Details on Alice Springs $250m federal budget funding welcomed

Details on how the $250m Alice Springs ‘lifeline’ will be spent have been welcomed as a ‘good first step’ for the region. Read where it will have the biggest impact.

Details of how the federal government’s $250m Alice Springs lifeline funding will be spent have been welcomed as a “good first step” for the community.

In the federal budget handed down on Tuesday, $155.7m of the government’s long-awaited $250m Better, Safer Future for Central Australia package was allocated to various areas including health and infrastructure over the next five years.

Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney said her department would “have more to say” about the remaining $94m currently sitting in a “contingency reserve”.

Alice Springs mayor Matt Paterson described the funding allocation as a “good start”.

Alice Springs mayor Matt Paterson said the community would welcome $50m in funding for infrastructure projects allocated in the Central Australian package.

Although much of the allocation focused on a long-term approach, Mr Paterson said hoped to see change on the ground sooner rather than later.

“We’ve got a pretty good relationship with the feds and the Northern Territory government, and we’ll continue to work that relationship and see, hopefully that money can be fast-tracked.”

The largest portion of funding went towards community and regional infrastructure projects in Central Australia, which Mr Paterson said would be welcomed by the community.

“One of the things we know is we don’t have good recreational facilities in Alice Springs, so I think that’s a good start,” he said.

Within the $155.7m allocated, $40.4 million was committed over two years to schools in Central Australia to improve school attendance and community outcomes.

The funding will have $30m committed this year and a further $10m committed in 2024-25 for 46 Northern Territory schools to implement “local solutions to increase enrolement and improve learning outcomes”.

Yipirinya School principal Gavin Morris said although the $40m across 46 schools was not a large amount of funding, it was a “good first step”.

The school would be investing the money into its Happy Heart Hub, an inclusion space that combines traditional healing practices with occupational therapy to respond to students trauma.

“It will go to our most critical need,” he said.

Mr Morris said since the Happy Heart Hub was introduced about a year ago enrolment had almost tripled at the school and the extra funding would allow it to be at the “frontier for innovation and creativity”.

Yipirinya School principal Gavin Morris with students on the school grounds. Mr Morris welcomed the extra funding, saying the school would use it to improve its Happy Heart Hub.

“So we really welcome that funding, when I shared the news with our school community they were really excited to see what we can do with that,” he said.

Mr Morris has been a vocal advocate for a boarding facility at the school to provide a safe space for students, and said he was feeling “really positive” about progressing the plan after conversations with federal Education Minister Jason Clare over the weekend.

“I’m feeling really positive with how we go forward with that,” he said.

Mr Morris also welcomed the $1.37bn in funding allocated to education in the Northern Territory budget, stating it would make a “huge” difference to schools.

He said the next challenge would be sourcing teachers, with many schools struggling to fill roles due to the high-profile nature of crime in the town alongside the soaring price of rentals.

“It’s an issue for all schools in Alice Springs at the moment,” Mr Morris said.

“We have accommodation that can fit nine teachers and that’s full at the moment … it’s a worry trying to find accommodation.”