Alice Springs Town Council votes to terminate memorandum of understanding with Tangentyere Council Aboriginal Corporation

A Red Centre council has put a memorandum of understanding with a corporation under the microscope. Read the decision they came to.

Alice Springs Town Council chambers. Picture: Alex Treacy

A 24-year-old memorandum of understanding between a town council and the Aboriginal corporation which oversees 16 town camps in the Red Centre has been scrapped.

At the July 25 ordinary council meeting, the Alice Springs Town Council voted to terminate the current MOU the council has with the Tangentyere Council Aboriginal Corporation. in order to establish a “more contemporary” agreement to both organisation’s needs.

The council was divided on the effectiveness of the MOU, with councillor Eli Melky pushing to terminate the “dated” document in order to stimulate further discussions about how town camps can be administered.

“It’s a shame that it’s got to here but I think bottom line is, if the last resort is to terminate this memorandum of understanding I think we could do that,” he said.

“I think this memorandum of understanding is definitely non compliant and is pretty much dead in the water.

“We bring them to the table or we’re done — I think we’ve tried everything.”

Councillors Gavin Morris and Michael Liddle were on the same side as Mr Melky, with Mr Morris stating to Mayor Matt Paterson the MOU is “about as useful as the King’s picture behind you.”

“This is our opportunity – from a strength-based perspective – to go enough is enough,” Cr Morris said.

Councillor Kim Hopper was on the other side of the debate, and wanted to go back to Tangentyere to discuss options on renewing or “reinvigorating” the agreement.

“I would probably be more of the approach that we share what has come to light with the council, share with Tangentyere that we’ve done a review of the MOU; that the elected members are still committed to the original objectives of the relationship and we’d like to have a discussions about reinvigorating it,” she said.

“That’s one more step I would like to take before we then say we’ve tried everything.”

Deputy mayor Allison Bitar agreed with Ms Hopper’s position, as did Mayor Paterson, who asked what kind of message scrapping the MOU would send.

“I appreciate that they haven’t been an easy organisation to work with over the past few years,” Mayor Paterson said.

“What message does it send to those thousands of people in a town camp if we rip it up?

“Because I would say, if I lived in there ‘town council don’t wanna work with us, town council don’t care about town camp residents’.”

Mayor Paterson pushed for a collaborative approach between organisations, and did not support Cr Melky’s decision to bypass Tangentyere to talk to the leaders of town camps instead.

At one point in the debate, in a bizarre tangent, Mr Liddle asked everyone to “look out the window” to “see what was happening there”, attributing people on the council lawns to alcohol related issues in town camps.

When Mayor Paterson pushed back against the point, Mr Liddle said that “we should go outside and ask them.”

“Councillor, it’s school holidays … people are allowed to sit on our lawns, it’s not illegal,” Mayor Patterson said.

This wasn’t a position Mr Liddle agreed with, stating the people were there “because of the alcohol coming from the Rock Bar”.

“I’m elected by the community to speak my word – that’s what I’ll do,” Mr Liddle said.

Mayor Patterson ended his debate with Mr Liddle by declaring he would and could to go the Rock Bar at any time he’d like.

Council voted four to three in favour of terminating the current MOU with Tangentyere; with a caveat that council will seek to establish a new MOU with the corporation.

The memorandum between council and the corporation was signed in November 2000.

The council’s chief executive’s report on the MOU showed council and Tangentyere had sporadic meetings throughout much of the time under the agreement.

That last meeting between the two was in 2020, Mayor Paterson told the council during debate.