The Australian Royalties paid for essentials Federal government failure in Kakadu is the real scandal, writes GALARRWUY YUNUPINGU OPINION /12nov99 ALTHOUGH Stuart Rintoul (The Australian, Tuesday) is right to point out that "Aboriginal people in Kakadu remain among the poorest indigenous communities in the country", blaming the Gagudju Association and its members for this appalling state of affairs is misplaced. He claims $46 million has been "squandered" by 300 people over 20 years. The article and other commentators also infer that there has been a disturbing waste of money, primarily due to inadequate financial controls, poor financial advice and exploitative advisers (most of whom are non-Aboriginal). However, the mining royalties provided to Gagudju benefit a much larger group than 300. For many years, Gagudju has provided essential services to the local community, including housing, power, water and health, and built up a range of financial assets, some of which, it is sadly true, have not always been well managed. The emphasis on cash payments to individuals needs to be put into perspective. Although $46 million appears to be a scandalously large sum of money, the current Gagudju executive officer estimates that cash payments to Aborigines amount to approximately 20 per cent of the total mining royalty equivalents received. This equates to $4.20 per day per person during the 20-year period. The greater scandal is that Aborigines, despite their demonstrable poverty, have felt compelled to spend a sizeable portion of their money to pay for social services in the absence of adequate government provision. Mining royalties are no panacea to the appalling social and economic conditions of Aboriginal communities. It is not that mining royalties are insignificant or that they cannot be used for sound long-term investment; it is simply that they are marginal to the main game of addressing the critical and immediate needs of Aborigines. John Reeves QC, in his 1998 review of the Land Rights Act, reported that mining royalty equivalents in the Northern Territory amounted to $35 million per year, compared with territory and Commonwealth government budgets for Aboriginal services, estimated at $448 million to $738 million per year. This money is not reaching the ground and up to 50 per cent is siphoned off to support top-heavy territory government administration. In August, the House of Representatives standing committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander affairs, examining the recommendations of the Reeves report, pointed out that the money paid to royalty associations such as Gagudju – "is equivalent, at best, to just over 2 per cent of the annual expenditure by the territory and Commonwealth governments on programs for Aboriginal people in the territory". IT is simply unreasonable to expect royalty associations to remedy the failings of governments. The point is not to deny that mistakes have been made or to avoid the responsibility and opportunity for wise investments by royalty associations. Clearly, poor economic management has resulted in past financial problems for Gagudju Association Inc. Aborigines are responding. The association has been restructured and Aboriginal constituents, through the Northern Land Council, have called for the tightening of financial control over royalty associations under the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976. Naturally Aborigines are concerned to ensure any mismanagement in the past is rectified, and new regimes of accountability and efficiency are developed. Similarly, the problem of binge spending, resulting from occasional payments of cash royalties to individuals, has not been swept under the carpet. Both the standing committee and the Northern Land Council agree that no payments should be made to individuals without a specific purpose. The challenge in addressing the dirt poor in Aboriginal communities is not to demonise the associations receiving relatively small levels of funds from the use of their lands for mining but to target the inadequacy and mismanagement of government programs, which are manifestly and catastrophically failing. Former senator Bob Collins's report on education in the Northern Territory reinforces this point and forecasts a social catastrophe if not addressed. The same catastrophe is looming in relation to other areas of government service responsibility, such as health, housing and employment. Meanwhile, Aboriginal royalty associations will continue to earmark mining royalty for investment funds. The development of economic opportunities and income generation is a priority among Aborigines. With sound advice and improved financial management, these potential streams of income are one way for our people to break away from the damaging cycle of welfare dependency. Faced, however, with the pressure of seeing local people suffering from inadequate citizenship services such as health, housing, power, water and education, is it any wonder that limited investment funds available to the poorest sector of the nation are being diverted towards the provision of facilities and services all other Australians take for granted? Galarrwuy Yunupingu is the chairman of the Northern Land Council. ------------------------------------------------------- RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 and is archived at http://www.mail-archive.com/ To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED], and in the body of the message, include the words: unsubscribe announce or click here mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20announce 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." RecOzNet2 is archived for members @ http://www.mail-archive.com/recoznet2%40paradigm4.com.au/
