Australian federal authorities to take over Aboriginal camp
Updated
A notorious Aboriginal town camp outside Alice Springs, in central Australia, is about to undergo a massive change. The Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin has moved to have the camp brought under Federal control. In a historic deal Tangentyere Council voted unanimously for the Federal Government to take control of its housing and essential services for 40 years.
Presenter:Alice Brennan
Speaker: Mal Brough, former indigenous affairs minister; Jenny Macklin, Indigenous Affairs Minister
ALICE BRENNAN: Widely labelled as "ghettos of despair" The town camps around Alice Springs have been more than a mere thorn in the side of local, territory and federal governments.
In 2006 Mal Brough vowed to clean them up.
MAL BROUGH: Wherever there is children being in some cases raped, certainly children being sexually abused, physically abused, where alcoholism and drug abuse ensure that kids don't go to school and that their fundamental rights aren't being upheld, then that's unacceptable.
ALICE BRENNAN: They were initially set up as shanty towns where Aboriginal people could stay at night because they were banned from entering the CBD, but now the people living in them contend with filth and constant threats to their safety.
This week a woman was allegedly murdered in the Charles Creek Camp and three weeks ago, as she tells ABC's Lateline, Frances Connolly was mauled by a pack of out of control dogs.
FRANCES CONNOLLY (translated): I was feeling lots and lots of pain when they were biting me. It hurt a lot. I was really scared and crying and trying to yell to get them away and to get help.
ALICE BRENNAN: Now Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin has joined the cries of welfare groups and the campers themselves that things must change.
JENNY MACKLIN: Well the first thing we will do is get in there and start upgrading the houses and upgrading the infrastructure with the $5.3-million that we've offered. There's no question that we need some urgent action.
Of course we'll also sit down and negotiate the detail of these leases.
ALICE BRENNAN: The lease deal is similar to the one Mal Brough made two years ago, but this time round the Government has offered $50-million for a 40-year lease, not $60-million for 99 years. And $5.3-million will be immediately injected into the council as a transitional payment.
The deal also means town campers will eventually be able to buy the land if they want to.
JENNY MACKLIN: Of course if people have the capacity to take a loan and want to buy their own home, one of the other opportunities that the Northern Territory Housing Authority has is that people can have a shared equity arrangement.
ALICE BRENNAN: And Jenny Macklin says the alcoholism that's fuelled violence in the camps will be tightly controlled.
JENNY MACKLIN: We not only need to stop the flow of alcohol into the town camps, rehabilitate people. We need to get people trained and capable and into the workforce.
ALICE BRENNAN: Ms Macklin says if the 40-year lease deal and new cooperative relationship works, she'll use it as a national model.
