2002 -2003 was a busy year for Council. Council had moved on from the Ministerial that had been placed on them in 00/01 and the Financial Management had been sorted out and was operating smoothly. It was also a year of not having the added pressures of operating the Community Health Centre. Council was able to start addressing other concerns in the community.

One major concern was the wines and spirits which were being sold from the local Motel
and brought back into the community. From the middle of '02 there was a noticeable increase in anti social behaviour, assaults, domestic violence within the community. This was also reflected in the Health Workers work particularly in the increase of after hour calls outs and the serious nature of the call outs.

The matter was addressed at a Hearing with the Liquor Commission with the outcome being that a clause was written into the liquor licence for the Motel that the sale of such items to Belyuen residents was prohibited. There is still the issue of defining who is a 'visitor' to Belyuen however Council has provided a list of people who are not considered visitors.

Alcohol consumption is a problem in the community as in many communities and urban places particularly amongst young people. Belyuen Council is trying to address the problem from a number of different ways. There is no one simple answer and Council can not do it own their own. There are a lot of opportunities identified in the outline of the Business Plan that Council has prepared. With support from the Community and Government Departments / Agencies there is no reason why the Plan can not be fully actioned even if not within the timeframe but within an acceptable timeframe.

Another concern that Council has is with CDEP. Council is very supportive and appreciative of the CDEP workers in the community. However Council does not feel that the CDEP workers are given enough support from the Regional CDEP. There is very little communication from the CDEP Office and Belyuen CDEP workers have no input into any decisions that are made by the Regional CDEP. Belyuen Council organized training for their CDEP workers. Regional CDEP obtained funding from DEET for training for CDEP participants and Belyuen CDEP workers were not even invited to participate in any of the training.
The CDEP workers continue to struggle with little equipment and have to rely on Council equipment for a lot of their work. This puts a strain on Council’s resources.

Belyuen Council will continue to support the CDEP worker’s. However Council believes that the CDEP would be much more efficient if Belyuen had their own CDEP and was not under a Regional organization that spends more time working with the Darwin based CDEP organizations than it does with organizations out of Darwin. This is a common problem with Regional organizations that are based in an urban environment but are also meant to be providing services to communities such as Belyuen.

Belyuen Council was very disappointed with the NAIDOC committee. The Yilli Rueung Regional Council had given all NAIDOC funding to NAALAS for them to distribute. Belyuen Council applied for funding to the NAIDOC committee so they could organize some NAIDOC activities in the community. Belyuen Council ended up with no funding from the NAIDOC committee and understands that all the NAIDOC funds stayed within Darwin. This is another example of money not getting out to community people and staying in urban organizations.

Overall 02/03 was a positive year for Council. Having moved on from past problems and a lot of the conflict that had previously existed within the community settled down. 03/04
will continue to see the benefits of this.

EDDIE SHIELDS
VICE CHAIRPERSON