Tangentyere Council accused of not delivering services

Servicing 16 town camps across Alice Springs with $30 million worth of government contracts, Tongue and Jira Council is one of Australia’s largest Aboriginal organisations. But on the ground, stakeholders are frustrated by the silence from the top and what they allege are failures to deliver services adequately to residents across the community. This is the low expectations that are rolled out for Indigenous Australians. They are the most marginalised in this country. Experience the highest rates of domestic and family violence, and yet these are the standards that are maintained. Why we allow our children to to play in in absolutely diabolical conditions. Live in the same places of absolute dysfunction. Tongue and Juris CEO Walter Shaw has been at the helm since 2011, while his father, Geoff Shaw, is the board president and a former CEO. The Alice Springs Town Council frustrated it hasn’t had a meeting with the CEO in over a decade. We’ve reached out on numerous occasions. We’ve written to the Attorney General to see if he can have any input into brokering a meeting. Unfortunately, we haven’t haven’t got there yet. Current and former employees of the organization have told the ABC about what they believe are shortcomings in the organization’s leadership, which they say are negatively impacting the community. The ABC can reveal that despite changing several domestic violence prevention programs, one of its board members, Philip Miller, is a convicted domestic violence perpetrator. So personally, I would not think that was acceptable. It would not be acceptable on a NT Government board. Its utter hypocrisy, it demonstrates to the community and to victims of DV that this organization is not serious about reducing levels of domestic and family violence within our community, Mr. Miller told the ABC. He was elected to the board by his community and that he had put his issues of violence behind him. Tangenjiro declined to comment.