No Lifestyle Choice

On Wednesday March 11, I was flying back from Geraldton, a Midwest WA regional town.  I’d met with a number of different non-government organisations, schools and the council to hear firsthand what effects Federal and State Government cuts were having on service delivery to mainly poor and disadvantaged communities in the region.  What I heard made me angry - loss of funds, loss of staff, longer waiting lists for clients or no service at all in the case of Youth Connections, on and on it went.

While I was on that flight home I read a piece about the Nyoongar Tent Embassy which had been re-established on Heirisson Island, Matagarup as the local people call it.  The issue was homelessness.  I went and visited the camp and met Aunty Maureen and other women – grandmothers, mothers and young women, just some the victims of WA’s harsh public housing law where people end up being evicted after 3 warnings for alleged “anti-social behaviour.”

Aunty Maureen and the other women told me they’d invited other people, particularly those living rough in the CBD to come to Matagarup as a safe haven. One had even reconnected with her long lost brother. When I asked what they would do if evicted they had no answers.

Matagarup falls within the boundaries of the City of Perth. CEO Gary Stevenson told me he’d met with the group and had spoken to a number of Perth’s homeless organisations and believed offers had been made which hadn’t been taken up.  I questioned Mr Stevenson about “offers being made” because I know there isn’t available emergency accommodation in Perth. I checked this out with a local CBD provider who confirmed my assumptions. The group had been given until Thursday 12 noon to move on.

Yesterday, as the 12 noon deadline approached, and as the media pack gathered to capture ugly scenes of police moving in, what they found was that the group have been given a reprieve, another 24 hours. The media moved on.

But the reality remains, whether its 24 or 36 hours, those who are homeless have nowhere to go. So when the eventuality arrives and the police move in and force the Nyoongar Tent Embassy to move on, I ask, move on to where? To another park? A car? A friend or relative? There is nowhere to go and I remain angry.

This week the PM and so-called Minister for Indigenous Affairs has once again shown his ignorance, calling homeland communities facing closure a “lifestyle choice.” These ill-conceived insulting words follow the publication of the 2015 Close the Gap report which shows the gap increasing in most areas. Aboriginal Australians continue to be over represented in our jails, suicide rates and on all low socio-economic indicators.

No more words. It is time for action in partnership with Aboriginal Australians. Please join me in my fight. Call my office, email me, and talk to my team about how to submit to the upcoming senate enquiry I referred to the Finance and Public Administration References Committee.

It’s so important that we start working together to build a better community in WA. A community where our aboriginal people are respected not rejected.