Up to 40 detainees are allegedly removed from Wickham Point Detention Centre, in the largest single transportation this year from Darwin to a remote prison island concentration camp.

The detainees included families and children, some who are believed to be Iranian, according to Darwin Asylum Seeker Support and Advocacy Network (DASSAN) spokesman Peter Robson.

Mr Robson said he was told by detainees inside the centre that dogs and heavily armed guards were used during the transfer.

"This kind of force is not appropriate for any vulnerable person, let alone small children," he said.

"The trauma being caused by this type of action is immeasurable."

Advocates said they saw police cars going in and out of the centre about 1.30am.

The alleged removal follows a claim in April that up to 20 detainees were taken from Wickham Point detention centre following mass protests and self-harm attempts among detainees.

In late June the ABC reported 40 asylum seekers including three babies had been transferred from the detention centre to Nauru.

Seven years ago the Feds kicked thousands of Territorians out of paid CDEP positions, and on to quarantined welfare.

Today they've conceded their subsequent remote jobs program is failing, and they've announced a series of changes designed to reverse what they blame as “sit-down money” culture.

About 60 per cent of remote jobseekers had left the program for 'passive' quarantined welfare, Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion said. Senator Scullion announced a rebranding of the Remote Jobs and Communities Program (RJCP) at a conference in Darwin on Wednesday.

Instead of acknowledging the foolishness of destroying thousands of jobs in order to enforce the severe intervention measures, and recognising government's failure to develop adequate alternative employment opportunities, they're blaming Territorians for their own policy failures.

“Everyone accepts there were some perverse outcomes that were never anticipated and not accepted (under RJCP), so this is a readjustment of those policies and programs,” Scullion said.

See how easy it is to be a failure in Indigenous Affairs? Everyone expects bad outcomes, and when they become undeniable you just blame it on the Indigenous victims of your bad policies.

Under the new model, a “no work no pay” system will be instituted, and participants will answer to their service providers rather than to Centrelink.

DISADVANTAGED residents in remote parts of the Northern Territory facing even steeper mark-ups on food than previously thought, according to a study by the Menzies School of Health Research.

Among the products with big price differences are fresh fruit, soft drink, and canned, dried and frozen vegetables.

One of the only exceptions was bottled water, which was cheaper in remote communities.

Evidence suggests that food affordability is worsening in remote communities, with an increasing gap in prices between remote community stores and the Darwin supermarket over the past four years.

Yet another Aboriginal person has died the most inhuman of deaths: without family around, on a cold, concrete floor of a police cell.

The Northern Territory's Attorney-General said that the new paperless arrest laws make it simpler for police to "catch and release people". Police have a tough job and every reasonable effort should be made to make their job easier, but efficiency is not the be-all and end-all: putting safeguards around police powers is entirely appropriate in a liberal democracy.

A recent freedom of information application showed the paperless arrest laws have already been used an extraordinary amount of times – more than 700 times in their first three months of operation. It also showed that they are having a disproportionate impact: more than 75 per cent of people arrested have been Aboriginal.

It is clear that these laws have and will continue to see more Aboriginal people locked up for minor offences.

Another Aboriginal person was locked up for minor offences and died in custody. On these bare facts alone, as a nation we should be outraged.