The reporting about Mparntwe/Alice Springs has been harmful, devoid of context, and lacking basic fact-checking.
But the hateful news stories and political footballing of Alice Springs issues began long before the Prime Minister’s four-hour-long visit.
During his brief visit, Albanese was surrounded by politicians – only one of whom comes from Alice Springs.
Did the Prime Minister truly take the time to listen to our community?
After his own brief visit to Alice Springs, Peter Dutton claimed that cases of child sexual abuse were disclosed to him. The Northern Territory has mandatory reporting laws in place for matters of child protection and domestic, family, and sexual violence.
Has Mr Dutton made a mandatory report so that the families and communities in question can receive the support they need?
Or has he simply banked these stories for political gain?
Tangentyere Women's Family Safety Group members Helen, Kitana, Connie and Barb with the organisation's bus. Source: Supplied / Dr Chay Brown
Is Mr Burgoyne truly representing our community when he offers these views?
Some elected representatives have made harmful comments about domestic, family, and sexual violence in the media, including victim-blaming and using the murders of Aboriginal women and children to further their own political agendas.
Can’t we expect a certain level of respect and sensitivity from our elected representatives? Or at the very least, not perpetuating harmful stereotypes?
The elephant in the room
The current media reporting would suggest that the crime in Alice Springs has only been 6 months in the making, with this ‘wave’ occurring since the lapse of the Strong Futures legislation in July 2022.
The reality is that Alice Springs’ problems began with the forced removal of Aboriginal people from their lands. They are the result of government policies of genocide, assimilation, neglect, and then, intervention.
What is driving all of this current attention and faux concern is the elephant in the room - racism.
A prescribed area sign detailing the ban on alcohol appears at The Bagot Community in Darwin in 2011. Source: AAP
Right now, references to alcohol restrictions are only in relation to Aboriginal people’s drinking, despite the evidence showing that non-Indigenous people drink disproportionately high rates of alcohol in the Territory.
The legislation, to be reinstated, is only aimed at Aboriginal people, to prohibit drinking in Town Camps and in remote communities.
However, we must be clear, in spite of legislation, drinking persists, often in riskier locations and drinking of more accessible yet more harmful substances.
Criminalising addiction whilst simultaneously chronically under-funding and under-resourcing support services causes further harm.
Social media adding fuel to the fire
There is no doubt that a lot of the vitriol and heat in the debate is being driven by social media. Particular pages in Alice Springs share recordings of crime, violence, property damage and anti-social behaviour by Aboriginal people.
The unmoderated and unrestrained racism and threats of harm on these pages are driving a wedge in our town and causing real trauma and damage.
It is these pages that drove so much of the hateful campaign that led to the current harmful attention and reporting about Alice Springs. Rather than contextualise and highlight the problematic nature of these pages, the media has emboldened and platformed racists.
The realities of an underfunded Central Australia
In all of this, there has been no recognition that many people in Central Australia live in overcrowded houses and many are homeless - 12 times the national average. Some people live without electricity, without running water, many still live without access to phone network coverage, without access to internet, sealed roads, goods, services…the list goes on.
Where are the supposedly ‘national’ organisations that are tasked with addressing and preventing domestic, family, and sexual violence in Australia? Their silence is telling.
Shirleen and Chay alongside other members of Tangentyere Women's Family Safety Group at March for Justice in Alice Springs. Source: Supplied / Dr Chay Brown
These organisations are the first to capitalise on our suffering to campaign for more funding for their urban and east-coast-based large organisations– but where are they when we need resourcing, funding, and support?
There are services like Kunga Stopping Violence Program and the Central Australian Aboriginal Family Legal Unit whose work is so pivotal to addressing and preventing violence. There is NPY Women’s Council, the Women’s Safety Services of Central Australia and the Tangentyere Women’s Family Safety Group. All need support.
Then there are places like the community centres on Town Camps that provide people with access to free washing machines, computers and internet so children can do their homework, and hot meals each day. They connect people with services so they can get the help they need.
But most of these centres only have enough funds to open two days a week and have a weekly budget of less than $200 to feed anywhere in the range of 20-70 people.
There are only two men’s behaviour change programs in the Northern Territory, they’re chronically underfunded and at crisis point.
Our women’s shelters are at capacity. Our primary prevention is subject to one-off stop-start funding and early intervention doesn’t exist.
'The easy option'
Regional Controller Dorelle Anderson’s report on the path forward for Alice Springs had two key recommendations: reinstate alcohol restrictions until place-based alcohol management plans can be developed, and implement needs-based funding.
The government has elected to implement only one of these.
The reality is that this is another externally imposed intervention. Governments want this to be about alcohol.
It’s the easy option.
To legislate, restrict, ban, and police – rather than do the hard and necessary work to prevent and address violence.
But starting that work is as easy as listening to community members who are the experts.
Our services in Alice Springs deserve and need support. Their stories are the ones that need to be told.
Yet, we have tokenism and people offering their opinions on our lives from the comfort of their homes thousands of kilometres away.
Tangentyere Women's Family Safety Group sign out the front of the town camp. Source: Supplied / Dr Chay Brown
But that Australia, is not everyone’s Australia.
The voices of the community in Alice Springs need to be heard, platformed and listened to.
Alice Springs needs needs-based funding now, and respect always.
Written by Chay Brown, Kayla Glynn-Braun, Shirleen Campbell, Connie Shaw, Mandy Taylor.
Chay Brown was born and raised in Mparntwe, she has been researching violence against women since 2012 and works closely with Aboriginal women’s groups in the NT to prevent family violence. She has researched tech-facilitated abuse and has previously worked in safe houses and for an anti-trafficking organisation.
Kayla Glynn-Braun is proud First Nations Wiradjuri woman from NSW. She’s lived in the Territory for over 12-years and has had over a decade of experience in the community and housing sector. She’s worked in front-line services that respond to domestic, family and sexual violence.
Shirleen Campbell is a Walpiri, Anmatyere, Luritja and Arrernte family and domestic violence activist from Mparntwe. She is the coordinator of the Tangentyere Women’s Family Safety Group and a member of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advisory Council supporting the development of a National Plan to end family, domestic and sexual violence in Australia. She was also the NT Local Hero in 2020.
Connie Shaw was born and bred in Alice Springs, she lives at Mt Nancy Town Camp. She is a member of Tangentyere Women’s Family Safety Group, which she began attending at only 16. Connie is a member of the NT Youth Round Table and is a member of the NT’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advisory Group on domestic, family and sexual violence.
Mandy Taylor is a strategic engagement and communications professional across the political and non-government and private sectors. Formerly a journalist with ABC Radio, she is now the Director of Strategic Engagement and Communications with SNAICC.
