Creating jobs best way to make remote communities work

The sustainability of remote Indigenous communities must be a priority for Anthony Albanese’s cabinet. Picture: Toby Zerna

The sustainability of remote Indigenous communities must be a priority for Anthony Albanese’s cabinet.

It is fundamental to the disadvantage that costs the taxpayer an estimated $6bn a year in Indigenous-specific services. This is policy failure that would swing an election if it were the fault of any one government. It’s not.

And the poor returns have been delivered for so long that our expectations are in the dirt.

The commonwealth cannot and should not try to shift 92,000 people off their very remote traditional lands to regional centres and cities. So it needs to help make these places work for the residents and for all of us.

We know overcrowding in remote communities is blunting the potential of Indigenous children. It’s a factor in rheumatic heart disease that cuts lives short in remote Australia.

The Royal Australian College of GPs says when an Indigenous child lives in a house with far too many people in it, they are at increased risk of chronic ear infections that make it difficult for them to hear and learn at school, eye infections such as trachoma and skin conditions such as crusted scabies. Overcrowding is linked to elevated levels of family violence and mental health issues.

The housing shortfall in remote Australia has gone from bad to worse since 2018 when the Turnbull government walked away from a 10-year national partnership agreement to fund remote housing. The states panicked, to put it mildly. West Australian premier Colin Barnett had been told what was coming four years earlier when he infamously announced he would be shutting down remote communities in his state. This triggered protest rallies as far away as Paris. Successor Mark McGowan joined other premiers in trying to pressure the commonwealth to come back to the negotiation table. None of it worked and the result has been a remote housing black hole in state budgets ever since.

Meanwhile, disadvantage in remote Indigenous communities is getting worse in some cases.

Closing the Gap data, published quarterly, shows that Indigenous employment is increasing in every part of Australia except very remote communities. The latest figures show the employment rate among Indigenous people aged 25 to 64 in very remote areas is 35 per cent, a reduction from 35.6 per cent in 2016.

This is why the plan to open up remote Indigenous communities to investment is high-stakes. Much depends on whether a labour force strategy can help residents into jobs that will allow them to thrive and buy their own homes. It is often said there are no jobs in remote Indigenous communities and that is why they are unsustainable. Have a look at who drives in and out of these places – public servants, tradies and consultants often earning $2/km in mileage. When the outsiders have to fly in, the cost to the taxpayer is even higher.

Remote Indigenous communities want to take on at least some of this work themselves. They want real jobs that already exist, and the chance to create ones that have not been thought of yet.