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Sixty million dollars will be injected into the troubled outback town of Tennant Creek and the wider Barkly region under a new infrastructure initiative, but it's still unclear what projects will actually be funded.
Key points:
- The Federal and NT governments will each contribute $30m in funding
- No infrastructure projects have been announced, but consultation is underway
- Senator Nigel Scullion says training locals will take precedence over fast-tracking projects
Representatives from all levels of government jetted into Tennant Creek on Monday to sign a "statement of intent" to progress a regional deal.
The projects will have to fall under three broad themes: economic development, social development and "cultural and place-making".
The newly-formed Cultural Authority Group and traditional owners will have to agree to any projects in order for them to receive money under the regional deal.
No specific projects have been announced, but Federal Minister for Regional Services, Senator Bridget McKenzie, said all levels of government were consulting with the community to decide what to fund.
"An array of proposals across different portfolio areas from health, education, critical base infrastructure," she said.
"Things that are actually going to support this community to be everything it can be."
Northern Territory Chief Minister Michael Gunner said his government would foot half the bill, or $30 million, to further the regional partnership, which he described as an "amazing offer" that would deliver better outcomes for people in the Barkly region.
It was a sentiment echoed by Barkly Regional Council Mayor Steve Edgington, who said he had been out consulting with the community on what the money should be spent on.
"We haven't been sitting idle," he said.
"There's been people right across the region having those consultations."
Regional partnership to 'leave a legacy of a skillset'
Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Senator Nigel Scullion said training local employees would take precedence over fast-tracking new infrastructure.
"If you build a piece of infrastructure in a year, no tradesmen, no apprentices come out of that," he said.
"If you take four years to build a piece of infrastructure you get apprentices out of that, you leave a legacy of a skillset."
Progress towards the deal began when the former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull visited Tennant Creek following the alleged rape of a two-year-old girl.
At the time, Mr Turnbull said more money wasn't the answer to the region's economic and social problems, and said the deal was about getting all levels of government, alongside the private and charity sectors, working better together.
Mr Turnbull identified a lack of suitable housing as the biggest issue in the town.
Senator McKenzie became the fifth federal minister to visit the town in recent months, but Mr Edgington said the change of government in Canberra had not set back the deal.
"It's been great meeting so many new people from the Federal Government," he said.
Topics: regional-development, community-and-society, regional, indigenous-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander, indigenous-policy, government-and-politics, nt, tennant-creek-0860, alice-springs-0870, darwin-0800