Prime Minister Anthony Albanese may not have had time to read the fine print of the Uluru Statement from the Heart on what his precious Voice to Parliament is supposed to achieve, such as an unspecified percentage of GDP going to pay reparations. He’s happy to make do with the A4 intro. But perhaps he could find time to read some of the back issues of local newspapers up in the top end?
This story in the Tennant and District Times from August 27 will be two years old next week. Titled, Youth centre to be complete by the end of year, it reads:
‘The Tennant Creek Youth Centre has had its first slab laid and is expected to be completed by the end of the year. Barkly Regional Council Director of Infrastructure Santosh Niraula (pictured) said it is just one of many major projects in the Barkly region underway or completed this year.’
Sounds interesting… The story goes on:
‘…the Change Rooms in Elliott are almost finished, along with the women’s art centre in Wutunugurra and the Basketball Court in Alpurrurulam – all part of the Barkly Regional Deal. The Youth Centre is also part of the Barkly Regional Deal, and funded by the federal government’s Building Better Region Funds.’
That’d be taxpayer funds, then.
What exactly is the Barkly Regional Deal? Well, that’s easy. It even has its own website which you and I helped pay for.
This website looks lovely, with a beautiful landscape painting by Susie Peterson of the Wutunugurra community in the background.
If we scroll a little, we learn that the Barkly Regional Deal is, ‘The first regional deal in Australia – a 10-year $84.7 million commitment between the Australian Government, the Northern Territory Government, and Barkly Regional Council to improve the productivity and livability of the Barkly region by stimulating economic growth, improving social outcomes and supporting local Aboriginal leadership.’
This ‘deal’ includes 28 initiatives to respond to three priority areas identified by the Barkly community during consultations.
Hang on! I know exactly what you’re thinking. This sounds just like the Voice!
In fact, the website spells it out. The Barkly Regional Deal is ‘a community governance framework to drive the implementation of the Barkly Regional Deal, including a Governance Table’. It also promises ‘long-term reform to government-funded and delivered services in collaboration with the community’.
It’s all very ‘Voice-y’.
Giving Indigenous communities at the grassroots a ‘voice’ directly into all levels of government? Let me remind you what the Uluru Statement says. To be fair, I’m going to use the one-page intro bit that even Albanese has read:
‘We seek Constitutional reforms to empower our people… When we have power over our destiny our children will flourish. They will walk in two worlds and their culture will be a gift to their country.’
If you scrape off the flowery embellishments, this translates as ‘let’s spend some money on infrastructure and other things to keep bored Indigenous kids off the street’.
There is no doubt that the Barkly community has a ‘voice’ and it is already being listened to … to the tune of a whopping $84.7 million a year.
Below you can see the Barkly Instagram where some of this grassroots decision-making is already hard at work.
View this post on Instagram
During the last Census in 2021, 896 Indigenous households were identified in the Barkly region. This means we, the taxpayer, are spending roughly $95,000 per household so these kids can ‘walk in both worlds’.
Out of curiosity, I kept digging through the website to see how this money is being spent and, presumably, how these communities are benefiting from the program.
Minister Marino, who is responsible for the management of the deal, gave an update on its progress. She said: ‘Since signing the 10-year deal in April 2019 with all levels of government, we’ve seen good progress with some of the projects already completed such as the upgrade to the Alpurrurulam airstrip.’
All of this sounds promising.
‘The Deal’s success to date is due to strong local leadership and positive working relationships between the community and all levels of government.’
But hang on… That is the latest update on the Barkly Regional Deal website, but isn’t this Nola Marino – the Liberal MP who was the Minister for Regional Development in the Morrison government? That’s yonks ago.
Surely the latest update should be coming from Labor’s Senator Anthony Chisholm? He has been in the job for nearly 15 months. There is around $85 million being poured into the Barkly Regional Deal, so why can’t he be bothered giving us an update? What happened to it? How’s it working? Who knows…
He might be too busy to update the Barkly Regional Deal website, but he does have plenty to say about the Voice.
On a recent edition of Afternoon Agenda, he said:
‘So many Australians want to do the “right” thing. They want to see advancement for Indigenous people in this country. They want us to be able to “close the gap”. I have no doubt that if we actually have a Voice that we are listening to it will enable us to do that better and more efficiently.’
Right-o, Chisholm. The Voice will enable you to do your job better and more efficiently even though you already have a local community talking to you at a grassroots level and demanding practical outcomes on the ground – a community that has ample funding to do what it wants.
The only problem seems to be that you can’t even be bothered going on a website to give us an update on how the Barkly Regional Deal is going on the ground. Or isn’t this particular deal to your ideological liking?
On AM Agenda Chisholm said:
‘I have responsibilities in government for delivering on the Barkly Regional Deal which was born out of traumatic circumstances in 2016 when the federal government at the time combined with the Northern Territory government, and the council stepped in and said they were going to provide infrastructure across those communities. They had no consultation with First Nations communities in those places.’
Really? Let us fact-check that claim.
Over on the Barkly Regional Deal website there is a lengthy Aboriginal Community Statement. It doesn’t say whether it’s ‘from the heart’ or not, but it definitely appears to be from the local community.
It states:
We, the Aboriginal people from the Barkly region, have a connection to our traditional lands and waters, passed on through our ancestors, which continues today through our unique languages, cultures and histories.
We acknowledge our Elders; those who have gone before us; those with us today; those who are emerging and will lay down the foundation for our future.
We acknowledge those who have settled on our land, introducing other languages, cultures and having their own histories; developing our lands to accommodate the demands of Australian society; providing the benefits that this development has to offer. Past developments have been undertaken without our involvement and consultation, or understanding of our needs.
We invite all levels of government, business, service providers and the communities throughout the Barkly region to work with and involve us in the planning and delivery of social, cultural and economic activities to ensure the opportunities which arise are for the benefit of us all.
We commit to work collaboratively with all stakeholders to strengthen our relationships, identify opportunities and deliver sustainable outcomes through a process based on mutual respect, understanding and acceptance of our differences.
That sounds like First Nations people to me. The website adds that ‘past developments have been undertaken without our involvement and consultation, or understanding of our needs’.
‘Past’ developments were undertaken without community involvement. Not this project – which was clearly and explicitly undertaken with Indigenous consultation and understanding.
This means, unless the people who made the website are liars, the Minister’s statement ‘they had no consultation with First Nations communities in those places’ is not true.
Perhaps the Minister should read the website again?
‘Aboriginal leadership is critical to the success of the Barkly Regional Deal.’
There is also a section titled, Listening to Regional Voices, while Instagram features one of those voices, Aboriginal Alliance Coordinator Cyril Franey. In another progress report, the Independent Chair of the Governance Table, Mr Sean Gordon, thanked the Elliott community for ‘the chance to meet on country to hear firsthand their concerns and aspirations’.
So, either the people who have written that entire website are misleading us or the Labor Minister himself misled Sky News Australia. Take your pick. It’s one or the other.
In summary, we have an $84.7 million deal – that’s $84.7 million you and I donated out of our tax dollars to help Indigenous Australians, at their behest, after listening to their voices, in remote communities, in order to help close the gap and give Indigenous kids a future… But the Labor Minister Senator Anthony Chisholm can’t be bothered to update the website to let Australians know what is happening with the Barkly Regional Deal. But the Minister does have time to tell us that we need a Voice to Parliament to make things happen ‘on the ground, at a practical level’.
Let’s get a proper appraisal and update about the project. According to regional ABC, in a report that showed a town that looks virtually uninhabitable with a gigantic, shiny new UNOPENED Youth Centre in the middle sitting derelict, with two bored Aussie Indigenous kids wondering why it’s not open:
‘It’s being described as a war zone. Boarded up, empty shops. The town’s poorest live in tin shacks with no power or water. One building, the Tennant Creek Youth Centre, stands out shiny and new, but it has never opened its doors. Built as a safe space with a computer room, pool tables, and a Ninja Warrior obstacle course, the kids say it would fill a void in a town with little else to do.
‘Completely built but locked up for almost two years, this community leader had hoped it would be a silver bullet to a growing problem – crime.
‘…over the past years, house break-ins are up almost 50 per cent. Break-ins to businesses are up more than 66 per cent. A fact the mayor knows all too well.
‘It’s the council’s responsibility to staff and run this facility, but so far funding has only been secured for the next 5 years. Attracting workers and finding them somewhere to live in this town is a big problem.’
Speaking with the ABC, the mayor said:
‘I went to Canberra and while I’m talking to the Prime Minister of Australia, my wife is messaging saying they are breaking into our house.’
There you have it. Anthony Albanese and the Labor Party want billions of dollars, a blank cheque, as The Spectator Australia put it this week, signed by Australian taxpayers in perpetuity, along with a complete upheaval of our Constitution and restructuring all our democratic rights, which could mean treaty, reparations you – literally – could end up paying for the rest of your lives and your children too – along with a whole bunch of other stuff necessary to give Indigenous Australians a Voice in their own future. They say this is necessary because what we’ve tried in the past ‘doesn’t work’.
No. What doesn’t work is government. There are any number of multi-million dollar projects across regional Australia designed to help close the gap. Some work, but far too many have simply been junked or abandoned. Like the Aboriginal student hostel in Kununurra built in 2010 at a cost of $12 million so that remote Indigenous children could have a place to stay while attending secondary school. A 40-bed hostel that was closed during Covid when only one student attended and is now abandoned. $12 million bucks.
The reality is this. Labor are running around trying to sell you a Voice to change the world but they can’t even get a youth centre opened on time. What a disgrace. And if they do get the Voice up, just wait for not one, not two, not a herd, but a stampede of white elephants.
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