Coordinator-General’s report shows government failing Indigenous Australians
The fourth six-monthly report issued by the Coordinator-General for remote Indigenous services shows that the Gillard Labor government have failed to help Indigenous people due to poor planning and wasteful spending, the Shadow Minister for Indigenous Affairs Senator Nigel Scullion said.
“This report reiterates yet again the failure of the Gillard Labor government to make a real difference to the lives of our first Australians,” Senator Scullion said.
“Report after report has listed the overly bureaucratic nature of the Labor government as posing the greatest barriers to achieving positive outcomes.
“The Labor government has stifled strong positive moves forward by Indigenous Australians by tangling programs in too much red tape and piecemeal uncoordinated ideas.
“This dysfunctional Labor Government’s Indigenous programs continue to lumber our first Australians with second-rate services leaving them in third-world conditions.
“There remains a lack of coordination both within government and between governments to ensure funding and efforts hit the ground.”
The Coordinator-General was quite specific when he wrote on page 3: “My previous reports have noted that a number of issues hinder the ability of remote service providers to successfully deliver the services for which they are funded. Such issues include a real or perceived lack of flexibility of government programs to be tailored to local circumstances, short term funding and the myriad of contractual and reporting requirements placed on service providers.”
“The Gillard Labor government is failing Aboriginal Australians – the report calls for the development of a long-term strategy for Remote Service Delivery.
“This government has no plan to help Indigenous people.
“They will continue to provide inflexible costly, wasteful, inefficient and ineffective programs that won’t help close the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.
“The Coalition policy at the last election was to create an independent Director General of service delivery to cut out the waste, duplication and mismanagement so inherent in this government’s Indigenous programs,” Senator Scullion said.
“I support the Coordinator-General in his call for better incentives for whole-of-government collaboration and to drive reforms to funding arrangements to streamline funding agreements.
“While Gillard and Macklin fail to plan and fail to help the plight of our first Australians, despair and disadvantage reign supreme,” Senator Scullion said.
