Erwin Chlanda, Alice Springs News

Les Turner, CLC CEO. The twice-rejected Western Davenport water allocation plan unmasks the Northern Territory government’s disregard for Aboriginal rights and sites and lacks social licence ... Alekarenge community leader Graham Beasley  says: “That’s our country. We should be involved. What’s going to happen to our sacred trees?”

Key details about the proposed $12m Yipirinya  boarding facility  remain unclear while the Federal Opposition has further assured its support for the project in a meeting with the school’s board of Aboriginal elders. Shadow Minister for Indigenous Australians, Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, and Shadow Minister for Education, Senator Sarah Henderson, said the school is “like a family” when they visited the campus.

If the Northern Territory wants to  achieve a 50% renewable energy target by 2030  and  net zero emissions by 2050,  as it says it does, it seems we will need to make a choice between two types of mineral extraction: Good Mining and Bad Mining. “Good Mines” would get out of the ground the dozen-plus materials needed to make batteries and solar panels, known as  critical minerals, needed for clean energy technologies, including copper, nickel, manganese, cobalt, chromium, molybdenum and zinc.

NT Mining Minister Nicole Manison was addressing more than 300 industry people attending the  Annual Geoscience Exploration Seminar (AGES) in Alice Springs ... She said the NT has 15 of the critical minerals the world needs, “and we have lots of copper as well, and 13 prospective critical minerals” ... Minister Manison said the government will change the royalty system to  ad valorem, including petroleum.

The Voice is not on the agenda of two of the three local governments in the Central Australian bush, and it is understood that this is also the case with the MacDonnell Regional Council ... Adrian Dixon, President of the Central Desert Regional Council, said the Voice had not been spoken about in the council and there had been no consultation about the Voice ... And  Barkly Mayor Jeffrey McLaughlin says:  “We don’t need a Voice, we want an Ear first.”

Dave Oakes. What’s the difference between Rap and Hip Hop? An unlikely place to find this out was the Yipirinya School yesterday afternoon, scene of a Heavy Metal concert for the young ... The youth concert organised by the town council was a focus on the possibilities in life as opposed to anti social behaviour.

Declaring  buffel grass  a weed, as it is in South Australia, will be considered by a  technical working group assessing the impacts of, and approaches to, the introduced plant that is causing extensive damage to native flora and providing fuel for massive bushfires ... We have asked when, and how much money the government has set aside for the campaign against what is widely already recognised as a weed, even if not declared.

Rod Moss. Good rains recharged  Lhere Mparntwe (Todd River) drawing crowds to its banks for the infrequent spectacle. When its rushing subsided waterholes became an unparalleled recreational attraction. In full rage it is perilous as friends, Johnathan Rodd and Rowley Hill, would discover, drowning near Wigleys Gorge.

The frequent claim by police that it cannot act on street kids unless they are committing a crime does not seem to hold water for the person in the street when they look at Territory legislation ... These issues have been broadly discussed in Alice Springs for years, including in an ongoing campaign by Tourism Central Australia (TCA), representing the region’s economic lifeblood. “If a child is on the street at 2am or even later, they should come under the care of the Government,” says TCA’s CEO, Danial Rochford.

While the Centre is facing what experts say is likely to be the biggest bushfire season in recorded history, the question is not what the NT Government is doing about it, but what it is not. The first blaze is already under way, in the Ormiston Gorge area of the West MacDonnells.