Minister for Indigenous Australians
MALARNDIRRI McCARTHY, MINISTER FOR INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIANS: Hello, my name’s Malarndirri McCarthy. I’m the Senator for the Northern Territory and Minister for Indigenous Australians. And I’m here to show your Mayor how to play table tennis.
MATT PATERSON, ALICE SPRINGS MAYOR: I’m Mayor Matt Paterson, Mayor of Alice Springs Town Council. Great to be down at the Aquatic Centre with the Minister showing the Federal Government about the investment into the Territory and what we’ve been able to do with that. And so this is a fantastic initiative that we’ve been able to deliver on and this goes to show when we’ve got levels of government working together, that the community benefit from that. So, this is just another example of working together in the community, delivering.
JOURNALIST: And would you like to share some of the feedback that you got from the community about the adventure park being built?
MATT PATERSON: So, one of the things-I mean, I’ve got young kids-and one of the things I hear from families, they go elsewhere, and they come back and they say to me, ‘Matt, the playgrounds and parks are better everywhere else in Australia than in Alice Springs.’ And so, the Council sat down and in our first month we had funded to shade 13 parks in Alice Springs. And this is just an extension of delivering livability for residents in the community. This went through a large consultation process because it’s a big investment, we wanted to get it right. So this has been designed by school kids, parents with young kids as well. And you can see there’s things here for everyone, but if you look up, there’s so much shade here, and I think that’s something that we certainly could not miss here. And it was something we got big feedback on.
JOURNALIST: You’ve just finished experiencing some of the stuff here. Would you like to tell us how that made you feel? How-does that bring excitement to you for people, individuals, and families coming along?
MATT PATERSON: Yeah, absolutely. The table tennis wasn’t very exciting because the Minister beat me at it. But the mini golf, the basketball court, the trampolines, the swings, the half-court basketball court, there’s something to do for everyone. That’s an extension of the gym that we’ve got here. So, look, there will be something for everyone. This is the perfect time for it to open because we’re about to go into summer and this is an incredible playground as it is. But if you look to the right, there’s five swimming pools over there, too, and there’s another little playground for toddlers. So, it’s a very, very special facility and it’s, you know, this is adding the Aquatic and Leisure Centre. And this is our crown jewel from an Alice Springs point of view.
JOURNALIST: And coming into summer, I heard that there was funding put into the summer school holiday program. Would you like to talk about that?
MALARNDIRRI McCARTHY: Absolutely. Firstly, I just want to commend the Alice Springs Town Council and all councillors involved with wanting to see and lobby both the Territory and Federal Governments to improve facilities for the families, not only in Alice Springs, but Central Australia more broadly. It is exciting. I was able to announce, while I’m here in Alice, over $3 million for the summer program, for the holiday programs across Alice Springs, but also Central Australia. It’s important that we make sure that our kids have things to do that are healthy, that make people happy, and that they can have a swim and a play here and go home absolutely exhausted and fall asleep. You know, Alice Springs is a beautiful town and, I mean, I grew up learning how to swim here in this very swimming pool. And I just think it’s important that the families of Central Australia have a really happy and safe Christmas knowing that there’s lots of facilities and support around for you.
JOURNALIST: Senator, can you expand a little bit on the $3 million that the Federal Government is putting in and across what area? You said Central Australia, but how far out does that extend?
MALARNDIRRI McCARTHY: One of the things that I did after the previous Christmas was actually have a chat to the youth organisations around Central Australia, In particular, even the regional councils, along with Alice Council, you have the Central Desert, you have MacDonnell, and they actually deal with their communities and I wanted to make sure those communities in those regional council areas also had holiday programs to support them. So, that’s important here in Alice Springs. You have the boxing unit here, you have the Gap Youth Centre. So, there are programs already underway in Alice Springs that I wanted to continue to support and to inject further support for them, especially as we lead into this Christmas.
MATT PATERSON: Sure, and does that funding extend up into the Barkly as well? Tennant Creek and further out to communities, Santa Teresa and that sort of thing?
MALARNDIRRI McCARTHY: This funding is specifically for Alice Springs and surrounds in the central region. The Barkly is a different area, so it doesn’t come under this particular funding program.
JOURNALIST: All right, and will there be funding for the Barkly?
MALARNDIRRI McCARTHY: I need to have a look at the Barkly. Clearly, I don’t want them to miss out and they will certainly be supported, but that will be the next journey for me.
JOURNALIST: Cool, thanks for that. And, Mayor, the investment on this new facility, are you able to tell us how much this has cost or is that commercial in confidence?
MATT PATERSON: So it was $1.9 million. It was Council investment and also the Federal Government, through the LRCI and LRCIP Program. So, we’re very grateful for that. The LRCIP Program has been fantastic for us as a Council because it means that we can just deliver on shovel-ready projects and this is one of those. And that’s an untied grant that we get from the Federal Government to build on community infrastructure. So, hopefully, the Minister will continue the LRCIP Program next year.
JOURNALIST: And further down the track, is there any further investment that you’re looking at putting into this facility? Is there anything else that you think needs to come, be added, or do you think this is probably about it for the near future?
MATT PATERSON: So, we’ll continue to go through. If we go down where the gym area is, that needs some love, but we’ll work through a master plan of what that looks like. Speaking of investment, though, away from this facility the Federal Government have committed $4 million for the skate park at Newland Park and Alice Springs Town Council have committed $1.8 million as well. So, we’re working with the Northern Territory Government, the new Northern Territory Government, to see if they will commit some funds. And once we know an answer either way, we can award that tender. Obviously, it would be greatly appreciated if the Northern Territory Government would invest and so we can get a bigger investment for the community. But it goes to show, when we have three levels of government working together, you can get bigger and brighter things and the community win. Seeing that with the school holiday program last year, the three levels of government working together meant that we could have an ice-skating rink, we could have events every single day for families. But also we had free access to the pool here, and that meant we had 30,000 people come through the gates here last year. We know cost is a barrier, but it eliminates that barrier for six weeks and we had 30,000 people. And hopefully, again, all three levels of government can work over the next little while to deliver on that. Again, thank you.
MALARNDIRRI McCARTHY: Thank you.
JOURNALIST: Thank you.
