ANTaR (Australians for Native Title and
Reconciliation) today urged the Australian and Northern Territory
governments to urgently reconsider their remote Indigenous community
strategy in the wake of criticisms by NT Labor MLA, Marion Scrymgour.
“When a senior member of the NT Government holds such serious
concerns for her party’s policies, it’s time to go back to the drawing
board”, ANTaR spokesperson, David Cooper, said.
“The NT Government’s “Working Futures” response to its review of
outstations (homelands) policy, formalises the status quo of chronic
under-resourcing of services to homelands, envisaging the slow death by
neglect of these unique and under-valued communities.
“Families should not be forced to move away from established
communities on their traditional lands in order to access basic
services.
“The government is ignoring evidence that homelands deliver better
and healthier lives for their residents. Studies in both Central
Australia and the Top End show improved health outcomes in relation to
lifestyle-related chronic disease such as diabetes, heart disease and
renal failure. Homelands can also deliver better social outcomes
associated with reduced levels of stress, conflict and violence.
“Homelands provide nationally-significant benefits and employment in
remote environmental management. They have an as yet not fully realised
potential for sustainable remote economies based on Aboriginal cultural
and environmental knowledge.
“The demise of these benefits of homelands will be hastened by the
abandonment of CDEP jobs in remote areas, which will see thousands
transferred from work to welfare and the collapse of many Indigenous
organisations and enterprises. This means real people being thrown out
of work, loss of purpose and self-esteem and reduced family incomes.
“The focus on so-called ‘growth towns’ is appropriate if it is not
at the expense of resourcing smaller communities. However, the strategy
appears to be trying to make a virtue out of clearly inadequate
government funding for Indigenous services and infrastructure, and the
skewed priorities associated with the NT intervention.
“For example, only $20 million per year is being provided by the
Australian Government for NT homelands, yet $180 million has been spent
in the past 2 years on compulsory income management that has provided
little discernable benefit and zero prospects for creating positive
long-term change.
“A proper cost-benefit analysis of homelands would expose the lack
of evidence and short-sightedness that underpins the current remote
communities strategy.
“Shoehorning Aboriginal lives into mainstream futures that currently
do not exist, while overlooking the broader impacts on, and needs of,
all Indigenous communities, will not contribute to closing the gap. It
will simply increase dependency and disempowerment.
“The current policy is profoundly disempowering, discriminatory and assimilationist”, David Cooper concluded.
Media comment: David Cooper 0418 486 310