Parks bid in Senate

CLP Senator Nigel Scullion (pictured) says he will muster support in the Senate to defeat a Bill required to transfer Territory national parks to Aboriginal ownership.
He says he has no doubt the Liberal and National Senators will be backing him, which means the Bill will be defeated in the Senate if it is presented to it before June 30.
On that date the composition of the Senate will change, following last year’s Federal election.
But Senator Scullion says there is a good chance “we will succeed” in defeating the Bill even in the new Senate, with the possible help of anti-pokies campaigner Nick Xenophon and Family First’s Steve Fielding.
The parks transfer has been requested by the NT Government following a largely secret deal with the Central Land Council, ostensibly because the parks could be exposed to land claims.
The ownership transfer has met with widespread public opposition (google the extensive coverage by the Alice News on this site). Report by ERWIN CHLANDA.  Full story»




The Alice Springs Scouts celebrated 100 years of scouting at the Bangtail Muster on Monday. Riding high at the start of the next century of the scouts movement are Anthony Driver (standing at left) and (at rear) Samantha Horsfield, Max Fleming and Catherine Driver. Sitting at front are Rebekah Raven, Courtney Raven and Imogen Marshall. The picture above is part of a photo essay by FIONA CROFT.




Will the town planning forum next month help to bridge the gap in Alice lifestyles? A nice home in the Golfcourse Estate and illegal campers on a hilltop in Elder Street last week.

Moment of truth for Alice

Take a sickie, or better still, leave without pay, but be there: Thursday, June 5 is the first day of the rest of Alice Springs’ life, comments ERWIN CHLANDA.
A no-holds-barred public forum will be setting the development agenda for the town.
It will sow the seeds for the hardware enabling us to realise our dreams, fix our problems, and recreate an exciting, diverse, optimistic community.
Or it won’t and the forum will have been just another talkfest.
In that case a lot more people will be packing their bags.
A decade of a dramatic housing shortage, soaring land prices, stifling businesses which couldn’t get accommodation for their staff, was followed by an exodus of skilled people and an influx of unskilled.
We can stop that trend – or surrender to it.
A senior public servant says “nothing is off the agenda” of the forum but he urges participants not to get bogged down in petty issues: rather they should  “take a look at The Alice from the top of a hill”. Full story»


NT Budget: Nothing big for Centre

There appear to be no major announcements for Central Australia in this year’s Territory Government budget, the first under Treasurer Delia Lawrie. 
“More for families” is the mantra in media releases for both Central Australia and Palmerston, with an emphasis for both on the changes to  the HomeNorth scheme and stamp duty cuts.
From a scan of some 60 residential properties for sale advertised by two major real estate agents in Alice Springs in mid-April, the new price cap would have allowed first home buyers a choice of three houses and 11 units (only one of which had three bedrooms).
Stamp duty concessions for first home buyers have gone up from  $350,000 to $385,000.
“Safer streets” is another highlight for both The Centre and Palmerston, but again with no major initiative announced. KIERAN FINNANE reports.  Full story»


‘No discrimination in renting’

The real estate industry has rejected allegations of discrimination against Aboriginal would-be tenants.
Faith Gardner, a liaison officer for Aboriginal people seeking to rent accommodation, claimed "irrespective of the anti-discrimination laws, there is clearly a hesitancy to lease properties to Indigenous people, irrespective of their ability to pay rent and maintain tenancy requirements."
But David Forrest, of Real Estate Institute of the NT, replied: “I am not sure it is up to the real estate sector to change its attitude.
“The real estate industry operates as agents for the owners of property and as such represent the needs and wishes of the property owners.
“As an industry we are more than happy to work with community groups to try and seek a solution to the problem and would welcome any invitation to do so.” ERWIN CHLANDA reports. Full story»

Boarding school is in



ABOVE: Josie Buzzacott (left) and Olivia Moneymoon, both from Mutijulu in a literacy class at Nyangatjatjara College.

The formerly troubled secondary-age boarding school at Yulara, the resort near The Rock, has been up and running all this year, as has the college’s day campus at Docker River.
The campuses at Mutitjulu and Imanpa have had a teacher this term.
Meanwhile the founding body of the college, Nyangatjatjara Aboriginal Corporation, is still under administration. KIERAN FINNANE reports. Full story»


Intervention not silver bullet?

There were almost 200 more children enrolled at school in Central Australia (excluding Alice Springs) in February this year compared to February last year.
By March in both years numbers had fallen, but there were still more children enrolled in that month this year (3045) than in that month last year (2917).
However the drop is greater this year: numbers have fallen by 155 this year (from 3200 to 3045), compared to 89 last year (3006 to 2917). Though the figures are for Indigenous and non-Indigenous students,  they would appear to show a limited impact on school attendance from the Intervention. KIERAN FINNANE reports. Full story»




Bob Taylor is sharing his experiences, and the culture of his Aboriginal family, with visitors, including these children at Ormiston Gorge.

Bob is going for it!

Bob Taylor, 48, is a taken away child, and so are four of his five brothers.
When he was eight, police came to their school in Adelaide, took them to see their mother, and then confined them, forcibly, at the Morialta Children’s Home until Mr Taylor was 17.
It’s the stuff of many a sad Stolen Generation story.
Not for Mr Taylor: he says the children’s home “gave me good health, an education and safety, and ultimately, the confidence to travel the world and run a business.
Mr Taylor had started a chef’s apprenticeship by the time he left the home. After completing his training, for 22 years Mr Taylor worked all over Australia and in Europe (in Holland).
He made occasional trips to The Centre, meeting up with his father, after not seeing him for 20 years.
“I came back in 2002 after my late uncle’s passing.
Six years ago Mr Taylor started R T Tours Australia, in The Centre, which deep down he always regarded as home. ERWIN CHLANDA reports. Full story»


It makes no sense







                    Assault                         Breakins                Car & property theft              Homicide
Annual crime figures for Alice Springs from 2001 to 2007, as provided by the NT Department of Justice (above) and the police staffing numbers (below) from 2003 to April 18 this year.



All categories of crime in Alice Springs have – roughly speaking – common trends: the figures were high in  2001, dropped until 2004, and then rose again to the 2001 level.
Meanwhile rising police numbers between 2003 and 2005 seem to explain the drop in crime: more cops, less crime.
However, as police numbers climbed to a record height in 2006, the crime rate – in all categories – also climbed.
The government’s response: a nearly 10% drop in police numbers this year. ERWIN CHLANDA reports. Full story»





Scene of a reported acid spill last month: the Langer Heinrich uranium mine in Namibia, run by Paladin, one of the two partners in the proposed Angela Pamela uranium mine 25 kms south of Alice Springs.

U-mine battle heats up

The two sides in the debate over the proposed Angela Pamela uranium mine, 25 kms south of Alice Springs, are sniping at each other, a process that will no doubt continue for some time.
Dr Gavin Mudd, a civil engineering lecturer at Monash University in Melbourne, rejects a claim by Paladin, one of the two partners in the venture, that removing uranium by mining would reduce radiation potential.
“You mobilise the radionuclides [radioactive particles] and make it even easier for them to migrate and pollute groundwater,” says Dr Mudd.
“Just mining it doesn’t activate anything,” counters Jennifer Parks, a geologist, and head of operations in the NT of the Canadian company Cameco, the second partner.
“You don’t change anything by mining it.”
Dr Mudd says there is no way, on present information, to sustain a claim by Paladin chairman Rick Crabb that between the proposed mine site and the artesian basin from which the town draws its drinking water, “there is a barrier to that aquifer and the mining will not breach this barrier”. (Alice News, Feb 28).
Ms Parks concedes geological surveys are “not complete and we have to do the work and find out.
“We don’t believe at this stage there is any conncetivity between the site of the mine and the town’s water, but we need to do the work to show this.” ERWIN CHLANDA reports. Full story»



To stay or to go, that’s the question



ABOVE: Front, from left, Toddy Shilton, Nathan Bald, Josh Johnny, Sarah Hall, Nikki Friedli. Back: Rory Swelegar, Anne Barrow, Elly Patten.

Will today’s youth still be in Alice in 2020 and what kind of town do they think it’ll be? DARCY DAVIS caught up with seven Alice kids to find out. Full story»



Pip pips the field with art fit for a world show



Ruth Elvin (at left) president of the Art Foundation, applauds Alice Prize winner Pip McManus.

“It’s more than local work, it’s an international work”, said judge Susan McCulloch in awarding the $15,000 Alice Prize to Alice Springs artist Pip McManus last Friday.
McManus, a well recognised ceramicist with a 30 year practice behind her, won with a work on DVD (stills below), a 55 minute meditative piece that “deeply moved aesthetically” and “inspired” Ms McCulloch. KIERAN FINNANE reviews. Full story»