Alice Springs mayor Matt Paterson calls out ‘failing’ services as more kids risk ending up in care

Alice Springs mayor Matt Paterson has called for ‘failing’ service providers to be put ‘on notice’ before more children end up ‘at the bottom of the cliff’.

Alice Springs service providers that “aren’t delivering on what they’re getting funded to do” should be put “on notice” before more kids end up in care, the town’s mayor has declared.

Speaking exclusively to this publication on Friday, Matt Paterson called for a “broad conversation” to include “putting on notice the service providers that we have in Alice Springs that aren’t reaching their KPIs”.

“Territory Families for me are the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff, we don’t want children to go into the care of Territory Families, we fund service providers to intervene before they get to the government’s care,” he said.

“So why do we have so many service providers getting funded by the government, and why do we still have so many children on the street, so which service providers aren’t delivering on what they’re getting funded to do?”

Mr Paterson also called on the NT government to reimpose Intervention-era alcohol bans “as soon as they possibly can”.

“Seven days in the political world might not seem like a long time, but without any action here, seven days is a long time for us to continue to face what we’re going through,” he said.

But Mr Paterson said he was disappointed the issue of anti-social behaviour had been “shoved to the side” while the focus remained solely on alcohol policy.

“We’ve got two problems, alcohol’s one of them and the anti-social behaviour is the other one,” he said.

“And while we keep talking about alcohol, I feel like the anti-social behaviour hasn’t quite been addressed, and that is also addressing why we’ve got so many kids on the street that don’t have a safe place to go.”

The mayor also backed a request from Chief Minister Natasha Fyles to Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker for more boots on the ground, urging him to act “straight away”.

“We’ve seen the positive effect that Operation Drina had late last year, and that was 40 extra police, there was a perception of safety within the community,” he said.

“So while there’s this level of anxiety in the community I think the first thing that the government can do is, again, put police on the ground and address why we’ve got so many kids on the street.”

Originally published as Alice Springs mayor Matt Paterson calls out ‘failing’ services as more kids risk ending up in care