Eligibility of Central Land Council chair Warren Williams’ questioned as DV history raised

The Albanese government is under pressure to remove newly appointed Central Land Council boss Warren Williams amid revelations of his lengthy criminal record, which includes jail time.

Warren Williams has been elected new Central Land Council chair.

The newly appointed chair of the Central Land Council, Warren Williams, has a criminal record for domestic violence, including assault, being armed with an offensive weapon and multiple instances of contravening DVO, according to documents supplied to Jacinta Price in answers to Senate questions on notice.

Mr Williams’ criminal history has been slammed by Coalition Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, who said it was “unacceptable” that he was participating in the closing the gap framework while having spent time in prison for breaching domestic violence orders, and called on the Albanese government to act.

Mr Williams was elected chair of the CLC – which represents 24,000 remote Indigenous people – in September last year despite the string of convictions which occurred between 2008 and 2015.

Mr Williams, a former assistant principal from Yuendemu, defending his position as chair, telling The Australian his predecessors also had criminal convictions.

It comes as Alice Springs traditional owner Benedict Stevens was forced to step down last month as chair of a community organisation tasked with stamping out domestic and youth violence in the crime-ravaged outback city after he beat his long-term partner in an alcohol-fuelled assault last year.

Wife beater and former chair of Lhere Artepe Aboriginal Corporation Benedict Stevens in December. Picture: Liam Mendes

Senator Price called upon the Albanese government to intervene “immediately” and have Mr Williams removed as chair, and branded the saga as “yet another example of the racism of low expectations we apply when it comes to Indigenous organisations and leaders”.

“The (Minister for Indigenous Australians Malarndirri McCarthy) minister saw fit to intervene in the Anindilyakwa Land Council when she became aware that there were issues with the board, and she needs to immediately intervene in this case as well,” Senator Price said on Tuesday.

“We simply wouldn’t stand for this in any other organisation, but for some reason we have a different standard that is applied in cases like these.

“How absurd does the situation have to become before we say enough is enough?” Senator Price said. “The Central Land Council is an organisation that is heavily involved in the lives of some of the most marginalised and vulnerable Australians in our country, and yet it is being run by someone with a serious criminal history.”

According to the CLC website, Mr Williams “wants to advocate for community harmony and young people. We get them out to Mount Theo [outstation] where they learn their culture,” he said. “We’ve been asking for a school there for a very long time because they also need to learn to read and write.”

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price in Alice Springs in 2023. Picture: Liam Mendes

Mr Williams said he would keep speaking up for people out bush as well as upholding the CLC’s “strong governance culture” as well as a commitment to honesty and fairness.

Mr Williams criticised Senator Price, who was born in Alice Springs, in 2023 during the national debate into the crime crisis in Alice Springs and her stance on the Indigenous voice to parliament saying that she “she needs to stop pretending we are her people” when he was deputy chair of the CLC.

His criticism came a month after Senator Price called for an inquiry into Aboriginal land councils which have been accused of squandering money and not improving the lives of Indigenous Australians living in town camps across the Territory.

Senator Price initially called for Mr Williams’ criminal history check to be released in Senate Estimates last year, with Mr Williams reportedly acknowledging his history of domestic violence at a public rally not long after.

“Mr Williams’ disclosure may have been unprompted and a genuine disclosure. But the fact remains, we must expect better of our Indigenous leaders, and I call on the Minister and the Albanese government to support this call,” Senator Price said.

On Tuesday Mr Williams defended his position, claiming other Central Land Council chairs before him had criminal histories.

“There are others before me who have had the same convictions, and I’m the only one that’s being looked at,” he said.

“I regret what I’ve done before, now my ex-wife, we talk to one another, we see our grand children, we see our children,” he said.

It comes as Alice Springs traditional owner Benedict Stevens was forced to step down from positions on the Lhere Artepe Aboriginal Corporation and Tangentyere Council after revelations by The Australian that he beat his long-term partner in an alcohol-fuelled assault last year.

Mr Stevens was handed a six-month suspended sentence in June after pleading guilty to aggravated assault following a violent incident in which he struck his partner in the head with a traditional Aboriginal foraging tool and left a large gash.