THURSDAY 8 DECEMBER 2005

First anniversary of Shared Responsibility Agreements – new research shows they fail to deliver

A year after the first shared responsibility agreement with an Aboriginal community became public, new research indicates that the Howard Government has failed to meet key commitments it made to Aboriginal communities under the program.

The study, by Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning Senior Research Fellow, Ruth McCausland, is also critical of the ad hoc way the program has been implemented and the lack of proper planning and evaluation of outcomes.

Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation (ANTaR) National Director, Dr David Cooper said the research painted a scathing picture of the first year of the Government’s Shared Responsibility program.

“On at least two occasions the Government has failed to meet its commitments to Aboriginal communities under the program,” Dr Cooper said.

“After almost a year of meeting the Government’s requirements, the Western Australian community of Mulan had still not received the petrol bowser it was promised in a blaze of publicity on December 9 last year,” he said.

“Even more disturbingly, the western New South Wales region of Murdi Paaki participated in the early trials of the program. It still hadn’t received any of the 200 air conditioners promised by the Government after two and a half years of meeting the program’s requirement,” Dr Cooper said.

Dr Cooper said funds under the SRA program didn’t seem to be allocated on the basis of need.

“The research points out that there is no consistency between agreements, even for communities with similar needs seeking to address similar problems,” he said.

Under the program, the NSW community of Bourke, with an Aboriginal population approaching 4,000 people, will receive $47,000 to ‘Make the town safer.’ In contrast, the Northern Territory community of Tennant Creek, with an Aboriginal population of around 1,250, will receive $363,000 to create ‘a safer community.’

“These funding allocations don’t appear to make any sense,” Dr Cooper said.

“The annual number of assaults in Bourke in 2004 was almost eight times the state average, while Tennant Creek’s assault rate sits at around the Territory average,” he said.

Dr Cooper said that SRA’s were unable to make any significant impact on redressing Aboriginal disadvantage, given that they only made up one percent of Indigenous funding.

He urged the Government to rethink the centerpiece of its approach to Indigenous Affairs.

‘The SRA program favours photo opportunities and sound bites over genuine commitment and systematic policy development. It places all of the responsibilities on Indigenous people and none of the accountabilities on government,” he said.

“It offers inadequate funding to tackle the real life and death issues confronting Aboriginal people at a time when the gap between the life expectancy of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians is becoming wider.”

Ruth McCausland’s analysis of the first year of Shared Responsibility Agreements can be found at www.jumbunna.uts.edu.au

Media contact: Gary Highland on 0418 476 940.