The Guardian 28 May, 2008
Budget 2008-09:
Indigenous spending
It’s a "good start", but repeat it
and we won’t close the gap,
health groups warn
Kirstie Parker
The federal budget makes a reasonable "down-payment" on what’s needed to lift Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities out of social and economic crisis, Indigenous leaders say. But they’ve warned the Rudd government will need to "put its money where its mouth is" in subsequent years if it is to close the 17-year life expectancy gap between Indigenous and non-indigenous Australians by 2030.
As part of a cautious budget delivering a record $21.7 billion surplus, Treasurer Wayne Swan announced big boosts to Indigenous child and maternal health services, literacy and numeracy, skills training, drug and alcohol services, and more teachers for the Northern Territory which contributed to an overall Indigenous spend of $1.2 billion over five years.
More than half that amount went to the NT, with about a quarter of it dedicated to ongoing support for the former Howard government-instigated NT Emergency Response (NTER), in response to child abuse in Aboriginal communities. About $70 million will be spent on welfare quarantining. The remaining states and territories will share in just an extra $554 million.
The reaction among Indigenous groups and supporters was varied, but most said they’d hoped for more funding across the board, and more measures to benefit the majority of Indigenous people, who live in urban and regional centres. Many were now hoping to claw back the shortfall in Aboriginal primary health care spending from a new $10 billion health future fund announced by the Treasurer.
A mixed response
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health advocates have welcomed the allocation of $334.8 million towards closing the 17-year life-expectancy gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians by the year 2030.
The funds were part of $1.2 billion in Indigenous funding over five years announced as part of the 2008 federal budget.
However, while the influential Close the Gap (CTG) Coalition welcomed the "language and framing" of the Indigenous budget, it said the government’s rhetoric had not been matched by the amount of funds needed to achieve its targets.
The CTG Coalition, made up of 40 organisations including the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO), the Australian Indigenous Doctors’ Association (AIDA), Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation (ANTaR), Oxfam Australia, and Reconciliation Australia, estimates that the equivalent of an extra $460 million is needed per year, most of it ideally directed to Indigenous community-controlled health services.
But the group also believes such services will need help building their capacity before they can absorb such levels of funding. This view may have influenced Labor’s Indigenous health spending in its first budget in 13 years.
Treasurer Swan delivered a record $21.7 billion surplus despite income tax cuts and $33.3 billion in savings over four years.
The budget contained $46.7 billion worth of personal tax cuts as part of a $55 billion "working families support package", and a $40 billion investment in three "nation-building" funds for infrastructure, education and health.
The Close the Gap Coalition is now looking to the $10 billion health future fund to claw back the shortfall in Aboriginal primary health care spending.
"This budget is designed to meet the big challenges of the future", Mr Swan told Parliament. "It is a budget that strengthens Australia’s economic foundations and delivers for working families under pressure.
"It is the responsible Budget our nation needs at this time of international turbulence and high inflation at home."
Declaring the fight to close the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous life expectancy as a "long-term challenge for our nation", Mr Swan announced big boosts to Indigenous child and maternal health services, literacy and numeracy, skills training, drug and alcohol services, and more teachers for the Northern Territory (NT).
Key Measures
The key budget measures for Indigenous affairs included:
$99 million for more teachers in the NT
$90 million for child and maternal health services
$56 million for an expansion of literacy and numeracy programs
$49.3 million for substance and alcohol abuse rehabilitation
$19 million to protect children from abuse in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands (NT)
$99.7 million to expand primary health care in the remote NT
$92.6 million for skills training of Aboriginal people in the NT
Federal Indigenous Minister Jenny Macklin detailed the budget announcements, which included 37 budget measures for 2008-09.
"The government has a comprehensive plan to tackle Indigenous disadvantage, make communities safe for children and families and promote economic participation", she said. "This budget delivers on commitments made during the election campaign.
"Promoting economic participation, reducing welfare dependency and developing partnerships based on mutual respect and responsibility are critical to tackling Indigenous disadvantage.
"Closing the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians requires more than just extra resources; it involves developing the right policy settings and effective solutions for achieving long-term change."
Ms Macklin said the government had embarked on a program of reform to ensure the strategic and effective use of resources and to work with the states and territories in engaging with Indigenous people in places like the NT, SA’s APY Lands, Cape York in Queensland and Western Australia’s Kimberley region in developing solutions.
Some of the measures had already been unveiled since the Rudd Labor government was elected last November. However, Ms Macklin said that all of the monies announced on budget night — a mixture of new and redirected funding following the 2007 Election and 2008-09 budget measures — were new to Indigenous affairs.
She said the allocation would bring Australian Government Indigenous Expenditure (AGIE) for 2008-09 to a record $4.3 billion, compared to the $3.5 billion budgeted for 2007-08 by the former Howard government before it announced its NTER, widely known as the NT intervention, in response to reports of widespread child abuse in Aboriginal communities.
Intervention support
Only $554 million of the Indigenous spending announced on budget night was committed for use Australia-wide, with more than half — $666.1 million — allocated to the NT.
This included $323.8 million in ongoing support for the intervention in 2008-09, despite plans to review it from July this year.
"The government is committed to ensuring the NTER serves the interests of children", Ms Macklin said.
"An independent and transparent review will be undertaken at the 12-month mark to assess the effectiveness of all measures and inform future decision making."
Almost $70 million will be spent implementing controversial blanket income management or welfare quarantining in prescribed communities in the NT.
"The implementation of income management has revealed that some Indigenous families would benefit from training in money management", the Minister said.
She said that training would be worth $3.1 million, with the new services delivering education in how to write a family budget and how to cope with a financial crisis.
Promises
The government does appear to have kept most of its pre-election and pre-budget funding promises with regards to health, education, "real jobs" for Aboriginal rangers, business enterprise and the arts.
However, some Indigenous leaders privately expressed a view that some of those promises had been moderate in any case.
Some said they’d hoped for more funding across the board but especially direct to Indigenous health services, and wanted more measures to benefit the majority of Indigenous people living in urban and regional centres, as well as remote communities outside the NT.
"Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, particularly those outside the NT, should feel let down by this Budget", said Chairperson of the Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care (SNAICC), Muriel Bamblett.
"The new government has to be able to manage the NT intervention without falling behind on other key election commitments. If it does, it risks wasting the goodwill generated through the recent national apology."
The government itself has conceded that some indicators of disadvantage were as high in urban areas as in remote areas. There was also disappointment among Aboriginal legal services, whose funds appear to have been cut, despite burgeoning Indigenous incarceration rates and a government commitment to address historical under-funding.
Housing
The budget also referred to $1.6 billion in federal funding for better and more remote Indigenous housing. In February, the government announced a $547 million contribution to Aboriginal housing in the NT — expected to result in up to 750 new houses, 230 replacement houses, and more than 2500 housing upgrades.
A joint policy commission being convened by the prime minister will seek to address the Indigenous housing crisis in remote area throughout Australia.
However, little specific reference has been made to addressing the urban Indigenous housing shortage.
Speaking on Radio 98.9FM in Brisbane, Ms Macklin conceded that there were "a lot of Indigenous people in many parts of Australia — in urban and regional Australia — who are under very significant housing pressure" and said the government would deal with the issue as it progressed a new national affordable housing agreement with the states and territories.
"[But] I think we do have to also acknowledge that housing and overcrowded housing is massive problem in remote parts of Australia," she said.
"That is why we have already in our first few months agreed with the NT government to a huge increase in funding for remote Indigenous communities in the NT because their need is just so great."
The federal Opposition had little to say on the Indigenous budget, with Leader Brendan Nelson making only two cursory mentions of Indigenous people or needs in his budget reply speech.
West Australian Greens Senator Rachel Siewert was direct, referring to "piecemeal" programs that propped up an "inefficient and expensive Howard government agenda", and failed to address key underlying causes of disadvantage.
The NT government and the Territory branch of the Australian Medical Association (AMA) both welcomed the NT budget measures.
Chief Minister Paul Henderson described the budget as providing the largest injection of funds for Aboriginal people the NT had ever seen, and the Territory branch of the AMA said the $99.7 million injection of funds to expand primary health care in the NT as "phenomenal".
Koori Mail (Abridged)