Govt to take over Aboriginal town camps

CANBERRA - The federal Government has won its battle to take over the impoverished Aboriginal town camps on the outskirts of Alice Springs.

In a last-minute backdown, the Tangentyre Council administering the camps avoided compulsory acquisition by agreeing to a 40-year lease agreement that will open the door to a A$138 million ($174 million) programme to boost housing and services.

Two other camps administered by another indigenous organisation are negotiating for a similar deal.

The Tangentyre Council had held out for more than a year against the Government's insistence that spending must be tied to a lease agreement, supported by activists and human rights groups opposed to the deal and the wider federal intervention in the Northern Territory.

Even as the Tangentyre decision was announced by Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin, an advertisement in the Australian attacked Canberra's insistence on holding leases on the camps. The advertisement was signed by unions, aboriginal groups, student bodies and high-profile Australians including politicians and Olympic swimming star Ian Thorpe.

Thorpe had told an audience in London that the "gross neglect" of Aborigines was Australia's "dirty little secret", and that the NT intervention tried to punish Aborigines and take over their lives, rather than work with them. Yesterday's advertisement urged Canberra to "stop the blackmail", and said the provision of infrastructure and services should not depend on the surrender of fundamental rights.

But Macklin said the agreement was a significant win for the camps, the council, and federal and NT governments.

"Currently, living conditions in the town camps are appalling," she said.

"Acute overcrowding and sub-standard housing, combined with alcohol abuse, despair and hopelessness means the most basic human right - the right to a safe and healthy life - is denied to many residents."

The agreement meant the Government could start work on cleaning up the camps, make urgent repairs to houses and infrastructure, and provide demountable housing within a month for people at present sleeping rough. Major works, including new houses, would start within eight weeks.

The Lhere Artepe organisation representing the remaining Trucking Yards and Golders town camps are negotiating a Government takeover.