THE HON SHAYNE NEUMANN MP

SHADOW MINISTER FOR INDIGENOUS AFFAIRS

SHADOW MINISTER FOR AGEING

FEDERAL MEMBER FOR BLAIR

 

SENATOR GLENN STERLE

SENATOR FOR WESTERN AUSTRALIA

DUTY SENATOR FOR DURACK, O’CONNOR, TANGNEY & HASLUCK

 

MEDIA RELEASE

 

CUTS CONTINUE TO HURT WA ABORIGINAL COMMUNITIES

 

 

Tony Abbott’s unfair Budget has left Aboriginal communities in Western Australia facing an uncertain future, with funding cuts continuing to wreak havoc across the state.

 

The Budget gives no relief to West Australian frontline Indigenous services, who are still reeling from the massive cuts delivered through the Government’s disastrous Indigenous Advancement Strategy in the last Budget.

 

More than $145 million will be cut from Indigenous programs and services this financial year, including $46 million from Indigenous health, as the cuts continue to roll out.

 

Many Aboriginal organisations have already said they will be forced to close their doors in the wake of federal funding cuts.

 

Among the hardest hit are Aboriginal Children and Family Centres, which were abandoned by the Abbott Government after the expiry of the National Partnership Agreement on Indigenous Early Childhood development in June 2014.

 

Many Centres have struggled on, only to be let down by the lack of funding available under the shambolic Indigenous Advancement Strategy.

 

 

 

The 2015 Budget brings more uncertainty, with the cessation of the National Partnership Agreement on Remote Indigenous Housing (NPARIH).

 

This year’s Budget rips $95 million from the NPARIH, in spite of serious overcrowding.

 

With little detail on the Government’s plan to replace the NPARIH, Aboriginal people in remote regions across Western Australia now face further uncertainty about what this will mean for them.

 

This announcement comes as remote communities across Western Australia remain at risk of closure.

 

While the Barnett Government has recently pulled back from closing all 150 communities it first announced, uncertainty remains for the future of many remote Aboriginal communities.

 

The only certain thing about this Budget is its fundamental unfairness.

 

This Budget is designed to save Tony Abbott’s job – not support Aboriginal people in Western Australia.