Segregation claim

Public housing arrangements in Laverton are endorsing racial segregation, shadow indigenous affairs minister Ben Wyatt says.

All 21 properties owned by the Government-backed Goldfields Indigenous Housing Organisation are located in the Wongatha Village, on the outskirts of the town.

Mr Wyatt, who visited Laverton this week, said restricting GIHO homes to the Wongatha Village was discriminatory for many of the town’s Aboriginal residents.

“What is apparent and what is worrying is it seems there is this view if you are an Aboriginal person you live out at the village in GIHO housing,” Mr Wyatt said.

“I don’t think it is fair in 2012 to be making an assumption that if you are an Aboriginal person you go and live out at the village.

“We don’t segregate people into their own separate communities anymore; that’s a practice we finished decades ago.”