so she and her family could buy a car.
“What sort of cynical person is that? What sort of person who clothe themselves in this place as being some champion of Indigenous people would do that to her own people? And it is catalogued throughout this book.”
That is an extrapolation by Dr Burns from what the book “catalogues”.
Dr Burns: “So here we have bullying, and there is a catalogue of bullying in this book. There is a bullying that went on with the school principal, one Diane de Vere, who had taken the school from near disaster to one of the most successful bush schools in Central Australia.
“Here is a successful principal who had raised attendance, who had raised standards, but it says that a former Education department official who asked not to be named said de Vere’s problem was that she had achieved too much. (The Alice Springs News covered Ms de Vere’s treatment in detail in November 2003.)
“The man said Anderson, her brother Sid and others felt that de Vere had become too big for her boots, she had become a threat to her authority, the Member for MacDonnell, so she had her sacked, well she had her moved out of the community, she hunted her out like so many people.”
As Mr Skelton reports it, Ms de Vere’s dismissal was decided by a community meeting called by “one of the Education Department’s top officials in Alice Springs” – a bureaucrat working for the government in which Dr Burns, the current Minister of Education, was a front bencher.
The fact that it was Ms Anderson who told Ms de Vere of the decision community meeting’s decision to sack her, prompts Mr Skelton to assert: “Anderson may have left the council, but her authority in Papunya was clearly undiminished.” This kind of conclusion ignores the other forces at play, in particular, within the Education Department.
No doubt we’ll hear more from Dr Burns and King Brown Country as this year’s election draws near.
PICTURE: Ms Anderson and her brother, Sid, now the president of the MacDonnell Shire. Different takes on their role as power brokers in Papunya shape up as election fodder.
Council should not be in government's pocket, says mayoral candidate Brown
By ERWIN CHLANDA
Vocal law and order campaigner Steve Brown (pictured) is standing for Mayor and Alderman in the town council elections on March 24, although he says he will be “facing an uphill battle” against the “firmly entrenched incumbent,” Damien Ryan.
Mr Brown says he would bring a “much more vigorous approach” to the position: “Damien’s embrace of the NT Labor Government’s policies and his willingness to take up offered positions on every board and committee that came his way has often left him obligated and somewhat compromised, and the council in a position of being unable to criticise when criticism was absolutely due.”
He says he will not accept membership of “any committees or bodies or boards not directly associated with the operation of the Alice Springs Town Council”.
Mr Brown says if elected he would have a pro-growth “corporate Alice” approach, running the town as a successful business, aiming at attracting more permanent workers and giving incentives to business.
“We are in direct competition with other towns for tourists, workers and new business,” says Mr Brown.
“If we want to be successful, especially given our isolation and at times harsh environment, we simply must have more to offer.”
Mr Brown says he will be promoting a string of initiatives. He says some may not be directly within the council’s power, but the council can be a powerful advocate for the town, putting pressure on the government to implement these measures:-
• A government funded low cost housing scheme allowing tenants to purchase their rental house or unit at cost after five years, automatically qualifying for a NT Housing Loan with rental payments.
• Simplifying and fast-tracking the town planning processes with government assistance to developers.
• A development fund for entrepreneurs.
• Picking up the opportunities “that saw us promoted as one of Australia’s leading potential growth towns” and returning Alice to “the vigorous ‘can do’ approach of the ’70s.
• Return government departments in Alice and provide top-level advice.
• Re-define the privileges of local contractors to give them greater priority in the awarding of contracts.
• Take SIHIP out of the hands of the Alliance group giving local contractors a chance to directly tender for the works.
• Attract new airlines to Alice.
• Get facilities up to scratch and roll back the “nanny state approach” in national parks where “roads, park trails, facilities and climbs have been closed for the most trivial of reasons, along with unnecessary and often race based exclusions in complete disregard of the wants of our paying visitors”.
He will also work to:-
• use the “enormous lobbying power of the council in this election year” to the benefit of the town.
• involve the council as investor or facilitator in projects such as the Melanka site and possibly as a developer in the new Kilgariff suburb.
Mr Brown says: “What my wagon is selling are hope, inclusion, equality and opportunity tinged with a good smattering of common sense.
“Partially as a result of the world’s financial crisis, but absolutely as a result of the sheer and utter neglect of our region by the NT Government, we have a rapidly escalating crisis in business confidence, escalating closures, staff and old time locals leaving town, declining property values, dropping tourism numbers – all at a rate well above the national levels.”
Mr Brown, an electrician by trade and a member of the pioneering Brown family settled in the semi-rural White Gums area, has played a leading role in recent law and order campaigns and in the business pressure group, Action for Alice.
He says this has prompted the government to make the changes “which this year – touch wood – seem to be having some effect, but there is absolutely no point in solving that crisis if we then allow our town to slide backwards to becoming an under-serviced, welfare driven backwater.
“The fundamentals of our town’s economy haven’t changed.
“Alice is still a place of enormous promise and opportunity.”
MELKY STILL UNDECIDED, BUT AGITATING
Meanwhile Alderman Eli Melky, while still not declaring his hand for the coming elections, continues his attack on the actions of the current council.
He has given notice that at council’s committee meeting next Monday he will put a motion to abolish council’s “Removal of graffiti” by-law, which places the onus of removal on property-owners.
Says Ald Melky: “It is my view that the by-law to penalise the property owner, who is the victim of a graffiti attack, for non-removal of graffiti from their property, infringes one or more principles of the Local Government Act.
“[For example] a by-law must not infringe personal rights in an unreasonable way or to an unreasonable extent and should be consistent with other legislation applying in the council’s area.
“The Act also suggests that a by-law should not impose unreasonable burdens on the community.
“However the principle that I believe most strikes the message is that a by-law should be consistent with basic principles of justice and fairness.
“I think a property owner who has just had his / her property damaged by graffiti should not suffer further costs or the indignity of being treated as an offender by the council.
“Since the introduction of this by-law on February 1 2010, graffiti in the town has increased tenfold and is now spiralling out of control.
“Council has a role in this: we need to act fast and put in a removal of graffiti plan with an objective to remove graffiti within 24 hours of it going up. Graffiti feeds off itself as a self-promotion of anti social activity and is not the fault of the property owner.”
ED: See also Paul Lelliott’s comment on the story “Challenger for mayoral contest?”
Sky’s the limit!
I touched down in Alice and was greeted by these great open space and bright blue skies that, amid the constant rain and grey of the east coast, I had begun to miss. Don’t get me wrong though, I loved every roll, crash and rumble of the torrential storms back east, but it felt like cabin fever was setting in. My eyes were craving a good stretch, all the way up to the horizon. I had had my fill of city skylines and backyard fences. So I was excited to come down the steps onto the tarmac shimmering with heat and whipping with wind.
Really though I should have known better than to trouble a friend and organize a lift from the airport to town. For one, it would have saved them the petrol and two, that airport is simply buzzing with comings and goings at this time of year. There were a couple of people that I could have jumped in with, though it was a good reminder of how time truly trickles in the Territory; not a lot to do with what the clock says.
Anyway, eventually I was picked up and on the ride into town caught up on the gossip and happenings in town over the last five weeks. Another big tip fire; smoking for days on interminably burning tyres. Lots of bandaged limbs and lots of funerals. The death of a young Aboriginal man in police custody. Trees being pulled up (nothing new!) and more fires. The train derailment further north that spilt copper concentrate containing uranium. Well actually I heard about that incident on the east coast and thought how lucky Alice has been (so far) with that freight passing regularly right through the centre of town.
My lucky stars continued and I was pleased to find that my van was not the molten melted mess I feared it would have become with the soaring summer temperatures. Also that it was still where I had left it. On the other hand though my dear little kitty was so limp and heat stroked I took to prodding her regularly to check for any small signs of life. Prodding that she duly returned in the cool of the evening with her nocturnal body clock in full swing whilst I tried to haul sleep from my bed of sweat!
My first weekend back I set off for Two Mile to make sure all was in order. The water was perfect and all the stars were out, blinking ‘good evening’ as I exclaimed, “Long time no see!” And all is well, my favorite spot remains my most favorite spot. Clear skies, blue skies and ‘sky’s the limit’ kind of space.
So I’m really glad to be back as another long late summer evening draws to a close and I wonder how this year will unfold for this town and me. There is a lot of negativity around the town (conversations, letters to the editor and news comment streams) in regards to its businesses or lack thereof, crime and violence. Valid and in need of discussion are conversations around the town’s future but I feel like it’s just as important to continue validating and celebrating and working to protect the things that make this place so unique and why we chose to live here in the first place. Did I say I’m excited?
Longer term thinking needed for Alice's 'amazing potential'
CANDIDATE PROFILE by KIERAN FINNANE
People do still fall in love with Alice Springs. Amidst much gloomy talk, it’s good to be reminded of that. It happened to Edan Baxter when he arrived here five years ago and his ardour is undiminished.
He still sees at the forefront all the things that have built the town’s mystique – the fantastic mix of people, from around the country and the world, alongside Aboriginal people, the presence of their ancient culture, the closeness of pioneering history, burgeoning creativity, stunning natural environment.
But many decisions are made that limit the “amazing potential” of all this, he says, and this is what has prompted him to nominate as a candidate in the coming Town Council elections.
At 32 years old, he’s pitching himself as a “younger, fresher voice” but his emphasis is on the long-term. He sees the focus of public debate on “the issues of the day” – such as young people on the streets at night and anti-social behaviour – as something of a dead end.
“I respect people’s concern and upset – I’ve had my car stolen and it’s not a good experience – but short-term fixes tend to be the end of the debate.”
He worries about biting off one of the most contentious of local issues without having a defined policy position, but says, in contrast to the distraction of yet another debate on a youth curfew, there need to be longer-term commitments to things like the calendar of youth activities that the council supported over the summer holidays.
“I respect people taking the opportunity for a democratic discussion”, he says, but he’d like to see council taking a leadership position to head the discussions in more thoughtful directions. He says this could be done by council engaging more with their various advisory committees – “draw on the expertise that is there in our community”.
He’s not without some expertise himself: he has a degree in commerce and his first professional job was as a two-year stint as a financial analyst for the Australian Institute of Management. That kind of background could certainly be useful when it comes to working on council’s budget. It comes with high order IT skills and today Mr Baxter earns his living in web development and IT support.
He sees the development of online commerce as one contributing factor to the current local economic downturn but argues that the fantastic tourism potential of the town, as well as new energy resource projects and education and training opportunities are reasons to be optimistic that the slump is transitional.
“It’s a matter of adapting, freshening up our approach, recalibrating to maintain our presence.”
However, much more can be done to respond to the desire of international tourists to “immerse themselves in Aboriginal culture”.
To this end, Mr Baxter is suggesting that a regular “Law & Culture” gathering be held in Alice Springs.
His emphasis is on a celebration of resilient Aboriginal society and creativity but in discussion with the Alice Springs News he saw no reason not to open this out to a ‘two-way’ inter-cultural event. His key point is that the Town Council should take a proactive role in its development, finding the right kind of partnerships and ways to resource it.
He also sees such an event as an opportunity to bring the region’s peoples together, to pool ideas about ways to go forward on all fronts.
Again he has some relevant experience. He’s been involved in awareness-raising campaigns in the past, including a stint as the executive officer of the Indigenous Employment and Education Taskforce, auspiced by Desert Knowledge Australia, and also did event organisation for DKA and the Alice Springs Festival. The successful Alice on the Menu map of two years ago was his baby.
He’s wary of taking too many strong policy positions. The Alice News questions him about, for instance, a possible tree protection by-law. He goes so far as to say that he loves trees, sees them as contributing greatly to the town’s sense of place and would like to work towards their preservation.
He’s mindful that he will be just one voice, and one vote on council and feels it’s important to be able to work collaboratively with people, not to die in a ditch over particular stances.
He’s disappointed that no-one else from his social circle seems to be standing for council.
“They’ve said they’ll support my campaign but they don’t want to stand.”
A four year commitment is not to be undertaken lightly: “Four years is a long time in a young man’s life,” says Mr Baxter, “but if you think there are ways to do things better, you’ve got to put yourself out there.
“I want to make a productive contribution.”
Shires join forces on lease payment issue
Where will the money come from to pay rent for shire assets on Aboriginal land?
By KIERAN FINNANE
The eight Northern Territory shires are acting in concert on the issue of lease payments for shire facilities on Aboriginal land. The Northern and Central Land Councils’ position is that traditional owners are entitled to rent for leases over the various land parcels once the Australian Government’s five-year town leases expire in August. The Australian and NT Governments have accepted this, with the NT Government determining that rents should be set at 5-10% of UCV (unimproved capital value). This will amount to a bill of around $3 million annually for the NT, potentially rising to $5 million once all leases are settled. The leases for public housing land are exempt, with ‘peppercorn’ rents charged “in recognition of the direct benefit for local people”, according to Minister for Local Government, Malarndirri McCarthy.
The cash-strapped shires are appalled: already they are struggling to provide a basic level of service to their communities. Don’t their services amount to a “direct benefit for local people”? And, with limited operational funding, rates revenue, and budgets patched together from grants and charges to agencies for delivering their programs, where will the money come from?
A meeting on January 24 was attended by representatives of the eight shires, a lawyer from the firm Minter Ellison to advise them, and representatives of the Australian and Territory Governments as well as the Local Government Association of the NT.
The eight shires agreed to five points of a joint approach:-
• They’ve asked Minter Ellison to concentrate on gaining secure Section 19 leases [under the Aboriginal Land Rights Act, leased direct from Land Councils] for the councils’ core and strategic assets, such as council offices and works depots.
• They will jointly lobby the NT Government to increase operating grants to cover the costs of these leases.
• They will inform the Australian Government that leasing of assets for the delivery of their services – such as aged care, childcare, night patrol – is their responsibility. The shires are prepared to sub-lease from the Australia Government for the life of the service agreements. (Ms McCarthy has indicated she will work with the shires on this, but does not appear to have made any commitment about an increase in her own government’s funding for the shires.)
• Shires won’t take leases for open areas such as parks, but will be willing to continue providing services under letters of agreement. (Ms McCarthy considers this a “worthwhile” approach.)
• Shires want rubbish dumps exempt from lease payments, due to the constantly changing legal and regulatory requirements. This issue should be worked through “on a Territory basis”, they say.
‘NO REDUCTION IN SERVICE’
This approach was unanimously endorsed by the Central Desert Shire Council, which met last Friday. They added a further point of resolution, that Commonwealth grants for the delivery of Commonwealth services include an additional amount to meet lease payments. The payments should not be made out of the existing service funding grant, they argue, as this would mean a reduction in the service.
Central Desert Shire CEO Roydon Robertson, who attended the January 24 meeting, told the Alice Springs News that all the shires share concerns about where the lease payment money will go.
“Our elected members want this money – millions of dollars – to benefit their communities, not just disappear into Land Trust coffers.
“Their [the Land Trusts’] people are our people too, the people we are trying to provide services for. For most of these services, there’s no-one else to do it, if we don’t.
“We’ve got to resolve this issue without sending ourselves broke.”
Ms McCarthy also wants the lease payments to be put towards “commercial developments and projects of broad community benefit” but this amounts to no more than an “encouragement”, as she acknowledges that the payments are “essentially private payments to Traditional Owners”.
The next step is for the shires to meet with the relevant Land Councils, and Minter Ellison has written to the Central Land Council as a starting point for negotiations to begin. There’s been no formal response to this letter to date, says Mr Robertson. It is interesting to note that the CLC is currently advertising for an anthropologist to undertake research, “focussing especially on the progress of Section 19 leasing projects in the CLC region”.
AUGUST DEADLINE
Meanwhile, the clock is ticking. If the August 2012 expiry date on the five-year town leases comes around and the issues have not been resolved, shire assets will revert to ownership by the relevant Land Trust – the “astonishing” situation that existed for all government infrastructure prior to 2007, to use Bob Beadman’s descripton.
The former NT Coordinator-General for Remote Services’ discussion of leasing in his reports 3 and 4 is instructive, particular for the way the unresolved issues impede economic development. And his recommendation of possible reforms to the Land Rights Act – “that do not erode the rights of the Traditional Owners, but hold the Land Councils to account” – are relevant for the current situation:
• Statutory timeframes for Land Councils to respond to lease applications (similar provisions were inserted in the Mining provisions in the 1980’s);
• A requirement for independent observers to attend consultations between Land Councils and Traditional Owners to ensure an objective representation of leasing proposals is conveyed;
• Subject to any commercial-in-confidence concerns of proponents, a requirement for a public report to be produced on lease negotiations, including those consulted and reasons for decisions by Traditional Owners and Land Councils.
Pictured: Shire workers learning to undertake maintenance on work plant at the Ti Tree works depot. Photo courtesy Central Desert Shire. The works team includes the following people: Mick Lern, Morgan Abbott, Henry Haley, Trevor Glenn, Dan Pepperill, Mark Gorey, Anthony Pepperill, and Gabrielle Presley.
Give the shires time to prove themselves, say councillors
By KIERAN FINNANE
Councillors of the Central Desert Shire – black and white – say the shire system time needs more time to prove itself. Most of those I spoke to will put their hands up again for election in March, including shire president Norbert Patrick. He says he would accept the leadership role again if asked, but would rather be just an elected member who could give new members the benefit of his experience.
I spoke to the councillors outside the chamber after they had met for the last time before the election. During the meeting shire CEO Roydon Robertson had raised the recent negative comments made about the shires by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Mick Gooda, angrily dismissed by the CEO as “another insult”. Mr Gooda was reported by the ABC to have called for the shires model to be scrapped, referring to its “total detrimental effect” on communities.
Councillors appeared to be in agreement with the CEO and the sentiments expressed by Kerry Moir, president of the Local Government Association of the NT (LGANT), who was appalled at Mr Gooda making such damaging statements just two months out from the shire elections.
“His words are an affront to all of the Aboriginal elected members in the shires as well as their Aboriginal employees who comprise more than 60% (in some cases more than 80%) of total employment in each shire. The shires are also the largest employers of Aboriginal people in remote areas,” said Cr Moir (a member of Darwin City Council.)
She has called for Mr Gooda to meet with LGANT and the shire mayors – all of whom in the large shires are Aboriginal – and this is to occur on February 21, with both Cr Patrick and Mr Robertson attending from Central Desert Shire.
Outside I asked Cr Patrick what he thought was good about the shire.
“Getting Indigenous and non-Indigenous to work together, making the shire better for people in our community and our region,” he said.
What has improved in Lajamanu, his home community?
“Management,” he said, “the relationship with head office, it’s very good the way it is now, better than before.”
Why is that?
“The previous organisation didn’t have ideas and system in place.”
I asked him whether he thought people felt a loss of control over their affairs as a result of the shire system replacing community government?
“People never used to work together,” he said, “decisions were made by a few people, not the whole people like we’ve got with the councillors and within the shire, and how the system is run, which is very good in my experience.”
Are people in Lajamanu happy with the system?
“They’re still not sure how the system works within the shire but we’ll have to work with the shire to make it better for everybody who lives at Lajamanu and in bush communities.
‘VERY HARD TO CHANGE IT BACK’
“Very hard to change it back, the shire is here to stay for a long time. They need to work with it and make it happen, both together, the community and the shire.
Can the local boards tell the shire what they want and get things done?
Local board members are “very important people”, says Cr Patrick.
“The shire will listen to the local board.”
Cr Patrick, as president, attends local board meetings around the shire. Does be believe the board members are happy with the system?
“It’s mixed at the moment, they’re still not sure, the system is pretty new to them. The system needs to be more introduced to local board members so they know how the shire runs.”
This goes too for new councillors. They need “a lot of introduction how the council normally runs. Not easy. In my experience it took about three years to learn how the system works”.
What helped him most?
“Getting to work with the CEO and the staff at head office and also visiting communities. It’s very important for them to share ideas with me as the president and the CEO.”
This is no mean commitment for Cr Patrick. Lajamanu is at the far northern end of the shire area, a good 10 hours drive from Alice Springs. Council business takes him away from home for weeks at a time.
Lajamanu is also home for Councillor William Johnson. He’ll run again for the Northern Tanami Ward, and like Cr Patrick, would be happy to just be an elected member: “I like to help my own people, I’ve got experience in the government side. I like to stand up for my own people, fight for the rights of my people.”
What has he been able to achieve while on council?
‘GET THINGS BUILT UP IN THE COMMUNITY’
“Ask for funding, get things built up in the community, encourage young people to employment plus education.”
Is Lajamanu better off since the shire was created?
“I can’t say getting better but it slowly is working towards that. The shire is just new, you know, give them time to do things, improve things more.”
Was the old community government system better?
“Local government been there long time, round about 30 years, the shire just started.”
What would be most important for shire to achieve in the next term?
“Employment, that’s what they need, employment on the community, full salary for people to work. Let’s get up and start working! Like local government days there was full employment. Employment is the main thing.”
Councillor Peppi Drover is choosing employment over representation. He works for night patrol at Engawala and under new rules shire staff cannot be elected to council.
Has the shire been good for Engawala?
“Yep.”
How?
“You stand up for your community, you got a voice.”
What about practical things?
“Work, jobs, couple of new buildings, basketball court, takeaway shop, kindergarten next to basketball court.
Trailer, backhoe.”
Did people like the old system better?
“No. New council, my ward [Anmatjere].”
Does the local boad tell him what they want?
“Yep.”
Councillor James Glenn from Ti Tree will stand again for the Anmatjere Ward and expects there’ll be other candidates putting up their hands.
“It’s a great opportunity, management is really good, people on the ground, there’s a lot of support, especially … the younger people. I think it’s a good council.”
How have things improved in Ti Tree under the shire?
“A lot of things are happening – housing crews, people working CDEP, getting funding from other departments like Commonwealth Government, Territory Government.”
Does he think people prefer the old community government system?
“In many cases. It’s a big area now.”
(The shire covers an area of over 250,000 sqkm, stretched in an arc north of Alice, between the WA and Queensland borders.)
But Cr Glenn also thinks that people’s opinions of the new system are influence by “what happened with the Commonwealth Government”, ie the Intervention whose impact began to be felt at roughly the same time as the shire was introduced.
In contrast to MacDonnell Shire, whose councillors are all Aboriginal people from communities, Central Desert Shire has three non-Aboriginal councillors. Councillor Sascha McKell lives at Yuendumu where she is employed by the shire and so will not contest the next election. Councillors Dianne Martin and Liz Bird are both cattle station people and both are considering standing again.
Cr Martin, of Mount Dennison Station, was elected when a vacancy occurred after 12 months.
“Like the majority of station people, I complained fiercely about the shire but decided there was no use complaining unless I could affect change in the process. The only way to do that is to become a councillor.”
She does not see station people as her only constituents, however. She works on communities and feels she has “a broad understanding” of their issues.
“I know a lot of people in our ward. I like to think that I represent everyone and am available to speak to everyone, which I’ve endeavoured to do over my term.”
STATION ISSUES
Cr Bird, from Indiana Station, was encouraged to join by Cr Martin, whom she knew from School of the Air days. She was elected unopposed to fill a year-long vacancy in the Akityarre Ward.
Both see local board meetings as an important way for them to have contact with community people in their ward and for the shire to know what people on the ground want.
Cr Martin, who attends the meetings at Yuendumu, Willowra and Nyirripi, says the majority of members are usually there and the system has “definitely improved”.
“It needs to improve more but it is going in the right direction. It’s important to have participation on the boards, to get community involvement, but it still needs work done on it.”
Cr Bird says she’s met capable people at the local board meetings in Atitjere who were involved with community government.
“I’ve talked to them, said come on to council. They’ve said we should share the jobs around, maybe they thought they’d done that job five or ten years ago, it’s time for younger people or other people to have a go.”
Station issues are obviously close to her heart but Cr Bird sees a role for her to get more shire information out to all the people in her ward, whether they’re on communities or more isolated on pastoral and mining leases, agricultural ventures or other businesses.
She’d like to see the diversity of these interests reflected in, for instance, the shire newsletter, which is dominated by community news, and will work to make that happen.
If she runs again, what does she hope to achieve?
“I’ve been on council not even a year, so I guess consistency. I’ve learnt a lot, so to continue that knowledge onto the next council – you do need time to understand it all.
“I’d like to broaden my knowledge of how local government is expected to work. Local government has been thrust onto the Northern Territory people, the state government expects it to work – it’s whoever the people are on it who’ll make it work.”
Are they feeling more optimistic about shires now that they’ve had close experience of them?
‘PEOPLE ARE GAINING A BETTER UNDERSTANDING’
Says Cr Martin: “I think people are gaining a better understanding. It wasn’t explained well, there was too much change at once – the Intervention and the shires – people didn’t understand well, whether they were literate or not literate.”
Says Cr Bird: “It’s not even four years [since the shire was formed]. Four years is not long for a group of people to come in with very little information – they’re still finding out information that was incorrect when they took over, what their assets were, money owed to them and so on. They’re still dealing with that plus the current problems. It’s a big job.”
“You need consistent good staff,” says Cr Martin. “That’s always very hard to find remote and that’s with every business. Very few people can cope with the isolation and live there in the long term.”
How is their relationship with their fellow councillors?
“Very good,” says Cr Bird, referring to the “really lovely letter” that one of them had sent to apologise for being absent from this last meeting, in which he thanked various of his colleagues for having been his mentors. “It’s little things like that, people coming up and shaking my hand, saying thanks very much, nice to know you. I think people appreciate the time you’ve put in, especially someone like myself who has nothing to do with the communities.
“And a good sense of humour always keeps everyone together. Whenever we do have a meeting we have a dinner, go out together and share a good joke.”
People were wary of one another in the beginning, says Cr Martin.
“But over time I thnk we’ve developed a really good working team, very supportive of each other. It’s ended up, the last 12 months particularly, very, very good.”
“I think we also share a respect for each other’s areas,” says Cr Bird. “For example, yesterday there was a rating proposal put out and a lot of discussion about the conditionally rated land [such as pastoral leases]. I was asking a lot of questions about things and at the end I said, ‘Look, I’m sorry, but this is actually very close to me’ and everyone in the room understood. If something affected them in their community, I would expect everyone to sit there and be interested in what’s going on.”
What will the big issues for the new council to deal with?
“Section 19 leasing is the biggest one,” says Cr Martin. “In my opinion it’s absolutely ludicrous that the Australian Government and NT Government have agreed to pay for the leases and said to shires, ‘That’s it’.” (See separate report this issue.)
“Sustainability”, says Cr Bird.
“For a lot of grant funding we’re only given 12 months to acquit and sometimes that’s very difficult. You need to build x amount of houses and if there are delays for rain or contractors or whatever, 12 months is not really a long time, especially when you have to take time off over summer.”
Twelve month grants also mean “there’s no long-term planning”, says Cr Martin. She also nominates a lot more local employment as a priority for the shire: “That’s what we are working towards.”
Pictured, from the top: Shire president Norbert Patrick and Councillor William Johnson, both of Lajamanu, outside the shire head office in Alice Springs last Friday. • Cr Peppi Drover from Engawala. • Cr James Glenn from Ti Tree. • Crs Dianne Martin and Liz Bird, from Mt Dennison and Indiana Stations respectively.
NT News challenged for attacks on Sid Anderson
The CEO of the MacDonnell Shire Council has hit out at the Murdoch-owned NT News over its attacks on shire president Sid Anderson.
Diane Hood says Mr Anderson, who was convicted for murder, “served time in prison when he was a teenager and in his early 20s.
“He is now 58.
“Sid has never made a secret of his past actions and time in prison.
“In fact he uses his experience to teach and mentor others as to consequences of actions. Sid used his time in prison to learn a trade and to learn to become a better person,” says Ms Hood.
“In working with him at MacDonnell Shire he has impressed me with his dedication to his constituents, his hard work and diligence in working with both indigenous and non-indigenous people and organisations to do all he can to improve the quality of life across the Shire.
“Sid takes the view that we all need to work together, talk openly and keep moving forward to improve things for all of us. He also has the earned the respect of the Aboriginal people and Council staff across the Shire. I admire his hard work and attitude.”
Ms Hood says the reporter, Nigel Adlam, also makes reference to the salary of the shire’s previous CEO, comparing it to the Prime Minister’s.
“Unfortunately his assertion is simply untrue.
“He also refers to MacDonnell Shire’s potential outsourcing and referring to loss of jobs and a call centre – again, untrue.
“There never was a call centre and no jobs were to be transferred. The tender was for outsourcing of IT
development and processes.
“This was all communicated to the press at the time.”
Ms Hood questions the motivations behind frequent references to President Anderson’s past “with no attempt to mention the hard work and positive outcomes since he served his time in prison”.
She says this is not in keeping with the Northern Territory she grew up in.
“After all, when someone does wrong, serves their punishment and then reforms to do and help their community through public service, I for one believe that is what the story should also include – an example of positive change.”
Pictured: MacDonnell Shire President Sid Anderson at a shire council meeting in early 2011. Ms Hood is in the background (she was on the executive but not CEO at the time). Photo from our archive.
Carrots and sticks in smart combination
COMMENT by KIERAN FINNANE
There has been a lot of debate recently about ‘carrots’ versus ‘sticks’ policy approaches in fields where governments are attempting to change individuals’ behaviour. The principle of open court offers an unusual opportunity for direct observation of a carrots and sticks program in action, or at least of one facet of it, in the case of the SMART Court.
It is early days still for this program, but it seems its well-balanced combination of rewards and sanctions is giving many of its participants a genuine “hand up”. With their addictions heading them towards rock bottom, they’re given a chance – a six-month window to turn their lives around. What’s required – total abstinence and a range of other disciplined efforts – is not easy, but they’re effectively supported according to their individual needs.
It’s understood that they may fall off the wagon and get into other kinds of trouble, but there will nevertheless be consequences, measured in units of gaol time additional to the ultimate sentence for the crime they have committed.
But there’s no inexorable back-sliding: with renewed focus they can ‘earn’ these back as well as other rewards, including less frequent clinical testing for substance use and less frequent visits to court.
Then there are the rewards that are not easy to measure: words of encouragement, affirmation, congratulation, smiles, friendly jokes. You would have to see how touchingly pleased are the recipients – grown men and women whose faces often reflect the hard roads they’ve travelled – to gauge the worth of this.
There is a lot of cynicism in the community about so-called “do-gooder” programs. Here is one that gives cause for optimism and it’s worth considering its features:
• it is conducted within a mainstream context – the courts and corrections;
• it is focussed on problematic behaviour, not on a particular population;
• it sets clear bottom-line goals and has high expectations that they will be achieved;
• the timeframe for participation and graduation is tight;
• participation is supported by a clear system of rewards and sanctions;
• there is very close monitoring and reporting;
• individual needs are catered for, and treatments and supports adjusted as they go along;
• it draws on resources wherever they may be found – professionals in a whole range of government and non-government agencies, as well as workplaces, partners, family members;
• the simple power of human relationships is given explicit value.
Are there lessons here for programs in other fields?
And should this program be expanded to include a wider range of offences and other Territory communities, giving more people a chance to stay out of our over-crowded (and very expensive) gaols?
See separate report about Alice Springs’ first SMART Court graduation.
Asylum seeker led recovery for Alice: businessman's proposal
Give half a billion dollars to Alice Springs instead of a billion to Nauru.
That’s the way to fix Australia’s dilemma about offshore processing, according to ex FICA CEO and local businessman Paul Lelliott (pictured).
He asked MHR Warren Snowdon to take the idea “as far as you can.
“I also have the support of Adam Giles. Both he and Warren are friends of mine. I would like to think they will work together on this.”
Mr Lelliott says: “There is considerable humanitarian merit in putting forward the case for onshore processing of refugees.
“There is also a significant economic benefit to our region if that processing was to take place in Alice Springs. Forget about pouring money into Malaysia, Christmas Island and Nauru.
“We need the funding and the resultant increase in labor to rebuild this town. We can create our own economic stimulus.”
Mr Lelliott says Alice Springs has an indigenous population of some 5,000 people, 35% of whom are under the age of 20.
“A great amount of energy and humanitarian expertise is focused in assisting the disadvantaged from this group and indeed all of the Alice Springs underprivileged to ensure that they fulfill their potential in life.
“A senior public servant has stated that these groups are serviced by more than 90 government funded agencies and departments employing 1500 staff.
“I would suspect that we are top heavy in the administration and delivery of the programs we roll out.
“ We are well positioned to take on more social responsibility given the existing infrastructure,” says Mr Lelliott.
“By and large we are an extremely tolerant community. We strive for inclusive outcomes and we are multicultural in our thinking.
“During my term as CEO of FICA and in my day to day business dealings I have been impressed with the enormous goodwill in our town in spite of the social issues we face.
“Allowing onshore processing to take place here should be supported by the Federal Government and it offers a solution that the opposition should go along with.
“Let’s take the initiative and show the world how it should be done.”
UPDATE Feb 16:
Immigration Minister Chris Bowen and NT Deputy Chief Minister, Delia Lawrie, today announced a new migration program for the Darwin region to help employers fill skills and labour shortages associated with major projects.
The Regional Migration Agreement (RMA) for the Top End of the Northern Territory is “designed to help regions hire overseas workers where there is a genuine need to do so,” Mr Bowen and Ms Lawrie say.
“Darwin is set to experience huge growth, with demand for workers expected to outstrip local and national supply.
“The NT Government is focused on seeing Territorians benefit from major projects such as Ichthys.”
Other regional areas “will be eligible for RMAs in the coming months”.