A First Nations controlled organisation paid tens of millions of dollars to help improve social issues in Alice Spring. But has comes under fire for allegedly failing to deliver services adequately, and for allowing a convicted domestic violence offender to sit on its board. As another bout of social unrest continues in Alice Springs the Tangentyere council CEO has remained silent and has declined to meet with local government and other stakeholders.
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00:00 >>Servicing 16 town camps across Alice Springs with $30 million worth of government contracts,
00:08 Tungindjira Council is one of Australia's largest Aboriginal organisations.
00:13 But on the ground, stakeholders are frustrated by the silence from the top and what they
00:17 allege are failures to deliver services adequately to residents across the community.
00:22 >>This is the low expectations that are rolled out for Indigenous Australians.
00:28 They are the most marginalised in this country, experience the highest rates of domestic and
00:33 family violence and yet these are the standards that are maintained.
00:38 >>Why we allow our children to play in absolutely diabolical conditions, live in the same places
00:46 of absolute dysfunction.
00:50 >>Tungindjira's CEO Walter Shaw has been at the helm since 2011, while his father,
00:55 Geoff Shaw, is the board president and a former CEO.
00:58 The Alice Springs Town Council frustrated it hasn't had a meeting with the CEO in over
01:03 a decade.
01:04 >>We've reached out on numerous occasions, we've written to the Attorney General to see
01:08 if he can have any input into brokering a meeting.
01:11 Unfortunately we haven't got there yet.
01:14 >>Current and former employees of the organisation have told the ABC about what they believe
01:20 are shortcomings in the organisation's leadership, which they say are negatively impacting the
01:24 community.
01:25 The ABC can reveal that, despite Tungindjira running several domestic violence prevention
01:30 programs, one of its board members, Philip Miller, is a convicted domestic violence perpetrator.
01:35 >>It's utter hypocrisy.
01:38 It demonstrates to the community and to victims of DV that this organisation is not serious
01:44 about reducing levels of domestic and family violence within our communities.
01:50 >>Mr Miller told the ABC he was elected to the board by his community and that he had
01:54 put his issues of violence behind him.
01:56 Tungindjira declined to comment.
01:58 [BLANK_AUDIO]