Mayor, Scrymgour says Alice Springs curfew could blowout, and puts funding in the spotlight

Alice Springs Mayor has joined a federal Territory politician to signal the town curfew could last longer than a fortnight, while calling for more funding scrutiny.

Alice Springs Mayor Matt Paterson and Lingiari MP Marion Scrymgour have flagged the town’s youth curfew could last longer than two weeks and called for greater oversight of government and non-government organisations receiving taxpayer money targeted to improve the lives of Aboriginal people.

And NT government organisations would also be in the frame.

Mr Paterson said the mood in the Central Australian town was that the curfew was “welcome but not celebrated”, with residents disappointed it had come to this point.

“After the events of Tuesday people were pretty anxious and frustrated - we asked for a circuit breaker and that’s what we’ve got,” he said.

Alice Springs Mayor Matt Paterson. Picture: Supplied

While often critical of the Territory Labor government, Mr Paterson said the Chief Minister was showing “good leadership” through the tough measures, and flagged his support for an extension to the CBD lockdown if necessary.

“I’ve just spoken to Eva Lawler and we will reassess the curfew after 14 days to see if it’s working,” he said.

“I don’t want to go back to what we had, what we had it not acceptable.”

The Mayor repeated his council’s calls for an audit of funding for social service providers.

“We keep funding but clearly they’re not delivering,” he said.

“If the construction sector was delivering half-built houses, the money would not keep pouring in.”

Federal Labor member Ms Scrymgour echoed similar sentiments in an interview on ABC’s Radio National on Thursday morning.

She said her discussions with Indigenous Affairs Minister Linda Burney centred around the accountability, performance and governance of organisations including Tangentyere Council, which has oversight of Alice Springs town camps.

Lingiari MP Marion Scrymgour in Alice Springs. Picture: Liam Mendes / The Australian

“It’s time that we need to start looking at performance governance accountability of a lot of organisations that are getting a lot of money and it’s not just Tangentyere,” she said.

“There are a lot of organisations in Alice Springs that are being funded to do some of this.

“What are the outcomes here? Why are we still seeing a lot of issues? There’s been a lot of money that Linda (Burney) has signed off for child protection and Territory Families? Why aren’t we getting the results we should be getting?

“No one can say that they don’t have money or the resources aren’t there because the resources are there and I think we have to start looking (at) capacity in government agencies or non-government organisations, but there’s got to be a closer look at this because we can’t keep throwing money at this and we don’t get the results we should be getting.”

Ms Scrymgour ruled out an audit, favouring “tweaking” some of the rules applied to government and non-government agencies.

Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

“I think an audit just stalls things but I think there can be a tweaking of regulation whether it’s the Australian National Audit Office that has the capacity now to look at some of these organisations and they can do the necessary work without having everything stop.”

Asked whether the curfew might extend beyond two weeks, Ms Scrymgour replied: “absolutely”.

“If it looks like things are settling down and it’s not infiltrating out in the suburbs under stealth and out of the eye of the police do we broaden this and does it go longer than (two) weeks I think with the extra capacity into Alice Springs there’s no reason why that shouldn’t continue.”

Ms Scrymgour described instances of violence in Alice Springs as “horrific” and said she would be seeking a collaborative approach from all politicians with a stake in the town including Independent MLA Robyn Lambley.

“As a federal member, I’m going to try and call on CLP members and Labor for us all to try to work together because it’s not just Alice it’s right throughout the Northern Territory. We’re seeing this issue in Katherine, Tennant (Creek), Darwin is having this unrest.”

Originally published as Mayor, Scrymgour says Alice Springs curfew could blowout, and puts funding in the spotlight