Camps Of Alice Agree To $70m Upgrade
The Age
Friday May 11, 2007
THE makeshift and poverty-stricken town camps of Alice Springs will be upgraded into suburbs after residents agreed to a 99-year lease of their land in exchange for $70 million in upgrade money from Canberra.
The residents of the 18 camps had previously rejected the Government's offer, but now all have agreed to it after Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough dropped his demand for them to give up their lease over the land. Under his revised offer, the residents can keep a head lease over the camps, but will have to sublease the residential parts to the Northern Territory Government for 99 years.Under the deal, the camps, which are beset by overcrowding, poverty, alcohol and violence, will be made into permanent suburbs of Alice Springs. The money will help improve services such as water and rubbish collection and upgrade housing. Two temporary accommodation centres will also be built for visitors, many of whom sleep on the banks of the Todd River. The Tangentyere Council - made up of the presidents of all the town camp housing associations - has written to Mr Brough to accept the deal. The council had "after much consideration and discussion, passed a unanimous resolution" to support the deal, executive director William Tilmouth wrote. "Tangentyere Council will actively work in good faith towards the signing of final sublease agreements with each housing association," he said. "These agreements will be signed on the basis that the $70 million of housing and infrastructure upgrades are completed across all Alice Springs Town Camps within five years, or an otherwise previously agreed length of time."When he made his revised offer, Mr Brough had given a deadline of one month before the money was spent elsewhere.
© 2007 The Age
