Erwin Chlanda, Alice Springs News

Promotors of the Voice like to emphasise its benign nature: “We just want to be listened to. We have no veto rights.” A more robust approach has emerged at last week’s writers festival in Alice Springs ... Mr Mayo made it clear that the Voice not only expected to be heard, but that advice given would be carried out by the Parliament and the Executive.

Franca Fredriksen. The sins against the environment by people chucking away clothes are just hitting the headlines while Sustainable Couture has been providing an answer since 2009. The annual function in Alice Springs, except for Covid, staged by volunteers, not only has displayed stunning dress creations, it has also struck a blow for the world: The average Australian buys 27 kilos of clothes per year and a third of them finish up on the landfill.

The Voice will respect the tradition prohibiting people speaking for other people’s country, according to Thomas Mayo, one of the leading figures in the Yes campaign for the referendum this year. He and fellow campaigner Kerry O’Brien, a former prominent ABC journalist, appeared on the weekend in two well attended sessions at the NT Writers Festival in Alice Springs where they launched their Voice to Parliament Handbook ... Mr Mayo spoke with Alice Springs News editor, Erwin Chlanda.

North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency CEO Priscilla Atkins, who says she is currently on leave, discloses she was “excluded from the beginning” from an investigation by KPMG, a world-wide professional services firm which produced a scathing report about the law firm, the Territory’s biggest.

There are three things we need to solve the juvenile crime problem: It’s not $250m, not more cops, not more talk. It’s families, families and more families – functioning ones. The film Audrey Napanangka playing in Alice Springs this week is about a woman in her seventies who demonstrates this, and doesn’t take no for an answer.

Two friends, one white, one black. Two film makers, one white, one black. A couple more than 30 years together, one white, one black. Signs of hope for Alice Springs at a time when there isn’t much. The film maker is Penny McDonald and her co-producer is Audrey Napanangka, who also gives the new movie her name.

The Alice Springs Turf Club is hosting Chinese satellite navigation equipment with potential military use and apparently without the knowledge of the Federal Government. This is alleged by a source, formerly linked to the company that supplied it, speaking with the Alice Springs News on the condition of not being named.

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.