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Aboriginal MLA Alison Anderson. |
Intervention housing failure biggest scandal in politics: Anderson
Friday, 7 August 2009
By Tara Ravens
NORTHERN TERRITORY, August 15, 2009: Labor in the Northern Territory has squandered "rivers of money" earmarked for Aboriginal people, says an Aboriginal MLA who quit Labor in disgust.
Alison Anderson, who plunged the Northern Territory government into crisis when she walked out last week, says the mishandling of a remote Indigenous housing scheme is the biggest political scandal she has witnessed.
Debating a no-confidence motion in the NT Legislative Assembly on Friday, Ms Anderson was blunt.
"Labor lives on the Aboriginal vote, it talks constantly about Aboriginal people, but what it is really good at is spending Aboriginal money," she said.
After being promoted to cabinet following last year's election, Ms Anderson said she had spent 12 months in the inner sanctum "watching, listening, learning".
"There is money being spent, always money, rivers of money - but it never seems to reach the people on the ground."
Ms Anderson says she believes only 30 per cent of the $672 million Strategic Indigenous Housing and Infrastructure Program (SIHIP) will actually be spent on new homes, with the rest of the money creamed off to feed the NT's "fat cat bureaucrats".
Last week, she called for a royal commission into the NT government's spending on Indigenous affairs.
"SIHIP was designed as the great answer to the remote housing crisis that is crippling my people," Ms Anderson told parliament on Friday.
"It was the one big chance to change the way things are on communities ...
"Here the ministers sit, cool and comfortable, while Aboriginal people live crowded - 20 to a house. It is a disgrace."
Announced two years ago, the program that was supposed to create 750 homes within five years is yet to build a single new home.
Ms Anderson said she "knew things were wrong" late last year but struggled to get a reaction from her Labor colleagues.
"They were quite content to just continue administering Aboriginal communities - taking the money from Canberra.
"It was just business as usual for them ...
"Now I have spoken out against SIHIP - the biggest scandal I have seen in my political career."
Ms Anderson said Labor was plagued by weak ministers, constant in-fighting and self interest but it was "its problem with truth" that she found the most galling.
Describing political minders as "the shadow men", Ms Anderson said they were the puppet masters of a government obsessed with spin.
"The government has betrayed my people, and it has lost our trust," she said. - AAP
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