Alice Springs Town Camps

Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, Mal Brough, said today he remained hopeful his offer of Federal funding for town camps in Alice Springs would be accepted.

“I wrote to the Tangentyere Council this morning in response to their letter dated 16th April, concurring with their request to allow special purpose leaseholders to retain ownership of those leases if they sub-lease residential areas back to the Northern Territory Government for 99 years without condition,” Mr Brough said.

“My offer was read out at this morning’s public meeting in Alice Springs.

“It will now be up to the individual leaseholders of each separate town camp to decide whether to participate and seek a share of the $50 million dollars on offer to upgrade the town camps.

“My department will be available to assist those leaseholders with any information they may need to help them in their decision making. However, this cannot be an open-ended offer.

“Those leaseholders wishing to participate need to indicate their agreement within one month, or allocated funds will be spent elsewhere.

“The Federal Government will respect the wishes of leaseholders. Funds will not be forced on town camps that do not want improvements in housing and services, but will be provided to those that do.”