Aborigines may defy orders, come to Alice for food: CLC

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The Central Land Council warns that unless governments ensure food supply in remote communities, residents will defy orders and continue to travel to regional towns.
 
“Remote community residents will travel in and out of biosecurity areas to shop in Alice Springs,” says CLC chief executive Joe Martin-Jard.
 
“Governments have assured our constituents that they will have everything they need in their communities to stay safe and well during this difficult time.
 
“We are holding them to this promise.
 
“They must monitor the price of key food items in remote community stores and come down hard on any price gouging,” says Mr Martin-Jard.
 
“We need immediate freight subsidies and supply guarantees for these stores so they can reduce their prices and don’t run out of essential supplies.
 
“Even before the pandemic hit, remote community residents paid, on average, 60% more in their stores for a healthy food basket and many travelled to regional towns to buy cheaper groceries.
 
“We were surprised and dismayed about the decision to exempt pastoral leases from the biosecurity areas at the 11th hour. However, we fully support the health intent of the declaration and are working with governments to make things work,” Mr Martin-Jard says.
 
Photo: Hermannsburg / Ntaria, 130kms west of Alice Springs on the banks of the Finke River.
 
 
 

22 COMMENTS

  1. Anyone with any brains knows this will happen and very soon as they will miss the comfort foods and alcohol availability.
    Obviously not all are in this boat but it only takes a few and all their people will suffer.
    It’s just a matter of time.
    Can anyone imagine this going on for six months or more and seeing them staying out there for that time?
    And that isn’t even taking into account overcrowding which I’m sure is an even bigger problem right now.

  2. Very few remote community residents travel to Alice Springs to shop for a healthy food basket.
    Keeping the price of healthy food low on communities will not prevent people from coming to town.
    There are fast food attractants in town, plus the availability of alcohol that draws remote residents to town.
    But the healthy food basket is not one of them.

  3. Why isn’t the CLC stepping up to the plate to help out their communities?
    They have the knowledge of how the communities work; I would have thought they are best placed to run food convoys out to these places.
    The CLC says the government has promised to supply their needs to “stay safe and well”.
    Does that mean food too?
    The government is not supplying me with food.
    Can’t the CLC liaise with organisations in town to do food drops? This is a time we all have to work together.

  4. @ Harry Storch: Unfortunately it comes with the Territory. Social media is full of A-Holes. They offer no solutions, they just throw crap from the sidelines.

  5. @ Psuedo Guru:
    Yep do or die, it’s pretty simple.
    @ Harry Storch:
    Unsure Harry who is running anyone down. Fact is fact.
    Don’t like it, then do something to make a positive change for the benefit of ALL.

  6. @ Harry Storch: Thanks Harry.
    As someone who lives on a community I’m getting annoyed by all these comments that see us to be the biggest threat.
    If the genie gets out of the bottle it won’t be coming from communities.

  7. @ Harry Storch, @ Frank Baarda: So many migrants and newbies in Alice Springs who are educated. The old days of living in a poo pit and liking it are over.
    Alice Springs used to attract rejects from around the place but now the world is in Alice and cleaning it up. Nice work, Alice Springs.

  8. @ Frank Baarda: Frank, I think you’ll find we are not so worried about the genie getting out of the communities but getting in to them.
    As far as your “these comments” goes, I am sure it’s not a race thing so let’s not conveniently make it so.
    Everyone is concerned about people moving about unnecessarily and without consideration for others or the consequences, regardless of their race, culture or religion.

  9. @ Harry Storch. You’re right Harry. Shallow minded people, those who should educate themselves how the disease got into the country in the first place.
    It’s the trendies, the so called beautiful people and privileged with the means to travel the world and spread it everywhere, they are the ones who brought the virus into this country and are those who are still bringing it in and spreading it about.
    It has become the disease of the upper class who think they are above everyone else who keep on mingling and socialising.
    Those that keep pointing the finger at Aboriginal people need to get their facts right if for a moment they can apply their brains to that but their mindset doesn’t allow it.
    No doubt these people know how it got here and who is spreading it, easier to take cheap shots at Aboriginal people as if they are responsible for all of it.

  10. @ Times a Changin: Completely agreed, I have seen Alice Springs grow since the 1960s, and Indigenous people decline in their standing in society, wasting education opportunities.
    It is true that Alice Springs attracted some of those who were social outcasts from cities such as Adelaide and Melbourne.
    Multiculturalism has brought in a more cultivated town. Alice is not such a rough-nut town. Nice.

  11. @ David “Shallow Minded”: My friends’ recent two trips to the UK were watch their 34 year old daughter die from cancer.
    The daughter left behind her Husband and four children the youngest of whom is three years old. This was just before the start of the Coronavirus peak.
    I would suggest that this does not make them one of the “Trendies, Beautiful people or Privileged” as you put it.
    I am sure there are many people who have had the need to travel, not necessarily for holidays. The virus doesn’t discriminate and very fortunately they weren’t affected.
    Yours and other’s generalisation has made things hard for ALL skin colours, Whites, Blacks, Yellows, Greens and Striped.

  12. @ Surprised: I am very sad for your friend’s situation, loss of a child I wish on no one, especially lost to cancer.
    Do not be worried by these Troglodytes who appear to have not attended school or any other place of enlightenment. Alice Springs has very good people who have very similar sentiments to yours.

  13. Frank Baarda: I could not agree more with you: “See us to be the biggest threat.”
    Where I live the biggest threat does no come from the Aborigines but from white people. I used to see big mobs on my footpath, not any more as it seems to me they have understood the message of TAKE CARE. I cannot same the same about everybody.

  14. In 2016 Australian census nominated ancestries showed: English (36.1%), Australian (33.5%), Irish (11.0%), Scottish (9.3%), Chinese (5.6%), Italian (4.6%), German (4.5%), Indian (2.8%), Indigenous (2.8%), Greek (1.8%), Dutch (1.6%), Filipino (1.4%), Vietnamese (1.4%), Lebanese (1%).
    The insidious impact of racism is clearly visible when racial tags used in public discussions.
    Australian Governments, Parliamentarians, our media at all levels regularly promote racism.
    As do those who identify fellow Australians, or call for special treatment, using racial tags.
    .

  15. Its going to be a tough time for government funded agencies and corporations from now on.
    Treasury is already modelling post COVID-19 budgets.
    Just funding Centrelink and Health consumes the national budget, all other will need to be borrowed.
    Forward estimates in a positive still show a severe deficit.
    It is going to get tough financially for Indigenous people unless they can work. Even then, hard times ahead.

  16. I see a comment “where I live the biggest threat does not come from the Aborigines but from white people”. This is a racist comment and in the US we give it to our attorney to resolve.
    I now see US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) are weeding out foreigners who are racists. I have written to Peter Dutton [so he] will do the same here.

  17. I have received the comment “where I live the biggest threat does no come from the Aborigines but from white people’ by a prominent Australian.
    In France we have serious racism issues in particular against the Jewish community.
    Do not let this happen in Australia. This is a disgraceful comment and not to be associated with France.

  18. Evelyne Roullet is accused of being racist because Aborigines and white-fellas are actually named in her comment.
    A bit unfair when most racist remarks hide behind euphemisms.
    Ever since I came to the NT I’ve heard of “Cleaning up the Todd River,” most people understood what this dog-whistling remark meant.
    My father told me that “reinigen” was a very commonly used euphemism during Europe’s darkest hours.

  19. I do not understand why my comment is racist but the title of the article “Aborigines may defy orders, come to Alice for food” is not.
    Plus, what does it has anything to do with France? “This is a disgraceful comment and not to be associated with France.”

  20. @ Paul Parker: Are those 2016 census figures for all of Australia? Are there figures available specifically for Alice Springs or the Northern Territory?
    The total adds up to 117.4% a bit like those athletes that give it 110%
    I assume these “nominated ancestries” are what people saw themselves as and the 100% plus – a result of some people nominating more than one ancestry.
    That category “Australian” is interesting, as “what does it mean to be Australian” is a subject of much discussion.
    I for one as an Australian of Dutch ancestry for example don’t subscribe to John Howard’s model!
    If it had been up to those that “will decide who come to this country” my Dutch family for example would never have been let in as we couldn’t speak English back then.
    As for @ Times are Changing: I resent the implication that we non-newbies are not educated and happy to live in a poo pit.

  21. Frank Baarda: “Are those 2016 census figures for all of Australia? Are there figures available specifically for Alice Springs or the Northern Territory?”
    I assume these “nominated ancestries” are what people saw themselves as and the 100% plus – a result of some people nominating more than one ancestry.
    They would be for all OZ.
    However rather than “nominated ancestries” I suggest they are where the person was actually born.
    Which results in people calling themselves “Chinese Australians” etc etc.
    We all know who dinky-di Aussies are and not all were born here either.

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