Indigenous Affairs Minister Linda Burney has been accused of skirting responsibility over the Alice Springs crisis after claiming more financial investment was the “only” solution before blaming the Howard Intervention.
A three-day curfew was triggered for Alice Springs when a group of off duty officers were going back to their accommodation on Barrett Drive just after 2am when they were allegedly set upon by a group of 20 males, some of whom were youths.
Ms Burney, who failed to comment on the issue upon repeated request from SkyNews.com.au on Monday, only addressed the snap curfew on Tuesday in an ABC Radio interview.
Among the minister’s several comments on the curfew, her call to keep “politics out of this” particularly drew the ire of Indigenous advocate Warren Mundine who accused Mr Burney of being “ideological”.
“I think the important thing to say is that we need to keep the politics out of this. The issues in Alice Springs have been a long time in the making,” Ms Burney said.
But Mr Mundine claimed the government was intent on infusing ideology, through the Voice and treaty proposals, into the debate rather than focusing on improving economic development and education.
“We’d all love to have politics stay out of it,” he told SkyNews.com.au.
“We also would love to have people who just have a driven ideological approach to these things also stay out of it as well.”
Mr Mundine’s point was echoed by Liberal Senator Kerrynne Liddle who urged the Indigenous Affairs Minister to “actually focus on the issues that are facing her right now”.
Ms Liddle called on Ms Burney to focus on issues plaguing many Indigenous Australians in lower socio-economic areas over those mentioned in the Uluru Statement from the Heart.
“She needs to stop talking about things like treaty (and) about truth telling while places like Alice Springs, while places like Ceduna and other places … are dealing with really serious day to day issues,” she told SkyNews.com.au.
“They’re not talking treaty (and) truth telling. They’re talking about dealing with the very issues they deal with on a day-to-day basis. That’s what this minister should be focused on.”
Ms Burney also claimed on Tuesday the issues in Alice Springs will “only be addressed” by a long-term funding commitment and pointed to the government’s four-year $250m pledge to bolster safety in central Australia.
“The issues in Alice Springs will only be addressed over a long-term funding commitment which we’ve made from the Federal Government,” she said.
Pressed on if this investment will have substantive impact, Mr Mundine said he was hopeful but did not feel it was likely.
“I pray to God that it does, but I have my serious doubts about it,” he said.
“When we toss lots of money out there what we end up with is a huge bureaucracy, (the) disempowerment of people on the ground and nothing changes.
“The issue isn’t money, the issue is, is it measured, does it have outcomes?”
“And I’m sick of tired of hearing about money, just get the job done.”
The massive investments into the region needed a microscope put on them, Ms Liddle argued, as she remained concerned about how effective government funds going to these disadvantaged areas were.
“There needs to be greater transparency,” the Liberal Senator said.
“When she holds the purse strings, she makes the decisions about who’s funding what. She’s accountable. She is the Minister.”
The Indigenous Affairs Minister also attacked the 2007 Howard Intervention, arguing it took “all agency” away from people and had a knock-on effect on younger generations in Alice Springs.
While Ms Burney blamed the intervention, which ended in 2012, Ms Liddle claimed the focus should be on fostering childrens’ upbringings to bolster the community rather than the legislation.
“I’d like the minister and others to stop talking about intervention, treaty and truth telling and start talking about parental responsibility, getting kids into school, actually start making decisions to spend your money on food for children and activities for children rather than other things,” she said.
Claims of former prime minister John Howard’s legislation having a lingering impact on modern youth was reviled by Mr Mundine who criticised Ms Burney’s pointing of the finger at the Intervention after calling for politics to stay out of the issue.
“We had problems before that – talk about getting politics out she’s putting politics back in,” he said.
“This is not the Howard government’s fault, this has been going on in the 1990s, the 1980s, the 1970s and it’s been going on ever since.
“Instead of coming out and pointing at stupid things, why don’t we hear exactly how that ($250m) is going to be spent?”
The implementation of the curfew itself has been dismissed as a band-aid approach which does not entrench a long-term solution for the embattled town.
Catherine Liddle, the CEO of the Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care, called for the curfews to go entirely and claimed they should not be “part of the policing tool kit”.
“These sorts of punitive approaches are not sustainable solutions for community or child safety,” she said in a statement to SkyNews.com.au.
“The April Alice Springs curfew was a circuit breaker, not a solution. It was enacted in response to escalating issues involving young people, who were not safe and were being exposed to concerning levels of violence.”
The political row comes after several police officers were hospitalised in Alice Springs when they were surrounded by a group of youths.
“One female was pulled to the ground and had her bag stolen, another female was punched in the face and kicked multiple times and had her mobile phone taken while the male was also punched and kicked multiple times,” a police statement said.
NT Police Minister Brent Potter said it had been a “horror 72 hours” in the troubled town, after another officer was run over outside a bottle shop two nights earlier and an alleged stabbing occurred near the main centre in addition to the “predatory” attack.
The curfew began on Monday night and will run until Thursday between the hours 10pm and 6am each day.