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State shuns NW welfare plan

Ian Trust chairs the Wunan Foundation. Picture: Steve Ferrier/The West Australian

A radical overhaul of welfare in the East Kimberley backed by a leading WA Aboriginal appears dead after the State Government failed to support it.

Without the necessary legislation, a key plank to allow a panel of community leaders to reward or punish others over responsibilities, such as sending children to school and paying rent, could not work.

The decision is a blow to the Ian Trust-chaired Wunan Foundation, which had hoped to test the Living Change program this year in Halls Creek - named WA's most disadvantaged local government area last year.

Mr Trust, WA's 2013 indigenous person of the year, said he was frustrated by a lack of clarity about what the Government was prepared to do.

"It's come back a long way from the model we were espousing," he said. "What's being talked about now is nothing like that."

He said the Government always claimed to be "very supportive" but he was still waiting to see how and for a definitive decision about where to take the plan.

The contentious issue was giving the proposed panel power to offer rewards such as access to education or impose sanctions such as income management.

Mr Trust says the panel must be a statutory body rather than simply make recommendations to have credibility.

Aboriginal Affairs Minister Peter Collier said he had legal advice on the panel's "role, function and operations".

"Wunan has been advised that the State's response to the program is one of broad support for its intent, however, the recommended legislative changes were not supported," he said.

The Government's preference was to continue to work with the community and organisations, including Wunan, to improve existing programs and services that improved social outcomes.

Existing programs included the Federal Empowered Communities project, for which Wunan recently got funding to continue research and consultation in the East Kimberley.