Jobs, education, police and greater control of destiny among APY Lands community’s demands to Cabinet
MORE jobs, police, better education and greater control of their own destiny are amongthe demands put to Premier Jay Weatherill during a community forum in the APY Lands.
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MORE jobs, police, better education and greater control of their own destiny are among
the demands put to Premier Jay Weatherill during a community forum in the APY Lands.
The forum at Umuwa on Monday night prompted forthright responses to the Premier and ministers, who visited the remote APY Lands as part of a community cabinet event.
The issue of policing was high on the agenda, including calls from elders for police stations in each of the six communities on the Lands, and strategies to recruit more Aboriginal community constables.
Police Minister Peter Malinauskas told the gathering of several hundred people that while a police station in each community would be ideal, there simply was not enough funding.
Mr Malinauskas said there was already funding for 10 community constables — but so far only three had been employed because of a lack of applicants.
“It is incumbent on SA Police and the government to think innovatively to make sure that we can attract more people to take up these positions,” he said.
Ernabella community leader Gary Lewis told Mr Weatherill that too many outsiders were being
brought into the region to work on road projects — despite a government training program to teach road construction skills to young Aboriginal people.
“The roads are supposed to be real jobs for the Anangu people in our community, but it’s not a real job,” Mr Lewis said.
“The people that are working in a job, it’s working for the dole, but it should be a real job. We need to give power back to the community.”
Mr Weatherill said the APY Lands executive council and the community needed to take a greater role in determining its own future, in partnership with state and federal governments.
A new APY Executive Council was elected last month, after years of infighting between members that has created instability in the governing body.
“We cannot have strong communities unless we have a strong APY executive, because there are
some things that need to occur over the whole lands, like health, education and improving roads,” Mr Weatherill said.
Another elder said recent executive councils had not properly represented the interests of the
region, and said that while successive governments had emphasised the importance of jobs, there
simply was not the industry to support them.
The Premier also heard that local language should be a high priority alongside English to preserve ancient dialects and traditions.
Mr Weatherill yesterday visited a school and fruit orchard at Kenmore Park and the Ernabella arts centre before flying back to Adelaide, where he will face intense scrutiny over the Oakden aged care facility saga.