Erwin Chlanda, Alice Springs News

Kumanjayi White, who died in custody in Alice Springs this week, had his own house in Yuendumu but in recent times his family and the community had found it impossible to make satisfactory arrangements for his care. Ned Jampjinpa Hargraves, a respected elder who in a statement on Thursday called White “my jaja” (grandson), said this in an exclusive interview with the Alice Springs News.

Local police intelligence personnel track known regional grievances, according to a spokesman, replying to questions from the Alice Springs News whether initiatives are in place to prevent criminal payback after alleged events such as last Thursday’s in Gregory Terrace ... “As part of preparedness and prevention, Alice Springs police [act] to ensure possible flare ups are managed, for example [by considering] court appearances or community source information."

Wati Mai brings starving people food, feeds homeless people, gives them magic water. Spider Girl Kungka helps kids stay safe. Comes out at night. Throws webs. Scares kids to go home and makes them go to sleep ready for school ... "The ultimate power of the Superheroes is the voice of the children who created them."

A prominent Aboriginal spokesman gave an account of a chaotic and meaningless process deciding how Prime Minister Albanese’s $250m Alice Springs “rescue package” is being spent. The money, allocated two years ago, was “drastically needed” according to Graeme Smith, at the time the CEO of the local native title organisation Lhere Artepe.

Labor’s Marion Scrymgour extended her margin in all but one of the seven Alice Springs booths during the landslide Federal election on Saturday. The sitting Member for the massive seat of Lingiari, more or less all of the Territory except Darwin and Palmerston, in the town council polling place got almost 10 per cent more votes than three years ago, and achieved a 7.96 per cent margin in Gillen.

Transparency is a very one-sided proposition for the Central Land Council (CLC): It wants the news media to publish its positions but it won't give answers to questions the media put to them. That's certainly the experience of the Alice Springs News with this secretive organisation which, like other Aboriginal land councils and land trusts, are not subject to freedom of information requests.

The Central Desert Regional Council has sent “to the legal team” questions from the Alice Springs News about car expenses for its President, Adrian Dixon ... What has been the cost to the council of the provision of cars to President Dixon since March 2022? ... What was the President doing in Mt Isa in November last year? ...

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 … Who would want to be a minister of the current Territory Government?

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.

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.