Rick Wilson (O'Connor, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today with a good-news story from my electorate of O'Connor, and to thank the Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Senator Nigel Scullion, for his help in saving more than 20 jobs in the goldfields of Western Australia.

At the end of March, Ian Baird and Ethan Hansen, who oversee the Spinifex Land Management rangers program, visiting me in Canberra to tell me their funding would cease on 30 June. The Indigenous Rangers program is run out of Tjuntjuntjara, a community in the heart of the spinifex country, 700 kilometres east of Kalgoorlie-Boulder—probably the most isolated community in Australia. Previously, the Spinifex rangers had been funded by the Biodiversity Fund program, which expires on 30 June. The expiry of the Biodiversity Fund meant their future was uncertain and we had to find some new money to support them into the future.

The program is the largest employer in the region. It employs five people on a permanent basis and provides casual work for another 20. This may sound like a small number to some, but in the most remote community in Australia the impact of losing these jobs would be enormous. The Indigenous Rangers program employs more than 2,000 people across Australia and plays a vital role in preserving our environment. It would have been extremely disappointing to see this program disappear from my electorate. We made representations to Minister Scullion's office, and I am very grateful to the minister, who has agreed to fund the program out of the Indigenous Advancement Strategy on an ongoing basis. I wish Ian and his team every success in the future, and I look forward to working with them.