The Prime Minister said she would instead travel to Alice Springs with Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin.
This comes despite a growing chorus of indigenous leaders calling for a renewed bipartisan approach.
After the meeting, Mr Abbott said the government was "on notice" and warned that Alice Springs and other Northern Territory towns were lurching towards a full-blown social crisis.
"I think we do need a new intervention," he said. "The Prime Minister, to her credit, has closely studied my letter. She assures me that the government has the matter in hand.
"She assures me that there will be a comprehensive response that will address all of the suggestions I made in my letter.
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"I'm pleased. I think that as a result of my letter the government knows that it is being watched. The government knows that it is on notice."
Ms Gillard's response won't satisfy a growing number of Aboriginal leaders who want a bipartisanship approach to solving the emerging crisis in Alice Springs and across Aboriginal affairs. Kerry Arabena, chief executive of the newly opened Lowitja Institute, said Ms Gillard and Mr Abbott needed to go to Alice Springs together to show leadership in ending indigenous disadvantage.
"I think (them travelling together) would be a strong standing for the rest of Australians to take note of and organise ourselves behind. I don't think one political party has the answer to this and I think collaborations and unity are critical in reducing the vulnerability and suffering of people in Alice Springs."
Dr Arabena agreed with Coalition criticisms of the slow rate of progress in closing the gap in life expectancy between black and white Australia.
"The government's reports on closing the gap I believe leave a lot to be desired. There is a lot of opportunity for improvements," she said.
A spokesman for Ms Gillard said she explained to Mr Abbott the government's current approach to Alice Springs and the actions taken by the Territory government and police to combat alcohol abuse. "She indicated that the government was treating these issues very seriously given the magnitude of the challenges ahead," the spokesman said.
Ms Gillard said she would provide Mr Abbott with a letter in response to his letter detailing the facts so "he could familiarise himself with them". She said she would travel to Alice Springs at some point, though no plans had been finalised.
"The Prime Minister will travel with her minister, who has been working closely on this matter for several years, rather than with Mr Abbott," the spokesman said.
"The Prime Minister made clear to Mr Abbott that she would be pursuing a policy strategy, not a media strategy."
The Coalition's indigenous health spokesman, Andrew Laming, said the government's close the gap strategy was fatally flawed.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/in-dept ... 6027710807
Perhaps someone should alert the indigenous community to this government having sold off it's water rights to foreign investors after silencing but one out-spoken indigenous instant-coffee tribe who they bribed with final-royalties before she gets there?
I wonder what they will call Alice Springs, when the springs no longer form part of their indigenous communities heritage, this and has been sold off to foreign investors like so many of our wild river systems?
Alice swamp?
And will Julia Gillard like to engage in discussion about There being no connection between the Angela Pamela uranium deposit and the Mereenie Aquifer which supplies Alice Springs water?
