This week’s COAG meeting must overhaul Commonwealth and State arrangements in Indigenous affairs, including giving Aboriginal people a meaningful voice in policy formulation.  

“The social crisis in Indigenous communities across the country is now apparent to all Australians and COAG has no choice but to take urgent action within a long-term strategy of engagement and partnership with Indigenous people,” said CEO Brian Wyatt.  

“Calls for federal takeover of Indigenous affairs is an impractical distraction from the main and urgent game of radical change to the Third World conditions in which too many Indigenous people live.  

“The States run the schools, the hospitals, jails, police, public housing, child protection, land title system and so much else that effect the lives of Indigenous people. The States, not the Commonwealth, are best placed to turn Third World conditions around.  

“What is needed is a new agreement between the Commonwealth and the State Government that includes Indigenous people as formal partners.  

“The current Indigenous Affairs Bilateral Agreement between the Commonwealth and the WA State Government, which was signed by John Howard and Alan Carpenter in June 2006, is not worth the paper it is written on. It is a minimalist document that provides no framework to solve these serious problems.  

“We need a new trilateral agreement to replace the existing arrangement, one that sets long-range goals and details a long-term investment in remote and urban communities with clear roles and responsibilities for the State, Commonwealth and Indigenous communities.  

“The failure of government policy to significantly improve Indigenous living conditions will inevitably continue if Indigenous people are left out of a formal agreement.”  

Mr Wyatt is discussing with a number of senior Indigenous Western Australian leaders the need for Aboriginal people to meet and develop a formal position to put to the Commonwealth and the Western Australian Governments.  

“The paralysis that has beset administration of Indigenous affairs means our people have to step up to take leadership on Indigenous policy. We cannot allow the politics of inaction and dysfunction between the Commonwealth and Western Australian Government to continue to weigh down progress in improving the lives of the most vulnerable people in our community,” Mr Wyatt said.

Media Contact:  Brian Wyatt 0417 970413;    David Berry 0417 963089, 9263 8715