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An academic who has visited and researched living conditions in Northern Territory outstations for the past 30 years says it may be cheaper to continue providing education services to them rather than moving the people to larger hubs.

The Territory Government’s outstation policy has been in the spotlight recently, with MLA Marion Scrymgour resigning from Labor and turning independent because she was angry at plans to freeze funding to the small Indigenous communities.

Professor Jon Altman says a cost-benefit analysis could show that it is cheaper to take services to people on outstations.

“Is it better to bring out a visiting teacher and have a local teaching assistant, or do you try and bring kids to a hub community?” he said.

“And I daresay that the cost of bringing out a teacher is probably lower than shifting kids, their families, and rehousing them in the larger communities.”

Western Australia’s prison watchdog says the death of an Aboriginal man in the back of a prison van in the Goldfields could have been avoided if the state’s independent Inspector of Custodial Services had greater powers.

The Deaths in Custody Watch Committee says the inspector warned the State Government in 2001 and 2007 – before the death of Mr Ward from heatstroke – that its prison vans were not safe.

The committee’s chairman, Marc Newhouse, says the inspector needs greater powers because the warnings were ignored.

“The power to put enforcement notices, which means that the Government or the relevant organisation that it relates to legally has to act on those notices, and if they don’t they can be taken to court,” he said.

Mr Newhouse says the Inspector of Custodial Services should have the power to intervene.

“What the coroner recommends is that the inspector be given the power to put improvement notices,” he said.

“We’re saying that doesn’t go far enough we need enforcement notices, so that they have similar power to say what a workplace inspector has under the Occupational Health and Safety Act.”

The company responsible for prisoner transport has sacked the two drivers and the State Government says it is upgrading the fleet.

The Australian Medical Association is warning there will be “many deaths” in remote Indigenous communities if governments do not take a more proactive approach to dealing with swine flu.

Concerns have been raised as the number of cases in the Northern Territory jumped to 78 overnight – the highest rate per capita of any state or territory in Australia.

Six Territorians being treated in hospital.

Aboriginal health groups are warning that Federal Government rules limiting Tamiflu treatment to critical swine flu cases are endangering Indigenous communities because they have higher levels of health problems and live in cramped conditions.

The AMA’s Northern Territory division is calling on the Territory Government to ask for an exemption so that all Indigenous people living in remote communities who develop flu-like symptoms get treated before they pass the virus on.

“I think they really do need to be proactive,” the AMA’s Dr Paul Bauert said.

“This isn’t some sort of sit in the armchair and watch what happens [situation]. We need to be out there.

“We all know and we all fear that if this particular flu gets into remote communities and takes a very strong hold, then there will be many deaths.”

Mr Bauert says the Government should also mobilise its city-based workforce.

“To get out into the communities and proactively search out people who may be suffering from these conditions.”

He says the flu threat to communities requires a similar response to the Northern Territory intervention health checks.

Swine flu prevention

The Territory Government says it has placed an extra nurse in the triage emergency areas of both the Royal Darwin Hospital and the Alice Springs Hospital to deal with the spread of swine flu.

The head of the Territory’s Centre for Disease Control, Dr Vicki Krause, says stocks of Tamiflu have been sent out to all remote Indigenous communities.

She says there is enough Tamiflu in communities to treat suspected swine flu sufferers with severe symptoms, or with other health problems, which make them at risk of getting ill from swine flu.

“There is certainly sufficient stock in the stockpile at this time,” she said.

“We have stock out to the communities so that it is ready to be given when people do present in these at risk groups so they can get it within the timeframe that will benefit them.

“It has been disseminated widely and there is plenty of stock available in each of the communities.”

There are now 3.5 cases of swine flu per 10,000 people in the Territory, which has a population of about 220,000 people.

The next highest rate is in the ACT, where there are 3.3 cases per 10,000 people.

Victoria, which has more than five million people and more than 1400 cases of swine flu, has the third highest rate per capita.

Indigenous leader Noel Pearson in far north Queensland’s Cape York says there is a legal case against the Queensland Government’s wild rivers legislation and he will “go down fighting” it.

The Government gazetted the Archer, Stewart and Lockhart river basins on Cape York earlier this year.

Mr Pearson yesterday appealed for public support in opposing the legislation during an address to the Cairns Chamber of Commerce.

“What are these aspirations that people have that are going to be stymied by wild rivers [legislation]?” he said.

“I’m trying to preserve the right of future generations.

“I’m concerned about, not what we have in mind over the next six months or two years – I’m concerned about 10 years’ time, 20 years’ time, 30 years’ time.”

He says the legislation should only be rolled out when traditional owner groups give their full and informed consent and an Indigenous land use agreement has been signed.

He has also accused green groups of wielding too much power over the Government.

“We’re still in the process of working on the details of the challenge – we think there are huge problems with what the Government has done,” Mr Pearson said.

“This is a bit like kind of deja vu on the Wik case really – [we're] getting back to developing a fundamental legal strategy for opposing what the Government’s done here.”

The Government has previously said it conducted thorough consultations about the legislation.

It says economic development, such as mines and grazing, will still be allowed to go ahead under the legislation.

The head of the Northern Territory’s Centre for Disease Control says there should be exceptions to rules on giving out Tamiflu to suspected swine flu sufferers in remote Indigenous communities.

The Central Australian Aboriginal Congress says a Federal Government decision last week means doctors can not offer Tamiflu to patients unless they fit a “critical case criteria”.

Disease Control Centre head Dr Vicki Krause says exceptions should be extended to Indigenous communities where up to 50 per cent of people have underlying health risk factors.

She says while many remote Indigenous swine flu sufferers may recover quite easily, they will put others they live with at risk.

“It might be in such settings that household members who would be putting these people at risk… have to be looked at should they be presenting within influenza like symptoms,” she said.

“So in a collective sense, looking at this community as a vulnerable community as well as the individuals as being vulnerable.”

The Northern Territory Opposition has indicated it would be willing to support an inquiry into the funding of remote communities proposed by the independent Marion Scrymgour.

Ms Scrymgour last month jumped ship from Labor, taking away the Government’s majority.

She was angry over Indigenous Policy Minister, Alison Anderson’s plan to freeze funding to outstation communities.

Ms Scrymgour announced in Parliament on Friday she would propose an inquiry into the adequacy of Government funding and economic development efforts.

The Country Liberals’ John Elferink says he has no problem with the idea and says it could cause trouble for the Chief Minister, Paul Henderson.

“If he chooses to support this position from Marion Scrymgour, then a very large crack is going to appear [between] himself and his own minister Alison Anderson.

“If, however, he does not support the motion, and we choose to support the motion along with the other independent, then there’s a very big chance that the Government will lose a vote on the floor of the Pariliament.”

A Government adviser says the Labor Caucus will discuss the plan before the Government makes a decision on whether to support an inquiry.

A report on the housing rental market in Perth has found real estate agents and landlords discriminate against Aboriginal people and ethnic minorities.

The Equal Opportunity Commission found 70 people who applied for private rental accommodation were humiliated and demeaned.

The Equal Opportunity Commissioner, Yvonne Henderson, says it is discrimination because many Asians and Aboriginal people are told a property is for rent on the phone.

“When they’ve turned up, frequently they have been told either it had gone or they weren’t permitted to see it,” she said.

“There might be an agent at the actual house who would say to them when they appeared, ‘No, it’s no longer available and we’re not going to show you the house’.

“They really couldn’t work out any other reason than their race.”

Ms Henderson says it is illegal to discriminate against people based on the colour of their skin, and she wants real estate agents to undergo training in equal opportunity law.

The Aboriginal Health Council has employed a consultant to help regional Aboriginal health centres deal with swine flu.

CEO Mary Buckskin says the nurse will work with centres at Port Augusta, Port Lincoln, Coober Pedy and Ceduna in coming weeks.

She says the death last week in an Adelaide hospital of an Aboriginal man from Western Australia has highlighted the potential for Aboriginal people to contract swine flu in remote areas.

The number of confirmed swine flu cases in South Australia is now beyond 150, but no-one is in hospital at the moment due to the outbreak.

The Aboriginal Health Council has employed a consultant to help regional Aboriginal health centres deal with swine flu.

CEO Mary Buckskin says the nurse will work with centres at Port Augusta, Port Lincoln, Coober Pedy and Ceduna in coming weeks.

She says the death last week in an Adelaide hospital of an Aboriginal man from Western Australia has highlighted the potential for Aboriginal people to contract swine flu in remote areas.

The number of confirmed swine flu cases in South Australia is now beyond 150, but no-one is in hospital at the moment due to the outbreak.

Aboriginal Affairs Minister Jay Weatherill has welcomed the APY executive board’s decision to allow easier access to the APY Lands in South Australia’s far north-west.

Last week the board agreed to allow blanket permits from July for public servants and government contractors working on the Lands.

Anyone else wanting to enter must still buy a permit.

Mr Weatherill says the State Government will amend legislation in the near future.

“We foreshadowed those and some other changes last year so we welcome their support for that and we’ll be legislating to ensure those changes are put into law,” he said.

Every two years, the tiny town of Laura on south-eastern Cape York Peninsula hosts one of the country’s oldest and biggest Aboriginal dance festivals.

Singers and dancers travel from across Queensland to take part in the three-day event, which is an important chance for Indigenous communities to share their stories and culture.

This year, 500 dancers from about 20 communities travelled to Laura from as far away as Brisbane and Mornington Island in the Gulf of Carpentaria for the town’s 18th dance festival.

Thousands of festival-goers also attended but director Jeremy Geia says it is not about attracting big crowds.

He says the event celebrates the role dance plays in Indigenous people’s lives.

“It’s our fingerprint, it’s our identity, and with that identity you can go places,” he said.

“It’s like a passport, if you like, that gives us opportunities, that gives us a bit of standing in the world.”

Damien Watson brought his dance group up from Woorabinda in central Queensland.

“It’s very important for us as Aboriginal people to come together and to show one another our ways of living and our culture, sharing our culture, and that it’s still strong today,” he said.

“Some of our language has been taken away from us but our song and dance is still with us.”

The mostly young group performed a dance about the Stolen Generations and Mr Watson says it is an important story to tell.

“That’s how our old people expressed their stories and their feelings – through song and dance – because they didn’t know how to speak out about what was going on through their lives and that,” he said.

“It’s an important part of our healing too, for our Aboriginal people to get over that and to face the future.”

At 22, Julia Smith from Yarrabah, just east of Cairns, is one of the youngest singers in her dance troupe.

She says she has loved performing at Laura for the first time.

“It’s a good experience for a younger generation and also just to keep our elderly people happy and you know, enjoying life,” she said.

“This is where we come in as young people, showing our old people that we still got our culture living strong.”