Indigenous voice ‘must sort out money trail’

A remote land council has backed calls for the indigenous voice to address prolific waste and leakage.

Marcia Langton in Melbourne. Picture: Aaron Francis

A remote land council representing 29 tribal groups in Australia’s north has backed calls for the indigenous voice to address prolific waste and leakage as a priority.

Kimberley Land Council chief executive Nolan Hunter said indigenous academic Marcia Langton was “spot on” when she told The Australian that “taxpayers’ money is leaking all over the place because of inefficiencies. It shows in the outcomes.”

Professor Langton, co-chair of the senior advisory group that will ultimately present models for the voice to Indigenous Australians Minister Ken Wyatt, said funds were being siphoned off at every layer of government.

“Most people think that Aboriginal people are getting it all. They are not,” Professor Langton said.

Mr Hunter said the evidence of government waste and mis­directed funds was all around in the far north of Western Australia where his land council represents traditional owners in towns and remote communities.

Government budget papers would show that large amounts of money was allocated to the ­region for services to indigenous people yet the results did not reflect the commitment.

Health outcomes for some indigenous people in the Kimberley remained very poor, he said.

“Once indigenous dollars come to the states or the Northern Territory, they don’t necessarily spend it on indigenous services or programs,” Mr Hunter said. “There is a lot of issues around service models and where money goes … the voice has a big role to play in sorting that out.”

The Kimberley Land Council has been an effective advocate for traditional owners, partly by working to ensure their Native Title is recognised on lands covering almost 94 per cent of the region. This has helped indigenous people to run tourism and cattle businesses on their land.

Mr Hunter said he believed indigenous people in the region would want to have their say when community consultations on the voice began. Professor Langton and co-chair Tom Calma are guiding a co-design process that is due to report to Mr Wyatt in October 2020.