FRIDAY 9 DECEMBER 2005
Government plans may force 30,000 people off their land
Removing infrastructure funding from Aboriginal communities with less than 100 people may force around 30,000 Aboriginal people off their land, Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation (ANTaR) warned today.
In a recent speech at the Australian National University, Indigenous Affairs Minister, Senator Amanda Vanstone questioned the cost of funding these communities, describing them as unviable.
ANTaR National Director, Dr David Cooper said Minister Vanstone didn’t appear to realize the implications of what she was calling for.
“The Minister seems confused about living arrangements of tens of thousands of Aboriginal people in remote Australia,” Dr Cooper said.
“She seems to be lumping together what is in reality a very diverse group of communities. Many communities of 100 or less are permanent ones.”
“Denying basic infrastructure to these communities would see the effective dispossession of Aboriginal people from vast tracts of remote Australia,” he said.
“I can’t believe the Minister would seriously be advocating that. I would strongly urge her to spend more time in the communities of remote Australia so she has a better understanding of the relationship between small Aboriginal communities and larger townships.”
Dr Cooper said that forcing people from outstations and smaller communities to townships would also stretch already inadequate resources.
“Basic infrastructure in larger Aboriginal communities is already sadly lacking. Yet the Minister seems to want to put even more pressure on housing, schooling, water and other infrastructure in these towns by forcing people to them from smaller communities,” Dr Cooper said.
Dr Cooper said a far more useful debate would be on how the Government could provide desperately needed services and infrastructure for all Indigenous communities.
“The Government seems to be wrapping itself in ever more confusing arguments to justify why its funding to Indigenous communities still falls far short of that necessary to tackle the real life and death issues confronting Aboriginal people,” he said.
Media contact: Gary Highland on 0418 476 940.
