Native title organisation has $3.7m in the bank

6
3055

By ERWIN CHLANDA
 
The native title organisation Lhere Artepe had $3,731,269 “cash at bank” on June 30 last year, according its financial report published on February 28 this year.
 
The corresponding 2018 amount was $2,893,004.
 
There was a sharp decline in Lhere Artepe’s revenue from Yeperenye Nominees, from $2,987,413 in 2018 to $812,344 in 2019.
 
This dropped Lhere Artepe’s surplus from $2,540,960 in 2018 to $655,560 in 2019.
 
The directors of Lhere Artepe are Alan Campbell, Fabian Conway, Felicity Hayes, Graeme Smith, Marie Ellis, Peter Liddle, Peter Palmer, Shane Lindner and William Liddle.
 
Seven of them give their residential address as 20 Parsons Street, Alice Springs, which is Lhere Artepe’s office address.
 
We are putting the following to Lhere Artepe:
 
There are many Aboriginal people in Alice Springs who are impoverished.
 
There are many young Aboriginal people who are neglected and who fall foul of the law.
 
Given these problems, how do you justify having $3.7m in the bank?
 
We will report their answers if and when they come to hand.
 
 
 

6 COMMENTS

  1. Good questions. I’m sure there are more organisations around town that need this asked of them.

  2. I don’t see the problem with this. They are a native title organisation. They need money in the bank to fund expensive legal proceedings in native title claims.
    I would be more surprised, and I’m sure there’d be a lot more questions to answer if they had no money in the bank.

  3. I agree with Robert Fyffe.
    Cash flow management is critical to not only for-profit businesses, but also not-for-profit organisations to ensure they have enough money to pay the bills.
    These bills include day-to-day running expenses and large sums predicted and planned for in your annual budget.
    Even profitable organisations have gone under because of cash flow problems.
    It is the responsibility of every board member (and especially the treasurer) to ensure that systems are in place that will prevent the organisation from trading while insolvent.

  4. Well I think it’s great news Lhere Artepe has funds in the bank. Let’s remember, they are not responsible for government services in health, housing education and crime. They receive no funding for such services so to blame them for such is a cheap shot.
    Well done Lhere Artepe on a sound financial position.
    Maybe the questions being put to Lhere Artepe by the News should be put to other NGOs who actually receive funding to address such issues.

  5. Jeff, well pointed out there. Lhere Artepe is not responsible for housing, health, education etc, the relevant Government Departments are responsible for those portfolios.
    Often misguided folk like to level blame any Indigenous corporation, or land council when the provision of these services are the responsibility of government. While interstate locales may celebrate progress in Closing the Gap, it’s safe to say our region and the government departments responsible have a long, long way to go.
    That said, LAAC could do well to focus on promoting Arrernte language throughout the town including dual place-name signage (updating bad spelling).
    They could be lobbying to ensure all Arrernte people have access to learning their language, promoting the historic story of the Arrernte, raising funds to clean up areas of land that are used by Alice Springs residents as white-goods garbage dumps, or “sacred sites” littered with rubbish and covered with buffel grass that would have ancestors turning in their graves.
    Further, they could be ensuring key Apmereke-artweye and truely knowledgeable Kwertengwerle are educated and well versed (and taught in Arrernte) the mechanisms of Native Title Law and what their roles and responsibilities are as board members.
    Any moneys raised through the sale of land should be solely for community development projects, and no royalty payments should ever be made.
    Arrernte people should also have access to the FULL Native Title determination (cough*) and related research to negate the current day needless infighting relating to “who belongs where”, that is often played out in the Alice Sprigs News or Facebook.
    The CLC and its anthros should assist with this given they are the current custodians of all records and information relevant to the Native Title Claim.
    Given it’s nearly 20 years since LAAC was established, the community deserves to see some positive action and results.

  6. Of course they have a lot of money, this is due to only having two people on the payroll, the chairman and his company vehicle which he has used for his private business, and the CEO who does nothing and has got a huge salary plus all the benefits that come with it.
    He has sat on boards and always been invited as “the man” but sadly done jack all!
    Thank God, he’s leaving.
    To say that it’s been great management is not a really good comment people, it’s been inactive production!

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here