By ERWIN CHLANDA The Territory Education Department maintains statistics on racial grounds, comparing the school attendance rate of Aboriginal children with that of Non-Aboriginal children. The difference is around 30% in favour of the latter – a margin that in most other fields would spark public outrage. Yet in these statistics, collected for at least […]

By MIKE GILLAM More frequently than I’d care to admit, I go out bush looking for specific wildlife behaviour and in the process stumble onto quarry of greater significance. On this occasion, in the company of Linguist and Musicologist Myfany Turpin, we travelled to Artarre (Tara) Community 243 km north of Alice Springs. Artarre, she […]

By ERWIN CHLANDA The debt exceeding $11 billion and growing, costing the taxpayer “a million bucks a day” in interest. The number of people in prison at an all time high. Crime exceeding the courts’ capacity to deal with it. The “national” Aboriginal art gallery still a dog’s breakfast. Who would want to be a […]

LETTER TO THE EDITOR Senator Jacqui Lambie’s suggestion that Australia should close Pine Gap in response to President Trump’s imposition of tariffs on Australian steel exports to the US, highlights the importance of Australian sovereignty. However, Senator Lambie’s commendably strong response to the Trump administration’s bullying contains a serious problem. The threats posed to Australia […]

By ERWIN CHLANDA The NT’s four Aboriginal land councils are calling for the Territory Coordinator Bill to be dumped. The Bill excludes Aboriginal people from involvement in development decisions on their traditional lands and prevents them from protecting their land and culture, says a media statement, claiming the government plans to use its majority to […]

By PADDY WEIR The heat didn’t beat the Alice Springs Off Road Race Club (ASORRC) on the weekend: They ran the prologue of the NT Titles Round 1 at 5pm on Saturday, a lot later than usual, and this was followed by two separate 31km laps. Shane Greening set the pace coming first in prologue, […]

By Dr FIONA WALSH Why do we continue to allow and accept the deaths of animals on our roads? I recognise that global warming, wildfires and floods accelerated by profiteers are beyond the immediate control of many of us. They too hurt many native animals. This was one of only two living kangaroos I saw […]

By ERWIN CHLANDA The entire executive board of the NT Police Association (NTPA) is calling upon Police Commissioner Michael Murphy to tender his resignation. This follows his outing himself as the senior executive public officer found by ICAC to have displayed unsatisfactory conduct in relation to the management of a conflict of interest in a […]

By ERWIN CHLANDA Four months after Parliament dealt with $121.5m in unpaid fines just $5.5m has been recovered, about 4%. There are currently “around” 206,000 outstanding fines and infringements, according to a statement in November by Minister for Corporate and Digital Development Joshua Burgoyne. Of this amount, more than $104 million is owed to the […]

By DAVID HANCOCK from his new book Decades in Darwin In 1997, the Northern Territory government commenced a regime of mandatory imprisonment for a range of property offences, including theft, criminal damage, unlawful entry, unlawful use of a motor vehicle, robbery and receiving stolen property. Urged on by a vocal local media, the CLP government, […]