The Northern Territory Government is being warned of Indigenous job losses and problems managing public housing under changes planned for the Aboriginal town camps in Alice Springs.

Key points: Town camp residents rally against changes to their housing tenancy management

Town camp residents rally against changes to their housing tenancy management Concerns raised about Indigenous job losses and less Aboriginal control over town camp housing

Concerns raised about Indigenous job losses and less Aboriginal control over town camp housing NT Chief Minister says government was compelled to hold public tender process under agreements signed when Commonwealth took over town camp leases in 2009

At a rally in Alice Springs this morning, town camp residents called on the Territory Government to reverse its decision to put a private company rather than an Indigenous community housing group in charge of tenancy in the camps.

But the Government has defended its decision saying it was compelled to put the contract out to public tender under agreements signed when the Federal Government took over leases for the camps in 2009.

About 50 people gathered at the rally where Walter Shaw, the CEO of the Indigenous organisation Tangentyere Council, which runs services in the camps, said the decision was one more step away from Aboriginal control of housing in the camps.

"The decision undertaken by the Northern Territory Government is a slap in the face for Aboriginal people to get Aboriginal housing right, this is taking away Aboriginal housing out of Aboriginal hands," he said.

Town camp resident Mervyn Rubuntja said he wanted the Territory Government to reverse its decision to award the contract for tenancy management to a private company Zodiac in Alice Springs.

"We don't want it, from our side ... we don't want it," he said.

The tenancy has been managed by an Indigenous organisation that specialises in Indigenous community housing - the Central Australian Affordable Housing Company.

Tangentyere Council is part of the group. But on New Year's Eve the not-for-profit company was told it had lost the contract to a private business group, Zodiac, in Alice Springs.

No one from Zodiac was available to speak to PM.

Mr Rubuntja thinks the contract should stay with an organisation with strong links with people in the camps.

"We want it as it is," he said.

A lawyer with the Central Australian Aboriginal Legal Aid Service, Katie Gordon, said legal problems could be avoided when Indigenous housing was managed by companies with strong community links.

She said a large part of her legal aid service's work was related to conflicts over housing, sometimes arising from language and cultural barriers.

"We see legal clashes arise because Department of Housing policy does not take into account Aboriginal cultural practice," she said

The contract decision stems back to just prior to the federal intervention in the Northern Territory's Indigenous communities when a row erupted over the poor living conditions in the camps.

The Federal Government wanted to "normalise" the camps and offered $100m worth of upgrades but only on the condition the residents agreed to lease the land to the Commonwealth for 40 years.

After a long stand-off, 16 camps agreed to the leases and housing in those camps, once run by Tangentyere Council, was put into a mainstream model run by Territory Housing.

Town camp management 'must go to tender'

Northern Territory Chief Minister Adam Giles said those agreements from 2009 compelled his Government to open up the management of the housing to public tender.

Not all are in approval of the Territory government decision to award the contract for management of Alice Springs town camps to a private company Zodiac ( Reuters )

"If I had my way housing would be given back to communities and it's something I'm having a firm look at right now," Mr Giles said.

"But we must go to public tender, we've followed that process that we've inherited, the outcome is the tender process that's been delivered upon," Mr Giles said.

Mr Giles said the government had decided on the best business for the job.

"Of course we would like to see agencies such as Central Australia Affordable Housing win these tenders but we've also got to be mindful when we're spending taxpayers dollars, we have to get the best value for money so we can spread the dollar around as much as possible," he said.

Katie Gordon from the Central Australian Aboriginal Legal Aid Service thinks the decision contradicts some of the Government's other commitments on Indigenous control and employment.

"In our view this funding decision is clearly at odds with the frequent rhetoric of the current NT Government about empowering Aboriginal people to improve their lives and empowering Aboriginal people to participate in the NT economy," she said.

"We know that the majority of affordable housing staff will lose their employment over the next few weeks."

Yesterday, on the eve of the rally in Alice Springs, the Territory Government announced an Aboriginal-owned enterprise associated with Tangentyere Council had won a separate contract to run housing maintenance in the camps.

The Government said Zodiac, which has won the tender for tenancy management, had Indigenous employees but the company was not available today to provide any further details.