Speech APY Lands

Mr RAMSEY (Grey) (21:13): There has been much

said in recent weeks about the dysfunction of the

Ananga Pitjanjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands in the far

north of my electorate, brought to a head by the

decision of Red Cross to provide food parcels to

the Fregon community. Fregon is not substantially

different to the rest of the communities across the

APY Lands and I concur with those who have said the

cause of children going hungry is more about income

management than the lack of food or insufficient funds

to feed families, even though I would be the first to

admit that goods are expensive, and good management

of any welfare budget is required by parents. With that

in mind, I believe the current calls for implementation

of income management to address children going

hungry should be supported, but the actions only

address the worst symptoms of community failure and

not the causes.

The recent federal government report telling us that the

$3½ billion spent annually by successive governments

on Indigenous Australia has been largely wasted will

come as no surprise to those of us who see its results

on a regular basis. Despite generous spending and

thousands of people galvanised with good intent, the

situation for remote Indigenous Australians continues

to deteriorate. Drug and alcohol dependency, petrol

sniffing, violence, sexual abuse, appalling health and

educational outcomes and high suicide rates are

coupled with, and caused and enhanced by, absolute

welfare dependency that is destroying Aboriginal

communities as surely as genocide. As an example, a

drive through the APY Lands will reveal solar power

stations that do not work, an electricity network in

many cases leading almost nowhere, a scarcely used

aged-care facility and a never-used drug and alcohol

rehabilitation centre, along with broken down and

vandalised equipment, often not very old. And there are

a host of other failed ventures from gardens to training

centres and a string of abandoned and trashed relics of

forgotten projects and dreams.

In recent years there has been another flush of money

coming through the system as both the Howard and

Rudd/Gillard governments have sought once again to

bring living, educational and health standards for these

remote populations up to at least the minimum enjoyed

by the general population.

Noel Pearson has become a leading light in Australia

exposing and explaining how welfare has become

'poison flour' for his people. Despite our best efforts,

the wreckage and failure of the last 40 years has shown

that the harder we have tried to make life more liveable

in these remote communities the more firmly we have

condemned future generations to hopelessness, simply

because there is no genuine economic base for these

communities.

The APY Lands once supported a handful of cattle

properties capable of employing perhaps 150 people.

They are now virtually non-operational. However, if

they were well-managed, modern properties running at

maximum output they could now be operated by about

15 workers. Such is the fate of modern agriculture.

Motorbikes, radio operated watering systems, solar

pumps, planes and helicopters have reduced the need

for labour. For properties to be sustainable they simply

must adopt best practice.

There are currently about 2,500 people living on the

APY Lands and I expect that following the census

this figure will be upgraded. Never before has this

land supported a population anything like that, and

unless a mining company discovers a major resource

it is unlikely to ever do so again, unless alternatives

can be found. The possibilities make a very slim

portfolio. Almost exclusively, the small localised

working population on the lands is employed directly

by government in providing services to communities

which have no revenue base and consequentially are

unable to help themselves. There can never be a rating

base for communities while individuals can never own

their own property.

Simply, there is no good reason for these communities

to be where they are other than it is home. Even though

it must be said that in Aboriginal culture the value of

home should not be underestimated, it should also be

noted that a significant number of people living in these

remote communities have come from far away. They

have not originated in these communities but have been

attracted by the living conditions. The fact remains

that while the APY Lands may be home the area is

incapable of supporting such a large population. So

unless we are prepared to condemn future generations

to the moral poverty of lives built on the basis of

permanent welfare, our focus should be on equipping

new generations to succeed in the 'mainstream' world.

Monday, 12 September 2011 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 111