Greens Leader Richard Di Natale has called Malcolm Turnbull's visit to the troubled town of Tennant Creek a mere "photo opportunity" that doesn't indicate any real action will occur.
The prime minister has spent two days in the Northern Territory town that received national attention when a two-year-old girl was raped in February, highlighting a child protection and housing crisis.
Mr Turnbull proposed a regional deal with three tiers of government to co-ordinate services and extending the issuing of controversial cashless welfare cards to deal with Tennant Creek's social problems.
Senator Di Natale said the PM had consistently demonstrated he was not committed to addressing Aboriginal disadvantage, such as by rejecting the Uluru Statement calling for an indigenous voice to parliament.
"What does that (regional) plan look like, if it is not backed up with genuine resources and is not owned or controlled by Aboriginal people in that area themselves?
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"They are the building blocks for meaningful change and if you haven't got those things in place you are not going to achieve anything.
"To rock up for a day or two, if it is backed up with a plan is a good thing but if it is really just to give the appearance of showing you are interested in the problem it achieves nothing."
Senator Di Natale, who once lived and worked in Tennant Creek as a graduate doctor, said he acknowledged these were not easy answers and successive governments had failed to deal with systematic and structural problems.
However he said there were solutions that worked, from providing housing so children were not in unsafe, overcrowded homes to investing in indigenous health and resourcing Aboriginal organisations so they took ownership of solutions.
