Indigenous Negotiation Needed In Alice Springs

Labor calls on the Howard Government to sit down and negotiate with Indigenous people in Alice Springs over the delivery of much-needed services and improved housing.

The Government is holding Indigenous people to ransom by giving them only one month to decide whether they will sign 99-year leases.

Funding for housing, schools and basic municipal services is conditional on this unreasonable deadline.

All Australians, Indigenous or non-Indigenous, should have access to basic services without coercion.

A number of communities are currently considering 99-year town lease proposals from the Federal Government.

It's possible to find a compromise that benefits both local Indigenous people and government.

The NT Government and Tangentyere Council had already been negotiating an alternative sub-leasing proposal before the Federal Government issued this ultimatum.

Labor believes that any changes to land ownership must have the free, prior and informed agreement of land owners and perpetual lease holders.

We'd get a better outcome if we just sat down and negotiated with Indigenous people.

2007-04-19