Speaker 1: Hey there, I'm Ruby Jones. This week on seven AM,
Speaker 1: some of the best writers in the country are reading
Speaker 1: out their long form stories. Today we have my co host, Yorder,
Speaker 1: writer and broadcaster Daniel James. Last year, Daniel and I
Speaker 1: traveled to Alie Springs together to report out the series
Speaker 1: This Is Alice Springs. We wanted to look behind the
Speaker 1: shocking headlines to find out why this town at the
Speaker 1: heart of Australia had become a place of segregation and chaos.
Speaker 1: We spoke with elders, community workers, the police and the
Speaker 1: children at the center of these stories. And what we
Speaker 1: found is that a lot of the trouble in Alice
Speaker 1: Springs can be traced back to one thing. On the
Speaker 1: last night that we were there, Daniel reflected on his
Speaker 1: experience writing this essay for the October edition of the Monthly.
Speaker 1: Next week, Daniel and I will be back with our
Speaker 1: usual programming. But now here's Daniel James reading Children of
Speaker 1: the Intervention. It's Friday, January tenth.
Speaker 2: They did this, not us. It's what Arnie pat Ansel
Speaker 2: Dodds tells me in the living room of her small
Speaker 2: flat on the west side of Alice Springs. She's a
Speaker 2: gentlewoman seventy six years old and a grandmother to twelve.
Speaker 2: She's an accomplished and recognized artist. Her work has been
Speaker 2: projected onto the Sydney Opera House. She's a lecturer and
Speaker 2: a guardian to generations of children on the streets of
Speaker 2: the town where she grew up, on land that has
Speaker 2: belonged to her people, the Arranda for thousands of generations.
Speaker 2: Yet when talk turns from her art and the glowing
Speaker 2: reminiscences of her grandchildren to the state of things in
Speaker 2: Alice Spring in twenty twenty four, and the myriad of
Speaker 2: intertwined events, contemporary and historical, that have led to this point,
Speaker 2: she gets angry, real angry that this, she refers to,
Speaker 2: is the state between listlessness and chaos that has overcome
Speaker 2: her town, a place now almost unrecognizable to her. She
Speaker 2: is tired the pace have changed, The erosion of civility
Speaker 2: and openness in a place that has always had its
Speaker 2: problems can't be tolerated anymore. She has tried. She established
Speaker 2: a grandmother's group to patrol Alice Springs in the wake
Speaker 2: of the intervention, to assist and look after kids wandering
Speaker 2: the streets. But now the crime the poverty and the
Speaker 2: racism in all its guisers are all too much. Kids
Speaker 2: are running a muck in a town rife with fetal
Speaker 2: alcohol spectrum disorder, drug and alcohol abuse, and boredom. A
Speaker 2: generation that can't see any prospects, no way forward. They
Speaker 2: are jaded and angry, and they're not interested in the
Speaker 2: social contract. Playing by the rules in posed on them
Speaker 2: hasn't worked, and they've had more rules dictate their lives
Speaker 2: than most. They are the children of the intervention. Arni
Speaker 2: Pat will head south to Adelaide by the year's end,
Speaker 2: unlikely to return. It's a sad end for the community
Speaker 2: she has spent a lifetime serving. The thea she refers
Speaker 2: to is the government territorian and federal, but mainly federal.
Speaker 2: It was the tear that used its powers to override
Speaker 2: the Aboriginal people, families and communities of the Northern Territory.
Speaker 2: It was the level of government that set the army
Speaker 2: in and suspended the Racial Discrimination Act, making the knife
Speaker 2: that was the intervention cut deeper. There was nothing refined
Speaker 2: about what was imposed on the people here. The bipartisan
Speaker 2: support that saw any semblance of self determination obliterated in
Speaker 2: the Northern territory was decided upon a political class during
Speaker 2: the Howard era, so far removed from the lives it
Speaker 2: would impact. This is where so much of the anger
Speaker 2: was directed, because that's where so much of the stems
Speaker 2: from from the outside. The town is the ultimate real
Speaker 2: world example of the great Australian silence, that cloak that
Speaker 2: shrouds all when the problem becomes too big, too hard,
Speaker 2: out of line with the tanned bronze and odsy blue
Speaker 2: image we've pained for ourselves. I came to Alice Springs
Speaker 2: determined not to be swayed by the meati's betrayal of
Speaker 2: a lawless and out of controlled town, a place where
Speaker 2: curfews have been the only way to arrest the havoc
Speaker 2: wreaked upon the streets by youth crime. I came expecting
Speaker 2: to hear those stories, but I also anticipated speaking to
Speaker 2: people who are willing to defend their patch, the place
Speaker 2: where they grew up and raise their family. What I
Speaker 2: heard was to spare anger and distrust. The spike in crime, theft,
Speaker 2: aggravated burglaries, home invasions, assaults goes a long way to
Speaker 2: explaining the tense atmosphere. There's an undertone about the place
Speaker 2: from afar. Alice Springs is a whirlpool of myth and truth.
Speaker 2: Chaos is how Alice spread of the past few years
Speaker 2: was described to me by nt Australian of the Year,
Speaker 2: Blair McFarlane, someone instrumental in solving the petrol sniffing crisis
Speaker 2: that played the territory for decades. He describes the town
Speaker 2: with competing interests but few solutions, a regional center. We're
Speaker 2: on the surface nobody can readily explain what's going on,
Speaker 2: but deep down everyone knows what's happening and has theories
Speaker 2: about as underlying causes. The theorizing isn't spoken about in
Speaker 2: public in meetings of the citizenry, thoughts and feelings become
Speaker 2: pent up and are blurted out in the safe confines
Speaker 2: of their gated social media communities. Taking a look at
Speaker 2: local Facebook pages, it's easy to see why Alice Springs
Speaker 2: seems brooding. The following posts, the most recent I read
Speaker 2: upon my arrival in town, are from a page that
Speaker 2: describes themselves as action for Alice Springs. Absolute disgrace to
Speaker 2: see caretakers of the land destroy Alice Springs. These indigenous
Speaker 2: people have no respect for any other race themselves. Another
Speaker 2: one read it's easy fix, just get the shotgun out
Speaker 2: and put a few way over their heads. Waste of
Speaker 2: a cartridge. There are thousands of more posts along these lines, racist, hateful,
Speaker 2: and angry, as scary and horrific, as many of the
Speaker 2: instances of crime have been, everyone I spoke to acknowledges
Speaker 2: that what's being committed are crimes of poverty. There are
Speaker 2: no master criminals here. Most of the kids get caught
Speaker 2: and know they're going to get caught. They're sent to
Speaker 2: detention and watchhouses and then released to invariably reoffend because
Speaker 2: that's all they know to do. Plus, as a sixteen
Speaker 2: year old fresh added don Dale US Detention Center told me,
Speaker 2: the food is good in jail. The intervention through thousands
Speaker 2: of Aboriginal Territorians under welfare overnight. The abolishment of the
Speaker 2: Community Development Employment Projects Program, a work for the dole
Speaker 2: type arrangement that allowed flexibility and a potential career path,
Speaker 2: particularly for people in remote community, was a huge disruptor.
Speaker 2: Now it's all badged as enhanced income management and cashless
Speaker 2: welfare cards. McFarlan explains how the cards created a link
Speaker 2: between poverty and youth crime. Before the intervention, a hungry
Speaker 2: kick could go to any adult and the adult would
Speaker 2: have cash in their pocket, even if it's only five bucks.
Speaker 2: That's all you need, and that's all you give a kid.
Speaker 2: But now you've only got a car with all your
Speaker 2: money on it, you're not going to give that to
Speaker 2: a hungry kid. So those kids used to be able
Speaker 2: to get a feed anywhere anytime. They were held up
Speaker 2: by the sort of social net in that way, but
Speaker 2: the welfare card unraveled that net, and so the kids
Speaker 2: are now hunting for themselves and breaking in and stealing food.
Speaker 2: To live on welfare in Australia is to live below
Speaker 2: the poverty line. In cities and suburbs. That results in
Speaker 2: thousands barely keeping their head above water. In the Northern Territory,
Speaker 2: to live below the poverty line is to drown. Poverty
Speaker 2: runs deep here. The cost of living here is astronomical,
Speaker 2: and it becomes more expensive the more remote you are.
Speaker 2: Ten dollars for two liters of milk, thirty dollars for
Speaker 2: five hundred grams of mints. Capitalism's models of supply and
Speaker 2: deman don't work in this expanse. The supply chain is
Speaker 2: so vast factors impacting upon the price of things are
Speaker 2: beyond people's control. This is why Aboriginal people from all
Speaker 2: over Australia have come to well Springs as economic refugees.
Speaker 2: People from remote bush communities have arrived seeking relief and
Speaker 2: access to services, housing, and the labor market that they
Speaker 2: can't get anywhere else. Like in the early colonial days
Speaker 2: in the glowing embers of first contact, the displacement of
Speaker 2: traditional owner groups and their forts, encroachment onto the land
Speaker 2: of others has in itself resulted intension. Lateral violence is
Speaker 2: prevalent here and is thought to be responsible for some
Speaker 2: of the brawls and fights in recent years. Resentment, the
Speaker 2: loss of any sense of self determined nation, and alcohol
Speaker 2: are a toxic combination. Most simply see it as an
Speaker 2: alcohol problem. Foreign tourists may not notice any of this.
Speaker 2: The troubles aren't printed on the brochures, and the town
Speaker 2: is in the burning wreck. Chaos is sometimes like that,
Speaker 2: still anominous. It isn't always fires and crashing windows.
Speaker 1: Coming up after the break. The impact of the voice
Speaker 1: debate on this already segregated town.
Speaker 2: I've spoken to teenagers and diversion programs the people who
Speaker 2: run those programs. Three generations of arunder men. Members of
Speaker 2: the police force, worry young mothers. Frontline drug and alcohol
Speaker 2: workers are residents of some of the camps just outside
Speaker 2: the town. Everyone is tried their best in their own
Speaker 2: small way to arrest the decline, but the sense of
Speaker 2: hopelessness is never too far away from any given conversation
Speaker 2: about what's happening to them. It hangs in the fresh
Speaker 2: desert air. The town I visited in the past is
Speaker 2: long gone. It's still a bustling civic center, and the
Speaker 2: traffic from the highway and other materials rolls through the day.
Speaker 2: In this part of the world, all roads lead Towell
Speaker 2: the Springs, but that distinct. This is where we landed.
Speaker 2: Let's make the most of it. Feel with bars full
Speaker 2: of backpackers and tourists has vanished. There's a glood of
Speaker 2: houses on the property market, at least two hundred listed
Speaker 2: a fact. Local real estate agents are trying to hush up.
Speaker 2: People might start asking why night spots have closed and
Speaker 2: the ones that remain are more or less empty. That
Speaker 2: couldn't care less demeanor has been replaced by a caution.
Speaker 2: People are watchful and reserved it makes a rife hunting
Speaker 2: ground for cynical politicians looking to make a point. Last year,
Speaker 2: the year of the doomed referendum on the Voice to Parliament,
Speaker 2: the political class with Metior in tow, once again descended
Speaker 2: on Alice Springs like fly in fly out workers. The
Speaker 2: town became a political tumble dryer, used to churn up
Speaker 2: the news cycle with stories of crime waves, alcohol and
Speaker 2: drug issues, betraying a place in the heart of Australia
Speaker 2: that was only just clinging on to civilization. The argument
Speaker 2: went that the Voice would do nothing to help the
Speaker 2: people of Alice Springs and Central Australia. The problems were
Speaker 2: too complex for a distant, constitutionally enshrined Canberra Voice. No
Speaker 2: real alternatives were tabled as solutions, just outrage and stagnation.
Speaker 2: Many locals resented the spotlight. Others thought the cavalry were
Speaker 2: on their way again. But from an Aboriginal perspective, it
Speaker 2: was another case of being spoken about, not spoken too.
Speaker 2: They felt like specimens picked up, held against the light
Speaker 2: and examined from every angle. And for what. In the
Speaker 2: years since, nothing has changed. It was a cold intervention.
Speaker 2: The Voice is now just a distant memory. The people
Speaker 2: in the town camps are dismissive of it. Their problems
Speaker 2: are real and present. In twenty twenty four, the effects
Speaker 2: of the hot Intervention of two thousand and seven to
Speaker 2: twenty twenty two are still deeply felt. Reminders of it
Speaker 2: are everywhere. The signage in front of the Charles Creek
Speaker 2: town Camp, erected in the early days of the army's
Speaker 2: incursion in mt still stands. It warns of the penalties
Speaker 2: for domestic violence, sexual abuse, being caught with alcohol, and
Speaker 2: so on. The placards are directly outside family homes, and
Speaker 2: they bring great shame to the men and women of
Speaker 2: the camps and embarrassment to the children. White kids don't
Speaker 2: have to deal with the same humiliation. The intervention is
Speaker 2: the ultimate exemplar of the top down approach. It's the
Speaker 2: worst way to plan and implement policy, and it results
Speaker 2: in a road of trust between government and Aboriginal communities,
Speaker 2: making it impossible to achieve the long terms social and
Speaker 2: economic improvements the intervention ostensibly sought to bring about. The
Speaker 2: picture is bleak, there's no getting around it, but there
Speaker 2: is good here. It resides in the generosity of the
Speaker 2: people I've spoken to. They have shared their time and stories,
Speaker 2: and they have made themselves vulnerable in their despair and anger.
Speaker 2: They want a way forward out of the mess imposed
Speaker 2: on them, but they need help from the same systems
Speaker 2: and apparatus that obliterated their independence, sense of self, and
Speaker 2: a generation's future. So much of the anger lives in
Speaker 2: that realization. For every trial the Intervention may have saved,
Speaker 2: there are now thousands across two generations who have been
Speaker 2: shaped by its shock waves, forced into dark places, a
Speaker 2: place where self determination is seen as the good old days.
Speaker 2: The old people who fought to reign control of their
Speaker 2: lives are now mostly gone. They were part of the
Speaker 2: generations that could have woven perspective into the current dismay,
Speaker 2: but they can't help navigate what's happening here from beyond
Speaker 2: the grave. As for the children of our springs, there
Speaker 2: are many whose parents are themselves children of the Intervention.
Speaker 2: This is the only world they've known. The chances of
Speaker 2: breaking the cycle are slim. The sad reality may be
Speaker 2: that the world will have to wait until the children
Speaker 2: of the Intervention, if they make it, become elders themselves.
Speaker 2: A generation valued by black and white Australia, The survivors
Speaker 2: of what is happening here, may, in the decades to come,
Speaker 2: have merge to caution us not to come this way again.
Speaker 2: To deprive people of their independence and their ability to
Speaker 2: move beyond their appointed station, To thrust them onto welfare,
Speaker 2: and then blame them for what ensued is careless, cruel,
Speaker 2: and unforgivable. Their children and grandchildren will thank them for
Speaker 2: their wisdom and their strength, and they will come to
Speaker 2: know us here in twenty twenty four, more than we
Speaker 2: are willing to know ourselves.