An editorial in The Advertiser by Melvin Mansell, the editor says:
The issue of people camping in the parklands, whether Aboriginals fleeing violence interstate or just homeless people sleeping rough, is a vexed one. Governments cannot be seen to be so heartless that they move people on like cattle.Nor, on the other hand, can they afford to allow mini town camps to spring up around the city – an issue which is now causing significant criminal and social problems in towns such as Alice Springs where people are moving to the urban environment to escape violence in outback communities.
Though there are an estimated white and non-white 100-200 people sleeping rough throughout Adelaide’s streets every night, it is aboriginal people who become the political football. The Yuendumu people, for instance, who were fleeing tribal warfare after a man was fatally stabbed are unwelcome in Adelaide’s parklands.