9. The NTER approach

Providing more police in remote communities

• Staffing levels at the police station have not changed/ no additional police services to community
• Police do not patrol in community because the distance is too far
• No accommodation for visiting police
• Police resources are limited
• Lack of trust of police due to reports of police being 'heavy handed'

Alcohol and pornography bans in remote communities

• Community still has access to alcohol and drinking still occurs
• People are now binge drinking mid-strength beer in order to get effect of full strength
• No police presence or night patrols/ drinking is difficult to police
• Drinking remains to be only an occasional problem
• People have travelled away from the community for extended periods of time in order to have more access to alcohol
• Restrictions push drinking outsider the prescribed area, which has implications for health and safety of drinkers e.g. drinking spot is on side of highway, no shade, no toilets or water.
• Community was already 'dry' so there has been no change
• Community has continued to operate under an alcohol management program
• Not much knowledge about pornography
• Definition as to what is defined as pornography is poorly understood
• Communities do no know how to talk about pornography and why it should be banned. Now it is called restricted material which makes the explanation more legalistic
• The internet is readily accessible for access to pornography

Suggested Improvements

• People need more education and awareness about drinking
• 'Responsible drinking programs and the development of a 'social club' with strict patronage rules could solve some of the immediate issues - of underage drinkers congregating with adults at the 'drinking spots' - reduction in alcohol related assaults - reduction in potential sexual abuse issues resulting from underage / adult drinking with mixed gender in attendance'
• Licenses should be available for social clubs to encourage safe, mainstream drinking
• Allow safe (off the highway) drinking spots
• Build capacity within the community so that there are more choices such as jobs
• Reduce the impacts of isolation
• Formulation of an 'Intelligence Cell' of trusted local people who can report matters directly to police with an understanding that matters will be investigated
• Consult with people to understand what types of restricted material are the more popular; discuss options so that young kids are not confronted by unsuitable content; consider what medium is most commonly use (eg. video, magazines, internet)

Expanded night patrol services

• Not enough people working on night patrol
• No expansion of night patrol service since NTER
• Community can not discipline each other
• Night patrol not working properly yet

• Increase the number of night patrol workers
• Better coordination and support from service provider and community engagement
• The Night Patrol needs better support from the Shire to assist the workers in understanding their role and responsibilities

Expanded safe houses

• Safe House has not been built yet, or is not in operation
• Safe House was in operation prior to the NTER
• Improvement in levels of violence following restricted takeaway alcohol sales.

Additional child protection workers and Aboriginal family and community workers

• No child protection workers or Aboriginal family and community workers in community yet
• No increase in child protection workers or Aboriginal family and community workers
• Visits from workers not regular enough

Improvements

• There needs to be more regular visits from workers in order to build a rapport with community: 'In 12 months, they have visited twice from Darwin to 'clean up' old matters of 2 years past. Even though new issues have been reported - the attending officers indicated that they were not briefed or they didn't have the time to spare on this visit'
• Introduction of more community workers, or having increased resources available in Tennant Creek on an outreach basis

Diversionary programs for young people

• Only a few youths in community were referred to program since NTER
• There have been no programs of substance
• Needs to be more redundancy built into the programs

Health checks and follow up treatment for children

• Slow take up of health checks
• No follow up treatment provided as yet
• Follow-up treatment too slow
• Parents are apprehensive about CHCs and are not bringing their children to the clinic
• Children need to travel for referrals
• Health checks occurred when many people were away

Improvements

• Better communication through the GBM to the community
• Important to work more closely with the clinic
• Set up a regular weekly trips to access medical and dental services - this would be more cost-effective, efficient and reliable than the current process

Specialist support for children who have been abused

• Abused children are not being seen by specialist support
• The community is too far away from a major centre (680 km) for people to access the services

Improvements

• Greater contact/information sharing within the community

Extra drug and alcohol rehabilitation and treatment services

• There are no treatment services available
• There are no additional services since NTER
• Community does not have a major drug and alcohol problem
• Drugs and alcohol continue to be prevalent
• Services are too far away to be of use

Improvements

• More police based in community
• Introduce education programs through the schools and the clinic

Playgroups and crèches

• No change to number of playgroups
• The number of children attending the crèche varies quite regularly
• Parents do not work, but use playgroup as a 'get together'

Improvements

• The crèche is staffed by CDEP workers who would all benefit from relevant training
• Better management and monitoring for children
• Parents need to engage in everyday programs

Extra teachers and classrooms and new boarding schools

• There are no extra teachers
• There are no extra boarding schools
• Additional teachers only recently provided
• The loss of two principals and changes to teachers which has resulted in a lack of continuity for students
• Lack of school attendance

Improvements

• Integrated bus service
• Education Advocates (one male and one female) in each camp whose job it is to talk to parents and ensure that kids get to school

New early childhood and literacy

• No new programs
• New facilities are currently being planned for and are coming later this year

Improvements

• Renewed focus on literacy and numeracy and broader support for capacity building - pathways from early age

Income management

• Too early to tell what affect IM will have
• Community has mostly managed their finances in the past

Improvements

• Parents need to take responsibility for their children and these programs need to be funded by parents within the community

Licensing of community stores

• Community store was already operating well before the licensing
• Prices have gone up
• Store has not implemented recommendations from the licensing
• Store license still under review
• Tensions about store policy

Improvements

• GBM is providing support to store management committee to overcome problems with store manager
• Store licensing is critical to the success of store management but communities need more information to understand the importance of the Government's role in this
• Allowing Outback Stores to fully manage the store and work with the community
• Observation by GBM may have been able to influence the licensing team

Creating real jobs

• There are no additional real jobs in the community
• Only a few real jobs created with little impact on community
• Community members have not taken the jobs that have been made
• The number of real jobs created out of CDEP positions has not been enough to make up for the loss of CDEP positions
• No economic infrastructure to develop real jobs
• Some people now earning less money than when their wages were subsidised by CDEP
• Some people made worse off because they are not now eligible for assisted employment because of their partners full time job status
• Difficulty with Aboriginal people moving from a culture of no work to a work culture
• Organisations not welcoming the shift because they need to now meet award wage
• Labour force does not have the required skills
• Community does not have workers who are willing to move to areas where there is a demand

Improvements

• Enforced education
• Additional training for workers needed
• Need for mentoring programs
• Need for long term supervision on the job training for Aboriginal people
• In remote areas there is a need to create both a supply side and a demand side

Community Employment Brokers

• CEB has not produced any employment outcomes
• No work for the dole activities have commenced
• CEB was unsuitable for the role and left community
• CEB not in community now because of no accommodation
• No employment market/ job opportunities in community
• CEB not knowledgeable about opportunities/ the general community perception of CEBs is that they are ineffective and not worth approaching
• CEB in community was not very culturally sensitive

Improvements

• There has to be a driver to make people want to work
• Indigenous business enterprise needs to be established
• Create an employment market by creating work opportunities would be a good thing
• A focus on education and training associated with opportunities to create work within the communities should be their main aim
• Reporting to the GBM could improve coordinated activities
• A focus on the development of micro-business opportunities would be worthwhile

Government Business Managers

Working with locals to clean up communities

• The 'Clean Up Communities' did not eventuate
• Community was already clean prior to NTER
• Cleaning up the community is a constant source of frustration
• CCU was done through CDEP, and people aren't working now that they are on Centrelink
• Locals are unwilling to participate
• No locals used in CCU
• Program poorly delivered
• Initiated men have no interest in picking up garbage

Improvements

• Greater support for community leaders to lead clean up of community
• Need to supply incentives and competitions for camps to clean up
• We need to give people activities which excite their interest in manly pursuits and to give women roles that support their nurturing and family instincts
• Some people also need a high ratio of mentors/supervisors to participants to give them a hand up

Fixing problems with the existing houses

• Rate of fixing houses in town camps has not changed
• Housing was already well maintained
• Housing is chronically overcrowded
• Problems reoccur quickly
• Maintenance budget too small to have an impact e.g. replacement of one door or a window absorbs 90% of that allowance for that house for that year
• No work conducted on housing in main community

Improvements

• Providing a realistic approach to housing shortages
• Larger families require a different style of home e.g. 'long homes'

Building new homes and new arrangements for the management of public housing in communities outside the NTER context

• No new homes being built, which has caused resentment and anger across communities
• Lack of communication about the process has impeded success
• Territory Housing has been ineffective in communicating the meaning of the housing reforms to local people

Improvements

• More information needs to be provided to the community and to GBMs to explain what the new tenancy management arrangements will be and what impact these will have on individuals and head tenants.
• Apply an acceptable standard for human habitation and apply it across the Northern Territory
• Consideration of the chronic over crowding of homes