Infrastructure Key To Addressing Indigenous Disadvantage

Member for Lingiari and Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Indigenous Affairs and Northern Australia Warren Snowdon said he was encouraged by Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough's willingness to get out and about and see what was happening in the real world.

Mr Snowdon said this was all the more welcome because it was in direct contrast to Mr Brough's predecessors.

'The view from Canberra is coloured by other imperatives and Indigenous Affairs Ministers particularly need to go and see the world for themselves,' he said.

'I hope Mr Brough looks, listens and learns about the real extent of Indigenous poverty, which is worsened by a lack of access to decent levels of resources and infrastructure.

'Thousands of Aboriginal people in the Territory have been particularly denied access to education as a matter of government policy for decades.

'Mr Brough knows that this is a critical element people's ability to break out of the poverty cycle and I understand he is considering putting $10 million into the Tiwi Islands' proposed high school.

'This is a drop in the ocean and he also has to but to deal with the lack of infrastructure and services like housing, roads health and communications.

'We are talking about an investment of hundreds of millions of dollars, an investment that just has to be made to deal with entrenched poverty in Aboriginal communities.

'He could start by coming good on the promises made at Wadeye through the COAG trials at Wadeye, which to date have produced very little.

'But if he thinks he can deal with Indigenous poverty, he has to understand that this means dealing with a massive need for infrastructure everywhere in the Territory.

'And that means cooperation between all levels of government and collaboration with Aboriginal people and their organisations in setting policy and delivering services.

'When it comes to the crunch, you can't see real improvement without collaborating to support better infrastructure, infrastructure, infrastructure,' Mr Snowdon said.

2006-05-03