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The Northern Territory Government is imploring the organisation that provides services to Aboriginal town camps in Alice Springs to accept a Commonwealth lease offer and avoid the prospect of the camps being taken over by force.

The Tangentyere Council has been stalling on an agreement for more than a year that would have seen the Federal Government pay $100 million for 40-year leases over the camps.

In exchange, new infrastructure would have been provided to the communities.

But the council last week rejected the offer, saying it wanted to keep control of its own lands.

Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister, Jenny Macklin, says the time for negotiating is over.

“I have now taken the very serious step of beginning the process of compulsory acquisition,” she said.

“There is a period of notice of just over a month and during that notice period Tangentyere can reconsider their position, come back to the table.

“But the time for negotiation is over.”

The Northern Territory Chief Minister, Paul Henderson, says conditions in the camps are appalling and the Commonwealth’s offer is a lifeline.

“It would be governments abrogating their responsibility to citizens of Australia, citizens of the Northern Territory, if we don’t take this step,” he said.

The Northern Territory Opposition supports the takeover but Indigenous policy spokesman, Adam Giles, says it should be happening immediately.

“It’s the responsibility for any government to provide a safe environment for children to grow up in,” Mr Giles said.

The Northern Territory Labor Senator, Trish Crossin, says the Federal Government is working to improve the wellbeing of the camp residents and is prepared to do so with or without Tangentyere Council.

Senator Crossin says conditions in the town camps are a blight on Australia’s international reputation.

“These are the sort of pictures and scenes that are beamed internationally, of which Australia hangs it’s head in shame really.

“The conditions are appalling and what we want to do is turn this around for people.”

Tangentyere Council representatives have declined to comment.

Aboriginal director Warwick Thornton’s Samson And Delilah has been awarded the Camera d’Or first-film prize at Cannes.

Thornton’s debut feature takes an unflinching look at the problems facing Australia’s remote Indigenous communities: violence, substance abuse and poverty.

The film follows the slow, shy courtship between a boy who spends his time sniffing petrol and a girl forced to care for her ailing grandmother.

The jury described it as the best love film they had seen for many years.

Thornton and the film’s producer Cath Shelper attended the ceremony where the award was presented.

“It was quite nerve-wracking because it was all in French, and we were sitting there and didn’t really understand anything that was going on,” Shelper said.

“But then eventually someone told us that Isabella Adjani was presenting the Camera d’Or, so when we saw her come out we thought, ‘This is the moment.’

“And we heard Samson And Delilah and Warwick’s name and [thought], ‘Oh my God, we’ve won!’”

“Thank you for believing in our first born baby,” Thornton said as he accepted the award.

“I don’t don’t know what to say. Viva Cannes, viva le cinema.”

Palm d’or

Meanwhile, Michael Haneke’s The White Ribbon – a chilling study of malice in a German village on the eve of World War I – was named best picture.

The Austrian director’s austere black-and-white work overcame stiff competition from films by heavyweight auteurs like Quentin Tarantino and Jane Campion to win the coveted Palme d’Or.

“Today is a moment in my life when I can say I am very happy,” said Haneke.

In other awards, French director Jacques Audiard – who had been a frontrunner for the Palme – took the Grand Prix for his bleak prison drama A Prophet.

Cult South Korean director Park Chan-Wook’s Thirst and Fish Tank by Britain’s Andrea Arnold jointly took the jury prize.

Austrian television star Christoph Waltz clinched the best actor award for his role as a multilingual Nazi nicknamed “The Jew Hunter” in Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds.

France’s Charlotte Gainsbourg took the best actress award for her taboo-defying role as a woman driven insane by grief in Lars Von Trier’s thriller Antichrist.

Brillante Mendoza of the Philippines picked up the best director prize for Kinatay.

- ABC/AFP

The Federal Opposition has accused the Government of sending mixed messages to Indigenous communities over the Northern Territory intervention.

The Government is threatening to compulsorily acquire Aboriginal town camps around Alice Springs because talks with the council that controls them have broken down.

The Government is offering $125 million in return for a 40-year lease, but the Tangentyere Council has rejected the deal.

Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin says that has left the Government with no choice but to take over the land.

“These camps have been the sites of horrific crimes,” she said.

But the Opposition’s Tony Abbott says the timing is odd.

“The Government is certainly sending mixed signals,” he said.

Last week the Government released a discussion paper on the future of the intervention which Mr Abbott believes is aimed at watering down the policy.

The Northern Territory Opposition says the Commonwealth’s announcement is evidence of a second – and necessary – intervention.

The Opposition’s Indigenous affairs spokesman, Adam Giles, says the Territory’s Chief Minister Paul Henderson has had many opportunities to take action but once again the Government has been forced to seek help from above.

“The Henderson government has the opportunity to act and cancel the leases, they haven’t done it,” he said.

“Now it’s time for the Federal Minister to intervene for the second time and take control of these camps.”

Move welcomed

Meanwhile, a group representing Native Title holders living in Alice Springs town camps has welcomed news the Federal Government is taking the first steps to compulsorily acquire the camps.

The Lhere Artepe Aboriginal Corporation represents Native Title holders in some of the town camps and chief executive Darryl Pearce says it is time to break the deadlock.

“Lhere Artepe is very supportive of the Commonwealth taking this action, we’ve watched for a long time now as both side have dilly-dallied and hurried back and forward over the negotiation table,” he said.

“In the meantime, conditions for people on the ground have declined dramatically as well as the fact that people have probably been injured physically and emotionally on the camps while this has been going on.”

The president of Tangentyere Council Walter Shaw says he will not be making any comment on the announcement today.

The Federal Government is threatening to take over Indigenous town camps around Alice Springs.

The Government has been negotiating a 40-year lease agreement with the Tangentyere Council which controls the town camps.

But last week, the council rejected the Government’s third offer of $100 million because it wanted changes to the terms of the agreement.

Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin says the Government is now taking steps to compulsorily acquire the land.

“This action is being considered as a last resort,” she said.

She says the long-term lease agreement is needed to improve living conditions and infrastructure.

“The conditions in these town camps are horrific,” she said.

She is urging the Tangentyere Council to rethink its position. The council has declined to comment.

Meanwhile, the Federal Opposition says it will vote against any legislation that waters down the Northern Territory Indigenous intervention.

The Government has flagged changes to the policy that could see people opt out of compulsory income quarantining.

The Opposition’s Indigenous affairs spokesman, Tony Abbott, has told the ABC’s Insiders program that would be a backward step.

“The Opposition will be against anything that looks like it’s watering down the intervention,” he said.

“The heart of the intervention was the grog bans, the welfare quarantining and the resident police and it looks like the Government is getting ready to get rid of two out of three.”

An association representing a group of Northern Territory homelands has accused politicians of making short-sighted policy that will lead to the destruction of Indigenous society and culture.

The Northern Territory Government has refocussed remote funding to build 20 of the largest Aboriginal communities into regular towns.

Laynhapuy Homelands Association says the government has ignored the wishes of Indigenous people who want to continue living in small clan-based communities.

Association chief executive Yananymul Mununggurr says Indigenous people moved back to the homelands to escape problems that will now resurface.

“People will start moving out from their homelands and that is going to create another big problem,” she said.

“There will be petrol sniffing, there will be alcohol, there will be more gambling there.”

The Northern Territory Government says it consulted widely with residents of outstations before the policy was released.

Further comment is expected today.

Northern Territory Minister for Indigenous Policy Alison Anderson says traditional owners may not receive financial compensation for signing over land to the Government.

Under the Government’s plan to overhaul its services to remote Indigenous communities, traditional owners are being asked to approve long-term leases over the land.

Government funding will then be focused on 20 large communities to turn them into so-called “mainstream towns”.

Ms Anderson told ABC1′s Stateline program the traditional owners will receive compensation for signing over their land, but it could come in the form of assets and services rather than cash handouts.

“Let’s allow this process of consultation to happen between the land councils and the traditional owners,” she said.

“Because compensation could be something that the community says ‘well okay, if you put assets on the ground, we’re benefiting from those assets.’

“And that can be part of the compensation package. That’s all the alternatives that the people will have to look at.”

She says traditional owners may not be forced to sign lease agreements over entire communities to the Northern Territory Government.

“We can have whatever people want. That’s why I don’t think we should get into the nitty gritty of what arrangements we’re trying to do, because we can have leases just for certain parts of the land, or leases over the township if that’s what people want,” she said.

“These are opportunities for traditional owners and traditional owners need to be encouraged to make these agreements with government.”

Yesterday, residents in Aboriginal town camps in Alice Springs rejected a $100 million lease deal with the Federal Government because it would mean giving up control of their land, the Tangentyere Council said.

The Government had hoped to secure 40-year leases over the town camps in order to upgrade infrastructure, such as housing, which would have then been managed by Northern Territory Housing.

But Tangentyere Council president Walter Shaw said the deal was rejected because town camp residents wanted to maintain control of their land and did not trust Territory Housing to administer camp accommodation.

Indigenous rangers

Dr Barry Traill from the Pew Environment Group says he is concerned about the effect the plan will have on jobs in outstations.

He says it could impact on Indigenous rangers who have been doing vital land management work.

“Indigenous ranger groups west of Darwin, through their work in removing infestations of noxious Mimosa… have stopped that weed going further west,” he said.

He says it would be impossible for them to do the same work if they moved away from the outstations.

“To look after and manage this country you ideally have people who live on the ground who know the country, live on the country, who want to be there,” he said.

“And you can’t really do it properly flying in and out, or driving for a half day or longer before you even get to the place that you’re managing.”

The Northern Territory Government will formally release details about its new Aboriginal homelands policy tomorrow but it is already having to defend aspects of the plan which have been revealed by informed stakeholders.

The Laynhapuy Homelands Association, which yesterday received a briefing about the new direction, says the Government wants to consolidate housing, medical and education services into about 20 large Indigenous communities.

More than 500 small outstations, which are home to thousands of Aboriginal people, would miss out on some important government-supported services, the association says.

General business managers would be employed in the larger communities to establish new enterprises and attract commercial investment, it says.

But an Arnhem Land elder from the Gan Gan homeland in the Laynhapuy region, about 900 kilometres east of Darwin, has warned the demise of hundreds of outstations will create a new Stolen Generation.

“Our people are going to be taken back to the main communities,” Waturr Gumana told the ABC.

“History is going to repeat itself. This is not good.

“This does not give us the right to live on our property, on our land.”

The Chief Minister, Paul Henderson, today refused to divulge details about the new policy, which will be formally unveiled tomorrow, but he says the Government is committed to helping Indigenous people.

“We have been, as a Government, working with many different parts of the community in formulating this policy,” Mr Henderson said.

“Alison [Anderson] and I will be making this announcement tomorrow.

“What I can say is that I am absolutely committed as Chief Minister in the Northern Territory to closing that gap on Indigenous disadvantage.”

The Territory Government is faced with having to deliver adequate housing and services in the bush but the Budget is only so big, particularly when basic remote housing can cost over $400,000 a house.

But Indigenous policy expert professor Jon Altman says centralising is going to cause more problems as family groups converge.

“I think that historically you’ve got to remember that the outstations movement occurred because people moved from these centralised communities back out to their country because of enormous political tensions,” he said.

“And I think what outstation people are now saying is that we are back on our country and we’ve seen a lot of information now that’s suggesting that social outcomes, health outcomes and even livelihood outcomes are in fact better when people live on smaller communities.

“So clearly if people re-centralise it seems to me that there could be enormous tensions.”

Researchers say low incomes and the high cost of food are responsible for poor diets in remote Aboriginal communities.

A study published this week in the Medical Journal of Australia has found people living in a remote community in the Northern Territory eat nutrient-poor foods, which are high in sugar and flour, because they are cheaper and non-perishable.

One of the report’s authors, Dr Julie Brimblecombe, from Darwin’s Menzies School of Health Research, says the government can help improve people’s diets by making healthy food more accessible.

“Food costs a lot more in remote communities than what it does in urban centres,” she said.

“We know that the majority of people in remote communities are dependent on welfare … so there’s economic implications that the government really needs to consider in trying to close the gap and improve the nutritional status of people.”