Community Solidarity Action was launched in Darwin to respond to funding cuts under the federal government's Indigenous Advancement Strategy and to protest against the closure of communities in Western Australia.
The group was launched by community organisations, unions and individuals concerned about or affected by the recent funding announcements and community closures.
It will hold a rally in Darwin on May 1 at Raintree Park to protest against these cuts, show solidarity with communities facing closure and show support for Aboriginal communities and services under attack. It supports self-determination, not cutbacks and closures.
Community Solidarity Action is calling on organisations and individuals to sign on to a statement opposing the closures and cuts. The sign-on statement is reprinted below. Email communitysolidarityaction@gmail.com to sign on.
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On March 11, Prime Minister Tony Abbott endorsed Western Australian Premier Colin Barnett’s decision to forcibly close 150 remote Aboriginal communities.
The WA state government plans to cease essential services such as power and water, following the recent withdrawal of Commonwealth funding for these remote communities. Abbott justified the decision stating publicly that taxpayers cannot be expected to “endlessly subsidise lifestyle choices”.
The Australian government’s failure to recognise the centrality of Aboriginal land and culture to community wellbeing poses the threat of a new wave of dispossession. The planned closures will lead to worsening crises in Indigenous health, homelessness, incarceration and child removal and breach international human rights conventions that Australia is signatory to.
Tony Abbott’s endorsement of the WA closures comes in the context of a decision to stop Commonwealth funding for municipal services in all remote Aboriginal communities, which led the South Australian state government to also raise the prospect of forced community closures [although it has since sait it will ot close communities].
Additional budget cuts of more than $500 million to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community services through the Indigenous Advancement Strategy (IAS) were also announced, coming after much public outcry regarding the inconsistency, uncertainty and lack of transparency and accountability in the funding allocation processes. In the initial allocation round, two-thirds of the IAS funding was granted to non-Aboriginal organisations.
These direct cuts to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community services are part of a broader $1 billion in “savings measures” that will undermine social services across the board. Significant impacts are already being felt by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and by those working in the sector.
Abbott and Barnett’s proposals have, however, been met with an inspiring response from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, community sector organisations, unions and community members in every state and territory.
In response to such widespread condemnation, social services minister Scott Morrison provided short-term relief for some Indigenous community organisations; and Attorney General George Brandis has partially reversed some of the cuts to the community legal sector.
Additionally, a Senate inquiry was launched to investigate IAS tendering processes and their impact on service delivery, with submissions open until April 30.
These steps are welcome, but they are only the beginning of repairing the damage caused by the federal government’s policies towards Aboriginal communities and community-controlled organisations, and they are certainly not long-term solutions.
The signatories to this statement call on the federal government to:
• Denounce Premier Colin Barnett’s forced closure of 150 remote Western Australian Aboriginal Communities
• Restore all Federal funding for remote Western Australian communities
• Reverse all cuts in funding to services supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities, including those announced through the IAS
• Commit to long-term and transparent funding arrangements that support self-determining Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities
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