• Volume 30

By MIKE GILLAM

Another fire was raging in the river and concerned groups of locals gathered on the Wills Terrace causeway to watch in horror and hurt as several trees were engulfed in flames. I was taking photographs to record this latest outrage when the screech of a galah demanded my attention.

At the fire’s core a large hollow belched sparks and smoke but undaunted the protesting bird flew straight into the flames. Shocked, I held my breath and forgot about the camera.

The suicidal cockatoo vanished into thick smoke and miraculously emerged a few seconds later, still screeching. The galah’s distress was acute and questions flooded my brain. Did the tree hollow contain eggs or was it occupied by hatchlings unable to fly, calling in vain for their parents? Was the galah’s outrage and distress a requiem for the hollow where she and her partner had raised their young over many seasons?

Arriving in Alice Springs 50 years earlier, I found a place where the natural order still reigned in all its ebullience and infinite responses to climate, always fascinating, sometimes rejuvenating and on occasion capricious.

For those open to Centralia’s environmental pulse this dream has turned into a nightmare, aided by negligent politicians, defeatist bureaucrats and too many citizens content to wring their hands and channel “hope”. When faced with a catastrophe of buffel grass dimensions, hope alone is of course a very small investment in doing nothing and expecting some-one else to step up and provide the commitment, energy and fight.

Occasionally, I too indulge in searching for slender signs of hope in the buffel story: Perhaps the emergence of another inspiring leader of consequence, an ecologist, a pastoralist, a nurse or grandmother.

As the buffel disaster escalated the efforts of several Landcare women gained my attention. In the Todd River, Sue Morrish was a sunrise phenomenon as she removed buffel encircling old growth red gums.

While labour intensive, targeting this highly combustible fuel load is an obvious and valuable endeavour. What price can we place on trees, our sacred monuments and familiar landmarks that have endured centuries of challenge and growth?

I was intrigued and surprised however at the broader efforts of Sue and others, stoically spraying and upending buffel grass across Spencer Hill valley, a landscape surrounded by buffel. Surely a mammoth and never-ending task of questionable strategic value with the certainty of fresh incursions of buffel seed infinitum?

Locally useful perhaps but could this example be realistically scaled up to restore habitat and create native seed banks across Centralia while we wait for action on biological control?

Perhaps I was missing the point, already made by hundreds of small landowners in Alice Springs who have diligently cleared out buffel on private land. Follow up maintenance of buffel free landscapes are less arduous and many rural landowners revel in the benefits of wildlife at their doorstep and massively improved fire protection.

In the public domain of Spencer Valley, future maintenance could be achieved if all who seek solace from this special place contribute by keeping to established tracks and removing buffel on their visits.

The buffel grass debate see-saws, bureaucrats hide, politicians twist and turn in their efforts to delay. In essence this is a contest between vested interests and industry lobbyists who champion the pasture values of a highly invasive and uncontained alien weed and a vast community network trying to save biodiversity from annihilation.

Chair of Alice Springs Landcare for the past 12 years, Suni Dhanji(above), reflected on recent events as the pendulum appears to have swung ever so slightly in favour of science and nature conservation after decades of political inertia.

“Declaration of 3 Cenchrus species as class B weeds and the listing of buffel grass as a weed in a class, yet to be determined is cause for some hope. It makes it possible to formulate and implement strategies at a landscape scale.

“Buffel grass was promoted as a solution to the dust storms generated by the drought years of the 1960’s on the back of 80 years of intensive grazing by cattle, horses, donkeys, goats, and rabbits. La Nina events in the mid 1970s, 2000 to 2001, 2010 and 2011, and 2021 to 2024 now present us with a ‘solution’ that is completely out of control.

“Declaration in the NT is welcome … but we do need to act and it needs to be in a way that truly values the environment, culture, and future of the arid lands in the places buffel is already affecting and the places it hasn’t reached yet.”

I will follow the trajectory of legislative and scientific progress in this mind numbing debate in a future essay. “Singing Country” however focuses on the local actions and emotional investment of an inspirational few who will not yield to this terrible destroyer of inland Australia.

As a community we are constantly compromised and misled by the limitations of long term human memory. At Spencer Valley, in the protective shadow of Tjoritja, two local women, Rosalie Breen (84), and Sue Morrish (56) have reminded us of the splendour we once celebrated in the native landscapes of Alice Springs.

Further east in the Kurrajong Drive area Valmai McDonald (78), Henry Smith (78) and Sue Grant (68) have extended the love and elsewhere others of the Landcare community have contributed also.

The grey plague, a monoculture of buffel grass, was beaten back by these Landcare stalwarts over a 15 year period. With patient removal of smothering tussocks, the true potential of country was finally awakened with follow up rain.

Erupting in diversity and colour, Spencer Valley and the Kurrajong hinterland were reborn in an exuberant display of the native seed bank’s resilience. The psychological response was joyful as residents from every demographic of the town paid homage to this “new/old” reality, returning often with families and friends.

While taking photographs for this essay I encountered many late afternoon bicycle riders and walkers, not quite a conga line but a mixture of locals catching up with work colleagues, east-side families of course, Arrernte notables and mixed groups in colourful saris and turbans.

All were smiling, most paused often to film the flowers, some were confused, unsure if they were witnessing some kind of natural phenomenon and most had no idea who was actually responsible for this “miracle’”.

As one who cleared buffel decades ago from our town block, I too was re-energised by Landcare’s bold act of generosity and love, one that has fused the past, present and future into a moment of environmental activism and defiance. Seeing such a dramatic response I finally understood the value of the bush regenerators’ toil and the depths of anguish that has burdened so many people in our community.

Beyond the riotous colour and beauty of the vegetated landscape, the increases of insects and birds at these sites are magical, a reminder that the adjacent buffel grass terrain was so bereft.

How do we measure the corrosive impacts of nature loss upon human wellbeing, of dwindling bird song, the flaming agony and slow death of Eucalypt giants that we must witness and endure? Familiar landscapes that once provided comfort and wonder, ultimately vanquished by the staggering indifference of those in authority and their industry supporters?

Disillusionment with our elected leaders, those who blatantly serve corporations on environmental issues that matter, is one of the overarching factors that drives a flight or fight response in our remote population. People are realising they can no longer rely on Governments to protect the natural environment they once believed was sacrosanct and protected.

To fight is a cathartic decision channelling despair into anger and action. Conversely when we run to “better” places we must invariably confront the same nightmare scenarios of Government failures and nature loss, over and over again.

Personally, I oscillate between those primal responses of fight or flight. I choose to dedicate energy within my home community attacking buffel but I also replenish my spirit by leaving town regularly to inhale buffel free landscapes, ever receding and further away.

Unfortunately my bush trips also invite exposure to future cycles of love and loss. Pushing aside defeatism, it’s impossible for me to accept that my favourite surviving woodlands of northern South Australia and the far west will ultimately succumb to the buffel apocalypse. What are our leaders waiting for?

Alice Springs Landcare volunteers have called up, my Arrernte friends and neighbours would say they’ve been “singing country”, revealing a dormant native seed bank that will provide much more than hope for decades to come. Replacing buffel grass with myriad delicate grasses and herbs, they have spared swathes of mulga and ironwood from a reductionist future shaped by devastating wildfires.

Their painstaking efforts and diligence have released an understorey of native grasses, billy buttons, blue bells and a shrub cover of blue bush, ruby saltbush and other fire resistant native plants. If the do-nothing status quo had run its course, much of this native seed bank buried in the leaf litter and topsoil would have been progressively destroyed by hotter and hotter fires and the relentless revival of more competitive buffel.

Fundamentally, the actions of my favourite bush regenerators around the country have made me appreciate the size of the environmental hole in our hearts, and the integrity that persists in everyday people.

The efforts of Landcare volunteers at Kurrajong Drive were tested by fires on August 14 and October 13, 2024. For a couple of hours Sue and Henry stopped small fire fronts in the hills and were able to use a walking track as an effective break, walking backwards and forwards putting it out whenever it threatened to jump across.

“That first fire was deliberately lit and started where the bush meets Kurrajong Drive. I’ve lived here and walked in those hills for 25 years and I know those trees. Where we removed buffel from around the base of mature trees they mostly didn’t burn but so much else was severely burnt.

“Contrary to popular belief a great many plants won’t recover from the fire but some will regenerate. In the aftermath of the second, particularly ferocious fire, several other Landcare volunteers arrived to help put out smouldering trees, just when our spirits were at a low ebb.”

I brush past iconic familiars on the short walk to Rosalie’s front door, the weeping form of plum bush, favourite food of bower birds and the spectacular green pea flowers of Crotalaria cunninghamii, a focus for honey-eaters and so many insects.

While I wait for my friend I’m thinking about the last time our paths crossed in Spencer Valley. Instantly recognisable with her well-travelled backpack, Rosalie was stooped in admiration before an aggregation of spider webs sparkling in the early morning dew. That was 2023 and the healing of Spencer Valley was well underway before the spring wildflower show a year later.

The door opened and Rosalie’s eyes smiled a greeting: “At Spencer Valley I started by removing the cactus in the hills and that was a daunting enough task. I thought the buffel grass was just impossible until Ken Johnson set up a trailer with a spray unit on both sides.

“When I saw the results I realised something could be done and that got me fired up. As the valley recovers, I love the surprise of finding new species of plants. I’ve watched mothers taking  photos of their kids amongst the flowers so I didn’t have to ask if people appreciated our efforts, it was obvious.

“Landcare has been a good social opportunity for me, meeting up with Arrernte custodians at the coolabah swamp, Doris Stuart and Elaine Peckham, who are special friends.” Rosalie smiled apologetically, “I’m less physically active now.”

Ethical ecologist Aldo Leopold believed that humans are “plain members and citizens” of the land community. He once observed: “One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds.” A US Forest Ranger instrumental in declaring the Gila National Forest wilderness, Leopold moved to a teaching position at the University of Wisconsin in 1924.

He famously restored a dilapidated farmstead located in an area known for its sandy soils, to a flourishing forest that became the subject of a groundbreaking book. A Sand County Almanac (1949), presented a new “land ethic” for humans to live harmoniously in nature.

His book was published posthumously as Leopold died of a heart attack on April 21, 1948 while fighting a wildfire on a neighbouring property. Many Centralians will recognise the poignancy of this scenario, a fitting end for landscape restorers and a risk for society at large in the buffel era. Thankfully Leopold did not burn to death and his heart attack alternative is surely better than dying with barely a whimper in your sleep.

Across the planet public concern for the environment has expanded since Aldo’s time but the threats have multiplied exponentially. Fortunately, Alice Springs Landcare is populated by a proactive and supportive membership.

Sue Grant concludes: “As members of Landcare, we are not alone in our woundedness around the scourge of buffel, we are in fact deeply connected to one another through our mutual love of country. “

Valmai adds: “there are so many more doing similar work who could also be acknowledged. We are inspired by each other, we learn from, encourage and help each other”.

All photos byMIKE GILLAM.

For more information visithttps://alicespringslandcare.com/Note: while the writer is a member of Landcare, the opinions expressed in this essay are his own.

• Volume 30

• Volume 30

The Central Desert Regional Council has sent “to the legal team” questions from theAlice Springs News about car expenses for its President, Adrian Dixon(pictured). 

No answers were given by Regional Manager Shiju Thomas.

The President is entitled to have one car but usually has two: “The President may choose to have a dedicated vehicle for the duration of his/her term or be paid a stipend to the equivalent value,” according to the council’s policy.

The president is clearly in a position to have his way in the choice of vehicles and is insisting on upmarket ones, notwithstanding the council’s policy: “Council’s fleet is fit for purpose and minimises cost to Council.”

Fleet Manager Lashen De Silva writes in a report to the council that since March 2022 the president had been allocated as main vehicle a “Ford Ranger Wild Track and a spare vehicle (in case of a breakdown – parked at depot) Ford Ranger XLT.

“As per request by the senior management, the main vehicle has changed to a brand new manual Hilux workmate ute with upgraded suspension. Fort Ranger was his 2nd backup vehicle,” writes Mr De Silva.

“Few months later we have been requested to replace this main vehicle with an automatic vehicle.

“Then we have assigned Auto 2.8L Turbo Diesel with Steel colour coded Tray, upgraded suspension, 140L Long range fuel tank, LED light board etc as the main vehicle with the [Wild Track] was his 2nd/backup vehicle.

“The 2nd vehicle has drawn in flood water in a creek over road near Laramba … and caused engine damage.

“Later, at some stage, we have been advised that President is requesting a Ford Ranger as he prefers more comfortably than Hilux.

“There is a request to purchase and provide a Toyota LC for our president … Hilux is more economical for maintenance and repair.”

The policy states: “The President will be responsible for arranging maintenance / servicing of the Council owned vehicle including getting the vehicle to and from the service provider. Council vehicles are used in a safe and responsible manner.”

Writes Mr De Silva: “It is very hard to track the KMs on president’s vehicle … if this service is overdue it will cause damages.”

The Fleet Manager added: “Driving up to road conditions must be strictly considered by the driver / user.”

The policy also states: “All Council vehicles are to be used exclusively for work travel purposes unless otherwise approved.”

Mr Dixon took the vehicle to Mt Isa in Queensland. We asked Mr Thomas what Mr Dixon was doing in Mt Isa but received no reply.

During the trip the vehicle was damaged and according to documents obtained by theNews, Mr Dixon came back to Alice Springs in a hire car at a cost of nearly $4000.

The minutes of the meeting on January 31 state: “The charge occurred due to the hire of the vehicle during the period when the council vehicle driven by President, under warranty broke down, was towed to the nearest vehicle dealership for warranty repairs. The council is currently in the process of claiming compensation from the supplier for these hire vehicle charges.

“All charges were made in accordance with the council’s credit card policy procurement policy, and were approved by the authorised personnel.”

While the charges were approved there is no mention that the trip outside the council area itself had been approved.

The President receives an allowance of $82,000 in addition to the councillor allowance of $20,500.

TheAlice Springs News emailed the following questions to Mr Shiju at 12:08pm on March 24:

What has been the cost to the council of the provision of cars to President Dixon since March 2022? A reliable estimate will be fine if an exact figure is not available.

The council’s Vehicle (Fleet) Usage Policy provides for the President to be entitled to one car. He seems to have had two at most times.

“All Council vehicles are to be used exclusively for work travel purposes unless otherwise approved. CDRC vehicles are only to be used for authorised activities.”

What was the President doing in Mt Isa in November last year? Who authorised the trip? For what purpose?

• Volume 30

Letter to the Editor

Treasurer Jim Chalmers, in his Budget speech stated: “And we’re easing pressure on the housing market by banning foreign investors from buying established homes, and cracking down on foreign land banking as well.”

Foreign investors have been prohibited from buying established homes since 1975.

Regardless, politicians continue to blame investors, foreigners and foreign investors for the shortage of housing in Australia. But the cause of the shortage is government policies such as that announced in last night’s budget.

The Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Act 1975 prohibits foreign investors from purchasing established homes in Australia [including Alice Springs] without prior written consent from the Australian Treasurer. 

One in 10 detached housing built in Australia are build by an overseas owned builder. These global home builders bring to Australia an investment in leading edge building technologies and products.

Penalising these businesses and making it harder for them to build new homes in Australia can only lead to fewer new homes being built.

These global builders are responsible for building thousands of “spec homes” every year where they buy greenfields land and build a home that is then sold.

Prohibiting them from purchasing land adds further complexity and costs to delivering a new home to market.

The underlying cause of the shortage of housing is too much government involvement in the market, and the solution to increasing supply is less government red tape.

If the problem the Treasurer is seeking to address is international students buying established homes then policies should be targeted at this problem, not at penalising some of the world’s largest home builders.

Since 2015, a range of punitive taxes have been imposed on foreign investors by State and Federal Governments. The consequence of this is that these investors have withdrawn from the Australian market, and this is a key reason why the volume of apartments commencing construction is now almost half of what it was in 2016.

Penalising overseas owned builders from building homes in Australia will make the goal of 1.2 million homes harder.

Foreign investors build new homes, they don’t live in them and cannot take them out of the country.

Tim Reardon,Chief Economist,Housing Industry Association

Image: Home Construction.

• Volume 30

By ERWIN CHLANDA

Pine Gap isn’t the Centre’s only chip in the current global defence poker game. 

The pot includes two antennae on the ground, each some three kilometres long, north-west and north-east of Alice Springs(pictured).

And Canada is having the better hand than Donald Trump.

Thefacilities are part of the Jindalee Operational Radar Network (JORN), an over-the-horizon radar network operated by the Royal Australian Air Force that can monitor air and sea movements across 37,000 square kilometres.

I have flown over the two antennae many times – making sure not to mistake them for runways.

The system has a normal operating range of 1000 to 3000 kilometres, according to the Defence Department online.

“The network is used in the defence of Australia, and can also monitor maritime operations, wave heights and wind directions,” it is stated.

JORN’s main ground stations comprise a control centres at RAAF Base Edinburgh in South Australia and three transmission stations, near Longreach, Queensland, near Laverton, Western Australia and the two near Alice Springs.

“Jindalee A was modestly powered and had a narrow field of detection, a ‘staring’ beam, with a simple whip-antenna array only one-quarter the length of the current Alice Springs Jindalee radar, 2.8 kilometers long.

“But Jindalee A did detect aircraft at long ranges and, later, ships.

“Its radar waveform generator was one of the few pieces of Australian-developed ‘original equipment’ retained in later Jindalee stages.”

Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney has confirmed the $6.5 billion JORN purchase after a conversation with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

What’s next?

Defence Minister Richard Marles says there are still some hurdles to clear, but the sale of the technology would be the biggest defence export in Australia’s history.

IMAGE at top: The antenna north-west of Alice Springs, on the Yuendumu road.

• Volume 30

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 the past 14 years, nothing significant has changed during that time although information technology and communications have advanced dramatically, now featuring Starlink and Artificial Intelligence, and dropped in cost, and education has been eagerly experimented with.

By and large the pattern of schooling, especially in small bush communities, has progressed little from “good morning, Mrs Smith,” recited by kids of vastly different ages, abilities, needs, backgrounds and aspirations – all in the same room.

Yet technology is making it possible to group them across our vast country not by where they live but by what they have in common.

That’s an issue that keenly engages Michelle Ayres, a former bush teacher and now president of the Australian Education Union NT.

She is wondering how the $40m for “on country learning” included in the $250m from Prime Minister Albanese last year will be spent.

“The majority of kids can’t read ‘cat’,” she says.

The student to teacher ratio is getting worse and the resources are increasingly inadequate, in a system designed in the 1800s: The male and the wealthy get a bigger slice of teaching.

Ms Ayres says the opportunity for change is as great as the need for it.

AI, used cleverly, can bridge many gaps but encouraging social relationships is equally vital. Those can occur on the sports field, the playground or in the company of old people telling stories and harvesting bush tucker.

Ms Ayres says she is not sure how much one-on-one teaching is taking place at present.

There is a lively discussion about the use of mobile phones and tablets in the classroom (the department is against them) although most kids seem to have one and are highly skilled in using them – for better and for worse.

The department’s attendance ratestatistics are very detailed, under headings such as average enrolment, school, year level, remoteness and region.

For example, in the Central Region in Term 1 of 2024, the “early years” attendance rate for Aboriginal children was 59.1% and 89.3% for non-Aboriginal children.

The respective numbers for other age groups were: Primary years 61.2% vs 91.5%. Middle years 54.7% vs 78.9%. Senior years 54.8% vs 75%. 

PHOTO: Yuendumu school 2021.

• Volume 30

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 advises, is the Kaytetye word foremu tail feathers.

Over thirty years, Myf has documented traditional knowledge culminating in the production of numerous research papers, a learners guide and a dictionary of the Kaytetye language.

While Professor Turpin of the University of Sydney specialises in ethnomusicology she has also produced various educational posters of plants and animals. This is one of the great cultural delights of living in Alice Springs, where I frequently find myself in the company of passionate desert specialists, from fire ecologists to researchers like Myf.

My colleague wanted photographs of desert crabs revealed to her by the inquisitive children of Artarre (Tara) for a forthcoming Kaytetye plant and animal book. Following heavy rains, watercourses were running and conditions seemed perfect.

I jumped at the chance to improve on my old photographs ofAustrothelphusa transversa, the inland freshwater crabs that persist for years in burrows emerging during rainfall and flooding events to breed and lay eggs.

We set out early from Alice Springs and reaching Aileron, conversation naturally turned to the occasional leafy clumps ofPsydrax latifolia, (native currant) or Ahakeye, a vibrant green shrub with bunches of pale star shaped flowers. Ahakeye, pronounced Argy, is a rainforest relict that shelters in the dun coloured mulga, mostly north of the frost line.

Crab at Taylor Creek.

More stunted individuals occur sporadically in the high range country around Alice Springs although there are also rich lowland colonies NNW of Watarrka, thriving in the protective embrace of mulga shrubland and somehow impervious to frost. Sharing the Kaytetye name, this bush food and caterpillar food plant is known by Arrernte people also, as Ahakeye.

I mentioned my frustrating search for the Argy hawkmoth caterpillar,Cephonodes kingii, one of only two species of this culturally important group that had eluded me over several decades.

In the ensuing conversation, one that could surely only take place in Centralia, Myf confirmed her own fruitless search for the same caterpillar, which has a perplexing Kaytetye name and remained to be taxonomically confirmed.

We laughed at the slightly absurd intersection of our interests and sometime later agreed to pause and check some magnificent Argy at the road side, something I have done many, many times before.

I know to look very closely for dung and the early instars and lo and behold, after perhaps 10 minutes I found several caterpillars measuring only a few millimetres in length. The conspicuous tail-spine confirmed that these were indeed hawkmoths, the elusive Argy caterpillar! Intending to grow up larva, pupa and moth, we placed caterpillars into a plastic drum with a supply of fresh Argy leaves and continued our journey in high spirits.

North east of Ti tree we passed through low stony plateaux dissected by picturesque Eucalypt lined creeks and featuring semi-permanent waterholes. Taylor Creek, was still flowing in places and wherever buffel grass was absent riparian plant life proliferated.

Immersed in the rolling chatter of budgerigars and strident cries of cockatiels we arrived at the small community of Artarre (Tara) situated in the watershed of the Davenport Ranges.

I was immediately distracted from the purpose of our visit by a young man wielding a whipper snipper against a dense tide of still green buffel grass growing amongst trees in a public area.

When I asked if he was working for the Community Council he shook his head and I gathered that the Shire was comprehensively “missing in action”: “Just doing it. I’m worried for snakes and the kids running through the grass”. I mentioned fire risk and the waist high buffel grass surrounding departmental housing? He agreed, “when it gets dry.”

Several hours later we were waist deep in water with a bunch of local kids, keen to direct our quest for (Ikarle) desert crabs. While I wasted time searching intently beneath overhanging banks for burrows and other clues the locals simply plunged into the waterhole. Within a few minutes of feeling the bottom with their feet and duck-diving on contact to catch the active crabs, we were ready to take photographs. Humbled by children, not for the first time or the last. The second highlight of a perfect day.

Given the huge agricultural interest in lowering water tables in nearby Singleton, I decided we’d better lodge a crab specimen, the first to my knowledge from this catchment, with the NT Museums collection.   

On the way back to town we stopped at several stands of Argy and found more caterpillars, retaining some larger larvae that had acquired their full livery of colours and pattern. Unlike the highly polymorphic Yeperenye caterpillars of Mparntwe, the larva of this hawkmoth appeared much less variable and more restrained in design.

Cephonodes kingii moth.

At home I sustained the Argy cuttings in containers of rainwater and the caterpillars thrived. A week later I drove up to Aileron and refreshed the supply of food plants. The caterpillars kept eating for almost two weeks whereupon all had disappeared into the thick layers of dried leaves on the bottom of the containers to pupate.

Several weeks later the first moth emerged and I was able to photograph this amazing diurnal flying insect with its distinctive transparent wing panels. Evidently these hawkmoths shed the pigmented scales covering their wings soon after taking to the air and it seems likely their transparency attribute makes the moth less visible to predators.

Photographs secured, I drove back up the road to place the remaining pupa beneath a layer of cool leaf litter across a number of sites. By now the Argy were flowering and I watched as my liberated moth evaded the dense matrix of treacherous spider webs stretched between mulgas. I imagine night flying moths would experience even greater difficulty avoiding these webs of the golden orb weaving spider.

The very last Centralian hawkmoth species I’d like to see has been recorded from the George Gill Range and Kata Tjuta, to the south west of Alice Springs. Here entomologists successfully collected the caterpillars, from within the foliage ofPtilotus obovatus, a small flowering mulla mulla and a popular garden plant in Alice Springs. This new species of hawkmoth was recently namedCoenotes arida.

AT TOP: Psydrax with hawkmoth larvae.ABOVE: Matywerle Donkey Creek.All photos © Mike Gillam.

• Volume 30

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 minister of the current Territory Government?

Bill Yan used to manage the Alice Springs prison, home to more than 600 of the town’s 25,000 people. He has walked to the Mount Everestbase camp three times. He is now one of two front bench Members from The Centre, representing the Namatjira electorate. He clearly likes a challenge.

And as Treasurer he unsurprisingly links policies to money. This is nowhere more relevant than in law and order, the CLP’s favourite subject.

“We do have to increase some of our frontline services, that being health, police, corrections.

“We have to invest in the courts. This happened in NSW some years ago,” he says in an interview with theAlice Springs News.

“For every dollar you invest in the police you then have to invest a dollar fifty in the justice system.”

Mr Yan says he hasn’t worked out what the ratio has been in the NT but an adjustment in the last 12 months has been ”too little, too late”.

“That hasn’t happened here for many years now. We’ve seen an increase in police but the investment in the justice system hasn’t been there. That’s the heavy lifting we have to do now,” he says.

Courts, legal aid, corrections, prosecutions: “That is a large cost.”

To pay for it he will be “looking for fat in other areas”.

The government is committed to not sacking any public servants but many will face shifts to other duties.

“We’ve made it very clear we’re not getting rid of any public servants. But we’ve got to make sure that we’re using the public sector in the most efficient ways.”

Mr Yan appears resolved to apply this to the dismal saga of the “national” Aboriginal art gallery which has shrunk to half its size while the $150m budget remains the same.

Mr Yan gives the impression he would not lose a great deal of sleep if the project, mishandled from the start, never went ahead.

The exhibition space would be reduced by only 100 square metres in the new gallery lite, he says.

“The initial gallery had cafes, restaurants, meeting rooms and all these other bits and pieces. That’s what private business is for, as part of the CBD. The art gallery is there to display art.”

Given the growing debt “I can’t in good faith go out and say I’ve got to borrow another $150m or $200m for the big, grand plans, the huge grounds, that were part of the original design.

“$150m. That’s it. I have made that quite clear to the department.”

He is also “frustrated” by the art gallery planned next to the Darwin Supreme Court.

“I don’t have anything against the arts at all, but we desperately need aged care beds, we desperately need mental health beds. I wonder where the priorities are.

“Personally, if it was me making the decisions, I would be looking at what we desperately need for the people of the Territory.

“Art galleries are nice to have, they are great, I like them, I’ve got nothing against the arts, but there are services we desperately need.

“We’ve got remote communities struggling with sub-par services and we’re blowing money on all this other stuff. It sometimes makes me wonder.”

Asked why the CLP, when in Opposition, had not found out that the cost for the gallery’s initial concept would be double the announced budget of $150m, as the party now claims, Mr Yan says: “We didn’t have those numbers.”

NEWS:Did not get them or could not get them?

YAN: We were never aware of the cost until we got into government.

NEWS: The plans were public. The Opposition could have obtained cost estimates from dozens of companies around Australia.

YAN:We could get estimates but not exactly what it might have been.

Mr Yan says the NT is seeking increased GST revenue from the government, currently about $4.5 billion of the the $8.2 billion 2023/24 Budget.

NEWS: Per head of population, does the NT get from Canberra five times as much as the rest of the nation?

YAN: Yes. We need to see more. We are trying to work up a deal.

He attributes that to the high cost of providing services to the Territory’s remote regions.

The Grants Commission announced today – after our interview with Mr Yan – that the Northern Territory’s recommended GST relativity will increase in 2024-25. It is estimated to receive $4,257 million in GST payments. Its share of the GST pool is estimated to increase from 4.7% to 4.8%.

The commission said in a statement: “New 2021 Census data showed the Northern Territory’s non-Indigenous population to be relatively more disadvantaged and its population more dispersed than in the 2016 Census.

“These changes increased the Northern Territory’s assessed GST needs, especially for health and housing.”

Minister Yan’s CLP and the Labor Party have at least one thing in common: their ferocious disagreements with environmentalists over fracking and gas production, mostly from the reportedly massive deposits in the Beetaloo Basin, some 900 km north of Alice Springs.

Mr Yan says these are assets underpinning the NT’s borrowings: “As far as our revenue goes, our ability to generate royalties, yes, Beetaloo would be right up there.

“Newmont, the gold mine in the Tanami, is really quite large. The revenue from those guys is very big. Nolans rare earth will be a big one.

“Mereenie gas [west of Alice Springs] has been going for 40 years.”

It is PowerWater’s source of fuel to generate electricity.

NEWS:Would you call the Arid Lands Environment Centre and its 400 memberseconomic vandals as your fellow MP Josh Burgoyne has?

YAN: What I would say is that they are using their funding for activism rather than action. These are my terms. Providing funding for organisations that actively work against the policy and direction of the government [is not something we’re going to do]. We’re taking about economic development.

NEWS: What would you like them to do and what would you not like them to do?

YAN: Doing stuff for the community and the environment. Everyone is talking about buffel. (That is a major ALEC focus – ED.) Assess different areas and come up with plans. All they seem to do, and that’s just me looking in, activism against whatever it is, doesn’t matter whether it is under the CLP Government or Labor.

NEWS: Such as?

YAN: Opposition to gas production in Beetaloo, under the previous government and ours. The water licence at Singleton station. Attacking for the sake of it. If we shut down Beetaloo tomorrow and every piece of gas production in the NT, and cripple what’s left of our economy, they still wouldn’t be happy. They’d still want more.

PHOTOS: The Newmont gold mine in the Tanami. Mining royalties are a key collateral for the NT’s massive borrowings.

UPDATE March 17

The Territory Coordinator legislation will herald a new way of developing the Territory,Leader of Government Business Steve Edgington said in a media statement today.

“The Territory Coordinator will give us a competitive edge against other states, who have not undertaken the level of reform we have.

“Other legislation to be introduced this week includes the removal of Labor’s costly Portable Long Service leave scheme which they rushed through prior to the last election.,” he said.

“Childcare centres told us this would cost them $50,000 extra a year, which would have been directly passed onto parents via increased fees.

“We will also remove Labor’s farcical $15 billion debt cap.

“If the debt cap was to remain in place, savings of around $1.8 billion, or $450 million per annum over four years, would need to be found across the Budget and forward estimates.

“This level of savings is something the CLP Government has no interest in because we know the only way out of our debt mess is by growing our economy.”

• Volume 30

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 Pine Gap, a critical part of US nuclear command and control operations, are multiple and profound. A transactional approach to Pine Gap, however well intentioned, is not appropriate.

Senator Lambie’s positive suggestion inadvertently implies that Australia would accept Alice Springs being a high priority nuclear target, if the price was right. That can never be acceptable.

While IPAN supports the call for Pine Gap to be closed, the reasons are different from Senator Lambie’s.

IPAN’s long standing position is that Pine Gap presents inherent risks to Australia and should be closed for a number of reasons:

• Alice Springs and its residents being a high priority nuclear target.
• US supplied Pine Gap-derived intelligence assists US and Western military operations in wars which also draws Australia into them.
• Pine Gap systems are critical enabling components of nuclear attack planning and operations.
• If the US war went to war with China, Pine Gap would draw Australia in – amplifying the risk of Pine Gap and the residents of Alice Springs being targeted.

Professor Richard Tanter

Independent and Peaceful Australia Network (IPAN)

• Volume 30

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 steamroll the Bill through Parliament next week.

“All activities on Aboriginal land must involve the owners of that land,” says Anindilyakwa Land Council chair Cherelle Wurrawilya.

“After all this is privately owned land. Any other private land owner would have the same expectations.”

The councils say the Territory Coordinator will hold unchecked, expansive powers to circumvent regulations and bypass Territory laws and government processes.

He or she “will be able to affect decisions and processes across 32 Scheduled Acts listed in the Bill, along with a host of regulations made under those Acts giving the coordinator unprecedented and sweeping powers.

“The addition of theHeritage Act 2011to the list ofScheduled Acts will make it subject to the powers of the unelected Coordinator, demonstrating that the NT Government is callously uninterested in the protection and preservation of our places of historical importance.

“Powers to enter private property including Aboriginal freehold land without a warrant are a breach of fundamental rights. It is also concerning that the Bill’s Scheduled Acts can be updated at any stage by regulation.

“While theNorthern Territory Sacred Sites Act 1989is currently not listed, it can be added at the Territory Coordinator’s request – greatly increasing the vulnerability of thousands of critically important cultural and sacred sites.”

Consultation on the Bill has been tokenistic at best, with almost no recommendations made by Land Councils taken on board “from our comprehensive submissions”.

PHOTO: While Uluru is within a national park, other“critically important cultural and sacred sites” are feared to be at risk from the Territory Coordinator Bill, land councils claim.Image Bwtribal.

• Volume 30

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, followed by Locky Weir in his new Prolite JIMCO number 165. This is Locky and Paddy’s first-time back racing since 2020 as their son, Jack, has been racing their older JIMCO Prolite number 155 since 2021.

Tim Weir finished prologue in third position in his Holeshot, Class 2 number 255. David Bird, Indiana Station, came fourth in his trophy truck. Jack Weir came nextfollowed by Dennis Debrenni, 547, in sixth place. 

On International Women’s Day it was great to see women out competing in a historically male dominated sport. On social media, 70% of the ASORRC followers are male, so it is brilliant to have women of all age groups coming out and participating.   

Chloe Wright drove with her dad, Darren, by her side on Saturday, coming in 8^th in Prologue. She continued to race on day one but during the night lap had some problems with the car. 

Darren jumped into the driver’s seat for day two, again having issues with the car. Jessica Foley and her Mum, Kylie, in 234(pictured) were 10^th in Prologue. Gerry and Tanya Coop spent the week trying to get their car ready for the race and despite not being entirely confident the car was ready, came out as they wanted to have some “drive time”.   

The Section One lap started at 5.30pm with Jack Weir coming in with a flat tyre.

Locky and Paddy Weir took outright first place in Section 1, starting the night lap in first place ahead of Shane Greening, Tim Weir and David Bird.

In Section 2, the night lap, David Bird blitzed the field with the fastest time. Shane Greening was in second place but had a big off with suspension failure and surfed over a berm, tipping his car. 

Luckily there were no injuries, and he was able to recover the car for racing Sunday morning. 

Sunday morning racing started right at 7am with Locky Weir, 165, starting out first. 

This section was 4x31km laps. The attrition in the cars was heavy: Locky Weir was out 20kms in with overheating issues when a hose came off the radiator. 

Shane Greening again had suspension issues, breaking down in the first lap too. 

David Bird had the biggest disappointment; his newly built 7L motor suffered serious issues, seeing him out of the race early in Section 3. 

New competitor, Wayne Driver in 242, missed a corner in heavy dust and hit a tree with his front left tyre. This broke the steering box mount. He was able to limp back into the pits but was unable to repair the car to finish.

Dennis Debrenni was thrilled with his car performance until lap three, when he lost all power due to wiring meltdown.

By the end of the racing day two only four cars finished of the eleven that started, but everyone agreed they had a great weekend of racing. 

The results were as follows: Tim Weir & Mark Nietschke in 255, Jack Weir & Liv Antonelli 155, all-female team, Jessica and Kylie Foley in car 284 and Darren and Chloe Wright in 1059.

• Volume 30

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 in 1,300 km from Port Augusta to Alice Springs.

But there is something we can all do. We can all can drive more slowly and carefully. Can this include truck and road train drivers who haul for freight company bosses?

I’ve recently driven more than 6,000 km in a loop from Mparntwe Alice Springs to the east coast and home again. My first holiday in eight years. I saw animals killed on roads in the NT, SA, Victoria and southern NSW. Unexpectedly, this became a topic of conversation with friends met as I travelled. They echoed the concerns, and a few are acting on them.

I’m an ecologist with strong feelings for animals both native and introduced. For the long solo drive, I’d set myself a few rules like be at my destination well before dusk, don’t drive at night, drive slowly, stay alert, keep the windscreen clean so I could see well etc.

These guides were for the well-being of myself and my two companion dogs. But it was also for the well-being of animals on the road. To my knowledge, I did not kill any mammals, reptiles or birds on the long journey. I winced and apologised when I hit grasshoppers or butterflies.

I passed many dead mammals: , a Southern Greater Glider and others. Many dead birds: Wedgetail eagles, kites, Sulphur crested cockatoos (12 dead in a few hundred metres on the Hume Highway), Magpies, Galahs, Port Lincoln Parrots, a Superb Lyrebird, others. Plus, an uncountable number of reptiles.

To see the dead Kangaroos reminded me of one of my own dogs who is similar in colour with a fine coat and long fair limbs. The dead Wombats really hurt me as the younger of my son’s had the nickname Wombat.

To see a Wombat upright, like it is having a squat by the road, but dead brought tears to my eyes. My older son has the nickname Poss or Possum. I would have shut my eyes if I hadn’t t needed them open to watch the white lines.

Driving solo I was lonely in my grief for these beings. I tried not to see the animals, but it was as if they were still leaping and bounding into my vision. I wanted not to see them, but I did. How do you cope with seeing dead animals?

East of Melbourne in the Mornington Peninsula area, I lamented to an erstwhile Alice Springs friend about the numbers of dead animals. They too were gravely concerned about the carnage.

So, they’re planning to do a Wildcare course that will qualify them to safely check animals on the road to assess death, injuries, look for pouch young and more. They’re also recording road kills to the app iNaturalist.

They spoke of a local residents’ group “Watch for Wildlife” who put their own funds and time into actions including making signs that ask drivers to respect wildlife. Their local council supports Watch for Wildlife putting out the signs that comply with road signage rules.

North-east on the Princes Highway, I looked over the body of a Superb lyrebird. Being from the NT and WA, I’d never seen a Lyrebird before. That the first one I saw was dead is heart-rending.

His body inert but undamaged. He will never call, mimic other creatures, display his magnificent plumage or have chicks again. An Alice friend, who’d also driven to the Sapphire Coast in southern NSW past similar roadside tragedies, had offered a prayer for each deceased animal she passed.

At Bermagui, I’d blithely mentioned to a past colleague from CSIRO Alice days that I’d seen hundreds of dead animals. “Hundreds?” she questioned. Then I wondered if I was exaggerating.

A Superb Lyrebird killed on the Princes Highway. A male in breeding plumage so more than seven years old.

Heading home, I left Mildura early as the day was to reach 40^oC.

In the Riverina, there was a poignant sight. Driving by a clear paddock, I saw a single Emu standing still and looking around. That struck me as unusual as Emu are family animals who move a lot.

A little further on was one adult Emu with two younger ones, teenagers. This threesome was also standing still and looking around. How odd. Then a little further on the Sturt Highway I saw what might explain the strange Emu behaviour.

There was one then another then another dead Emu, just killed. Three dead teenagers. Were the others looking for their kin?

Who are the drivers responsible for such deaths? If these animals were human, then the drivers would be known to authorities. In their district, one friend speculated whether truck drivers were the culprits, but they said they don’t know the actual mix of vehicles hitting animals.

In the Quorn district, another friend suggested that most of the dead Euros between Quorn and Port Augusta were probably killed by tradies commuting to and from jobs. On the highways, road train drivers who travel day and night are likely to be the more common slaughterers. There is logic but uncertainties too behind each of the suggestions.

The Stuart Highway stretch from Port Augusta to Glendambo reminded me of my father’s family images of the Belgian Flanders Fields from World War 1. One dead being after another.

So, I started counting kangaroos from Glendambo to Coober Pedy. That is a neat 250 km distance. Concentrating hard, I noted 263 dead kangaroos on the road. That is an underestimate as I did not count piles of bones or carcasses off the road indicated by carnivals of crows.

There was more than one dead kangaroo each 0.9 km. I saw only two living kangaroos from Port Augusta to Alice Springs.

So, I had underestimated the overall count to my friend in Bermagui, it was probably more than a thousand dead animals I’d seen along my journey.

One of many dead Red kangaroos recently killed on the Stuart Highway. The high number indicated that animals had come into roadsides to feed during widespread dry and hot conditions; it was 47^OC in Coober Pedy the previous day.

To my surprise, more than a third of the 268 kangaroos appeared to be recent deaths, of the last day or so. Why were there so many dead in this hot period? 

A peril of Australian roads in rangeland country is that the hard bitumen sheds water onto the road margin. This encourages the growth of scant green grass. The roadside grass draws animals in, who then become vulnerable to our attitudes and vehicle speeds.

In hot rainless periods, the feed and waterholes of native animals dispersed patchily across landscapes dries out.

“But there are plenty more roos” you might say. How do you know? By contrast, I worry we may be seeing the last animals in some stretches of country. For most species, there is no population study data. So how do we know what the impacts on populations are or their capacity to recover?

If you drive road trains or trucks or caravans or utes or cars or any other vehicle on open roads, please consider the following:

• Drive slowly enough to allow safe stopping to save animals.
• Be alert and prepared to avoid animals.
• If you’re a passenger, ask the driver to slow.
• Avoid driving at dawn and dusk.
• When you see animals, dip your high beam and LEDs so animals are not blinded and confused.
• Shift attitudes toward wildlife: please stop putting speed and profits ahead of the well-being of wildlife.
• Imagine if these animals were your family or friends.

I wrote this article as a volunteer. If you know of other information or relevant research please share them in comments.

ABOVE:A dead kangaroo ahead on a Stuart Highway rumble line alongside a caution drivers of phone use hazards. Presumably thousands of dollars are spent on such signage. Are the allocations equitable between people and animals?AT TOP:Stuart Highway. Kangaroo 219 of 263 dead animals in 250 kms.

• Volume 30

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 recruitment process.

In a media statement yesterday, which contained his title but not his name, Commissioner Murphy said: “I accept that I should have dealt better with a conflict of interest, a friendship and a referee report in relation to an appointee.

“On reflection, I  should have managed the friendship and the conflict of interest to a higher standard and on at least one occasion should have recused myself from the appointment process in order to ensure community confidence.”

NTPA President Nathan Finn says in a media statement: “In 2024, Commissioner Murphy chaired a promotional panel that appointed his friend to an Executive position with the NT Police Force – while also supplying the candidate with his personal resume and acting as a personal referee to the applicant.

“This blatant improper conduct raises serious ethical concerns and further erodes trust within the ranks of the NT Police Force.

“This is yet another example of the NT Police Force Executive failing to uphold the very standards they demand of others. It is a slap in the face to the hardworking men and women on the ground who put their lives on the line every day.

“We also have grave concerns over the potential complicity of other panel members in the Commissioner’s unacceptable conduct in not properly managing what is an obvious serious conflict of interest.

“To say that the applicant was awarded the position on merit in this case is not sustainable when such a clear conflict of interest existed and was not managed,” says Mr Finn.

Commissioner Murphy, formerly serving in Alice Springs, says in his statement: “I have accepted the two recommendations made by the ICAC and have commenced the process of implementing them.

“I am committed to developing a clear written policy position for police executive recruitments, and to developing an education and training program for all members that gives clear guidance for the identification, disclosure and management of conflicts of interest.”

PHOTO: Commissioner Murphy at the Garma Festival.

UPDATE 3pm March 9, 2025:

• Volume 30

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 Territory Government.

“This is a massive blunder that has gone on for years under the former government,” thundered Mr Burgoyne.

What was previously an “arduous application process” last year’s amendments permit enforcement orders to be made using “computer programs for decision making which will increase efficiency”.

It also clearly raises Robotax concerns.

According to the NT Governmentwebsite, if you do not pay your fine, any of the following can happen: You can receive more penalties and have to pay more money; you can have yourdriver’slicence or vehicle registration suspended; you can have your property seized or sold; the amount can be taken out of your salary or wages; you can be be ordered to do community work oryou can have your vehicle immobilised by wheel clamps.

“You must pay the whole amount,” says the website.

IMAGE: Suncoast Caravan Service.

• Volume 30

By DAVID HANCOCK from his new bookDecades 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, led by Chief Minister Shane Stone, said changes to the Sentencing Act and the Juvenile Justice Act was a way of “getting tough on crime”; the scheme misfired spectacularly in that it basically singled out Aboriginal youth, mainly boys and young men, clogged up the justice system and filled Territory jails to overflowing. There were international calls to dump the legislation because it broke Human Rights charters.

Under the legislation, adult offenders were to be imprisoned for 14 days for a first offence, 90 days for a second offence and a year for a third offence. Juvenile offenders (15 to 17 years old) were to be imprisoned for 28 days for a second offence.

According to policy lawyer, David Gibson, introduction of mandatory sentencing represented a situation where normal considerations which dictate the development of legal policy were over-ridden by political considerations.

“(It) ultimately produced a law that was not only unfair, but was likely to achieve the opposite effect to what was intended.” In some cases, teenagers were sent to prison for menial offences such as stealing a drink from a shop or taking a packet of biscuits.

Many NT judges opposed the legislation, saying it removed a magistrate’s ability to use their experience to make wise and just decisions; they claimed the laws were arbitrary and not proportionate to the crime and they were being forced by politicians to lock people up for minor offences.

The legal profession argued that young offenders who may well have been diverted into community programs and towards rehabilitation were being exposed to hardened criminals in jail and could ultimately become another statistic for Aboriginal deaths in custody.

While Aboriginal justice organisations and the Land Councils fought tooth and nail against the legislation, and First Nations people attended demonstrations in Darwin and Alice Springs, the CLP government was unapologetic in its support of mandatory sentencing; Chief Minister Shane Stone went a step further in following years to introduce American-style Zero Tolerance Policing on the streets of Darwin.

The legislation was amended after a Labor Government, led by Clare Martin, was elected in 2001.

PHOTOS: Top – Indigenous people demonstrate in Darwin against Mandatory Sentencing legislation. Above – Aboriginal people walk away from an anti-mandatory sentencing demonstration in Darwin. Photographer: David Hancock. Copyright: SkyScans.

• Volume 30

Opinion by historian ALEX NELSON

Thetransfer of Tourism Central Australia into the purpose-built premises of the Alice Springs Public Library is a done deal between the town council and NT Government, but (as Charlie Carterasks) there is as yet no indication of where the library will be temporarily housed and its final destination.

There has been some movement since the MOU was announced in November last year, as ownership of the long-vacated former premises of TCA facing Gregory Terrace has now been transferred from the government to the council; however, the only thing shared with this deal and the library is that the council has no firm plans for either of them.

I have a suggestion for where the public library may be relocated:Mwerre House(at top) in Hartley Street.

Longer term residents will recall this was the location for the old Department of Social Security and Centrelink.

It’s a spacious double-storey building with ample room for the library, I believe.

Mwerre House is also adjacent to Minerals House(at left), the former base for the old NT Department of Mines and Energy, now re-purposed as the local office for NT Archives (the photos were taken exactly seven years ago – March 4, 2018).

It makes sense to me to have the library’s invaluable Alice Collection relocated next door to NT Archives as these facilities would complement each other.

Mwerre House is easily accessible in the town centre, with car parking available at the front and rear of the building. A public bus stop is located only metres away from the main entry.

There are also several cafes and restaurants in close proximity, too – and, who knows, placing the library in that vicinity might help prompt reviving the nearby Overlander Steakhouse and heritage-listed Tunck’s Store, both languishing as vacant properties now for years.

Mwerre House is currently the office for social housing, a division of the NT Department of Housing, Local Government and Community Development, a portfolio held by Minister Steve Edgington – all of which seems particularly fortuitous if my suggestion for relocating the public library there has any legs to it.

The principal costs would involve the relocation of the current occupants to another suitable location (of which I’m sure there’s no shortage in town) and the re-purposing of Mwerre House to operate as a public library.

I’ve no idea how much that would be, but it’s a fair bet there would be some decent change left over from the $15m allocated to the town council for building a new library.

Given the parlous condition of the NT’s budget, any significant cost savings that can be gained while still achieving quality results for the mutual benefit of all parties must surely be a welcome opportunity to at least be given serious consideration

• Volume 30

LETTER TO THEALICE SPRINGS NEWS

Shooters in the NT recently received a letter from the police saying that as part of the Territory’s implementation of the National Firearms Register (NFR), shooters would be asked to complete a form requiring “basic information about the licence holder and details of any firearms owned, such as serial numbers and photographs”.

While it is good the NT is modernising its licensing processes it set off alarms about what might be on the cards as other States and Territories started bringing their registries in line with the NFR.

It’s well known that most police officers know barely anything about guns, so photographs of a licence holder’s individual firearms aren’t going to help police at all. They will compromise shooters’ privacy and safety completely unnecessarily.

Most modern bolt-action hunting rifles look more or less the same to the untrained eye, soif someone from the police wants to know what a Howa 1500 rifle(pictured) looks like, they can look it up on the internet.

As the shooting industry, we get told the NFR is supposed to be a way of getting all the state firearms registries to talk to each other effectively, but it’s clear that something with much further reach is planned, and it’s not going to benefit responsible firearms users.

This over-reach was exactly what the Shooters Union is afraid of, and the various firearms registries were so hopelessly inaccurate that it is unlikely to be possible to fix them.

There’s no information about who is overseeing these NFR harmonisation projects or what firearms knowledge they have. Even in the shooting industry there can be multiple ways of correctly recording the information for a particular firearm.

We have said for years that the solution is to do away with individual firearms registration, and stick to licensing the person, as New Zealand and Canada do. It’s much easier to keep track of, costs a lot less, and still ensures public safety by making sure only fit and proper people have access to guns.

Graham Park

President, Shooters Union

• Volume 30

By ERWIN CHLANDA

“It was common ground between the prosecution and the defence during the course of the bail application that XR was not the person in possession of the metal fridge handle which caused the injury to the infant, and was not the person who caused that injury.”

That was part of a four pagestatement issued today by Chief Justice Michael Grant about a 17-year-old he called XR.

The boy was on remand in relation to 10 sets of charges.

Justice Grant(at right) writes: “The most recent episode of alleged offending on 11 December 2024 involved the unlawful entry of residential premises in Alice Springs during which an infant suffered a fractured skull.”

This month XR was successful in obtaining bail to attend his grandfather’s funeral on February 19 at Lajamanu(pictured at top) during which he absconded but was soon apprehended.

The injuring of the child caused a national and international media storm, some reports falsely attributing the alleged crime to XR.

Some journalists’ interest in the story was clearly heightened by the fact that XR was taken to Lajamanu in a charter aircraft, at public expense, and accompanied by several officials.

“Some of the commentary and criticism misunderstands the considerations that the courts are required to take into account when determining whether to grant compassionate bail to youths on remand, the circumstances in which compassionate bail was granted in this case and the conditions to which the grant of bail was subject,” the Chief Justice writes.

“XR came from a disadvantaged background and has diagnoses of Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.”

The grandfather “had been the only significant father figure for the majority of XR’s life.

“The conditions of bail did not include any requirement for electronic monitoring [which] for a period of approximately six hours would not have been practicable.

“In any event XR was apprehended shortly after he absconded without the assistance of electronic monitoring.”

• Volume 30

By ERWIN CHLANDA

The town’s focus in 2025 will be on a fight for survival of the travel industry and the nearly 400 members of Tourism Central Australia will need to join forces.

That was the unanimous view of the 150 people who attended the organisation’s AGM yesterday evening.

The trade’s doyen, Brendan Heenan, who developed the town’s largest caravan park and for decades has played a major role in tourism promotion, told the meeting four of the past five years had been bad, leading to a 50% decline in earnings.

A principal reason was claims onsocial media about crime although there has been a recent improvement.

Mr Heenan called for significant support from the Federal Government.

However, the meeting was told not all is lost.

An online travel agency will soon announce a $250 discount on air fares.

The NT Government is providing visitors with a 25% support payment for accommodation, tours, transport and attractions.

And forward bookings sold by TCA for the three months from December to February have more than doubled, from $309,000 in 2023 and 2024 compared to $641,000 in 2024 and 2025.

TCA CEO Danial Rochford says this may be a useful window into the industry’s Year 2025.

Part of last night’s crowd.

Poor trading has led to the decline in the value of businesses which now can’t borrow to keep going, said Mr Heenan, suggesting that pubic support must be broad. 

“When the Federal Government gave $250m, to whom we don’t know, we did not see any programs to support children and their families to give them support and education that they needed.

“It has been very difficult to obtain information where the money has been spent and what outcomes were achieved.”

The crime rate dropped since the new NT government was elected last year, said Mr Heenan.

Alice Springs needs “moral and financial support from the Federal Government.

“We have lost four generations of Indigenous families.”

TCA members, speaking with theAlice Springs News before the meeting, whose start was delayed by a power outage for half an hour, commented harshly about the smearing of the town in social media.

Said Mr Heenan during his speech: “The Action for Alice Facebook page needs to do a 180 degree turn and start supporting the town and businesses with good stories.

“We don’t want to see more businesses close and people leaving Alice Springs.”

Workers asked to come to town “are saying no because of the perceived crime.

“If we don’t speak up now we will never be heard.”

Mr Heenan called for designating the town and region as rural and remote, creating accelerated depreciation tax incentives for businesses, and a shorter depreciation period, five to 10 years instead of 40 years.

An education hub should be created particular focussing on nursing, health, teaching, facilitated through the Charles Darwin University and with an Alice Springs campus.

It would enable Indigenous students to embark on tertiary studies without leaving their communities.

“I sent that [a letter with his suggestions] to the Prime Minister in May last year. I never got a reply,” said Mr Heenan.

Mayor Matt Paterson told the meeting the Town Council has been consulting about the CBD redevelopment, 50% of which has now been closed to public comment.

“Part of the project is a public art component,” said Mayor Paterson. There are three things in local government that are very difficult to handle, he said – tree species, car parking and public art.

“It is a very big piece of art, it is at stage one, what happens then is whoever is picked will go to stage two, but everything is on the table.

“I urge you all to put in a submission.

“The new visitor information centre is going into the library and we’re looking at the river, a big Alice Springs sign, and very Instagrammable … such as a light show, like Parrtjima in the Mall, those sorts of things, statues of prominent Indigenous people.

“Everything is on the table.

“Unlike Uncle Kon [Mayor Vatskalis] in Darwin I don’t want to have the Cyclone Tracy sort of scenario,” he said, referring to the controversy over a sculpture commissioned to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the cyclone.

PHOTO AT TOP: Proposed redevelopment of the mall. The existing Uniting Church is in the centre of the image.

• Volume 30

By ERWIN CHLANDA

Patrick Bedford, now the longest serving – five years – chairperson of Tourism Central Australia, will be calling for “new thinking” when he is addressing the Tourism Towards 2030 conference tomorrow.

He told theAlice Springs News that for too long the region has been portrayed in the media and online platforms as a war zone or a crime capital and keyboard warriors are telling the world not to visit our region.

Yet this summer has been the best in recent memory, and while there is still crime “what we do have is a window of opportunity”.

The town needs to go on the offensive “rather than being on the defence over the past five years”.

The upcoming Stories from the Heart campaign will amplify the positive and drown out the negative. 

Mr Bedford says the biggest voice we need to hear from is that from tourists themselves: “The best form of marketing is word of mouth.”

TCA will continue to press the NT and Federal governments to seal the Mereenie Loop Road.

“I know we have had some dark days,” Mr Bedford told theNews.

“We need to make Central Australia known not for what people have heard in recent years, but what is in all our hearts. Something truly special.” 

PHOTO: Mr Bedford in July 2020 in Todd Mall with tourism industry supporters calling for the sealing of the Mereenie Loop Road. Nearly five years later much of it is still a dirt track.

• Volume 30

By PADDY WEIR

The first event of the year for the Alice Springs Offroad Race Club (ASORRC) might have been a bit lighter on entries than the club had hoped – eight Offroad cars – yet the enthusiasm of the competitors, their crew and spectators more than made up. 

This was a test and tune event, not a race, giving competitors an opportunity to try out their cars and give friends or sponsors a ride.Fifteen signed up for passenger rides and the club had some fresh faces out there, both volunteering and having a go in the vehicles.

The course was 13km, with competitors driving at maximum 75% of their race speed. 

The Weir family had their new JIMCO Prolite, 165, which had some suspension issues. 

The Driver family’s car (242) broke down, also with suspension problems. 

The Wright family’s car (1059) has some ECU problems as it kept overheating. Given that it was another 40-degree day, it was not surprising to see some cars (and people) suffering in the heat.

Others had no issues and plenty of fun with the passenger rides, including Denis Debrenni in his black Falcon (547) who was able to give six people a chance to experience Offroad racing. Shane Greening, car 1008, may have had the youngest (and shortest) passenger!

Motorsport NT officials presented Club Event Secretary, Donna Wright, with a trophy for finalist for 2024 “NT Administrator of the Year”. 

Official Damien Smart was given finalist for “NT Official of the Year” and Jacob Booth finalist for “NT Driver of the Year”. Donna collected all trophies on their behalf. Thank you to Committee Secretary, Timothy Button, for nominating the club members.

Some new members were Dave Colman in the Porter buggy (70) which he purchased from the Booth family. Another, Kate Addison from WA, had a go with Tim Weir in car 255 and gave the experience a resounding thumbs up. The club now boasts at least 475 members in its 40-year history.

The next event, the Todd River Pastoral Co NT Titles Round 1 will be held Saturday and Sunday March 8 and 9. The ASORRC has canteen facilities, toilets and showers and spectators are welcome to camp the night. 

Thank you to Orange Creek Station. The ASORRC club is situated on this pastoral lease, 40km down the old south road. 

PHOTO: Greening and his young passenger.

• Volume 30

By ERWIN CHLANDA

Six young women became fully qualified primary school teachers while living and working in their outback communities.

They completed their four-year Bachelor of Education degree online in a teaching initiative of Curtin University and the WA Department of Education.

A similar program is offered in the NT, facilitated by Charles Darwin University and Batchelor Institute which are represented in Alice Springs.

The Teacher Registration Board of the Northern Territory registers teachers from other jurisdictions, including Western Australian. They must hold registration in the other jurisdiction and “be of good standing”.

The Curtin program was established for Indigenous staff working in classroom support roles in regional and remote areas, according to a media release.

Students were invited to attend on-campus workshops at the beginning of each trimester to be introduced to staff and new units of study.

They were allocated specialist support staff throughout their studies to assist with course enquiries and help refer students to a variety of university support services.

University staff also visited students to provide face-to-face academic support.

Project Lead Associate Professor Graeme Gower said the program addressed a major gap in the workforce: “Only two per cent of teachers in Australia are Indigenous — which drops to just 1.2 per cent in WA.”

Curtin is WA’s largest university, with close to 60,000 students.

In addition to the University’s main campus in Perth, Curtin also has a major regional campus in Kalgoorlie, and a campus in Midland, as well as five global campuses in Malaysia, Singapore, Dubai, Mauritius and Sri Lanka. 

Curtin is ranked in the top one per cent of universities worldwide.

PICTURED from left are Professor Harlene Hayne, Professor Rhonda Oliver, Associate Professor Graeme Gower, Ronita Bradshaw (One Arm Point / Ardyaloon), Tara-Anne Rangi (Geraldton), Brianna Taylor-Ellison and Samantha Little (both Derby), Leanne Eades (Katanning), Jacqueline Hunter (One Arm Point / Ardyaloon), Sophie Benson and Emeritus Professor Simon Forrest.GFP Events.

• Volume 30

By ERWIN CHLANDA

Alice Springs Airport had a run of five consecutive days of 40 °C or above this month, February 8 to 12, according to the Bureau of Metereology (BOM).

There was also a run of 15 days in the second half of January, from the 19th to February 2.

The most recent long runs of days of 40 °C or above were: Seven days in January 2022 (9th to 15th) and16 days in December 2019 (16th to 30th).

The longest run of days of 40 °C or above was 17 days in January 2013, (1st to 17th).

For those still attached to the “old Fahrenheit scale” of 100 °F (using 37.8 °C): There was a run of 26 consecutive days of 37.8 °C or above in January and February this year, from January 18 2025 to February 12.

The longest run of days of 100 °F or above was 27 days in 2012 and 2013, from December 22 to January 17.

PHOTO: In Alice the closest thing to the beach are the claypans, venue for concerts and memorial services.

• Volume 30

By ERWIN CHLANDA

Exorbitant prices for groceries in outback stores are often the subject of outrage but are rarely dealt with a great deal of logic. I gave it a shot 31 years ago.

Tracker Tilmouth(pictured) was applying his admirable activist’s skills to the very same problems that are doing the rounds at the moment.

He presented to a gaggle of journalists a list of overpriced groceries and amplified the drama with references to poverty, overcrowding, morbidity, homelessness, vulnerability, dispossession and so on.

I was producing a story for the Seven TV network and flew to Papunya to test Tracker’s assertions in the community-owned store.

I asked the store keeper, words to the effect, can I please get some footage of your overpriced merchandise?

“Be my guest,” was the surprising reply.

When I finished filming the storekeeper took me aside: “What you need to know is that our prices are set by the elders on the committee which controls the store.

“We own the building. We don’t pay rent. We could beat Woolworths in Alice Springs on prices. The freight is less than what we are saving on rent.

“The store profits are spent on second-hand cars from interstate for certain people.”

It sounded like a great story about craft and corruption out there in the sticks. Well, no.

There wasn’t any public transport in Papunya. (NowCentre Bush Bus runs twice a week.)

Aboriginal people almost always share their cars.

The store could be seen as part of a nifty savings scheme, or a commercial enterprise which is endlessly called for but rarely achieved. The taxpayer is doing his part by providing, via Centrelink, the cash spent by most of the store’s clients.

This raises the question: Why should the public purse kick in$50m over four years from 2025‑26 to provide remote stores with low‑cost access to about 30 food products?

And why should it “invest”$21.4m over the same period to improve diet‑based outcomes in remote communities?

We put related questions to the Central Land Council on February 10. We got no reply but theycopied us into a media handout about the latest government Closing The Gap initiative from chief executive Les Turner:“This is great news for our people.

“They have been crying out about unaffordable food and other essentials in their communities. For many years they have struggled with prices that are 40% higher than at the major supermarkets in town.

“We can’t beat the epidemic of diabetes, kidney disease and rheumatic fever that is shortening our lives if we can’t afford healthy food.”

This is the state of play: As of this week Outback Stores (OBS) are charging within a cent or two the same prices as Woolworth in Alice Springs, a survey by theAlice Springs News indicates.

This is a reduction of 30% to 50%, according to an OBS spokesperson, and is a lead up to a multi million dollar Federal program cranked up as the election looms.

Its 2021/22 annual reports says OBS was founded in 2006 to address “nutrition-related health problems, unreliable food supplies and poor management practices associated with retail community stores”. This may well be pointing to the rip-offs widely rumoured.

The Minister responsible for OBS in the 2023-24 reporting period is NT Senator Malarndirri McCarthy, Minister for Indigenous Australians.

An OBS spokeswoman says: “The stores we service are either considered managed or supported. Managed stores are generally commercially self-sufficient and generate a profit.

“Supported stores require financial support on an ongoing basis. Any store profits are retained by local store owners and are utilised by those owners for the benefit of the community.

“For non-profitable stores, Outback Stores supports the store with financial underpinning to ensure that food security is maintained.”

OBS started with two stores in 2006 and has since assisted 68 remote community stores. It has halted the closure of 17 stores, managed 13 of these stores out of administration, four out of liquidation and a further 16 stores through significant financial challenges.

In the 2023 fiscal year 23 of the stores received grants from OBS totalling $2.7m “to support working capital and essential infrastructure upgrades” including Imanpa ($348,011), Titjikala ($73,077), Nyirripi ($66,103) and Kiwirrkurra (12,183).

OBS orders merchandise, sells it, charges a management fee and remits any profit to the community which owns the store.The Commonwealth usually picks up any losses.

OBS helps with staffing, produces financial statements, does the books for each of the member stores, takes care ofcomplicated transport and logistics and provides retail training as far as Cert IV to interested staff.

The communities usually own the premises. No rent is being charged nor needs to be paid.

There are an estimated 12 non-OBS stores in Central Australia.

OBS in 2023/24 had a revenue of $27m and expenses of $24m, including $17m in employee benefits and expenses for its342 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff and 60 non-Indigenous store workers.

OBS has a sugar reduction strategy agreed to by 35 store boards resulting in 1.25 litre Coke bottles being replaced by one litre, and 375 ml cans replaced by 250 ml. The proportion of sugary drinks sold hasdropped from 76.5% to 49.1% since 2012.

But, three decades after Tracker’s protest, there is still no strategy by anyone for running, without public handouts, stores which have a captive clientele with a guaranteed income, own the real estate they operate from and for staff could draw on a vast pool of unemployed in the community.

PHOTO (courtesy OBS):Store workers in Balgo, WA.

• Volume 30

By ERWIN CHLANDA

“You can’t arrest your way out of these problems” is a widely recognised principle in dealing with crime. For example, Alice Springs Police Commander Craig Laidlermentioned it in 2020 in an interview with theAlice Springs News.

Four years later, with a new government doing a lot of chest beating about law and order, that concept has clearly been forgotten.

Police CommissionerMichael Murphy said on Tuesday, via a media release, that Operation Ludlow had delivered “significant results” between November 14, 2025 and February 3, 2025.

The only reason given by the Commander for his view was that Ludlow had resultedin 301 arrests.

He had nothing to say about any initiatives to prevent crime, especially youth crime, nor work with parents and NGOs.

When Chief Minister LiaFinocchiaro outlined her government’s focus areas to “further” reduce crime in 2025, cops were front and centre:Police retention bonus to keep experienced officers on the beat; remote police infrastructure; better police powers; drone operations; corrections master plan and a new women’s prison.

However, Ms Finocchiaro proposal for boot and work camps are showing some promise, along with “expansion of theCircuit Breaker program to protect children and intervene at the first signs of trouble”.

• Volume 30

COMMENT by FRANK BAARDA

Spearheaded by the re-elected president of the United States of America we are seeing a shadow spreading over our planet: The politics of revenge, also known as Fascism.

In Australia Trumpism is being emulated by the Opposition, including an ill-defined strategy headed by NT Senator Jacinta Price to reduce expenditure, in a likely successful campaign to become the next government.

Our timid acquiescent small target leadership is like the snowflake in hell when it comes to facing the barrage of mean-spirited, deceitful, politically opportunistic salvos emanating from the Dutton camp and the Murdoch press.

Trump appointed the planet’s richest man in charge of DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency. Sounds nice, just like motherhood and apple pies. 

Under the guise of DOGE, Elon Musk is in the process of emasculating Trump’s perceived enemies. Musk is a supporter of Alternative für Deutschland, AfD, a far-right populist political party in Germany, and we all know where that got our parents and grandparents.

As well as appointing Senator Price as the shadow Minister for Indigenous Australians, Peter Dutton has recently added the shadow portfolio of “government efficiency” to her brief. One of the first pronouncements she made is that should they win government, they will stop funding “Welcome to Country” ceremonies.             

“Senator calls for federal government action after Central Land Council chair’s criminal history revealed” reads the ABC News headline a few days ago.

I have little doubt that the CLCstatement of almost two years ago had something to do with prompting the Senator’s latest attack on the CLC. As reported in theAlice Springs News the land council took issue with Senator Price’s high profile role in the Referendum’s NO campaign. CLC chair Warren Williams was extensively quoted.

The CLC reacted to the Senator’s latest salvo with a media release of its own. The eloquent and effective response by Mr Williams(full text below) did not however make it into the ABC headline although it is summarised in the report’s text. The damage had been done.

As a long term resident of Yuendumu, it saddens me that the politics of revenge has once again manifested here. Senator Price’s parents met here, and Warren Williams (at left, photo published by the ABC with its report) is from here.

The statement from CLC chair Warren Williams as released by the land council’s media section:

I have made mistakes in my life, but I have worked hard to turn things around and set things right.

I regret things I did in the past and have worked hard to make up for them. For the past decade, I’ve been on a better path, helping others and working to prevent domestic violence in our communities.

As Senator Price has revealed this week, everyone deserves a second chance. I’m using mine to make the world a better place for our families. I would like to be given the same opportunity that Senator Price has sought this week.

I draw on my life experience when I talk to men in behaviour change workshops. The workshops bring together senior community leaders and the police with a range of community support programs.

Men need to see that change is possible. I teach them that their mistakes don’t have to define them. If I can change, they can too. I talk to them about leaving old attitudes behind and creating a new life for themselves, one that’s filled with respect and love for others.

I tell my story honestly in these workshops because truth-telling is powerful.It helps set you free and can save lives by showing others a different path.

My teachings come from my lived experience. I have faced the consequences of my actions and am now looking at a better future, not only for me but for everyone around me.

Last December, at theStop the Silence! End the Violence! rally in Alice Springs, I shared my story so the men there could benefit from hearing from my experience.

It’s important for men to see they can turn their lives around. I am in a good position now with my family. As chair of the Central Land Council, I am discussing the need for preventative education and programs with our members.

Last May our council backed a proposal for breaking the cycle of violence.

If we want to stop male violence, we have to speak the truth. If you don’t bring out the truth, nothing is going to change.

Men need to know that they can take a different path, and I’m living proof that change is possible. For 10 years, I’ve been on a better path, showing that it can be done. I am here to help others do the same.

It’s not easy, but it can be done. No one can do it for you. You have to take the initiative and choose to turn your life around.

For me, like for Senator Price, giving up alcohol helped make me the person I wanted to be.

My mistakes are now teaching others that they can choose a better life, too.

PHOTO from theStop the Silence! End the Violence! rally in Alice Springs in December, showingCentralian Middle School students, members of the Clontarf Foundation.Image: Central Land Council.

• Volume 30

By ERWIN CHLANDA

The NT Government has removed the minimum floor price (MUP) for alcohol which has been in force since 2018, requiring a charge of no less than $1.30 per standard drink.

Australian Medical Association(NT) president Robert Parker describes the decision as “a backward step in reducing alcohol-related harm”.

NT Hospitality Minister Marie-Clare Boothby says the measure didn’t work and thatalcohol-related assaults in the NT increased by 38% “under eight years of Labor”. 

Dr Parker, speaking with theAlice Springs News, said experiences in Scotland and investigation by the Menzies School of Health Research “appear to show” the value of the MPU.

NEWS: Who gets the profits of the higher prices?

Dr PARKER: The alcohol industry.

NEWS: Are online purchases taken into account in the assessment of MPU?

Dr PARKER: I don’t know. It’s a good point.

He suggested theAlice Springs News should seek comment from Dr John Boffa, a long-time campaigner for a floor price. We have left a message for him and will report comments he provides.

Minister Boothby says in a media statement:“We are committed to supporting a strong hospitality sector while ensuring alcohol policy is responsible, targeted and evidence-based.

“The floor price has has simply driven people to switch to stronger spirits in glass bottles, which can then be used as weapons.”

• Volume 30

By ERWIN CHLANDA

“We will not spend another dollar on activists and economic vandals and their disruptive agendas.”

This is how Joshua Burgoyne(pictured), NT Minister for Lands, Planning and Environment, announced that his government has axed its $100,000 annual grant for the Arid Lands Environment Centre (ALEC), Central Australia’s peak environmental organisation for over 40 years and with 400 members.

Yet Mr Burgoyne apparently doesn’t hesitate to spend time with the “vandals”: He is said to have a plot in the town’s community garden, one of ALEC’s many projects.

He says in a media statement the money will be directed away from “lawfare” and towards initiatives with “a focus on action, not activism”.

“We campaign, advocate and support local people to take action for the protection of arid lands and people,” states ALEC’s website.

“We are a strong and trusted voice for Australia’s iconic desert country. We stand up and speak out for the protection of land and water, animals and plants, special places and the communities that depend on them.

“We work with partners across vast landscapes to deliver solutions to the ecological challenges we face. We understand the importance of knowledge, science, research, education and engaging the community on the issues that matter.”

It is understood the loss is 20% of the group’s budget. The Environment Centre NT (ECNT) in the Top End is also losing $100,000.

UPDATE 3.30pm

ALEC policy officer Alex Vaughan says in a media release:“This is a deeply disappointing decision, but one which is in keeping with the disturbing, partisan and ruthless politics which is growing in 2025 across the NT, country and the world.

“We will continue to thrive, and today’s decision makes our organisation’s role more important than ever, confronting key threats from gas fracking in the Beetaloo and one of Australia’s largest groundwater licences at Singleton Station to buffel grass invasion, fires and climate change.

“This is another demonstration of a government that punches down.

“ALEC and ECNT have lost our funding today because we are effective and trusted. We are a threat to the CLP’s dangerous agenda to remove scrutiny, cut accountability, turbocharge gas extraction and pander to the orders and directives of big business.

“If you are angry, despondent or sad about today’s announcement, support us financially through ALEC’sSummer Appeal, become an ALEC member or volunteer with us. Collective action to care for and conserve the arid lands is how we respond to the ongoing crises the arid lands face.”

• Volume 30

By MARK SMITH

Can Jacinta Price deliver a more efficient Australia?

Peter Dutton thinks she can. As he surges ahead in the unreliable opinion polls Mr Dutton has hit the podcast circuit to flag that Trump is already having an international impact in his first few weeks in office.

His decision to mirror the Elon Musk appointment to make government less inefficient by allocating a new portfolio to the increasingly emboldened Senator for the Northern Territory, living in Alice Springs, suggests a Dutton Coalition Government would be a Trump sheriff. But to what extent?

As moderate Liberal heavy weights bow out, Simon Birmingham, Marise Payne, Dutton’s cabinet may be increasingly conservative.

It wasn’t all that long ago that we had a popular Prime Minister from Queensland. He is now an unpopular Ambassador in Washington.

Genuinely streamlining government processes and simplifying unnecessary bureaucracy layers would be welcome. But how can this be done?

What can Senator Priceactually do?

Can departments be merged or abolished?

What services should be managed by the public service and what should be outsourced to contractors? 

What role can AI play? How can this be done to ensure data sovereignty and security?

Can the states do more or less in some areas?

Can money actually be saved and directed towards services and infrastructure or paying down debt?

But wait. Isn’t that the job of the Treasurer or Treasury or the Finance Minister or the Expenditure Review Committee of the Cabinet with support from the Assistant Treasurer, Financial Services Minister and other junior ministers and all of their private office staff?

In recessions and financial crises Prime Minister’s often set up razor gangs to ruthlessly cut government spending and waste. Short lived moments of discipline akin to New Year’s resolutions, only to disappear into the ether as election day comes closer.

Leading economist Saul Eslake headed the audit commission for incoming reforming Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett in 1992-93.

The former ANZ and Bank of America, Merrill Lynch Chief Economist told me in an exclusive chat a Musk style approach could be disastrous for Australia.

“I’m personally appalled at the way in which Musk is going about what he’s doing – it is so vengeful, ideological and arbitrary. And it may end up being tied up in litigation for years. I would hate to see a high net worth individual, being given the same role in Australia.”

In terms of Senator Price’s potential task, Mr Eslake suggests the options for Federal Government efficiency are narrow.

“With the exception of defence, the Australian Federal Government is essentially a cash collection and distribution machine. Wages and salaries of its 275,000 or so employees account for only about 6½% of total federal payments,” says Mr Eslake.

“Slashing 36,000 public service positions as per Mr Dutton’s repeated comments would not amount to a hill of beans in terms of reducing federal spending or restoring the budget to surplus – and that’s without considering that at least some of those positions would likely be replaced by ‘consultants’ who cost more as we saw when that happened under the Coalition between 2013 and 2022.

“Most of what the Federal government does is hand out cash – to the states and territories, which is by quite a large margin the biggest single expenditure item in the Federal budget, to individuals and families through aged pensions and other benefits such as Medicare rebates and PBS subsidies, to community and other organisations that provide services, and to the aged and disabled; and to businesses through subsidies and tax breaks. So swingeing cuts in Federal spending will always be particularly difficult.”

Mr Eslake suggests AI may have a role to play:“I suspect there is scope for AI to be used to streamline various forms of service delivery – just as other developments in IT have enabled, for instance MyGov and Single Touch Payroll for tax administration, but they need to be implemented carefully and with appropriate safeguards.”

Mark Smith is former SA Government policy adviser.

• Volume 30

All Territory Aboriginal persons facing criminal charges since August last year received high quality legal representation unless they chose not to use the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency, or it hada conflict of interest.

CEO Anthony Beven wasresponding to allegations made anonymously to theAlice Springs Newsthat “there is more chaos at NAAJA”.

He says it continues to perform “exceptionally” despite record numbers of Aboriginal people taken into custody.

“This representation was provided in courts in the major centres and in all bush circuit courts around the NT.

“NAAJA in 2024 also represented the interests of Aboriginal people in a number of high profile coronial inquests in the Northern Territory and in civil proceedings affecting the legal rights of Aboriginal people.

“Prisoner support programs continue to support the record number of prisoners in the NT to transition out of correctional institutions.”

Mr Beven says NAAJA in November 2024 completed substantial restructure of its governance, elected a new chairperson and passed a new constitution.

“NAAJA in 2023/24 also delivered another unqualified audit and all of its reporting and acquittals to its funding bodies and regulatory agencies are up to date.”

Meanwhile theGovernment will introduce a Billto support corrections officers and ease workforce pressures, allowing the appointment ofspecial corrections and parole officers, including external workforce and interstate personnel.

“Custodial staff are working around 168,000 hours each year escorting prisoners, including for court appearances, prison transfers, and hospital bedsits – equating to around $11m annually in overtime costs,” saysMinister for Corrections Gerard Maley.

“Since the August election there has been increase of more than 500 prisoners.

“This initiative will not replace the ongoing corrections recruitment program.”

UPDATE 4pm: The Police Association welcomes the latest Federal funding commitment to the NT. Of the total $842m over six years, $206m has been allocated to remote policing. NTPA president Nathan Finn says he is looking forward to seeing a breakdown in more detail.

UPDATE 8.30am February 10, 2025:

The latest Report on Government Services shows that total net operating and capital costs for Australian prisons have soared to $6.8 billion per year, up 30% from 2019-20.

On average, 43,001 people per day were held in Australian prisons during 2023-24. More than one-third (34.5%) of people imprisoned by state and territory Governments are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. This proportion is significantly higher in the Northern Territory (88.3%), Western Australia (43.9%) and Queensland (38.5%).

Justice Reform Initiative Executive Director Dr Mindy Sotiri said the latest data highlighted the critical need for policymakers to steer away from punitive law-and-order policies that funnelled more people into prison.

Justice Reform Initiative Executive Director Dr Mindy Sotiri says: “Jailing is failing all Australians. Our over-reliance on prisons costs taxpayers an exorbitant amount.

“The ROGS data shows the majority of people who go to prison return to prison with a new sentence within two years of their release. Evidence-based solutions to reducing crime exist outside of prisons and outside of the justice system.

“We can’t build safer communities by building prison beds. We need to look at what works to address the drivers of contact with the justice system.”

“We need to properly resource and expand proven support services in the community including First Nations led responses, and across all points of the justice system, to break cycles of justice system involvement.”

In the Northern Territory, the total adult prison population has increased by 28% over the last five years (the largest jurisdictional increase in prison population in Australia)

Dr Sotiri said the direction taken by newly elected governments in Queensland and the Northern Territory was likely to further increase the number of people in prison and drive the costs of incarceration higher for Australian taxpayers without addressing the root causes of crime.

“Tough-on-crime rhetoric and policy simply drive more people through a revolving door in and out of the criminal justice system,” she said.