Under-siege Alice Springs residents were forced to endure another terrifying weekend of out-of-control crime while the nation’s top politicians mingled at a $5,000-a-piece festival in the Top End.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney and several high profile Voice campaigners were among attendees at the Garma Festival in remote northeast Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory – the nation’s single largest Indigenous gathering.
Tickets to the festival cost up to $5,000 for a ticket, and much of the celebrations centred on a push for a constitutionally-enshrined Voice to Parliament. Australians will be asked to vote on the proposal at a referendum between October and December this year.
But 1,700km south of the festival, Alice Springs was gripped by a crime spree which saw a nursing home bus stolen, the airport and university broken into and several car windows shattered.
Locals reported the Alice Springs Old Timers Aged Care Home shuttle bus was stolen overnight on Saturday – the same night CCTV footage shows children loitering inside the airport hangar.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney and several high profile Voice campaigners were among attendees at the Garma Festival in remote northeast Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory
‘Residents at the village look forward to their bus trips, even [those] who live with dementia know what days the bus trips are,’ one person said.
‘Unfortunately this is our only bus for Old Timers residents. Don’t these kids realise that they are possibly stealing from their own Grandparents/elders.
‘It is extremely upsetting and disappointing! Now we will have to explain why we can’t go on the bus for who knows how long.’
Extraordinary CCTV footage shows the Alice Springs Aero Club was targeted a short while later.
Four offenders roamed the hangar where three small planes were located, using torches on their phones to snoop around the premises.
At least one of the people caught on tape appeared to be wielding an axe.
His face was partially covered by a face mask and a black hood from his jumper as he reached up with the axe toward the CCTV camera.
Four offenders roamed the hangar where three small planes were located, using torches on their phones to snoop around the premises
Several car windows were shattered at the weekend
Mr Albanese repeated his promise to hold the referendum this year, despite calls to hold off amid declining support for the ‘Yes’ vote
Police revealed a commercial vehicle was stolen from the site, and are calling for anyone with information to come forward.
The incident has sparked mass concerns in the community that the planes may have been ‘tampered with’. Others have questioned whether the incident should be branded an ‘act of terrorism’.
Charles Sturt University campus in Sadadeen was also broken into the same night, just after 1am. There, the offenders ’caused significant damage to the building and its contents,’ police said.
Another incident occurred 15 minutes later at a government office.
Frustrated locals say they’re at their wits’ end, noting politicians were in the NT at the weekend celebrating at the Garma Festival and touting their Voice to Parliament.
Tickets for the festival started at $1,650 for school students and reached $5,000 for a corporate pass.
Pictures show broken windows at the office that was targeted
Garma is an annual festival held on sacred Gumatj Bunggul ground in Gulkula every year in August.
Mr Albanese, who struggled to contain his emotions several times during the impassioned address, used it as a rallying call for Australians to vote Yes at the referendum to enshrine an Indigenous Voice to Parliament.
‘The form of constitutional recognition they are asking for is a Voice, not our sympathy, not a symbol, but a vehicle for progress,’ he told the crowd.
‘A practical tool to make their children’s lives better. Not just something that will feel good, something that will do good, that will make a positive difference.
‘Australian people should be equally clear of what voting no means.
‘It is more of the same. Not only rejecting the opportunity to do better, but accepting that what we have is somehow good enough.’
Mr Albanese, who struggled to contain his emotions several times during the impassioned address, used it as a rallying call for Australians to vote Yes at the referendum to enshrine an Indigenous Voice to Parliament
Mr Albanese repeated his promise to hold the referendum this year, despite calls to hold off amid declining support for the ‘Yes’ vote.
‘There will be no delaying or deferring of this referendum,’ he said.
‘We will not deny the urgency of this moment. We will not kick the can down the road, we will not abandon substance for symbolism or retreat to platitudes the expense of progress’.
Opposition leader Peter Dutton declined an invitation to the festival on the grounds the event will be a ‘love-in’ for the Yes campaign.
Australians will take to the polls to vote on the referendum later this year. Pictured: Mr Albanese shakes the hand of Mr Djawa Yunupingu during Garma Festival
DailyMail
