Issue 44

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.

Two school principals from  Indigenous Catholic Community Schools were killed in yesterday morning in a triple fatality on Tiger Brennan Drive in Darwin.
One was Greg Crowe, principal of the Ltyentye Apurte Catholic School in Santa Teresa in Central Australia.  He was aged 72.

The other was the principal of Murrupurtiyanuwu Catholic Primary School in Wurrumiyanga on Bathurst Island, aged 50.  She had been principal for nearly 23 years. He name was not released for cultural reason.
Bishop Eugene Hurley (pictured) said: “We are deeply saddened by this tragic accident where the lives of three people were taken.  Two were principals who we knew and loved well and the third was a taxi driver whose family I don’t know.

"The community of Wurrumiyanga has lost a school principal and a leader in her own community.
"Santa Teresa has lost a principal and a much-loved member of the community. He has worked as principal for the past five years."

– Media Release from the Catholic Education Office.

Proposed minimum standards for Alcohol Management Plans in Northern Territory Aboriginal communities have been released for comment by Minister for Indigenous Affairs Jenny Macklin. Under Stronger Futures legislation Ms Macklin has the power to sign off on the plans, a power that will be relevant to any move to introduce alcohol or stronger strength alcohol on communities, as has been mooted by the new Territory Government. KIERAN FINNANE reports.

Action on alcohol by the new Territory Government is still lacking detail, despite all the attention the issue got in the Legislative Assembly.

Attorney-General and Minister for Justice John Elferink, making a Ministerial Statement on Alcohol and Crime on October 31, lauded former Chief Minister Marshall Perron's  Living with Alcohol program:  "Risks were taken, innovation given a chance and home-made programs were promoted." Not all of them flourished though because "clear analysis of the outcome allowed for a rigorous assessment and many programs were stopped on these criteria". Reading Hansard you can't see whether he blushed when he went on to criticise the former government for not taking "a leaf from this book". KIERAN FINNANE comments.

What happens when you set up in a popular cafe, with books of poetry scattered around and a little sign that says 'Cafe Poet'?

Wonderful things. Like catching a man's keen glance at the books as he passed with his wife. "Do you like poetry?" Sue Fielding asked. He soon let her know how much by reciting in Welsh many stanzas from the work of Dafydd ap Gwilym – "the Shakespeare of Wales".

On another occasion residents of Flynn Lodge, an aged care home, had been for a walk in the cafe gardens with their carer. Sue asked if they'd like to hear a poem. "Yes, yes," they said. She chose "The Peace of Wild Things" by Wendell Berry. KIERAN FINNANE reports.

Pictured: Benitta Robertson (left) shares a poem with Cafe Poet Sue Fielding at the Bean Tree cafe in the Olive Pink Botanic Garden.

The removal of sand from the Todd as a flood mitigation measure is based on no scientific evidence whatsoever, and in fact is contrary to the best advice, writes Charlie Carter, of Alice Springs.