Antinuclear

WA Premier Colin Barnett talks about “review” of remote Aboriginal communities, but won’t meet their leaders

Barnett made the comments to PerthNow on Thursday morning, the same time as a meeting of the alliance of WA land councils in Broome.

Aboriginal land councils used the meeting to insist that Aboriginal people be given a say in issues like the remote community closures, declaring in a joint statement that “governments cannot decide where Aboriginal people live in Western Australia”.

Barnett was invited to attend that meeting but declined due to “prior commitments”.

He told PerthNow that a “comprehensive look” at the viability of remote Aboriginal communities was “under way” and he expected it to uncover evidence of “abuse”……

Barnett said in November that between 100 and 150 of the state’s 282 remote Aboriginal communities may be forced to close, after the federal government handed responsibility for the communities to the state, along with $90m, which is the equivalent of two years’ funding.

He told PerthNow that “maybe the word ‘closure’ … wasn’t the right word,” but said that government support for some of the communities would not continue……..

Labor Perth MP Alannah MacTiernan said the federal funding only applied to about 160 of WA’s remote communities. A spokesman for the Kimberley Land Council said a number of communities were self-sufficient and have not received any government assistance in years.

Barnett’s comments appeared to contradict the conciliatory tone taken by the regional development minister Terry Redman, who did attend the meeting and spoke to Guardian Australia and other media in Broome.

Redman said cutting off the services to up to 150 communities was not the government’s current position, and he refused to use the word “closure”. But he was unable to assure Aboriginal leaders that all of WA’s remote Aboriginal communities would remain open and supported by the state…..

It is not the first time there’s been separation between Redman and Barnett on this policy. Barnett hosed down reports of Redman’s initial suggestion of tying the Royalties for Regions fund to outcome-based projects in remote Aboriginal communities, but did say it may be appropriate to fund water and power services.

Redman refused to say whether he agreed with Barnett’s approach to the issue ……..

Land council members who spoke to Guardian Australia said that uncertainty remained. In a statement released at the close of the meeting on Thursday the group said Aboriginal people should be given a “real say in the issues that affect their lives and wellbeing”.

The Kimberley Land Council chairman Anthony Watson said Barnett’s decision not to attend the meeting was “extremely disappointing”…….

Farrer, a Lungka-Gidja woman, told Guardian Australia that some remote communities in Western Australia did have a history of social problems or mismanagement, but that starving those communities of funding was not the solution.

“This is why we have these high number of homeless people in the Broome area – because without a community, they have nowhere to go,” she said. http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/mar/06/wa-premier-flags-communities-review-but-fails-to-meet-indigenous-leaders

March 7, 2015 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | aboriginal issues, Western Australia