Closing health gap needs more than booze, crime control
Dr Simon Quilty. Today, National Close the Gap Day, while there is a lot of focus on alcohol, crime and violence in communities such as Alice Springs, it is the long-term, underlying issues that are the real problem here. We are definitely experiencing difficulty in attracting, retaining and housing health professionals right across the NT, addressing this issue in isolation of the greater social disparity only makes the problem worse.
Hand-wringing main response to buffel inferno
Lindsay "Linz" Johanssen. Buffel grass (Cenchrus Ciliaris) is not just invasive. Environment-wise, it is utterly transformative ... Buffel thrives on being burned. Vigorous new growth follows subsequent showers of rain, so recreating (and episodically contributing-to), a new fuel load ... Buffel’s burn / rapid-growth rebuild / ready to burn again fire cycle will, over time, simply kill or destroy everything that is not protected or cannot evacuate ...
Crime control authorities: Answers, please
When it comes to dealing with social and crime problems in Alice Springs, what are the legal obligations of government departments and publicly funded NGOs? How well are they following their mission statements? How much taxpayers’ money do they get and how are they spending it?
Not prepared for savage bushfire threat
A savage bushfire season is imminent after huge La Niña rains, but "arrangements for the mitigation, management and suppression of bushfires" are inadequate. "There is a loss of fire management knowledge, networks and depth of experience which underpin the success of fire programs," says the NT Government’s Alice Springs Regional Bushfire Management Plan 2022/23.
Aboriginal jobs: Time for action, not talk, says Cr Marli Banks
More than a third of the Alice Springs population, some 10,000 people, identify as Indigenous but less than 5% of the Town Council workforce of about 300 is Aboriginal, according to Cr Marli Banks. This makes a mockery of commitments such as the council’s Reflect Reconciliation Action Plan.
The Gap: More than a pretty picture
“The Queen got pulled up in The Gap. The Olympic torch got pulled up. I was there.” ... For eons people wishing to enter Arrernte land north of the ranges, through the magnificent landmark, had to have consent from the locals. It’s a requirement the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Board clearly failed to observe ...
Four staff, special facility, for one kid on the street a fortnight
The location of the facility in Alice Springs for children at risk, which between its opening on November 27 last year and January 10 has been used by just five youngsters, is a secret. So is its cost.
Country is the classroom
Rod Moss. Bernadine Johnson, Ricky Ryder, Aureole Perkins, Therese Johnson and Arthur Webb are wandering in search of the purple-flowered plant awele awele, the bush tomato. Looking for bush tucker was a weekend pursuit. How gratifying to see these activities continuing apace in the formal structure provided by Children’s Ground/ Ampe-kenhe Ahelh.
From fly and flop to outback adventure: Tourism on the move
The fabric of our tourism needs to be like a patchwork quilt, with many patterns, “a big fabric which defines itself” in the world of competition ... And the national news reporting of the latest crime wave in The Alice is unlikely to make much of a difference, says Brendan McKenna, COO for Australia and New Zealand of the JUCY Group, a camper car hire business from across the ditch that’s been in Australia for 12 years.
Kids trouble: The government has to fix it, says Mayor
"There are enough organisations that are funded to make sure that kids are safe. Unfortunately there is a hole in the delivery, kids are falling through the cracks. We have so many service providers in Alice Springs. There is no level of accountability. There are service providers that are not getting audited to deliver what they are getting funded to do": Alice Springs Mayor, Matt Paterson.
