00:04In Alice Springs, Aboriginal residents living in town camps have found themselves in the
00:09national spotlight.
00:12I've lived here about at least 20 years plus, about 20 years, yeah.
00:17And how have you seen it change in the time you've lived here?
00:21It's got worse to be honest.
00:22Even the Prime Minister knows the conditions here are not up to scratch.
00:26In Harley's house, he's had to fight to get basic things fixed, to make sure his family
00:33are safe.
00:34We've got these locks installed by itself, because with these doors, anyone can break into them.
00:41I can go into the actual office and kind of make threats for them to get it done, which
00:48I wasn't proud of, but I was proud of because my son thinks there's safety, you know, safety
00:53for all the kids.
00:56The conditions of the 16 town camps, where over a thousand people live, are varied.
01:01But the issues of disrepair, lack of essentials, like power, water, sewerage and security, have
01:08long been known.
01:10And for residents, their address often comes with stigma.
01:14A couple of years ago, it was very ashamed to live from here.
01:20That shame could intensify in the wake of the alleged murder of Koemanjai Little Baby, with
01:27calls to close down these locations.
01:30The person accused of that murder did not live on a town camp.
01:34That is not what happened here.
01:36That person could have turned up to any house in Alice Springs.
01:39That is where they turned up.
01:41To blame town campers for poverty, to blame town campers for massive policy and social
01:49failures is not fair.
01:51Though that blame sits fair and squarely with government.
01:55I won't stop until this place actually gets better.
01:58I could have easily moved out of here that many times, but I chose not to.
02:02Despite being a fixture here in the territory, town camps are still funded like they're temporary,
02:08heavily relying on one-off grants to get by.
02:11The day-to-day services here are provided by two Aboriginal community-controlled organisations,
02:17Tananjia Council and Community Housing Central Australia.
02:21There are too many intersecting points in the general management of town camps.
02:27We should have a single organisation that takes responsibility and accountability for the,
02:34not just the day-to-day management of the housing in the town camps, but also the longer
02:39term planning.
02:41It's like a band-aid on a band-aid on a band-aid.
02:44They will not replace anything.
02:46It's like you've got to beg, you know, these people to come and do things for you.
02:50When did all of that start to go downhill?
02:53When the government took over the town camps.
02:57The NT government took over the town camps during the 2007 intervention.
03:03In the past five years, it says it's invested $25 million in their upkeep.
03:09We often hear about the amount of money that these services are given from the government
03:14of the day, no matter who's in charge.
03:16It's always the same old thing.
03:18They've got X amount of money to spend on town camps and communities and we're not seeing
03:26it.
03:27We're not seeing anything changing.
03:28Residents I've spoken with are extremely frustrated with local organisations for delays
03:33in basic maintenance around the town camps.
03:36But those same organisations have told the ABC that they're hamstrung in what they're
03:41able to do by the NT government.
03:43At the end of the day, these are public housing properties subject to the same issues and concerns
03:50generally lack of budget as all other public housing properties across the territory.
03:54While there's a lot of talk about how much is spent on housing for Indigenous people, the
03:59paper trail is incredibly complicated for the ABC to verify.
04:04Billions of dollars of federal funding has been promised.
04:07But it's impossible to say how much of it already has or will eventually improve homes here, because
04:14of incomplete or delayed financial reporting, all the way from the federal and NT governments
04:20down to Tanajir Council.
04:23Something like a door handle, that should be, you know, that should be right up there as
04:26a priority because we've got kids here.
04:31And as we've recently seen, you know, unfortunately, tragic thing that's just happened to a little
04:38baby, you know.
04:39And if this ain't going to change now, what's going to happen next?
04:46Despite the challenges, in the community, hope persists.
04:51This place respects me and like I said, there's a lot of these kids around here, I want to
04:54be around here for them, especially my sons that live here.
04:57I want them to grow up the way we did and if not better, definitely, definitely better.
05:03One day we'll get there.
05:04A long fight for a fair future.
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