[Title]

Where have all the young ones gone?

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 12:48:18 CST

The Youth Centre on Wills Terrace looks uninviting from the front - high cyclone wire fence, security screen right around the front building - but it has a committed board of volunteers running it, a new friendly youth worker, and some great facilities.
Where else can young people play pool for free? Or do a workout for free? Or just hang out together without being asked to move on?
"The kids know it?
's there, but they think it?s never open," says president Marie Petery. KIERAN FINNANE reports.

Glimpse of Alice in 2030.

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 12:48:26 CST

What will it be like to live in Alice Springs in 2030 - taking into account climate change and other changes?
A group of researchers from CDU are attempting to paint a picture, based as much on the imagination of local people as on scientific data.
In fact, information about the impact of climate change at a regional level is "very uncertain", said Stephen Garnett, Director of the School for Environmental Research.
And he would be relying on local expertise to point to data in the other areas that will be explored in the scenario modelling exercise.
Other issues:-
? More than a year after the Town Council was taken to task over failure to implement its own plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and 10 years after they signed up to Cities For Climate Protection, an international campaign to involve local government in greenhouse gas emission reduction, they are again considering how to go forward.
As part of the campaign, council?s local action plan (LAP) aimed to reduce its own and community greenhouse gases by 20% by the year 2010.
? The Territory?s uranium resources and Timor Sea gas are identified as "substantial greenhouse-friendly energy resources" with "strong potential" for expansion in the NT Government's discussion paper on Climate Change Issues. KIERAN FINNANE reports.

New burbs at airport?

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 12:48:31 CST

Imagine a new residential development that is unencumbered by native title, not affected by the Territory's sometimes onerous town planning controls, exempt from town council rates, and cheap so far as provision of services is concerned, the so-called headworks.
A Caribbean tax haven?
No, it's under your nose: just 15 minutes from the CBD, between the airport and the Rangeview Estate rural subdivision.
The Alice Springs airport is, in terms of area, the biggest in Australia, if not the world.
About 10% (400 hectares - see map) of its 35.5 square kilometres was flagged at the recent planning forum as one of the serious options for the expansion of the town, and much more of the area when one takes in possible uses for tourism and industry. ERWIN CHLANDA reports.

Scullion 'stuffed up' says Opposition Leader.

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 12:48:39 CST

"He has stuffed up. He knows that." That is the blunt assessment by Opposition Leader Terry Mills of his CLP party colleague, Nigel Scullion, after he voted in the Senate last week in favour of transferring to Aborigines the ownership of 13 national parks in The Centre.
"Senator Scullion not only failed to secure the support of the Federal Opposition for the defeat of the Bill, he acted against his long-held convictions."
Mr Mills says he is disappointed that the Federal Opposition supported the Bill.
"The Coalition misjudged the issues," he says, possibly "in the context of recently issuing an apology" to the stolen generations.
He says the Opposition actions "created barriers and divisions in the community." ERWIN CHLANDA reports.