Senators and public servants clashed at Senate estimates hearings in the nation’s capital over the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) trial in Wadeye.
The trial, which has been running since March 2003, draws in the resources of state, federal and local governments to deliver services to the 2,500 locals.
But one government senator, Bill Heffernan, today said the young people of Wadeye were driven to rioting because they were not at school and "bored shitless".
Labor's indigenous affairs spokesman, Chris Evans, said the COAG trial had gone "off the rails".
"This is damning indictment of the department's failure to meet its side of the bargain," Senator Evans said.
But Department of Family and Community Services secretary Jeff Harmer insisted it was a joint trial with the two other tiers of government and all levels should shoulder responsibility, however he admitted that the commonwealth could have done better.
Senator Heffernan said shifting blame from one government to another wasn't helpful, "I don't know what the NT government's doing, but this blame bullshit that goes on all the time - it's not getting us anywhere."
In April and May this year, the Wadeye community south-west of Darwin suffered through weeks of tension and violence, leading to the arrest of 53 people, and prompting the stationing of extra police in the area.
The damage to houses, property and power supplies left hundreds of people homeless.
When violence and abuse in Aboriginal communities attracted nation-wide attention later in May, federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough vowed not to release extra funding for Aboriginal housing in the NT until law and order was restored.
Dr Harmer said the failure of the COAG trial in Wadeye could be attributed to a lack of coordination between governments, but state-run policing and schooling deficiencies were partly to blame.
But Senator Evans said that would not wash with him. “I mean, you kick ATSIC to death and then, quite frankly, the performance level of this is worse than anything ATSIC ever did," he said.
Senator Evans said an independent report evaluating the Wadeye COAG trial had found it had failed and was bogged down in bureaucracy.
"This report says you've buggered it up," Senator Evans said.
The report's author, Bill Gray, found the shared responsibility agreement for the community was not being implemented properly and there was an absence of flexible funding.