Federal budget breakdown of $250m Alice Springs crime, safety package

Despite almost two-fifths of a $250m Alice Springs package missing in the federal budget, the Indigenous Australians Minister says the commitment is solid.

The $250m lifeline promised for Alice Springs has been described as an “iron-clad commitment”, despite almost two-fifths of the money sitting unallocated.

Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney said her department was “taking the time to get the details right” on how the money would roll out.

Tuesday’s budget revealed the pledge made by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in early February would be drip fed to the embattled town over the next five years or more.

Only $155.7m of the pool has so far been allocated to various areas including education, infrastructure and health, with some money only set to flow during the next five years.

It leaves about $94m sitting in a “contingency reserve”.

Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney said her government would be ‘taking the time’ to work out how to best spend the remaining $94m in Alice Springs. Picture: Martin Ollman/Getty Images

But Ms Burney said her government would “do things differently”.

“We said we would listen to the community and work in partnership with locals and that’s exactly what we are doing,” she said.

“We’re not going to have a top down model — that assumes that Canberra knows best.

“We want to invest in local solutions, and we’re taking the time to get the details right.”

Ms Burney said her department would “have more to say” about how the remaining $94m would be spent.

“Importantly, we are taking the time to listen to and consult with the local community about how best that funding can be invested,” she said.

CLP Opposition Leader Lia Finocchiaro said the rollout showed both governments had “walked away” from Alice Springs.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said some of the package would support services due to have their funding run out after June 30. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

“Federal Labor and Territory Labor landed in Alice Springs to manage the media instead of delivering community safety for people crying out for help,” she said.

“They were promised $250m and it was sold to them that it would be immediate and provide urgent relief.

“To know months and months later not a single dollar has been spent … shows that both federal and Territory Labor have completely walked away from Alice Springs.”

On Wednesday, Chief Minister Natasha Fyles said she understood that remaining money would be “worked through with the community”.

“Dorelle Anderson has been working, not only in the township of Alice Springs, but Central Australian remote communities, and listening around what is needed to do with those dollars,” she said.

“We’ll continue to work with Canberra to make sure that we see that investment as quickly as possible targeted to where it’s needed.”

In a snap visit to Darwin last week, Mr Albanese said some of the money would go to existing domestic violence services and programs that were due to run out of funding on June 30.

When questioned about how the announcement would make a difference to the Red Centre’s crime and social issues, Ms Fyles said it would involve a “continuation” of programs that were keeping young people engaged.

Dorelle Anderson was made the Central Australian Regional Controller in January, tasked with co-ordinating federal and Territory funding in Alice Springs.

“There is benefit having the position that Dorelle’s in, that’s funded by both the commonwealth and Territory government, because it is cutting through and getting both governments to understand changes that might be coming,” she said.

Ms Fyles said an additional $48m in federal funding, also announced in January to boost community safety in Alice Springs, had been rolled out.

That money will put an extra 30 police officers, 21 police auxiliary liquor inspectors and 10 security guards in Alice Springs.

It is understood those extra police, PALIs and security are yet to be recruited.

The package will also pay for new CCTV and lighting across the town and includes $5.6m for emergency accommodation and $2m over two years for domestic violence services.

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Originally published as Federal budget breakdown of $250m Alice Springs crime, safety package