‘They are not listening to us’: Cairns Indigenous leader on tragic new figures

A Cairns Indigenous leader has said a dire new report on the nation’s Closing The Gap failures shows how the government is spending more money for worse results.

Sarah Addo says the government is using “the people’s money” in indigenous communities and people have a right to know how that money is being spent.

A Cairns Indigenous leader says a dire new report on the nation’s Closing the Gap failures shows the government is not listening and money is being thrown at communities as results only get worse.

The latest Annual Data Compilation Report, which tracks progress towards the targets and indicators, showed just five of 19 targets are on track to be met.

Woompera Muralug Cooperative Society chief executive and Northern Land Council board member Sarah Addo said her people were not being listened to.

“We need a full government review of how much government money is being spent in Indigenous communities, and why it’s not working – communities don’t even know what the money is being spent on,” she said.

In Queensland, the rate of Indigenous suicide is up, child protection removals among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have increased since the baseline year, and child detention is also up.

“The government needs work with us, not against us,” Ms Addo said.

Sarah Addo speaking at a KAP forum in Cairns. PICTURE: STEWART MCLEAN

Ms Addo said in particular government bureaucracies were not sharing power and

decision-making with Indigenous people and communities.

Emily Fourmile, 3, of the Gimuy Walaburra Yindiji dancers performs with other children at the opening night of the Cairns Indigenous Art Fair, held at the Cairns Convention Centre. Picture: Brendan Radke

Productivity Commission commissioner of social policy Natalie Siegel-Brown called for more Indigenous-led programs, citing existing Aboriginal-led programs which resulted in less child removal and healthier births.

On the main street of Mornington Island in the Gulf of Carpentaria. Picture: Peter Carruthers

It comes as some remote Far North Queensland communities have lower life expectancies than Africa, the worst unemployment in Australia, high food prices leading people to resort to crime and the world’s worst rates of childhood diabetes.

Cleveland Youth Detention Centre now has a 92 per cent recidivism rate, and the number of Far North Queensland Indigenous children removed by the state government has grown by more than 40 per cent despite a $77m spend.

SNAICC CEO Catherine Liddle

National Voice for our Children chief executive Catherine Liddle said action was not fast enough.

“The data we have seen today reinforces what we have known for some time, governments are not moving fast enough to turn the tide on widening close the gap targets and that instances where we are making headway on targets, it’s where Aboriginal community Controlled sector is involved,” she said.

Originally published as ‘They are not listening to us’: Cairns Indigenous leader on tragic new figures