The Guardian 15 November, 2006
Wadeye trial a disaster
The Federal Government appears to be ducking for cover following the leaking of a damning report on the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) trial program at the troubled Northern Territory community at Wadeye.
Wadeye, 270km south-west of Darwin, hit the headlines in May when gangs of mostly young men rampaged through the community brandishing weapons and damaging houses, fuelling concerns for community safety and prompting the evacuation of some families to Darwin.
The tension spanned several weeks, led to 53 arrests, and was blamed on a cocktail of factors, including severe over-crowding with less than 150 habitable houses for the population of 2500 people, no permanent police presence, and a high level of community boredom, especially among youth.
It has been reported that the majority of children in the community are not attending school and some people are too scared to leave their homes.
Earlier this year, Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough vowed not to release extra funding for Aboriginal housing in the NT until law and order was restored.
The 17-page Wadeye evaluation report by former high-ranking Indigenous affairs bureaucrat Bill Gray stops short of labelling the trial program a failure.
However, few areas of the trial — covered since March 2003 by a Shared Responsibility Agreement (SRA) between the Federal Government, the NT Government and Wadeye’s Thamarrurr Regional Council (TRC) — were spared criticism.
The report says implementation of the SRA was marred by confusion, personality clashes, a loss of direction and focus, and increased red tape or administrative burden on the community.
Mr Gray said all partners asked "who is in charge?".
Only two out of three agreed SRA priority areas — Women and Families, and Housing and Construction — even had plans developed for them. The third plan, on Youth, failed to eventuate.
"Given the present situation of Wadeye in relation to youth violence and all that flows from it, it has to be a matter of some concern that one of the most critical of the agreed priorities within the SRA was unable to be effectively addressed by the partnership", Mr Gray wrote. "The importance of resolving the issue of community safety at Wadeye cannot be overstated."
The report concludes that the people of Wadeye have had their hopes and expectations of visible and measurable progress under the SRA dashed, and something drastic needs to be done to rebuild confidence.
"There is a strong feeling within the council that unless a ‘crisis’ approach is adopted by both the Commonwealth and NT Governments, there will be little improvement to the health and wellbeing of the community for years to come", it said.
Since the report’s widespread but unofficial distribution, Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough has issued a tersely worded, three-sentence statement.
"I am not happy with the COAG trial at Wadeye and that is why we have intervened", the Minister said.
"I have made perfectly clear the reasons for shifting the focus of Indigenous affairs and also increasing the tempo of change — basically the approach of successive governments has not worked and we can’t keep doing what hasn’t worked in the past. All COAG trial evaluations will be released soon."
Bewilderment and criticism
NT Chief Minister Clare Martin told media that she told the Federal Government nearly two years ago that the Wadeye trial was failing.
"The whole purpose of the COAG trial was to try and reduce the layers of government that impact on a community like Wadeye", Ms Martin said. "But the system was actually made more complex.
"We really need to move on from that COAG trial… We are definitely moving to a post-COAG phase for Wadeye, and I think they will be vastly relieved."
This concurs with advice Dr Gray quoted from the Darwin Urban Indigenous Co-ordination Centre (UICC) that "communication and understanding of the COAG trial and its activities to the Indigenous reps (sic) and community members has always been extremely poor."
In Senate Estimates, government Senator Bill Heffernan said large amounts of Commonwealth and Territory money had not fixed the problems at Wadeye, and shifting blame from one government to another wasn’t helpful.
"I don’t know what the NT Government’s doing, but this blame bullshit that goes on all the time — it’s not getting us anywhere", he said.
Labor Senator Chris Evans challenged the head of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Peter Shergold, over the report’s findings.
"While you and others from the Government, Mr Shergold, have been telling us about whole of government, Federal commitment, new approaches, this report basically says that it’s been pretty well an unmitigated disaster", Senator Evans said.
"What this represents seemingly is a lack of commitment and everyone, from the Prime Minister down, has been there, made speeches, reassured this is a new way forward.
"You kicked ATSIC to death, and then quite frankly, the performance level of this (was) worse than anything ATSIC ever did."
A key Indigenous adviser to the Government has told the Koori Mail that the call on the success or failure of the Wadeye trial could have been made much earlier.
National Indigenous Council member Wesley Aird said: "It started some time ago, I think we all knew the outcome. If the community says it is not working, a decision needs to be made on what will we do: jettison, refine it, or throw (the trial) out completely."
The report identified the provision of additional housing in homeland areas as a more socially viable option for easing social pressures and overcrowding than continuing to build houses at Wadeye.
Koori Mail