Larissa Behrendt & Richard Downs

ABC Online

The statistics show that there has not been much improvement and in some places have gone backward. While it is inevitable that it will take time to reverse the historic and often entrenched disparity between the socio-economic position of Indigenous people and all other Australians, the amount of money that has gone into the intervention is certainly not having a visible impact.

Ampilatwatja is a town three hours from Alice Springs. They were taken over with the 5-year lease that came with the promise of new housing. The housing stock was transferred to Northern Territory Housing.

No new houses were built and much needed repairs to existing infrastructure did not take place. By July 2009, the town was overflowing with raw sewage. A plumber was supposed to be on his way but his truck broke down, the community was told. The situation posed enormous health risks to the community, especially children.

Concerned about their health and frustrated with the neglect by government of basic services to their community, over half of the community packed up and moved to a camp 6 kilometres from the town. This meant that they were no longer living in a prescribed area so not subject to the intervention laws.

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