The Alice Springs business owner who exposed the full extent of the town’s crime crisis on a national stage through social media has announced he’ll be stepping away from the Action for Alice Facebook page for an indefinite period, following revelations the NT Police Minister took legal action against him over a post.
Darren Clark issued a statement on the popular page on Sunday – which did not report crime incidents last week – saying he could “no longer lead the charge” to expose what the government and police executive wanted kept hidden from the public and needed a break to deal with his “health and personal issues”.
In the post, entitled “the bear hibernates”, Mr Clark did not directly reference the lawsuit, but explained that he started the page to draw attention to issues facing the town he loves that had been overrun with crime, including “5 – 8 year old children on the streets at 2am seeking the safety of the night on the streets as opposed to family home” which he said raised issues “that needed to be exposed”.
“The fact that Alice Springs and the issues we all faced became a national issue forced a degree of action and future commitment and planning to try and turn the tide. I thank all of you for your help and support in getting us to that point.”
But, he added, he needed to take a break form the page to get his life back in balance.
“The reason I find myself writing this is the fact that I can no longer lead the charge full time,” he said. “I find myself with health and personal issues. Working 70 hours plus a week and then spending almost every other waking minute on the page was my choice but it is unsustainable.”
“I need to have my life back and find my balance for my own wellbeing.”
It was revealed during Budget Estimates last week that Police Minister Kate Worden recently initiated legal action against Mr Clark for a post he published in April, that alleged Ms Worden had told him he was lucky her husband hadn’t attended the meeting between the pair in March 2021 to “bash” him. The alleged comments came following a post Mr Clark published about Ms Worden’s Christmas holidays in 2020 while crime in Alice Springs spiked.
Ms Worden denied in Estimates that she had charged taxpayers for the legal action that resulted in Mr Clark publishing a public apology to the Minister, in which he suggested their “recollections of the meeting may be different”.
“In the circumstances I retract the statements attributed to Minister Worden and provide an unreserved apology for any embarrassment caused to her as a result of the post,” he wrote last week.
The Action for Alice page played a crucial role in Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s visit to the town for crime crisis talks earlier this year with local and state officials.
Mr Clark, who is a small businessman operating a bakery in Alice, emerged as one of the Fyles Government’s most powerful critics through ongoing media interviews on a national stage.
The page had drawn criticism from some national media who alleged the posts led to “racist” sentiment and the Fyles Government and NT Police executive claimed the page published “untrue” items.
Mr Clark concluded his statement on Sunday by telling the community to keep sending in information to the page to “be recorded” and thanked those who contributed for their support over the years.
“To those who I offended and to those who thought what I was doing was the wrong way of addressing the issues, well you now have a chance to step forward and try your way, but it is always far easier complaining that doing, so good luck,” he wrote.
“I really wanted to help and save the kids. This was not the town we had all come to love. Governments initially denied that there was an issue which became the hurdle we needed to jump, and we did.”
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