Sign of the times

AM - Fuel for hygiene: Aboriginal community makes deal with the Govt

http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2004/s1261151.htm]

AM - Thursday, 9 December , 2004 08:08:00
Reporter: Louise Willis
TONY EASTLEY: Aboriginal children will have to wash their faces twice a day if a remote community is going to get the petrol bowsers that it wants. The hygiene trade-off has emerged as part of the Federal Government's plans to shake up the distribution of Indigenous welfare.

Details have emerged of a draft version of one the Government's so-called 'Shared Responsibility Agreements', designed in this case, for a remote Kimberley community in Western Australia.

The agreement would see Aboriginal children washed and in school, and in return the community would get the petrol bowsers.

The Government has been adamant that 'behavioural contracts' are not the way to describe such plans, but the Opposition is concerned that the community has been coerced into backing the deal.

Louise Willis reports from Canberra.

LOUISE WILLIS: Deal or no deal? That's the question facing the residents in Mulan, on the edge of the Great Sandy Desert.

If they're to keep their end of the bargain, Aboriginal children must shower every day, wash their faces twice a day, and attend school. Families must keep homes and yards rubbish-free, and the local Council must empty bins twice a week and spray homes for pests twice a year.

In return, the Commonwealth puts up more than $170,000 to install fuel bowsers, providing income to the local store and boost local tourism opportunities.

But if it goes ahead, the Government says the deal will deliver much more than that, including the hope of a cleaner, healthier, and more economically viable community where are children learning, and not suffering from trachoma, worms or starvation.

Labor says Mulan shouldn't have to bargain for access to necessities, like petrol.

Senator Kim Carr.

KIM CARR: It would appear that all the obligation is on one side of the community. And the commonwealth responsibilities appear to be somewhat limited, namely the provision of a petrol bowser.

For a remote community of 170 souls – an area remote, where you would have thought petrol was a necessity – and yet the Government is making it available on conditions that people do certain things like wash their kids and various other things. It's patronising and I think in some ways quite insulting.

LOUISE WILLIS: Senator Carr's wondering exactly how such an agreement will be policed, and has challenged members of the National Indigenous Council to take the fight directly to John Howard today.

KIM CARR: I trust that there is a full and frank discussion and that the Government is actually explaining what it intends to do in regard to legislative change.

LOUISE WILLIS: Will the people at this meeting be letting down the Aboriginal people if they don't raise it at this meeting today?

KIM CARR: I think that the NIC has an obligation to make sure it does reflect the views within the community at large.

LOUISE WILLIS: The Government denies any Aboriginal community is being coerced, and through a spokesman, the Indigenous Affairs Minister describes the Shared Responsibility Agreement as an excellent one.

Amanda Vanstone's asked the West Australian State Labor Government to be part of the deal, and its Minister John Kobelke says Mulan locals appear pleased with the Government's offer.

JOHN KOBELKE: My understanding is that the community was quite willing to enter into this arrangement.

LOUISE WILLIS: Your federal colleagues here in Canberra are saying that this is a one-sided agreement, that they're worried that the community's being coerced and it's very authoritarian. Is there at odds there, at the Labor Party over this issue?

JOHN KOBELKE: Well, the particular concept of a Shared Responsibility Agreement has not been adequately explained by the commonwealth and therefore people may assume that it does all sorts of things which they have worries about.

LOUISE WILLIS: Well, who then is on the ground there to make sure that kids have their shower every day and wash their face twice a day?

JOHN KOBELKE: Well, what we're saying is we'll be going in there, checking on the level of trachoma, checking on the other problems which are endemic in that area and we'll be wanting to see improvements.

LOUISE WILLIS: And what is your understanding if those outcomes that you say you're measuring are not being met – what happens to the fuel bowser then?

JOHN KOBELKE: My understanding then is that that particular trial, seeking to have a partnership and an agreement has been a failure, and we need to assess that and see how it can be done better.

TONY EASTLEY: The State Minister for Indigenous Affairs in Western Australia, John Kobelke, speaking to Louise Willis in Canberra.


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