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key indigenous australian issues
| home | news lA troubled town in Oz called Alice Springs9 May 2006 - Independent Online (South Africa) - Sydney - Most visitors come away from the archetypal Australian Outback town of Alice Springs with no memories of what happens after dark. Alice, the mid-point in the 3 000km train or road journey from Adelaide to Darwin, has an unofficial curfew on account of the wild goings-on in the Northern Territory town's Aboriginal camps. Around 2 000 Aborigines live in makeshift accommodation in the town, most of them without jobs, living on welfare and cut off from their traditional culture. It's not just the tourists that fear sundown. Slash the number of licensed premises Northern Territory minister Peter
Toyne admits there are places in Alice Springs that are too dangerous
to visit. He believes rampant alcoholism is "It's time for a radical rethink about the camps," Toyne said. "We have simply got to do whatever needs to be done." He wants to slash the number of licensed premises and enforce bylaws that make drinking alcohol outdoors and offence. "This is not a time to be picking and choosing between the more comfortable options and leaving the more radical interventions alone because they are just too hard for some reason," he said. Alice Springs mayor Fran Kilgariff is receptive to the idea of restricting the sale of alcohol in one of Australia's heaviest-drinking towns. "We're prepared to look at anything," she said. "We're prepared to put anything on the table in order to do something about this issue." Canberra is becoming involved. Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough says the first priority is to restore order in camps that have become lawless. "The rule of law doesn't just mean a whole heap of police," Brough said. "It means ensuring that people are safe. Wherever there are children being in some cases raped, certainly children being sexually abused, physically abused, where alcoholism and drug abuse ensures kids don't go to school and that their fundamental rights aren't being upheld, then that's unacceptable." Meanwhile, tourists visiting a town of 50 000 people follow what it says in the guidebooks and on hotel notice board: Avoid walking alone at night. Get a taxi back, if you are out late. Source: Independent Online, South Africa
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its one year on from the Australian Governments controversial intervention into NT Indigenous communities
action Roll back, listen to Indigenous community voices speaking about the intervention |
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