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Speaker 1: Well, we have spoken quite a bit in recent weeks

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Speaker 1: about some of the issues on world which are happening

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Speaker 1: in Alice Springs, particularly with youth crime and youth being

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Speaker 1: on the street. I think you'd say sort of later

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Speaker 1: in the night. Now we know that there's no silver

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Speaker 1: sort of bullet to be able to fix things. There's

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Speaker 1: always plenty of issues and plenty of different concerns when

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Speaker 1: it comes to youth being out on the streets and

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Speaker 1: in some cases kids just don't have anywhere else to go.

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Speaker 1: Now joining us on the line to talk a little

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Speaker 1: bit more about something which is now happening in Central Australia.

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Speaker 1: It's the Central Australia Youth Link Up Service, Kyless, I

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Speaker 1: believe are the the crew that are running things in

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Speaker 1: Alice Springs. Now joining me on the line right now

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Speaker 1: is Blair McFarland from Kalas. Good morning to you.

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Speaker 2: Blair, good morning, but just correct you. We're not running

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Speaker 2: the government initiative.

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Speaker 1: I apologize then, I do apologize, Blair talk us through

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Speaker 1: the Central Australia Youth Link Up Service.

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Speaker 2: We were an anti substance misuse program really aimed at

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Speaker 2: young people and we've been working since two thousand and two,

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Speaker 2: but primarily to stop petrol smiththing and chroming and all

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Speaker 2: of that sort of stuff. And so we do that

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Speaker 2: in two ways, one by making the substances harder to

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Speaker 2: get or rolling out an unsniffable fuel like Opal into

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Speaker 2: the region. And the other way is to enrich people's

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Speaker 2: personal lives so that they don't resort to drugs. And

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Speaker 2: so as part of that, we support youth programs like

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Speaker 2: in we support that the Aureo program, and we support

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Speaker 2: to Alice Springstown Council and all of the youth work

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Speaker 2: providers in the southern part of the Northern Territory. So

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Speaker 2: that's our role, and that's we've been doing that job

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Speaker 2: since two thousand and two.

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Speaker 1: Wow, and it sounds like incredibly important work which is

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Speaker 1: happening I know that throughout the territory. Unfortunately, we've had

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Speaker 1: real issues over the years when it comes to some

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Speaker 1: of those different substances, particularly with our young people.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. It's been it's been really rewarding to see

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Speaker 2: that the reduction in particularly in patrol snipping that's happened

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Speaker 2: since Open rolled out and since we've started, since the

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Speaker 2: retailers have been cooperating with us about keeping other inhalants

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Speaker 2: in cages and behind the counter and stuff, and they

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Speaker 2: do that just out of community spirit. There's no legis

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Speaker 2: let of requirement for them to do that, but they

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Speaker 2: live here too, and they improve their own environment, in

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Speaker 2: the environment for their kids.

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Speaker 1: And so Blair speaking about that Youth Outreach and re

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Speaker 1: Engagement Team hub, is that something that you guys are

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Speaker 1: working working with as in KALs is working through.

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Speaker 2: That, Well, we support it and we've given them some

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Speaker 2: youth type equipment computers and recently beanbags, and we're certainly

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Speaker 2: there to support them in the same way that we

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Speaker 2: support youth programs right across the region with resources and

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Speaker 2: funds and sort of equipment and advice. You know, we've

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Speaker 2: got we've been in the game a long time and

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Speaker 2: we sort of know what works with young people and

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Speaker 2: what's going on on the street. We've got really good

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Speaker 2: community contacts through through all of our years of work

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Speaker 2: with the community in that space.

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Speaker 1: And how are things going, you know, from your perspective

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Speaker 1: in Alice at the moment, we talk a lot about

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Speaker 1: sort of well we hear a lot, I guess you'd

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Speaker 1: say about the youth crime and some of the issues

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Speaker 1: which are which are impacting residents. But then we've also

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Speaker 1: on the flip side, got a situation where there are

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Speaker 1: young people who in many cases have nowhere to go.

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Speaker 2: Well, I think you put your finger on the main problem,

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Speaker 2: and that's why CALYS is always trying to work to

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Speaker 2: improve the quality of life's people as a way of

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Speaker 2: addressing behavioral issues. And the issue that you've identified is

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Speaker 2: a really key one. The Aboriginal communities in Central Australia

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Speaker 2: are the poorest in Australia. There there and that they've

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Speaker 2: got the lowest income, the lowest demographics, the worth sort

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Speaker 2: of like overcrowding. This is this is where there is

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Speaker 2: a sort of a whole lot of forces that act

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Speaker 2: on kids that are really negative. And this so like

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Speaker 2: we really support youth programs as a sort of like

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Speaker 2: you know, a door open into a into a space

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Speaker 2: that shows that the wider community really cares for those kids.

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Speaker 2: Partly because in a sense, like the people down here

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Speaker 2: ablishing people down here are like refugees living in you know,

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Speaker 2: who've been living in refugee camps in their own country

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Speaker 2: for generations now, and if ever there was a sort

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Speaker 2: of like condition where that breeds up the potential for

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Speaker 2: serious terrorism, that's it. And so the more that we show,

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Speaker 2: you know, particularly the kids, that they're not excluded from everything,

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Speaker 2: that we don't hate them, and that we're trying to

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Speaker 2: we're trying to make good things happen for them, the

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Speaker 2: more I think that we can, you know, protect ourselves

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Speaker 2: against growing up a racist sort of like cohortive terrorist

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Speaker 2: in the future.

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Speaker 1: And I understand that. You know, as we mentioned that

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Speaker 1: Youth Outreach and re Engagement Team Hub, obviously I believe

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Speaker 1: it only opened on November twenty, and there's been a

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Speaker 1: real influx of kids going in there.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's already really working. It's fantastic to see the

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Speaker 2: kids take to it so quickly because but basically, you know,

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Speaker 2: it's what the reason they opened was because and I

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Speaker 2: really support the minister for sort of taking this line.

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Speaker 2: She came down. She's only taken on the portfolio recently.

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Speaker 2: She came down. I had a good look around and

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Speaker 2: talk to everybody and realized one of the key things

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Speaker 2: that everybody in the region has known, which is that

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Speaker 2: at night there's lots of kids on the street and

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Speaker 2: there's lots of patrols on the street. There's night patrol

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Speaker 2: and youth patrol, children patrol, police patrol. There are patrols

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Speaker 2: and patrols, and the areos used to go around patrolling

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Speaker 2: as well. That was all that there was nowhere to

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Speaker 2: take anybody. Once so the two funded youth programs finished,

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Speaker 2: and they finished it during during the week, during the

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Speaker 2: working school week at nine, then there's there's really nowhere

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Speaker 2: to go. And so the so to their credit, the

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Speaker 2: areas have opened up. They've got a fantastic resource. The

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Speaker 2: hall that they've got down there is just great and

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Speaker 2: they so now they've they've opened it up, and so

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Speaker 2: now there is somewhere and all of those patrols have

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Speaker 2: suddenly got somewhere really attractive and friendly and safe to

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Speaker 2: take the kids. Because that's that's one issue that's come

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Speaker 2: up recently in terms of safety is talking to kids

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Speaker 2: on the street. They're they're more frightened of other kids

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Speaker 2: than they're frightened of the police or any of the patrollers.

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Speaker 2: And there's lots of kid on kid violence out there,

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Speaker 2: and with bigger kids beating up and big bigger kids

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Speaker 2: forcing the little kids to do crime. So the fact

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Speaker 2: that the aros have opened up this space where that's

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Speaker 2: not going to happen. I think it's going to be

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Speaker 2: going to be great and does explain some of the

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Speaker 2: popularity with the little kids. Yeah, yeah, somewhere.

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Speaker 1: Safe, right, So, I mean from from what you're being

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Speaker 1: told and what you've seen, has it has it been

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Speaker 1: those younger ones that have that have gone there?

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Speaker 2: Uh, they are there. It's a range of them. But

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Speaker 2: yet like they're about the average about twelve, I think,

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Speaker 2: so they're all pretty young. So yeah, the young ones,

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Speaker 2: it's not not the older teenagers who are sort of

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Speaker 2: around the little possibly escaping from those bigger ones.

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Speaker 1: And I tell you what, it's something that we've spoken

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Speaker 1: about on air about even here in the Northern suburbs.

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Speaker 1: You know, we had a situation last week where the

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Speaker 1: police had said to us that some nights they're you know,

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Speaker 1: they're dropping kids home ten times in a night and

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Speaker 1: and it does sort of you know, it does really

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Speaker 1: make your question whether where they're being dropped to, you know,

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Speaker 1: if they're if they're then sort of getting back out

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Speaker 1: and they're and they're not staying there. It's it makes

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Speaker 1: you wonder what's going on at home.

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Speaker 2: Well, that's right, And interestingly, there is a potential solution

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Speaker 2: to this, but it'll take to political solution, but it's

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Speaker 2: one that we benefit the community in so many different ways,

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Speaker 2: like the as well as as well as because like

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Speaker 2: the really the real root issue is that is poverty.

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Speaker 2: Those kids are then dropped back to a house that

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Speaker 2: maybe has got even no electricity, you know, they might

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Speaker 2: have run out of power cards. You know, there's no food,

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Speaker 2: there's only a few scraps of furniture, and it's overcrowded

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Speaker 2: and possibly you know, there are drunks there or you know, strangers,

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Speaker 2: and it's not a really safe and conducive environment. And

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Speaker 2: one of the main reason why Aboriginal communities are so poor,

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Speaker 2: given that we live in a welfare state when there

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Speaker 2: is supposed to be income security to stop people dropping

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Speaker 2: into that desperate poverty, it's because the sinneling system is

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Speaker 2: too complicated. And research from the recent senses shows that

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Speaker 2: about forty percent of Aboriginal people are on no income.

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Speaker 2: They have no they don't get the dole, they don't

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Speaker 2: get a pension, they don't have anything. All they're doing

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Speaker 2: is living off their relations, which they've done for tens

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Speaker 2: of thousands of years. It's you know, part of their

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Speaker 2: culture is supporting each other when they're and sharing. But

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Speaker 2: the problem is in the cash economy that just impoverishes

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Speaker 2: everybody to a huge degree. So if they if you know,

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Speaker 2: if the if the government could fix up settling so

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Speaker 2: that it wasn't so incredibly complicated and people could stay

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Speaker 2: on it and they'd be able to feed their kids.

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Speaker 2: You know, they'd be able to have more furniture, they

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Speaker 2: have electricity in their homes and all these things that

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Speaker 2: they just currently dream about, and that would that would

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Speaker 2: go a long way towards giving the kids a better

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Speaker 2: option there walking around the streets.

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Speaker 1: Well, Blair, I really appreciate your time this morning. I

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Speaker 1: think you've given us some much further scope when it

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Speaker 1: talks about when we talk about some of the issues

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Speaker 1: that we're seeing in Alice Springs and and really you know,

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Speaker 1: territory wide. I think you'd have to say, Blair McFarlan

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Speaker 1: from Kalus, we really appreciate you having a talk with

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Speaker 1: us today.

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Speaker 2: Thank you, Thank you,