Recently, the Kimberley Echo reported the “joy” as 60 foreign workers arrived in Kununurra to work in the “severely understaffed” hospitality and agriculture sectors. Apparently, no locals are available to do these jobs, even with COVID-19 restrictions making it even more costly and logistically difficult than usual to bring in foreign workers.

Strange, given around 3500 people in the Kununurra, Halls Creek and Derby-West Kimberley regions receive JobSeeker or its youth equivalent. A disproportionate number of them are Indigenous, with Indigenous unemployment there at 25 to 35 per cent and over 60 per cent of Indigenous people not engaged in employment, education or training at all.