The acting chief executive of the Northern Land Council says Indigenous rangers in the Northern Territory need to be granted greater powers in the face of an ‘over-stretched’ police force.
Currently rangers are only able to ask people to move along and photograph and GPS pinpoint areas where any illegal activity has taken place.
Last year as the opposition government Territory Labor leader Michael Gunner traveled to Wadeye to promise more money and new enforcement powers for Indigenous rangers.
Jonathon McLeod of the Northern Land Council says Northern Territory police are currently unable to adequately patrol the coastline’s inter tidal waters – 86 per cent of which are Indigenous owned.
