A politician whose electorate covers more than one-quarter of NSW has called the federal and state governments “lazy” for signing a key indigenous funding agreement in the relative urbanity of Dubbo.
The agreement, which covers 16 towns in the Murdi Paaki region of far-western NSW, was signed at an event closer to Canberra and Sydney.
“It’s the same old story; they’re making the blackfellas come to them,” said Kevin Humphries, the NSW shadow minister for Aboriginal Affairs.
He said the agreement was “null and void”, and that “they may as well have signed it in New Zealand.”
At the event, the state and federal governments promised more than $2.8 million for the Murdi Paaki Regional Assembly and 16 “community working parties” that represent Aboriginal communities in discussions with government agencies.
The state’s first Regional Partnership Agreement, it will pay for training and expenses for Aboriginal representatives to attend regular town and regional meetings.
It continues a governance experiment begun by a five-year Council of Australian Governments trial in western NSW, which was the most successful of eight such experiments around Australia, according to an independent review in 2006.
The system differs from ATSIC in that representatives do not fund programs, but volunteer to advise local, state and federal governments on which policies will work for indigenous people.
But Mr Humphries, who is the state member for Barwon in north-western NSW, said the funding of indigenous bodies to sit alongside mainstream local government “mirrored the old ATSIC days” and had already divided some small towns.
He also said the plan could not work without including local members such as him and John Williams, who belong to the National Party and know remote towns better than capital city bureaucrats.
The Murdi Paaki Region is as large as Victoria and covers Brewarrina, Broken Hill, Cobar, Collarenebri, Coonamble, Dareton/Wentworth, Enngonia, Goodooga, Gulargambone, Ivanhoe, Lightning Ridge, Menindee, Walgett, Bourke, Weilmoringle and Wilcannia.
It was chosen for the 2002 COAG trial because indigenous unemployment there was 23.9 per cent, only two-thirds of indigenous students made it to year 10, and its children had the highest victimisation rate for domestic violence in NSW.
The agreement is designed to help COAG achieve its six ‘Closing the Gap” goals set last year by including Aboriginal input in policy development.