Reforming Northern Territory self-government – Reconciling the Two Towers of Power – Part Two
The mistake the politicians made (although Clare Martin was an honourable exception) was to conclude that this very long-standing “emergency” demanded that the white politicians and bureaucrats urgently devise and impose their own “expert” punitive, paternalistic policy solutions on those recalcitrant, irresponsible black fellas who wouldn’t even protect their own children from the thugs and paedophiles in their midst.
Reforming Northern Territory self-government – Reconciling the Two Towers of Power – Part One
The Territory government and land councils each have significant real world authority over the same land mass, and therefore real roles in important decisions made about land use, tenure and development on half of the Territory’s land, which in turn comprises twenty percent of Australia’s land mass.
Bird of the Week: Pilatus PC-21 at Alice Springs, June 2018
Thanks to my mate Mitch Chip Childs over at the Aviators of Alice Springs Facebook page for the tip that a couple of brand spanking new Pilatus PC-21s would be passing through Alice Springs this [...]
The trouble with shit-hawks – the firespreading raptors of northern Australia
A post that looks at our research into firespreading raptors in the Top End of Australia ... and beyond.
Jo Best on the public realm, an energy ponzi scheme and resilience at Resilient Darwin
Cultural recognition & sensitivity, jobs, affordable housing (including during occupation), tourism opportunities, environmental protection, identity, community, and the much touted “liveable city”. We live in a town that is being moulded by traffic engineers instead of strategic thinkers like urban designers, demographers and economists.
Mark Basil Butler – A Life in Books. Book 8: My Family and Other Animus, by James Jeffrey
For James Jeffrey, it is not about the politics, but the people, which is probably why he has managed to survive for so long in the toxic political environment at the Oz, stuffed as it is with Liberal Party operatives and conservative thinkers (forgive the oxymoron). He is genuinely (not, unlike many News Corpse writers, unintentionally) funny. Deeply funny. The kind of funny that leaves you in tears, but not always tears of laughter.
Uluru’s Field of Lights: Underwhelming and reminiscent of aisle 12 at Bunnings
The field spreads out before us as a jacket of a tradie after a Saturday night at Monsoons nightclub in Darwin. We feel a level of regret akin to those Sunday mornings at having parted with 35 precious dollars to observe a wide scale recreation of the lightbulb section of Aisle 12 Bunnings.
Fracking in the NT: can cement provide more than a temporary “triumph of expertise over nature”?
The everyday materiality of cement raises everyday questions: what about the effects of corrosion, seismic activity, moisture, design flaws and age on cement’s presumed durability? Harkness writes that concrete’s “guileful ruse is to offer us a permanent fix, once and for all”. Cement’s claim of permanence is deceptive, particularly when compared with the resource that is to be extracted.
Goanna of the Week – arlewatyerre or aremaye?
The generic gloss (non-Arandic & non-scientific) term for these brightly-coloured and drop-dead gorgeous (as food and on the eye) monitor lizards is Sand Goanna. Not very helpful when the landscape is dominated by rock and and lots ... biggest mobs in fact ... of red sand.
Doing the Darwin Shuffle Part Two. The Northern Territory as a tax haven: 1982 to 1986
Senator WALSH — I was aware of the fact that the Northern Territory is heavily dependent upon Commonwealth revenue [and] I have noted from time to time that nobody has a more voracious appetite for Commonwealth money than the present Northern Territory Chief Minister, although incongruously nobody is a more vocal critic of the Commonwealth taxes which raise the revenue which he so voraciously consumes. Senator Peter Walsh, Hansard, May 1983.