The Sydney Morning Herald Government mugged Aboriginal report Date: 19/01/2002
By Toni O'Loughlin The Government's plan to cut urban Aborigines from specialised indigenous health, education and housing programs and make them use mainstream services defies recommendations of a report which it tried to suppress last year. After commissioning the report on indigenous funding from the Commonwealth Grants Commission in the belief that money was going to waste, the Government has decided to press on with its election promise to conduct a wide-ranging review of spending. Indigenous funding reached a record $2.39 billion this financial year and the Government, reluctant to spend any more money, wants to remove indigenous services from urban and rural areas and redirect them to communities in remote Australia. But the commission found there was no wastage and concluded "the real costs of redistribution may be high". While it is believed the report was supported by some Commonwealth agencies, such as the Health Department, the Prime Minister's department, Prime Minister and Cabinet, disagreed and is driving the Government's push to reallocate funding. The Indigenous Affairs Minister, Philip Ruddock, who will conduct the review, said yesterday: "It means ... that you don't end up with a situation where you have a full range of services just for indigenous people and you separate them from others." But the commission's report said Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders faced "significant barriers" when trying to get access to mainstream services. As a result they used such services far less frequently than the non-indigenous population. While Mr Ruddock has signalled he wants to work with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission - which will also come under review - its members are sceptical about the possible outcome. The ATSIC commissioner for north Queensland, Jenny Prior, warned that the review could drive a wedge through her community and prove "disastrous" for indigenous health, housing and education. "It will end up causing chaos between urban and remote Torres Strait and Aboriginal people," Ms Prior said. "To say now that urban Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are better off would be so untrue and would disadvantage us." She also rejected suggestions by Mr Ruddock that ATSIC needed to increase the number of women involved in the organisation. "There's already five female commissioners on ATSIC and if you do a comparison ... the present Government has only got two female ministers," she said. ATSIC officials were democratically elected, unlike ministers, who were handpicked by the Prime Minister. However, she said indigenous women did need to think more carefully about electing more women. "It's the women on the ground that have to be more organised to ensure where they are placing their vote." This material is subject to copyright and any unauthorised use, copying or mirroring is prohibited. http://www.smh.com.au/news/0201/19/text/national3.html -- __________________________________________________________ [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] --------------------------------------------------------------------- RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 and is archived at http://www.mail-archive.com/recoznet2%40paradigm4.com.au/ until 11 March, 2001 and Recoznettwo is archived at http://www.mail-archive.com/recoznettwo%40green.net.au/ from that date. This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use."
