Permit system protects residents

The argument that permits inhibit economic development is similarly flawed. Mineral exploration and production is worth more than $1 billion a year in the Northern Territory, and 80 per cent of this occurs on Aboriginal land, with permits.

The severe obstacles of huge distances, very small markets, lack of transport and communications and poor infrastructure inhibit the success of smaller industries, not permits.

Add to that the appalling record of government neglect of Aboriginal education and employment and there goes your human capital. The bush is hardly an economic hot spot. Too bad if you live there.

Finally, we are not opposed to media scrutiny, although critics love to rework that worn-out cliché of the land councils as gatekeepers and commissars. Never mind that the CLC is a modern Australian government statutory authority that believes media scrutiny assists transparency and accountability and is a vital part of our democracy.

We welcome journalists who wish to cover stories concerning Aboriginal people in our region, and we have done so for decades. But in the past 15 years I could count the number of journalists' permit applications on my fingers. Very few are interested: it's too far, too time-consuming, just not enough of a yarn to spend all that time out in the bush. We have welcomed the recent interest and spent hours assisting visiting journalists to get their story from the ground.