Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

We've seen the latest debacle—I'd call it a debacle, anyway—in terms of the moneys that have been granted out of the Indigenous Advancement Strategy for the Northern Territory Seafood Council, for the Amateur Fishermen's Association of the Northern Territory and for the Northern Territory Cattlemen's Association, those being $150,000, $170,000 and $165,000, which adds up to nearly half a million dollars.

I find this particularly egregious when just last week an organisation in Western Australia found out that they weren't going to have their funding renewed out of the Indigenous Advancement Strategy. I'm talking about an organisation that has been working in the community in Western Australia for a number of years, the Jacaranda Community Centre. I think Senator Pratt knows that organisation and the excellent work they do. For a long time they have been providing support for Aboriginal members of their community and employing Aboriginal workers, working to support families and to keep Aboriginal children from going into care, supporting the children to attend school with a school attendance strategy with extra supports. They have been providing Aboriginal family support and a school inclusion program in Western Australia, in southern metropolitan Perth, for a long time. They have been employing, as I said, Aboriginal workers. And they have a number of families that they are currently supporting.

Basically, they will not be funded beyond Christmas. They've got five weeks notice. They have been trying to find out for a long time what was happening with the next round of funding, and they were told just last week that they were not going to be funded. So they've had five weeks notice—and that includes to their Aboriginal workers and, very importantly, to the families that they have supported. There has been no discussion. Senator Smith, I'm sure you also know the Jacaranda centre and the excellent work that they do. There has been no transition planning, because they haven't been able to because they've only just found out.

This excellent service, which is providing much-needed support to Aboriginal families in our community in Perth, is not going to be funded anymore—when this level of funding has been handed out to organisations that I'd argue very strongly should not be funded out of the Indigenous Advancement Strategy. People in this place will know that I have been extremely critical of the Indigenous Advancement Strategy since it started, since the government took out over half a billion dollars in funding, and also critical of the process around the way that the grants were given out. The ANAO reports and the Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Public Administration's inquiry were very critical of that process, and I have very definitely been critical.

I know of the good work this organisation does. They are not being funded and were only given five weeks notice. They have been chasing this funding. I know that for a fact, because they were asking me whether I could raise the matter and whether I knew anything. I'm sure they've spoken to other members of parliament, and other members of parliament know the good work they do. It's a travesty that this organisation will no longer be funded, that good Aboriginal support program workers are going to lose their jobs and that Aboriginal families will no longer have that support to keep the vital connection to school and to help kids into school, stay in school and overcome the problems that they face. It's not just local families; there are a lot of Aboriginal families that move down to Perth for medical support. If one member of the family comes down, the whole family comes down. They often don't have accommodation and don't have that connection to schools. Jacaranda works with those families as well. They are doing excellent work. My big question is: why weren't they funded? Surely they should be funded and surely, at the very least, there should be a process to help transition those families to other forms of support. At this stage, Jacaranda doesn't know who is going to be providing that support. I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.