SCUAAC Briefing 9 February 1994 Alderman Gibbie Maynard representing the Katherine Town Council
Tabled Paper 344
Tabled Papers for 7th Assembly 1994 - 1997; Tabled papers; ParliamentNT; Tabled Papers
1994-12-01
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https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2019C00042
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/290691
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/402434
ALCOHOL ABUSE COMMITTEE - Wednesday 9 February 1994 KATHERINE MEETING everybody. They are doing well and getting drunks off the street. You were also talking about drying out areas out of town. A lady by the name of Sheila Miller has a property at Delamere. I do not know if she has written to you, but she has written to a few people about supporting her application and trying to bring people out of town more. At the moment, she does work at Rockhole, but I think she feels that that is not far enough out of town because people seem to break away from the rehab centre and come back into town. There does not seem to be a lot for them to do there. She has taken people out to her property at Delamere. Because they can do other things to occupy themselves there, they seem to be much happier. There is no town close by to which they can have access. I really think that we should support people who are trying to do things like that too. Probably the other thing that causes use and abuse of alcohol is that people are bored - young guys, young women and Aboriginal people who do not have a job. It is a vicious circle, isn't it? We have to look at trying to find more jobs or something for these people to do to give them some purpose in life. If we can give them something to aim for and a feeling that they are contributing to the community, I think a lot of the problems will disappear. I have young sons who have friends who are probably about 20 years old yet they are alcoholics because they do not have a job and they have simply given up. Thus, unemployment is a real social problem. Katherine is a place where things are happening. We are expanding and growing and, hopefully, we can pick up jobs for these people. Mr ORTMANN: Gibbie, is your council doing anything about that? You have playgrounds, street landscaping and all sorts of things. Does the council put programs in place to offer jobless youth something to do during the day - repaint the playgrounds or weed around the signs? What initiatives is the council taking to address some of those problems? Ms MAYNARD: As far as I aware, there are none. Mr ORTMANN: Do you consider that Katherine Town Council could play a role in that regard? Ms MAYNARD: I suppose it could. Once again, it boils down to funds. It all boils down to money. Who is going to supervise these people? The council would have to employ somebody. We have 13 people employed to maintain parks and gardens. If the workload increases, they employ casual people. It probably boils down to money really. Mr ORTMANN: But a few tins of paint and a few brushes do not cost much if you wanted to repaint the swimming pool or something like that.