Nationals want Royalties shift
Money from the $1 billion a year Royalties for Regions fund will be used in WA's north to replace funding axed by the Abbott Government for essential and municipal services at about 180 remote Aboriginal communities.
Regional Development Minister Terry Redman said he wanted Royalties for Regions cash to fill the gap left when the Commonwealth quit its historic role of paying for essential services in the small communities in exchange for a one-off $90 million payment to WA.
About 80 per cent of these communities are in the Kimberley.
Mr Redman said RFR funds would not simply backfill the money withdrawn by Canberra.
Any new funding would have to be attached to reforms that delivered better health, education and housing outcomes for Aboriginal people.
There are about 275 remote Aboriginal communities housing 15,000 people in WA, with Canberra previously responsible for providing services - including power and infrastructure - to about 180 of them.
WA Housing Minister Bill Marmion labelled the Federal withdrawal with a $90 million payment as "reprehensible" and Premier Colin Barnett flagged that up to 100 camps - some housing as few as a dozen people - could close, drawing the ire of Aboriginal leaders.
"You're not just writing cheques to replace what used to be there (from the Commonwealth)," Mr Redman said.
"I don't think anyone has got too much pride in the outcomes in remote indigenous communities over the past two or three decades.
"If we're going to put resources into it, then it needs to be something that supports reform, whether that be housing, education, health services.
"We need better outcomes for kids, better health outcomes, closing those gaps."
Mr Redman, who is on the Government's Aboriginal Affairs Cabinet subcommittee, said he hoped to have Cabinet endorse a proposal for the next State Budget due in May.
Shadow indigenous affairs minister Ben Wyatt, who has called for RFR cash to be used to help plug the funding gap, said he was "enormously encouraged" by Mr Redman's comments.
"I understand why the Commonwealth wants to get out of this space because it is somewhat odd that they are currently funding municipal and essential services but the way they went about it - two years and we're out - was unconscionable," he said.
"What you need is a realistic timeframe and a proper process of consultation to develop a plan.
"I agree reform is needed and a proper reform program actually has support from those communities.
"If you just come in and say, 'We're going to close them down', you won't get any buy-in, you'll just get more failure. It's a prime investment for Royalties for Regions, I would have thought."
Respected Fitzroy Crossing community leader and Marninwarntikura Women's Resource Centre chief executive June Oscar said proper consultation was critical.
"There needs to be a very mature and inclusive approach to this whereby the people who are affected and the services providers are part of a discussion and a planning approach," she said.
"We've seen terrible examples where there hasn't been that inclusivity of the stakeholders on the ground . . . and it doesn't work.
"That's the most sensible and responsible approach to take for the public purse."
