NT Aboriginal leaders' resignations come with an explosive exit note

After resigning from her position as the boss of Aboriginal Housing Northern Territory this week, Leeanne Caton went out swinging.

Her target: the NT's Country Liberal Party (CLP) government, which was elected in a landslide in 2024 on a mandate to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour.

Since the CLP's election, it has overhauled laws on bail, youth criminal responsibility and child protection, and given police a range of new powers.

NT Police say the territory has been recording lower crime rates following the changes.

But Ms Caton said she believed this was all done without listening to Aboriginal leadership.

"The reason why I'm leaving is basically every piece of legislation that gets put through has a negative impact directly on Aboriginal people," the Kalkadoon-Waanyi woman told ABC Radio Darwin.

"It's killing my spirit.

"I just can't stand to see what's happening to Aboriginal Territorians in this environment at the moment."

The straw that broke the camel's back for Ms Caton was the handling of the future of a Darwin homeless shelter, which is being shifted to the regional town of Batchelor.

The departure of the peak body boss is the latest in a string of resignations by Aboriginal leaders and organisations in the Territory over fraying relationships with the NT government.

Among them, the NT Children's Commissioner Shahleena Musk, independent chair of the NT Children and Families Tripartite Forum Rob McPhee, Darwin Waterfront Corporation chairman Richard Fejo, members of the NT Justice Policy Partnership and independent Arnhem Land parliamentarian, Yiŋiya Guyula.

The NT government is defending its relationship with Aboriginal leaders and communities.

'Still considered flora and fauna'

Now back in the Arnhem Land bush, Mr Guyula was asked for his reaction to Ms Caton's resignation and the current relationship between Aboriginal leaders and the CLP.

"They are creating a significant divide that is harming the NT," he said.

"They are tearing us all apart by treating our people as though we are not human, as though we are still considered flora and fauna."

He described the CLP's move to relocate the homeless shelter as "about dividing people in an attempt to push our people out of Darwin".

"It just does more harm to everyone," he said.

Former NT Labor politician and long-term First Nations advocate Scott McConnell said he feared diminishing trust between Aboriginal groups and the government was damaging the jurisdiction's future prospects.

"The geography of the NT is vast [but] the community is very small," he said.

"Governments need to stop dividing us based on race and geography and remember we have one shared future.

"I am very concerned that prominent leaders I know, trust and respect are finding the current environment so difficult they are leaving the front line.

"We all need to continue to support these fighters."

CLP government denies division

The NT's Acting Chief Minister Gerard Maley has fiercely defended the government's relationship with Aboriginal people and communities following the resignations.

Mr Maley also said his government stood by its continued focus on stamping out crime.

"We are listening to Aboriginal people," he said in a press conference on Friday.

"We work with many, many Aboriginal organisations right across the NT.

"And we need to work with them because we need to make sure the Aboriginal sector continues because there are a lot of Aboriginal people here.

"We want to make sure [their] safety is also our number one priority, and we're going to work with anyone we can to make sure that happens."

Mr Maley took issue with a question about why Aboriginal people were shut out of the conversation around the homeless shelter's move to Batchelor.

"We've been working with all sorts of organisations about that," he said.

In her parting shots at the NT government, Ms Caton vehemently disagreed: “It’s [been] disrespect and a lack of courtesy all round.”

Despite the vocal criticism and walk-outs, the government continues its mission towards a safer territory; no matter who argues against the way it’s going about it.