Issue 44

The Northern Territory Government’s proposal to radically expand mandatory sentencing is unfair, unprincipled, unworkable, unnecessary and unaffordable, writes Russell Goldflam, president of the Criminal Lawyers Association of the Northern Territory.

Cr Eli Melky is standing by comments he made at Monday's town council meeting about price gouging by the accommodation industry during the Masters Games, but Tourism Central Australia (TCA) says it is common practice to vary rates according to demand. ERWIN CHLANDA reports.

Cr Melky as a competitor on the Masters Games website: See you in 2014? Maybe not.

The local tourism industry is in a prolonged crisis but it has no voice. Two members of the Town Council are making damaging allegations of price gouging by hotels, threatening the future of the Masters Games, but Tourism Central Australia (TCA) is mum. No answer to our request for comment 24 hours ago.

In her drawings showing at Araluen, Neridah Stockley allows her enquiring eye to alight on what is around her – in the studio, the shed, the kitchen –  and to lead the pencil in her discerning hand towards the essential line, form, pattern to be found there. The same approach is used in her landscape drawings and drypoints. Just how far does the mark-making have to go to get to its 'destination'?  KIERAN FINNANE reviews and speaks to the artist.

The most recent expert study on alcohol and the various attempts over the years to reduce its harms in Central Australia again claims – based on statistical information –  that per capita consumption and hence alcohol-related harms are on their way down. Interestingly, consumption in The Centre, widely thought to be the nation's basket-case when it comes to grog, is actually lower now than Greater Darwin's.  Some might think that is cause for a modest celebration. KIERAN FINNANE looks at how the report deals with typical objections to the data and at what it has found.

Pictured: Police tipping out grog being consumed in a public place. The report found that declaration of Alice as a Dry Town did not have any significant effect on reducing consumption of alcohol. Photo from our archive, taken in early 2008.

Councillor Eli Melky has criticised the local commercial accommodation industry for raising its tariffs to double and triple the normal rates during the Masters Games. Speaking at last night's council meeting, he said such a practice threatens the sustainability of the games. KIERAN FINNANE reports.

The Alice Springs contingent at the Country Liberals' annual general meeting on the weekend.

The mood was celebratory, to put it mildly, at the annual meeting of the Country Liberals (most people still call them CLP): Lots of smiles. Lots of banter in the Convention Center's foyer where the 100 or so delegates and members from all over the NT mingled between sessions.

You could see it was the party that had just captured the Treasury benches, spending around five thousand million dollars a year, after a decade in the wilderness. ERWIN CHLANDA reports.

How can a government make a unilateral decision to scrap an educational facility which is in partnership with a world renowned scientific organisation asks Ian Jamieson, of Cairns, a former Territorian of thirty six years and educator.

In the early hours of Sunday morning 199 high quality heifers from Bunda Station in the NT took to the air in a 747, on route to a new life in Indonesia, writes Luke Bowen from the NT Cattlemen's Association.

By ERWIN CHLANDA

The Country Liberals have picked their candidate to take on Warren Snowdon in the huge Federal seat of Lingiari – all of the Territory except Darwin.
Tina McFarlane describes herself as having a rural background, a small business owner, running a property in Mataranka.
The unsuccessful candidate was Lawson Broad, raised in Santa Teresa and educated in St Philip's College, now working for the Chief Minister. The party has a new president, Braedon Earley, from Darwin, raised at Roper River, a former hotel owner now working as a "consultant and adviser".
Alice CL branch president Daniel Davis is one of the party's two vice-presidents, with Ross Connolly from Darwin the other.
STORY and VIDEO by ERWIN CHLANDA: Lawson Broad; Ms McFarlane after the announcement and in an emotional encounter with fellow Tory politician Bess Price (Member for Stuart); Mr Lewis applauding Mr Abbott and the Federal Opposition Leader in full flight.

Chief Minister Terry Mills is in Alice Springs for the Country Liberal Party annual meeting. ERWIN CHLANDA asked him to comment on three issues.

KILGARIFF: Given that the suburb is being built on land that is owned by the public, is there a good case for blocks – at least some – to be sold for the cost of developing them, around $70,000, although residential real estate currently costs up to five times as much?

ALCOHOL IN REMOTE COMMUNITIES: As the weaker people in bush communities may come under pressure from the more powerful, should there be secret ballots to decide whether alcohol should be allowed?
There is confusion about MANDATORY ALCOHOL REHABILITATION: Is it a criminal or medical measure?

With one photograph or more on almost every one of its 250 plus pages, At The Very Heart – 100 Years in Remote Australia is a book to dip into for the stories or themes that catch your eye. Mine searched for the Alice Springs context and delighted in this band of assertive children. They don't seem to be very happy with the prospect of moving to St Philip's boarding facility – "a bigger jail"!

The book celebrates the centenary of  Frontier Services, the organisation which grew out of John Flynn's Australian Inland Mission. Organised around the broad themes of Flynn's project and, in keeping with its focus on the photographic record, it offers 'snapshots' of information about that work rather than a narrative. Luckily the photographs are sufficiently rewarding, conveying a sense of the vastness of the country and its inherent challenges to which Flynn and all who worked in his spirit responded so well. KIERAN FINNANE reviews.