The Cairns Post

Mission baby-sits as parents drink - Former community boss's shock claim

Carenda Jenkin

01Jul08

THE former boss of a remote Central Australian community has accused a charity of babysitting children while their parents drink.

Deirdre Finter, the former CEO of Imanpa community, 260km west of Alice Springs, wrote to the Senate Select Committee on Regional and Remote Indigenous Communities last month.

She said alcohol and housing were the two biggest problems facing Imanpa.

In her written submission Ms Finter said income management had allowed people to save money for petrol, so grog runs to Alice Springs became more common.

She wrote: ``Along with the proximity of the Mount Ebenezer Roadhouse ... people began drinking every day, with many community members spending all their time in procuring and drinking alcohol.

``My position became untenable in that I felt I was simply making it possible for people to live in this way while Mission Australia, who were contracted to provide youth services, were babysitting children while their parents drank.''

Mission Australia deny the claim.

The Imanpa Community Council has remained tight-lipped on the issue and refused to comment.

Ms Finter told the Centralian Advocate she did not blame the community for the problem.

She said: ``It's not the people of Imanpa I am having a go at _ it's the Federal Government's intervention. We haven't seen one brick laid for Imanpa and housing remains the most important issue. People are sleeping in abandoned cars. I shudder to think that children out there are sleeping outside in cold conditions.

``The only houses the government brought in were for the white fellas, who built their places in what we called the `intervention village'.''

But the 250 residents of Imanpa are crowded into just 24 homes.

Ms Finter resigned as the community's CEO in February and took up the same position at Hart's Range.

She said she could ``no longer function in a community dogged by alcoholism, violence and inundated with ineffective government representatives''.

Mission Australia NT director Jane Lawton denied the charity organisation's services were being abused.

Ms Lawton said: ``Our workers have made significant inroads in providing programs that deter young people from anti-social behaviours and providing assistance for them to learn and plan for the future.

``Mission Australia supports the overall aims of the Federal Government's Emergency Intervention in protecting children from sexual abuse, delivering jobs to communities, supporting needy families and tackling addictions.''