By ERWIN CHLANDA

Central Land Council chairman Maurie Ryan says he will demand a Federal Government enquiry into the council, and sue to maintain his position, so he can continue his mission for transparency of multi-million dollar property deals and the management of the statutory body representing 24,000 Aboriginal people.

Left: Maurie Ryan (middle) with supporters in a previous leadership tussle, Marie Elena Ellis and Frank Ansell. Photo from our archive. 

He says his suspension notice as a delegate of the CLC, issued by the executive, does not amount to his sacking which can only be ordered by the full council, which is due to meet soon.

He has been told that Deputy Chairman Francis Kelly from Yuendumu will take over.

In a letter “left in my mail box” Mr Ryan was given deadlines for vacating his flat and surrendering his office car.

“I tried to open up the land council and all its activities. It’s been unaccountable for 30 years.

“I did not say anything to the media” in contravention of a full council ruling in Tennant Creek last month “until the land council had put it into the Darwin newspaper and the ABC.” The ABC later apologised about wrongly claiming Mr Ryan had been stood aside at the meeting.

Mr Ryan says the CLC has been a “closed organisation” and information on major investments has been withheld from the members, including “some of the most disadvantaged”. He says the investments include stakes in Yeperenye, Centrecorp, Centrefarm, Peter Kittle Motor Company, the Chifley hotel, Mitre 10, a real estate agent, and the three IGA supermarkets.

Mr Ryan says the shares in Centrecorp are worth a dollar each: “You couldn’t buy an object in Yeperenye for a dollar. The assets are worth millions and millions of dollars. Where have the dividends gone?”

All I’m trying to do is give information to the 24,000 Aborigines the CLC represents.”

“Yesterday I attended the funeral of my mentor, Mr Kumanjayi Bookie. He was a great man who was trying to do what I am doing.

“I am waiting for a full land council meeting which has the authority [to sack the chairman] – the executive does not have.

“It is easy to manipulate people who cannot read and write and understand the English vocabulary. They have been doing it for years.

“I am trying to undo 30 years of damage by the ‘magnificent seven’ … along with the bourgeois half-caste Aborigines of Alice Springs. It’s terminology I don’t like using but that’s the reality.

“There needs to be an urgent enquiry by the Federal Government. There needs to be an urgent meeting called by the members of the council for accountability and it needs to be done in this town, not out bush, away from everybody.”

“I believe in honesty, and by shutting me down information is suspended. I have nothing to lose. My Reputation is in tatters, and I am going to sue. I am sick of how I am being treated.”

Mr Ryan says the management by the CLC of 10 pastoral stations also needs to be examined: “They have gone almost broke because of people who are incompetent.”

There are “a lot of white-anters” in Aboriginal organisations and there has been no training of Aboriginal people for positions such as policy officer, general manager, legal service and environmentalists.

Economic development has been stagnant, while a small elite has profited from this “while the masses are dirt poor. Look at the evidence in town camps – it is an indictment of the Federal and Territory governments”.

Mr Ryan says there need to be trained interpreters at the next full council meeting: “I will take the decision of the full land council after I have spoken, without the presence of any of those lawyers or the administration.”

By ERWIN CHLANDA

Once a year in Alice Springs dozens of grown-ups turn into kids again and have a ball: They transform into Vikings, pirates, captains, commodores, midshipmen, petty officers, sailors and dozens of other fantastic characters and they brawl, shout, douse each other, chuck flour bombs, fire cannons (blanks, of course) and make a huge racket pretending they are engaged in a sea battle – and all of that without a drop of surface water in sight.

The battleships plough through sand – OK, it’s creek sand – on three four-wheel-drive trucks whose multi-storey superstructures emulate a Viking boat, a gunboat and a sailing cutter.

Earlier in the day the creekbed is the scene for races of yachts, Oxford Tubs, kayaks, Rowing Fours and Eights, rescue surfboards (on rails).

For all the propulsion was supplied by legs sticking through the bottomless vessels, or shovels replacing oars and paddles.

In the process the people having a ball are keeping alive a spectacle, now in its 53rd year, that has done much to earn the town its international fame.

The regatta had to be canceled only once – because there was water in the river.

Of course it is the Henley on Todd.

This year 4500 people lined the river’s western bank – about half-half locals and tourists. The event raised $60,000 from gate takings and sponsorship and had $100,000 worth of in-kind support. All profits will go to Rotary charities – $1.5m so far over the event’s history.

But the numbers are just part of the story: The Henley – taking the Mickey out the stiff-upper-lip Henley on Thames on the other side of the world – is run by the town’s three Rotary clubs, some 90 members, supported by other service clubs and voluntary organisations, a total of some 200 people.

Along with the Finke Desert Race and countless smaller initiatives, the HoT is a spectacular example of the town’s community spirit and can-do attitude.

A day of fun, will all hands on deck, is always preceded by a year of preparation, managed by a committee from the three Rotary Clubs (Alice Springs, Stuart and Mbantua) and drawing on thousands of hours of service work from their members, as well as a range of resources and skills from welding, carpentry, motor mechanics, publishing and accountancy.

However, the duties are performed in a spirit of mateship and fun.
(Declaration of interest: the writer is a member of the Rotary Club of Stuart.)

PHOTOS (from top): Flat out in the Eights • The Aussies on their way to beating Pine Gap in the Americas Cup • No hard feelings from the Yanks • Commodore Roger Ahwah • the sea battle in full fury  • Henley on Thames, British imitation of the Henley on Todd • Sea Battle – the video • part of the crowd.

… plus a few more courtesy Annie’s Place & Mulga’s Adventures: Hands up all those who recognises the Prime Minister in the budgie smugglers’ race!

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Sir – Parks Minister and Member for Stuart, Bess Price, must come clean about her activities around the possible nomination of a nuclear waste dump site in her electorate of Stuart.

It’s important that the Minister and local member is open and honest with the people of Stuart. We’ve been receiving disturbing information that the Minister has been talking to traditional owners in her area about a possible nuclear waste dump and may even have flown over an area in the Rabbit Flat region.

There are important questions that the people of Stuart deserve answers to. What role is she playing with traditional owners about the possible location of a nuclear dump site in Stuart?

What promises are being made to traditional owners to encourage them to consider giving up their land to house a dump site?

Traditional owners need clear, unbiased information about the ramifications of setting a nuclear waste dump, not political pressure and spin.

The Minister should also reveal whether the siting of a nuclear waste dump in Stuart was something that may potentially benefit her personally, as a traditional owner of lands in the electorate.

The ALP’s position was clear, that any siting of a nuclear waste facility should be based on sound science and should involve a discussion with the whole country, not be based on secretive deals.

Gerry McCarthy
Shadow Minister for Resources (pictured)

By ERWIN CHLANDA

A nuclear dump is not wanted near Alice Springs and the Aboriginal people promoting it do not have native title rights, nor the right to land north of Alice Springs.

This is the email message yesterday from Lhere Artepe (LA), the town’s native title organisation, to Chief Minister Adam Giles, with copies to Senator Nigel Scullion and MHR Warren Snowdon.

LA chairman Noel Kruger, and directors Mathew Palmer and Benedict Stevens say “over the past few years, Mr Lesley Tickner and Mr Russell Bray have been actively seeking acceptance and status of traditional owners of 16 Mile Outstation” on the Stuart Highway, some 25 kms north of Alice Springs.

The writers say Mr Tickner and Mr Bray had been asked twice “to prove their legitimacy” but could not do so, and both LA and its Irlpme estate group “do not support their claims as native title holders”.

The writers say on invitation from Maurie Ryan, the now suspended chairman of the Central Land Council (CLC), Mr Bray and Mr Tickner – seeking to “overrule decisions made by the native title holders” – put the matter of the 16 Mile before a full meeting of the CLC in Tennant Creek on June 22 and 24.

Although the meeting “purported to deal with the traditional owner status of the 16 Mile Outstation” – understood to be conferring traditional owner status on Mr Bray and Mr Tickner and family members – that decision “is not legitimate and is being strongly disputed” by LA.

LA says the CLC executive had “noted” that the decision is “is incapable of being given effect and that due process was not followed” and the decision will be referred back to the CLC full council for review.

The email says the proposal by Mr Bray and Mr Tickner to establish a nuclear dump on Irlpme land does not have support from LA which “has not been consulted or even notified” of the proposal.

By ERWIN CHLANDA

The town’s biggest steel supplier, OneSteel, will be closing its doors on September 26.

The firm, under the name of Stuart and Loyds, started operations in Alice Springs in the early 1950s, in Stokes Street.

It later became known as Tubemakers and moved to its present location in 1978.

The firm has five employees, and is part of a national chain.

One of the firm’s clients, Fabio Bonanni, Managing Director of Bonanni Brickyard, says: “We have been a customer of OneSteel, formerly Tubemakers, for over 40 years.

“We have always bought from this company, and before me my father and uncles used Tubemakers and have always had excellent trading terms and support from the Manager, Graeme Anning.

“It is very sad and disappointing to see a business of this size to be now forced to close due to insufficient work in the Alice!

“It’s my understanding that we can still order, but not having stock on site and available to pick up as needed will cause even more  disruption for building firms.

“The team at OneSteel will be sadly missed. They have always been professional and helpful. It’s been a pleasure dealing with them.”

One of the two pilots in the balloon collision which killed 13 people in Alice Springs on August 13, 1989, received a five year sentence for fraud in the District Court of Gympie, Queensland, last week.

Michael Winston Sanby, now 60, in 1992 was sentenced by the Northern Territory Supreme Court to two years’ jail, with an eight-month non-parole period, after an eight-man, four-woman jury had found him guilty of committing a dangerous act.

The sentence Mr Sanby received last week took into account 88 days pre-sentence custody and will be suspended after 20 months.

This is how the Gympie Times reported the case. (We are re-printing part of the report with their permission):

A Gympie business man has been sentenced to five years’ jail for defrauding nearly half a million dollars from financial institutions.

Sanby defrauded hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Commonwealth Bank and Scottish Pacific Business Finance.

His offending began at the end of 2007 against SPB and was committed through his Gympie-based business AAA Advanced Stairlifts. Sanby started submitting false invoices to SPB, the debtor finance company Sanby used to assist clients in attaining loans to buy his equipment.

Sanby selected names of real people and businesses – many were either prior customers or known to him – forged their signatures on false invoices and verification material and ultimately attained payments from SPB for the fictitious purchases.

In total, SPB paid Sanby $1,056,586.79 for equipment he never sold, however Sanby was using new loans to pay old ones back so by the end of the scheming in May 2009, SPB was out of pocket $110,497.29.

The court heard as Sanby continued to cash in from SPB, he was also in the process of defrauding $330,433.00 from the Commonwealth Bank.

Sanby was approved for two loans from the Commonwealth Bank to build houses on one property in Curra and another in Bauple.

Sanby put up mortgage insurance and both properties that were to be developed as security for the loans. The money was to be lent as the development progressed, and Sanby was required to submit documented proof that work was being done.

The court heard Sanby lodged false documents, using a building company’s letterhead and forging the signature of a builder, in order to attain further payments for the properties.

In total, $188,433 was loaned for the Curra property and $142,000 was loaned for development at Bauple.

It wasn’t until September 2009, after Sanby’s business went into liquidation and he declared bankruptcy, that the bank foreclosed on the properties and it was discovered that the Curra development was only partially completed and there had been little work at all undertaken on the property at Bauple.

Sanby had been loaned a total of $330,433 from the Commonwealth Bank. However after the mortgage insurance was paid and both properties were sold, the bank was left with a defrauded deficit of $82,794.12. Sanby pleaded guilty to defrauding a total of $440,930.29.

PHOTO: Image of balloon flights in Alice Springs on the web today.

By ERWIN CHLANDA

Bess Price (pictured) has rejected out of hand Labor suggestions that she may be involved in plans for a nuclear dump in her electorate of Stuart.

The government front bencher said today:  “I have not held discussions with traditional owners in my electorate about any proposal regarding the location of a nuclear waste facility.

“I have also not flown over an area of my electorate for this purpose. Any suggestion of this is completely untrue.

“I am disappointed that Gerry McCarthy would make such false allegations about my electorate and myself.

“He should check his facts before running to the media to spread lies.”

Ms Price attacked MLA Gerry McCarthy over his performance in his electorate: “He should also start to focus on the Barkly electorate and acknowledge that he left Tennant Creek and the Barkly without an economic plan when Labor lost government.

“As part of the Giles Government, we are working hard to develop plans for the Barkly’s future, without Gerry who seems content just to focus on the negative rather than the future.

“The matter of any proposed nuclear waste facility is a matter for the Federal Government.

“It is also a matter for traditional owners to discuss with the Central Land Council.”

By ERWIN CHLANDA

It was Chief Minister Adam Giles, not Aboriginal land holders, who raised the possibility of a nuclear dump near Alice Springs.

This was revealed today by three local Aborigines who say they were invited by Mr Giles to a meeting with him in his office.

They are Russell Bray, Lesley Tickner and senior elder Benedict Stevens.

Mr Tickner says he received a mobile phone message from Mr Giles, but did not answer it. He says Mr Giles then “got through to my uncle” Mr Bray, who told Mr Tickner who in turn contacted Mr Stevens “because he is a TO”.

Mr Tickner then informed Sheila and Sophie Conway who subsequently also attended the meeting with Mr Giles.

They were in the presence of two men they believe were from Canberra, either politicians or senior public servants, perhaps the Federal minister of mines.

Mr Giles, according to the account of the three, raised Mt Everard as a possible site, which is some 30 kms west of the Stuart Highway, on the Yuendumu Road, and near the over-the-horizon antenna.

In a direct line this site is about 45 kms north-west of Alice Springs.

Mr Tickner says Mr Benedict had been there before, some 10 years ago, in company with CLC director David Ross, to discuss a nuclear dump.

Now that the Bray family had “got our land back” Mr Giles asked to meet them “for an information session”.

Mr Benedict was also interpreting.

To discuss the dump was “not our idea,” says Mr Bray.

The men, and about 30 minutes later Sheila Conway, “our elder, one of the main”, received a briefing from Mr Giles and agreed that Mt Everard could be a possible site.

Mr Tickner makes it clear that that none of the others gave any undertakings.

“What the bloke in The Australian wrote – he didn’t quote me properly,” says Mr Tickner. (This is a reference to a report in The Australian on August 16 that it was local Aborigines “pushing” to host a nuclear waste dump.)

“Or me,” says Mr Bray. “Nothing was agreed on” by him, Mr Tickner or Mr Stevens, “apart from old Sheila saying yes, she wanted it.”

Mr Tickner: “Then Bendict told Adam and old Sheila we have to tell everybody else [in the family], too. We said that before we walked out.

“Now all this mob are jumping down our throat saying me and Russell did it. We did not do it.”

Mr Bray says as a “test” Mr McKenzie asked Mr Giles for a couple of million dollars before we “went to the negotiating table and went on a trip to Sydney Lucas Heights.

“And Mr Giles said, no, you’ll shoot yourself in the foot. And I said, what about the millions you people are getting for taking all this rubbish that’s coming into Australia.”

In what context was Lajamanu raised?

Mr Bray: “Giles brought up Everard. We then said, there is another place, too, isn’t there, Yuendumu? This is what I heard on the grapevine.

“And Giles said, no, no, no, it’s Lajamanu. He [Mr Giles] brought that up. I never.”

PICTURED AT TOP (from left): Matthew Palmer, Benedict Stevens, Russell Bray and Lesley Tickner today.

UPDATE 1:30am Wednesday:

A spokesperson for Mr Giles provided the following statement this morning: “The Chief Minister asked me to let you know that your story is incorrect. He has said many times that a number of traditional owner groups and individuals have contacted him to ask how they can nominate for nuclear waste facility and the government has given them advice on how the Commonwealth nomination process works.

“A  nuclear waste facility in the Northern Territory presents an economic opportunity for land owners who are interested. Ultimately this is an issue for Traditional Owners to negotiate with the Federal Government.”

By ERWIN CHLANDA

Two directors of Lhere Artepe (LA) say they were tricked into signing a letter by the native title organisation’s chairman, Noel Kruger.

LA is denying the allegation, has made a brief statement published here, and has foreshadowed that it will make a further comment.

Benedict Stevens (right)  and Matthew Palmer (left) signed the letter to Chief Minister Adam Giles, with copies to Senator Nigel Scullion and MHR Warren Snowdon, as directors of LA.

Mr Stevens says he was outside the LA office “having a smoke” when Mr Kruger showed him the letter, did not give him time to read it, and said: “Sign this here, that dump thing isn’t right … without the old people knowing.”

Mr Stevens says Mr Kruger did not tell him than there was reference to land north of the town given to the Bray family.

Mr Palmer says Mr Kruger obtained his signature under identical circumstances.

Mr Palmer and Mr Stevens work as interpreters and are literate.

Mr Stevens, a senior man, says contrary to what the letter asserts, the Brays are entitled to the land in question.

“They are in my family tree,” he says.

Mr Palmer says he agrees with him.

Meanwhile LA has issued this statement: “This article will be tabled at a LA  meeting because what they are saying contradicts minuted discussions that have taken place in this office.

“It also contradicts discussions that took place with these people and their families that came into the LA office while this letter was being discussed and written on Monday, August 18.”

The myth that the provision of affordable land will in some way have a negative effect on those who own existing property is much to the detriment of our community, its economy and the future of its children. Ask yourself this: What would your house be worth if Alice Springs turned into a ghost town, a FIFO mining camp, or a mere welfare institution?

Growth and opportunity are the basic essentials of a vigorous economy, without them decline is a certainty.

In years gone by the Territory Government provided a housing scheme that made it very easy and affordable for young people to own a home.

This scheme was very successful, it attracted people from all over the country they put down roots and made our community what it is today, many of them going on to be successful business and property owners using their first home as a stepping off point on that journey.

For many years Alice reaped the rewards of a vibrant economy created off the back of that scheme. Tragically in later years the politics and policies of greed often peddled by those who gained so much from it began to strangle that success.

The deliberate cutting of land supply led to escalating property prices and escalating rents which while making fortunes for some, led to a decline in affordable opportunity for everyone else.

Those on lower incomes began to find that they were really struggling to survive, they began to pack and move on; others moving in to take their place quickly found themselves in similar circumstances and took the same option.

This cyclical movement of population has the community debilitating effect of making our population many times more transient than it otherwise would be, bringing about loss of community involvement, loss of corporate knowledge, constant retraining, constantly dealing with new chums leading  to constant delays when dealing with bureaucracy, poor service, often uncaring service, businesses left struggling to find staff.

Good business a greater and greater burden are often weighed down even further by poor quality staff who are fully aware that they cannot easily be replaced.

The secondary effect of high rents is that the working population cut back on visiting clubs, restaurants and cinemas, all the non essentials but the very thing that give a community life.

Small business gets the double whammy, high rents and fewer customers, which eventually sends them to the wall. This in turn lessens the overall amenity, making the community a less pleasant place to live. Then there is the generational aspect, our own home grown children starting out like everybody else at the bottom, also finding they can’t afford to stay, that there is no affordable way for them to gain a foothold towards building their own lives.

Many move on, which in turn sets those left behind to contemplate their own exit in pursuit. The result being, that instead of having a happy community, vigorously working to build their lives and make their community and their home a better place, you end up with a community more like a bush camp, where everyone’s working to leave.

You can’t change this scenario by glaring at the world from the battlements of your imagined castle failing to deal the very thing that holds it up – its foundations!  In the past 30 Alice Springs has lost none of its opportunity, in fact it has more than ever before!

Yet we struggle because we’ve built castles in the air, we have no foundations! We have cut them off.  Our workers are our foundations. To rebuild a healthy economy we must rebuild a stable committed workforce!

To bring that about requires the provision of incentive, the greatest incentive to a workforce is affordability. Affordable land. Affordable rents. We are told by government that the new subdivision of Kilgariff fulfils this requirement, is that really the case?

Presently the cheapest available land is around $190,000. To put a modest house on it around $300,000, leaving a builder with very little profit incentive to build it in the first place, going on the market at $500,000. Paying that off will cost around $700 a week Do we think that’s affordable?

Is there an incentive for the workers who fill jobs, many jobs, paying under $60,000?  I don’t think so.

The land could be sold at half the existing cost and still not undercut existing lower end property prices. We should be developing incentives such as throwing in the land for free if you signed up for a 10 year minimum residency or five years rent, then convert to purchase. No credit checks – rent record being proof of capability.

The more happy contributing workers we have making their lives and homes here, the safer your existing investment becomes!  Worth a thought I think, and if you really value your existing investment. Worth fighting for!

By ERWIN CHLANDA

Chief Minister Adam Giles (at left) yesterday evaded a question from Namatjira MLA Alison Anderson (at right) about a proposed site for a nuclear waste dump near Alice Springs.

Ms Anderson asked Mr Giles in Parliamentary question time whether he had been “actively looking for sites.”

Mr Giles replied: “I have received a range of phone calls from a range of traditional owners over the last couple of months asking about potential nuclear waste sites. People have wanted to nominate their sites.”

However, an exclusive report in the Alice Springs News Online quotes three Aboriginal people saying an approach to discuss a possible site had come from Mr Giles – it was he who rang them.

In the parliament Mr Giles also outlined the process for identifying sites for a dump: “The process is until 30 September the land councils have an opportunity to submit potential sites, after thorough consultation with traditional owners, to the federal government.

“Following that there will be a period where jurisdictions from around Australia can provide a submission to [host] a site should nowhere be deemed to be successful or a suitable site from land council submissions.

“Following that, should there be no satisfactory jurisdictional nomination it will be opened up for other landowners from around Australia.”

PICTURED: Back row, from left – Harry Hayes, Christiana Hayes, Angelina Hayes & babe, Janessa Ryder, Shirleen Hayes, Ursula Nicoloff, Shawn Johnson, Tyrell Impu-Hayes, Julie Hayes (in shadow), Felicity Hayes and (walking into frame), Kaileen Webb.

By ERWIN CHLANDA

“She is not moving. She is fighting mad.”

She is Felicity Hayes, and the place she’s not moving from is Whitegate where her extended family has lived for generations although by white law it is still no more than a squat.

Whitegate is at the eastern edge of Alice Springs, straight ahead from Undoolya Road and through some low hills.

The government has cut off the water to the handful of sheds and humpies, there is no power, someone has stolen the solar panels and the pit toilets are overflowing.

Rod Moss is carting water to Whitegate. Noted painter and author, his book about the Whitegate people, The Hard Light of Day, won the 2011 Prime Minister’s award for non-fiction.

It is named after the gate put there by senior man Mort Conway who raised his family there. The gate was to keep in horses he was agisting to supplement his taxi driver income half a century ago.

Mr Moss says there are stories going back much longer, trees, rocks and crests with mythological meaning.

The Hayses are Aboriginal royalty: the Alice Springs Native Title case in the Federal Court is named after Felicity’s aunt Myra, Hayes v Northern Territory of Australia.

Mr Moss says contrary to an assurance by government front bencher Bess Price, the government is determined to force the “Whitegate mob” out and resettle them in Hidden Valley. It is a town camp notorious for its violence and inhabited by people with whom the Hayses have a traditional animosity.

Mr Moss says the population of Whitegate fluctuates from a handful to 30 or 35 when bush relatives from Titjikala or Harts Range come to visit – and have nowhere else to stay.

COMMENT by ERWIN CHLANDA

The chief financial executive of a five billion dollar a year operation is forced to resign because he makes a crass remark to an acquaintance at a private party. Although he apologised for what he had said, it is leaked to a newspaper.

Would you buy shares in a corporation with so little control over its affairs? Hardly.

Yet you’re stuck with your shares in the Northern Territory Government, which spends your tax money, controls many facets of your life and which will celebrate its birthday tomorrow amidst speculation that its second leader in as many years may get the chop.

Ex-Treasurer Dave Tollner’s “shirt lifter” and “pillow biter” seems mild compared to Matt Conlan’s verbal assault, in a Parliamentary wing meeting, upon his Ministerial colleague at the time, Alison Anderson, Member for Namatjira. “Why don’t you f… off , you c…,” he is not denying to have said. Mr Conlan, a lesser political scalp than the former Treasurer, is still a Minister.

Then again, the former Treasurer was not learning his lessons about ‘foot in the mouth’. His demeaning mocking of the Member for Namatjira went around the country, reinforcing the cowboy image of the Northern Territory.

Two years ago Alice Springs expected milk and honey to flow in its streets. After 11 years of a high spending Labor government, with little to show for it but debt, the CLP would end stagnation and despair.

Mr Giles had tons of good will, especially in The Centre: he lives here, all Members of Parliament in the region were on his side, and a friendly government was poised to take power in Canberra with his mate Nigel Scullion holding the key Indigenous Affairs portfolio.

All the ducks were in line, the electorate thought. Alice Springs – languishing in a slump while Darwin was in a head spinning boom from the natural gas investments – would at long last be doing well.

We have spoken to five Alice Springs community leaders about their views of the CLP government’s first two years. What was good and what was bad, we asked Alice Mayor Damien Ryan; CLP vice-president Daniel Davis; Congress CEO Donna Ah Chee; Arid Lands Environment Centre CEO Jimmy Cocking, and Chamber of Commerce vice-president Neil McLeod. We also invited Tourism Central Australia to comment but haven’t received a response by deadline. We will publish it when and if we get it.

For us, in our third year as a newspaper exclusively online (after 17 years in print), dealing with the CLP government has been a bit of a roller coaster ride. We had – and have – good relationships with Ministers including John Elferink, Robyn Lambley, Peter Chandler, Bess Price, Alison Anderson (now heading up the Palmer Untied Party in the NT), Dave Tollner and Willem Westra Van Holte and their staffs.

But with Mr Giles we have experienced significant low points in our quest for informing the public about what his government is doing. Contrary to ready and cheerful access while he was in Opposition, we found have him thin-skinned and short-tempered  – not a good look for a politician, let alone a statesman. Here are a few examples:

Ahead of the election Alice Springs News Online‘s Kieran Finnane gave him a pretty good run in a 1650 word report on his campaign, published on July 5, 2012. But Backgrounding his political career, she termed as “naive” his slogan in his 2007 campaign for the Federal seat of Lingiari. It was “No more sitdown money” which, as Finnane observed, “went down like a lead balloon in the largely bush electorate with high levels of welfare dependence”.

Mr Giles’ nose was out of joint for quite some time.

I wrote a story on March 1 last year, saying:  If the government wants 100 residential blocks in Kilgariff ready for sale “off the plan” by July – the target date, according to minister Adam Giles – then they’ll have to get a wriggle-on.

I sent a draft to Mr Giles – a courtesy few journalists afford their sources. “I don’t like it. I just read it on my iPhone and I deleted it” was his response, or words to the effect. The Kilgariff blocks went on sale a year later than promised.

Mr Giles’ government has some minders who are professional and diligent – no more than one would expect them to be. But it also has many minders who are arrogant and obstructionist. Some politicians hide behind them, and let them take control of what is meant to be a free flow of information in a democratic system.

No different to the Labor regime past, the Country Liberals’ touted ‘accountable government’ soon shrank to  “send me an email and I’ll give you some lines”. This drags out news gathering task that should take 10 minutes to  days and weeks. Our requests to talk first-hand to the elected person rather than receiving massaged material is too often ignored.

Mr Giles was at this year’s Alice Springs Show. He attended as an elected person, representing the Territory government, at a public event. I was filming him for what in TV is called “overlay” – footage to run over narration introducing an interview we posted on YouTube. He was taken aside by his minder, they had a low voice conversation and then he told me … well, here it is.

Mr Giles later did give us the interview, to reporter Rachel McFadden, who worked for us as an intern at the time. The footage  gives us a clue to how Mr Giles likes media to behave. He shakes the hand of Centralian Advocate staffer Steven Menzies who calls him “Sir” and tells him he liked his speech.

Last week Mr Giles – under Parliamentary privilege – accused the Alice Springs News Online of publishing material that is “slanderous and incorrect”.

Member for Namatjira Alison Anderson brought this to my attention and invited me to provide a statement in reply that she would present to the Parliament.

This is what I said in it: “I stand by my story. It accurately quotes my sources. All of them are named. With their permission I recorded the face-to-face interview.

“Neither in his minder’s reply to the Alice Springs News Online, given in response to our offer of the right of reply and published by us, nor in what he told the Parliament (so far as I can see), did Mr Giles deny that he rang Mr Tickner and Mr Bray.

“He does not say in which way the Alice Springs News Online is incorrect.

“His account of the meeting in his office does not diverge from our account of it.

“For Mr Giles to call our report ‘slanderous and incorrect’ without substantiation is reprehensible.”

With the defection of three bush Members to the Palmer United Party, the Treasurer and Business Minister moving to the back bench, and a torrent of rumours of further turmoil in the CLP, the ducks, to be sure, are in a line no more.

“I am generally upbeat about the Government’s performance over the last two years and the need to rein in the large inherited deficit,” says Neil McLeod, the vice-chairman of the Alice Springs Chamber of Commerce, in a comment on two years of CLP government.

He says this needed to be done before the government could “embark on spending on capital works and service / supply contracts”.

Mr McLeod said: “In particular, the Giles government must be given credit for the work done in promoting the Territory to potential investors as part of the Northern Australia Development Plan.

“In fact Adam managed to get Alice Springs included in the plan and it is the only place south of the Tropic of Capricorn that is included.

“Regarding the police presence at takeaway liquor outlets, this has resulted in a reduction in antisocial behaviour and the police have advised that the resources used in individual police officers being stationed at outlets has proven to be less than the resources used in the past to deal with the consequences.

“In addition, the reduction in the use of other resources e.g. accident and emergency at the hospital, must also be viewed as a positive.”

IMAGE from the Office of Northern Australia website.

Cops at bottle shops have contributed dramatically to a reduction of alcohol consumption, according to new data collected by the Central Australian Aboriginal Congress.

In a comment on two years of CLP government in the NT, Congress CEO Donna Ah Chee (pictured) also cites other results from the initiative: decreasing harm and crime. But, she  says, the Banned Drinkers Register (BDR) should be brought back.

She also urges that there not be more pokies. She provided the following statement:-

The data on alcohol consumption from Congress Safe and Sober Clients shows a dramatic reduction in alcohol consumption since the Temporary Beat Location (TBL) strategy started in late February.

About 70% fewer clients are consuming more than 50 standard drinks per week, compared with a similar five month period in 2013.

Lack of access to take away alcohol has been a major contributor to this and has complimented the effect of the treatment program (see graph), resulting in a major reduction in heavy drinking and associated problems.

Police data published has shown a 50% reduction in assaults since the strategy began and data recently released by the Attorney General has shown a 27% reduction in police assaults for the first six months of 2014 which includes 2 months without the TBL strategy.

Alice Springs Hospital data published has shown that alcohol related emergency presentations are also down by approximately 50%. Congress is also aware that referrals to the Women’s Shelter are reported to have dropped by similar amounts.

Alice Springs Town Council rangers have reported in the media that they are no longer tipping out alcohol and are no longer coming across drinkers in the river bed.

Congress supports the continuation of the strategy for its positive effect on Aboriginal people in Alice Springs; however, there are concerns that the strategy is discriminatory.

Congress believes that in order to ensure that the overall alcohol strategy is less discriminatory and even more effective, photo ID scanning for all alcohol purchases should be resumed and the BDR should be reinstated, in order to better target any person who might have a serious alcohol problem.

This is the position that Congress will put to the Alcohol Reference Panel for further consideration. The government have continually indicated they will support local solutions and we hope that the town can agree that it is important to re-introduce photo ID and the BDR in addition to the continuation of TBL.

The NT Government’s proposed policy to allow more electronic gaming machines in licensed clubs, including on remote communities, is a significant concern. Gambling is already a major problem in Aboriginal communities and is a contributor to child neglect.

The 2010 productivity Commission report into gambling found that electronic gaming machines are the most addictive and harmful form of gambling – more so than the card games that currently take place in many communities.

This report also found that the NT already has the highest per capita gambling problem in Australia with almost three times the per capita expenditure on gambling compared with any other jurisdiction. It would be very harmful to further liberalise electronic gaming machines and Congress hopes this will not occur.

Congress welcomes Minister Lambley’s recent announcement to address the shortage of Aboriginal Health Practitioners (APH) in the NT, with the establishment of a Ministerial level taskforce to focus on this issue. The need for this issue to be dealt with at the Ministerial level is long overdue as internal departmental reviews in the past have not led to action.

In the past, significant funds have been invested in AHP training but with very few outcomes, with the system failing to produce enough graduates each year for registration to practice.

As a result, there are many unfilled AHP positions throughout the NT and a focus on AHP training presents a major opportunity to improve both Aboriginal employment levels as well as the quality of health services for Aboriginal people.

The employment of Aboriginal people as AHPs will have many positive flow-on effects for the economy, particularly as the certificate 4 level AHP course offers well paid employment, even for those people who have not completed Year 12.

There is a need to be able to expand AHP training in collaboration with Aboriginal health services and additional training providers including Central Australian Remote Health Development Services and NT General Practice Education.

ABC star Costa Georgiadis (right) with renowned Alice botanist and author Peter Latz  at ALEC’s Eco Fair this month. Mr Georgiadis is now an ambassador of the organisation, promoting nationally its annual fair and innovations.

By ERWIN CHLANDA

Jimmy Cocking (pictured below), CEO of the Arid Lands Environment Centre, says Alice Springs should start a string of eco-style small enterprises to give the local economy a shot in the arm, and residents should generate their own electricity as a buffer against inevitable price rises.

In a comment on two years of CLP reign he makes it clear he’s no fan of cops at bottle shops.

COCKING: A lot of people who come to town do report on what they see as being an apartheid happening in town, more so than anywhere else in this country. The benefits that may be reported as far as law and order are concerned, we really need to think about what is the cost of that on a social level.

NEWS: What is the cost?

COCKING: Increasing resentment of the police and authorities by indigenous people. I have also heard not only are the alcohol sales down from the IGAs but staples sales are down as well, which would indicate people are avoiding going to the supermarkets.

NEWS: What should be done instead of posting police outside bottle shops to curb crime and violence?

COCKING: There needs to be a more holistic way of looking at the broader issues [rather than] a law and order approach. Criminalising alcohol use is not necessarily fixing the problem. It might take the people out of sight and out of mind. This is not a long-term solution. Filling prisons is not necessarily the answer. People need to work together more rather than adopting quite simplistic approaches. There was an increase in hospital admissions when the Banned Drinkers Register was scrapped.

At right: Jimmy Cocking with environmentalist and science journalist Tanya Ha.

NEWS: The effect of cops at bottle shops was to reduce the need for a law and order approach. It is keeping people out of the gaol. Most people see it as a preventative measure.

COCKING: Potentially it is working but it’s only Aboriginal people who are asked for ID.

NEWS: I’ve been asked several times to show ID. I am not Aboriginal.

COCKING: So have I but I am not asked every time, but every time I see an Aboriginal person walking in there they are asked, and we need to do something about that. The Treasurer, speaking to the Australian Hoteliers Association, in his white suit, saying no longer are people buying alcohol going to be treated like criminals, no longer are bottle shop owners going to be treated like drug dealers. Well, having police out the front does not seem to reflect these comments made to one of [the CLP's] biggest sponsors.

NEWS: Many shops in town are empty.

COCKING: This reflects the dependence of Alice Springs on government expenditure. It seems we were sheltered from the GFC in 2008-09 but we’re feeling its effects five years later. With less government work being commissioned we see people going out of business. We need to look at small-scale economies instead of – as it feels like to me – being greased up for an oil, gas and mining boom which may or may not happen. We seem to be starved a bit so when those activities start and there is more investment, a ticker tape parade is going to happen for these companies. Let’s not put all our eggs in the resources basket. We need to look at broadening our approach, become sheltered from our boom and bust cycles.

NEWS: How would we do that?

COCKING: Potentially there are small scale solutions. How can we deal with our waste so it creates economic opportunities?

NEWS: ALEC’s Eco Fair was looking at this.

COCKING: We need to be looking at what are the resources we have here and won’t require billions of dollars of investment. Let’s look at what the council is doing with glass (council owned crusher at left), that’s a good start. Food waste can become compost to grow food locally which will reduce transport costs. We should be able to shred or pelletise plastics and feed it into a range of other businesses, moulding bollards, park benches or rubbish bins, for example. Developing a whole host of small scale industries is actually what is going to lift the economy here. Guided tours employing local people, sacred sites tours, for example. Telling tourists about the culture – that’s what they come here for. Sub-economic activity is better than no economic activity. Rather than sitting here waiting for some big saviour to come and sort it all out for us, let’s look at small scale initiative.

NEWS: Do you think the West MacDonnells are adequately developed and promoted?

COCKING: In our parks where people are paying $3 per night to camp, people would be happy to pay $5 or more so the parks have a bit more of a budget to play with. Also, we should have a Central Desert parks pass for, say, $50, valid for a year, same as your Desert Park pass for $25. We should encourage volunteers to work in the parks. We need to be able to give something back, enhancing the focus on bio-diversity.

NEWS: Should there be new facilities, roads, pubs, wilderness lodges?

COCKING: People come out here to absorb the majestic landscape. We have concerns about private interests setting up resort-style accommodation in parks. It would create environmental impact as well as two different tiers. It’s important the natural values are preserved.

NEWS: Should Tourism NT spend taxpayers’ money on promoting the Ayers Rock Resort? It is now owned by an interstate entity.

COCKING: Most of taxpayers’ money in the Territory comes from the GST and the Feds. That means everybody in the country is contributing to that promotion. Given that we now don’t have Tiger Airways flying into Alice Springs it’s critical for us as a town is to find ways of getting tourists to get on a bus or a plane from Yulara to Alice Springs and spend an extra week here. There are always going to be people going to Uluru.

NEWS: We have many NGOs as well as Territory and Federal instrumentalities. Do their activities overlap?

COCKING: Some progress is being made in that space through the Department of the Chief Minister as they are starting to work more with the not-for-profit sector, on a fee-for-service model, rather than on a project based model. We are in a resource-strained environment, with significant cuts to operational funding. The fewer opportunities to apply for project funding will impact the sector’s services. This is creating competition between the organisations which means there is less drive towards communication and collaboration, because everybody is going to be forced to see each other as competitors, as opposed to being partners. [In some areas there is] long term funding for big projects, 10 years not two or three, and this is where we need to go. It’s going to be challenging times. A lot of groups are in shock.

NEWS: Is Alice Springs still a town for young people?

COCKING: Yes, but there are some real challenges for employment in town. Five years ago it was different. From what I hear, when jobs were advertised there were, say, eight people applying, now there are around 30. While we have a really great lifestyle and entertainment venues, such a festival atmosphere with lots of activities, we need to create jobs so people can stay in town.

NEWS: Where should those jobs come from?

COCKING: For example, from investment in the Desert Smart Roadmap produced through Cool Mob that no longer exists except as a website, with a focus on energy efficiency and renewables, conservation, land management which would keep people here and also reduce the long term living costs. There is no investment from government in that sector.

NEWS: What is left of Alice Solar City? Things like the cheap night tariff for electricity and the guaranteed buy-back price are discontinued.

COCKING: The financial mechanisms have changed. The legacy of Solar City is an extra 500-plus people have solar panels on the roof, plus there are big solar plants. What we have been seeking from the outset is an investment post Alice Water Smart, post Alice Solar City, to make sure the momentum is maintained. Unfortunately, we’ve been let down by the Territory Government and its Power Water Corporation. A big part of that is the investment PWC made in the Titan generators at Brewer Estate south of town and the blow-out in costs of that. They have no incentive to produce any more renewable energy. They see the average household rooftop solar system as a liability because they have to guarantee supply. The price of power in the NT is only going to go up, except for a temporary drop after the abolition of the carbon tax.

The best thing people can do for the long term is getting solar power on their roof and feeding it straight into their house, whenever the sun shines.

We can’t make money by selling to the grid but we can save money by generating our own electricity.

PHOTOS, from top: Hope yet for the northern end of the mall? Cops checking take-away grog buyers •  Tourism promotion of Rock doesn’t help Alice. • AFL match telecast, featuring the MacDonnell Ranges in the wide shots, was great advertising for Alice Springs. • Should our tourism pitch be drinking cocktails in a swimming pool – something tourists can do anywhere in the world?

By ERWIN CHLANDA

Full marks for law and order, but the tourism promotion focus needs to be shifted from the Rock to the Alice, and lots more work is needed on cranking up the economy.

On the second birthday of the Country Liberal Party government, that’s the view of Daniel Davis (pictured), vice-president of the CLP in the Territory (president Ross Connolly is Darwin-based).

He says his views are not necessarily those of the local branch, of which he is a past president. The Alice Springs branch pre-selects the candidates for Namatjira, Araluen, Greatorex and Braitling. It usually gets a say in Stuart but candidates for that seat are preselected by the Katherine and Barkly branches.

Mr Davis says law and order in the town has turned around with the decision by local police chief Jamie Chalker to post cops at bottle shops.

“Over in Gillen, where we live, the interruptions you used to get with people coming through, yelling and screaming, which is what you noticed the most, has declined significantly since the police have been at the bottle shop at the Flynn Drive supermarket,” he says.

“Although it is clearly mostly affecting a single racial group, it would not be fair to say that the legislation is racially motivated.

“I can imagine the pubs are not too happy with this, it has reportedly dropped their sales, but overall it has had quite a good impact on the town. I don’t see VB cans littering the length of the Todd River when I walk to work in the morning.”

He says a “significant number of shops” have closed in Todd Mall and Alice Plaza, but this is part of the national growth of online shopping.

However, “the rents in Todd Mall remained very high for some time.”

Mr Davis speaks from first-hand experience: he and his wife were running the tour booking agency, Adventure Net, in the mall for four years. When tourism slumped in in 2008 and 2009 they could no longer afford the rent. Mr Davis now works as the IT manager at the casino.

“Landlords seemed reluctant to adjust the rents based on what the market will bear. The prices have now dropped but look at the large number of vacancies in the mall. It will probably take some time to recover.

“In the southern mall there is a small number of people who own a significant percentage of the property, and they set the rates for a long time.

“Alice Plaza is the same. They charge huge amounts and don’t seem to be able to attract tenants for the money they are asking.

“That hasn’t helped businesses in the CBD and has contributed to numerous business moving out of the CBD into the industrial areas where rents are cheaper.

“In Todd Street North there is quite a bit happening around the cinema complex, while the rest of the mall seems pretty dead except for market days.”

NEWS: The NT Government gave the town council $5m to refurbish the northern mall.

DAVIS: I’m not yet convinced it was money well spent. The shopkeepers and the landlords also need to come on board. Why are we not seeing Alice Plaza shops open out into the mall?

NEWS: Should that have been a precondition for the $5m grant?

DAVIS: I think that should have been.

NEWS: Of course it was the previous government that gave the grant. But has the experience made this government gun shy when it comes to making a deal with the Town Council? Mr Giles is baulking at the request of putting a mere $2m into the $70m council and Uniting Church partnership for public space and apartments adjacent to Flynn Church?

DAVIS: We need to make use of our current commercial property first. At the moment though I don’t see the demand being there, especially in regards to commercial space. I would only support a council and Territory government cash input with a caveat that the public money be used for improvements in the public use spaces. I wouldn’t support government throwing $2m at a concrete tower.

NEWS: It is difficult to get access to politicians without going through PR minders. Are the government politicians accessible to the public?

DAVIS: On all sides of politics and in all tiers of government the PR minders essentially act as if their job is to get their masters re-elected. I have a problem with that, that’s the role of the party, not the public servants. Their job is to keep the public informed of the actions of government. Politicians should be accessible and open. You should not have to fight with some minder to get access to a politician. Obviously time constraints mean the politicians won’t be able to meet everyone’s requests for meetings but the minders’ job is to manage that fairly, not hinder access.

NEWS: What is the government’s role in stimulating the economy?

DAVIS: Where should the government start? It should not give handouts to prop up private enterprise to fill gaps in demand, that is not sustainable. We have seen this in the building industry, with SIHIP. Governments spent a huge amount of money, suddenly you have an influx of trades people. They buy a house in Alice Springs and stay on, but as soon as the government stops spending, a lot of people find it hard to get work. You need to build on it slowly, not dump a heap of money all at once. A lot of people in the construction industry are struggling to find work now but the government can’t continue to spend money for the sake of propping up the commercial construction industry. Especially whilst there is a glut of commercial premises currently available for rent in town.

NEWS: The conundrum in residential real estate – as Mayor Damien Ryan has previously explained – is that land prices went through the roof because of slow land releases. If now the government dumped cheap land on the market, this would rob people, who had bought at the height of the market, of the assets backing their mortgages. On the other hand, Councillor Steve Brown fears that failure to provide much cheaper land will accelerate the migration out of town and discourage families from settling here. He says if Alice became a ghost town, house prices, too, would be heading south.

DAVIS: We need to match release with demand so that the increase in home prices closely follows the cost price index, not follow trends in government spending in town. Land prices went through the roof not only because of slow release, but governments were spending big and people had money. Now it’s pretty difficult to reduce these prices. If you – say – released 100 blocks for $70,000 these would go quickly. The problem would not be fixed, you’d just have 100 people making a lot of money off the blocks when they resell them at market value. You’d have to keep releasing cheap land if you wanted to keep the price low. If you keep on releasing cheap land you’d upset everyone who’s got a mortgage, who’s, say, bought a block at Mt Johns for $300,000, and they’ve been sitting on it for three years and haven’t built anything. [With prices at $70,000] the bank’s going to be very reluctant to lend you money to build on your $300,000 block when you have negative equity in your asset.

NEWS: Should the government spend public money to promote the Ayers Rock Resort?

DAVIS: The NT has a healthy 7.6% share of the international visitors coming to Australia. They are long-stay visitors, not tourists just doing three or four nights in Australia. In Central Australia many do only Ayers Rock which, in the way it is set up, is to the detriment of the rest of the Territory. The direct flight option is bad for the rest of Central Australia. Only 50% of visitors to the Rock visit the rest of Central Australia. Promoting the Rock increases the number of international visitors to the NT but you’re robbing Peter to pay Paul. And Paul, the Ayers Rock Resort, doesn’t live here, he spends his money outside the NT. That’s a company from outside the NT. Ideally we would have direct flights to Alice Springs and a secondary flight to Ayers Rock. People want to go to the Rock, so these international visitors would be going there even if they had to go via Alice Springs. Yet they might spend an extra day here.

NEWS: But we’ve blown it. We sold the Rock. We don’t control the flights any more.

DAVIS: It’s a private airport. It’s up to them if they want it to be a national or a regional airport. It’s up to the company that owns the resort airport.

NEWS: But it’s up to the NT Government to promote or not promote the Rock. That could be reduced to zero.

DAVIS: I’m not necessarily a fan of promoting the Rock. There’s essentially only one operator at the Rock. If you are promoting the Rock you’re giving one company a handout amounting to however much the promotion costs. It wouldn’t have been such a problem if the government had sold the hotels individually, retaining competition. At least then you’re helping multiple operators. Territory operators would have had the opportunity of buying some of those. No private enterprise within the NT could have afforded to buy the entire resort. So it was sold off elsewhere.

NEWS: Germans, for example, get five to six weeks’ holidays. Why don’t more come here, and for a longer time?

DAVIS: The West Macs are not being promoted as well as they should be. That’s been the big problem. We’ve always promoted the major two – The Rock and Kakadu – and hoped this would have a flow on effect to the rest of the Territory. For the most part this just hasn’t happened. Look at the room costs at Ayers Rock and Darwin. You often can’t get a hotel room for less than $250 a night. Ayers Rock runs at extremely low occupancy rate, around 50%, with a high room rate. This means lower volume of tourists paying higher prices. Although that may be a good business model for the Rock this don’t encourage tourists to spend time in the NT when they are booking a holiday.

NEWS: Is Tourism NT’s promotional narrative the kind of thing that would get Herr and Frau Huber out of bed in Frankfurt, jumping on a plane and coming all the way to Alice? The ads seem to consist of a few happy snaps of pretty people at pretty locations, or sipping martinis in a pool, or riding camels with the Rock in the background. The context seems to be missing, that we have no pollution, fantastic weather, wide open spaces, light traffic, the most ancient living culture, a friendly outback town – all the things people in congested Europe, USA and the rich Asian countries are yearning for.

DAVIS: We’ve had some very bad publicity which has put off a lot of tourists. Travel agencies recommend to just go to Ayers Rock because they think Alice Springs is pretty bad. We’ve got to get around that. The numbers have stopped declining and stabilised which is positive. We have to start with the national market. We have only around 2.6% of that. Our share of the international market is almost triple that.

NEWS: What do we tell the national market?

DAVIS: We need to make the place accessible without a four wheel drive – or make it clear that you don’t need one to see half of the MacDonnells, as well as Ayers Rock an King’s Canyon. And tell them that there are places in the Territory that are reasonably priced. Don’t just look at the Rock where you pay $40 for an unpowered camping site.

NEWS: What does spending money on footy matches do for the industry?

DAVIS: The sports promotion is aiming at the national market. The Melbourne Demons have reasonably affluent supporters. But to target a small number of people is not going to be very effective in the long run. They might come once every 10 years. The Do the NT logo at the back of a press conference box is not going to bring people here. However, the AFL game at Traeger Park, televised nation-wide on a Saturday afternoon, with the MacDonnell ranges in the background, that was the best advertising I’ve seen for Alice Springs for a long time.

NEWS: Nothing substantial has happened for a long time to enhance visitor facilities in the MacDonnells.

DAVIS: The Mereenie loop road needs to be sealed. That’s the number one thing. That will add the West Macs to the King’s Canyon and Rock experience for many people.

NEWS: It’s common belief that the Central Land Council’s blocking access to a quarry is making the cost of sealing the Mereenie loop prohibitive. Is there a case for the government talking to the Aboriginal land trust direct? After all, they are the organ grinder and the CLC is the monkey.

DAVIS: I can’t imagine that the traditional owners living there would have any objection to the road being sealed. We keep hearing that communities want better roads, the people at Santa Teresa have been screaming for their road to be sealed for a long time. Sealing the loop means the traditional owners will have a road which will be much safer. Over the years a number of people have died on the Mereenie loop road and there have been many serious accidents from the condition of the road. It will also offer local Aboriginal communities opportunities for trading with tourists.

NEWS: Could the government, for example, develop headworks in some locations in the MacDonnell national parks, east and west, put in roads, water, power, sewerage, phone, and invite private developers to build wilderness lodges there, or pubs?

DAVIS: Is there a market for that? If so, is it significant? You’d need to get visitors travelling there first. Getting better access to all the beauty spots would be an earlier priority. Many places need 4WD at the moment, in most cases the dirt sections are only a few kilometres. It’s not much road to improve but it’s been neglected for a long time.

NEWS: Is the tourism industry recovering or just stabilising after a sharp decline?

DAVIS: The market we can expand is the national market and that’s now mostly self-drive. Trouble is, people now base themselves at roadside stops and do day trips, and often don’t spend money in towns aside from food and petrol. We’ve seen visitation numbers now stabilising last year after they had been constantly dropping for some years. Some operators are now seeing a 15% increase in occupancy rates on the previous year which hasn’t happened in a long while. The government is now advertising the whole of the NT with the “Do the NT” ads, and not just the Rock and Kakadu. As you know, people could spend a week here and wouldn’t have seen the half of it. I think the outlook for the tourism industry as a whole though is positive.

NEWS: We’ve had a very detailed account, supplied by the government, of Alice Springs’ water reserves at current extraction rates. It is 300 years. However, if we are looking at an expansion of the town, or to start horticulture and agriculture, we have no guide as to how much water would be available other than cutting into the 300 year reserve. Just this week the Department of Land Resource Management told us it has a budget of $9.6m for water exploration across the NT for the next four years. “We are currently working with the Department of Primary Industry and Fisheries to identify areas with the best potential for development. So in other words we are currently in the planning stages,” we were told by a spokesman. This seems to be an amazing omission by the decade of Labor governments and a slow catch-up by the CLP.

DAVIS: If there is a lot of interest in agriculture and the reserves drop to, say, less than 100 years then we need to look at the options. If we can’t find more we may have to build a pipeline from Darwin or from other catchments in the north. A lot of people here are doing pretty well growing food. Most of the town’s lettuce is grown here, there’s a market garden in Heffernan Road, it’s obviously a viable industry. I think it’s important to gauge the interest in agriculture first. If we have 300 years’ supply at current consumption the government has time to gauge interest in primary production.

Mr Davis says the increase of Kilgariff blocks from 30 to 80 “is a good thing,” giving construction companies the opportunity of spec building on five blocks spread over times when other work dries up.

NEWS: Should we draw people into town with cheap land?

DAVIS: I’m not sure cheap small blocks are necessarily the answer. If you want to expand you expand from the centre outwards. There is plenty of land. When Kilgariff was started there were already two private subdivisions under construction, Ron Sterry’s Coolibah Estate and John McEwen’s Emily Valley Estate [adjoining Mr Sterry's land to the east]. The government was saying to them, if you want sewerage, water and headworks you have to pay for it. And then the government put all that out to Kilgariff and is building Kilgariff. Why did they make it hard for the two private developers? The government could have helped them to keep down the cost of blocks.

NEWS: The Alice has been stagnant for a decade. Should we blame construction costs?

DAVIS: The cost of construction here, for some reason, can be double the cost of interstate. Two and a half thousand dollars a square metre is pretty expensive for just a residential building. The cost of road building here is huge, which is holding back a lot of development of our roads. For example, I’ve heard the cost of sealing the NT side of the Plenty Highway [part of the east-west Outback Highway] is two and a half times of what it costs to seal the Queensland side. There are not many companies here with the capability to supply asphalt for significant sealed road construction leaving us stuck with a virtual monopoly. So they can say, this is our price, take it or leave it. In Sydney you’d have 10 different companies tendering for the work. There could be a case for these sorts of services to be done by the shires or government. Governments used to do much of that work themselves – maybe bring back a Department of Works type of situation where there is insufficient competition to keep prices low.

NEWS: It seems the government’s do-it-yourself Kilgariff may be just the way to go.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Sir – The CLP Government is the most dysfunctional administration anywhere in Australia.

Two years into Government the scorecard tells a story of rank incompetence, arrogance and chaos.

The CLP has torn up every election commitment and overseen rising cost of living, rising unemployment, frontline jobs slashed across the public service, 340 businesses hit the wall and no major land releases while housing costs rise.

Without a mandate the CLP have split up PowerWater, increased tariffs and are preparing our public assets of the Port, TIO and power retail and generation for sale.

Since the last election in 2012, the Territory has had:

• Two Chief Ministers.

• Four Deputy Chiefs (now vacant).

• Four Treasurers.

• Four Education Ministers.

• Three Business Ministers.

• Three Employment Ministers.

• Three Local Government Ministers, and

• Two Health Ministers.

Incredibly, the next reshuffle will be the 7th reshuffle in two years and Territorians are rightly asking when will this Government get its act together?

In the past week alone the CLP has lost two votes on the floor of Parliament just by sheer ineptitude and on Friday lost their Treasurer and Deputy Chief Minister after his outrageous gay slur.

If you can’t run your own party, you can’t run the Territory.

In two years their seats in Parliament have crashed from 16 to 13 because of their broken promises to the bush and extreme internal divisions.

The Giles Government was the worst in Territory history.

The only good news for Territorians is that the strength of the economy due to Labor’s effort in oil and gas and onshore resources will underpin economic growth.

Ken Vowles (pictured)
Shadow Minister for Government Accountability

Eight-year old Ffion Jones returned with a gold medal to Bradshaw Primary School this morning from the 65th Shukohai Karate Anniversary Championships held in Kobe, Japan, where she topped the Under 9s Kumite division.

The result is an extraordinary achievement given that Ffion has only been learning karate for two and a half years. Facing international competitors, Ffion kept her focus, and fought her way to gold.

Teams from all over the world assembled in Japan for a week of intensive training including training with Yamada Haruyoshi Sensei who leads the Shukokai organisation.

Yamada Sensei holds many prestigious positions such as 9th Dan President Shito-Ryo Shukokai Union, and is a member of the Japanese Olympic Committee. Ffion was able to have one on one coaching with Yamada Sensei prior to the competition.

Ffion began her training in New Zealand at Shukokai Karate, based in Onehunga, Auckland.  She moved with parents Steve and Anita to the Northern Territory earlier this year, and without Shukokai training available locally began learning Shotokan Karate at the Alice Springs Youth Centre.

Ffion attends two training sessions a week in Alice Springs, each 90 minutes long. She also has extra tuition, and puts in hours of practice in her own time at home.

By ERWIN CHLANDA

The Alice-based organisation Waltja Tjutangku Palyapayi is one of eight finalists in the Indigenous Governance Awards, to be decided by October 30, organised by Reconciliation Australia and co-sponsored by mining giant BHP Billiton.

There were commercial companies among the 113 applicants but none of them made it into this short list. “They just didn’t make the cut,” says Professor Mick Dodson (pictured) who chairs the panel of nine judges. “They were not competitive.”

He says the NGOs vying for the titles are judged on whether they are innovative, effective, contribute to Aboriginal self-determination and leadership, are culturally relevant and legitimate, and are resilient and have proven their viability over 10 years.

“We look at their governance resilience, their sustainability, look at the way they plan for the future,” he says.

Prof Dodson says the most recent commercial enterprise to win the award, given every two years, was a Brisbane based Aboriginal company, Carbon Media, in 2010. Its products range from children’s television, TV commercials, corporate productions to animation.

Carbon Media’s pitch: “We’re working with some amazing clients and partners to deliver landmark productions, cutting edge websites, innovative smart phone apps and effective communication and marketing strategies. From concept development through to distribution, we deliver quality at every stage of the production process.”

They “ticked all those boxes, and they ticked them very well,” says Prof Dodson.

Photos, at left and below, from the Waltja website of activities by its members.

NEWS: There is a growing belief that Aborigines playing a bigger role as producers of saleable commodities would enhance racial harmony.

DODSON: These organisations employ a lot of people. There is a finalist in this round who is the biggest employer in Wyndham. They employ more people than the government does there.

NEWS: Why are commercial enterprises absent from the short list?

DODSON: They are not good enough. They have to lift their game so far a governance is concerned to get in the last eight. There are 113 top-line applications. They are very, very competitive. Waltja is an enterprise. It competitively tenders for government contacts. It raises money privately, on its own accord. It’s not bludging off the government. It does an excellent job for women and children.

NEWS: It does welfare work rather than producing something for sale.

DODSON: What’s this stuff here? Isn’t that productive?

He points to a dozen or more Aboriginal paintings covering the walls of the Waltja office where we are talking.

NEWS: Are art enterprises from the Centre in the short list?

DODSON: No. They have been in the past. One near the WA border won the top award about six years ago.

According to its pitch, in the Waltja Tjutangku Palyapayi Aboriginal Corporation, formed in 1993, Central Desert women are “leading a grass-roots approach to strengthening their communities” enabling them “to make their own decisions” and addressing “the severe economic disadvantage of its community members by supporting them through hardship and providing programs, training and employment opportunities to maintain family and culture and to encourage greater economic independence.

“It also fosters community participation in deciding how services are administered to the region’s Aboriginal population.”

Only Aboriginal women living in its member communities over a 90,000 square kilometre area can be elected to the organisation’s management committee and executive.

Waltja income for 2013-14 was $3,061,896. 15% came from self funding, 11% from philanthropics and 74% from Commonwealth and Territory Government departments.

The organization has 18 full time and six part-time staff, including eight trainees.

NEWS: The Federal Government has cut back a lot on funding NGOs.

DODSON: Organisations with good governance take that into account. One finalist factored into its planning the receipt of money from the government. They didn’t get it this year. But they had not put all their eggs in one basket. That’s good leadership and governance. They had a back-up plan. Being a finalist in these awards helps these organisations with getting money from whomever.

NEWS: Is there overlapping of the activities? Are there too many NGOs?

DODSON: I don’t know if that’s exactly true. There is a narrative around about that but where is the proof? It’s easy to say that. Media particularly say that. And politicians. But they never provide any evidence. Even the government’s approach now, reducing 280 programs down to five, they are not providing any evidence that this is more efficient. In fact the early indications are it’s less efficient.

There are six incorporated organisations on the awards short list. They are, according to Reconciliation Australia:-

• The Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience is Sydney-based, with a growing national footprint, and supports Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students into further education, training and employment, seeking “to make the experience of attending university less daunting for them”.

• The Girringun Aboriginal Corporation’s mission is protecting the land and sea rights of Traditional Owners in Cardwell, North Queensland, through representation and participation.

• The 38 years old Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency is the oldest Aboriginal child and family welfare organisation in Victoria, “founded on the principle of the right of self-determination for Aboriginal people”.

• The Institute for Urban Indigenous Health is “working towards health equality for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in south-east Queensland”.

• The Ngnowar Aerwah Aboriginal Corporation is “delivering world-class alcohol and other drug services for the wellbeing of Aboriginal people in Wyndham, WA”.

Non-incorporated initiatives or projects picked as finalists include the Marruk Project, “using performing arts to strengthen culture and relationships” in Swan Hill, Victoria, and the Muntjiltjarra Wurrgumu Group in Wiluna, WA, “helping to break down communication barriers between the local Aboriginal community, industry and government agencies”.