Mal Brough heckled by NT Aborigines Angry words and abuse greeted federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough when he visited an Aboriginal community in Darwin to announce plans to make it into a normal suburb. Under a sweltering Top End sun, Mr Brough said Bagot community had been neglected by the Northern Territory government and deliberately ostracised, despite its location in the heart of the city... -------------------------- Mal Brough refused an invitation to attend a meeting of people concerned for the future of One Mile Dam Aboriginal Community - on the same day he was heckled off Bagot
Kumbutjil Association One Mile Dam Community Dinah Beach Road c/- GPO Darwin 0800 Senator Mal Brough The Minister for Aboriginal Affairs Parliament House Canberra ACT 2600 9th October 2007 Dear Mr Brough RE: EFFECTS OF FEDERAL INTERVENTION AT ONE MILE DAM TOWN CAMP Our community of more than thirty people live in a ‘town camp,’ near the Darwin business district on a lease allocated for Aboriginal community use. The lease was handed over to us in 1978 after a long struggle by members of our extended families. The land we chose was beside a scenic lake that was the old Darwin one mile railway dam, previously surrounded by the Stuart Park oil storage tanks. Since 1997, Northern Territory Governments have threatened to have our community evicted and the area used as a park for luxury apartments with harbour views to be built on the surrounding hillsides. Work is now in progress for the foundations of these housing developments. At One Mile Dam we live in worse than third world conditions in tin sheds with faulty and dangerous wiring, leaking and draughty walls, all dependent on two dilapidated shared toilet blocks and without the amenities most Darwin residents take for granted. Scientific tests have shown that the one mile dam where our children used to swim is now dangerously toxic. Needless to say the huts in which we live are grossly overcrowded. Since homelessness was criminalised in Darwin, more people are crowding into our accommodation. Despite these difficulties, we want to live here and we remain prepared to fight any attempt to evict us. Although the lease was given to our people by the NT Government, the title has always been held by the Aboriginal Development Foundation (ADF) who rarely consult with us. Mr Brough, lately we read in the newspaper that you have taken over the leases of all NT Aboriginal Town Camps; however, no-one has discussed any change of lease with our community. All we know is that we recently received a letter instructing us that it is now forbidden to consume alcohol in the One Mile Dam town camp. We believe that a large sign will soon be erected notifying all who enter that One Mile Dam is a dry community. While some of us are pleased that alcohol will be banned in our community, this will be difficult for our community leaders to enforce. To end our uncertainty, we want to know who holds the lease for our land - the ADF or the Federal Government? If you have taken over the lease for our land, what are you plans for the future? Will you support our fight to stay here? If we are to be a dry community, how do we enforce it? What assistance will we receive? No one has explained these things to us. We hear that the ADF is suing you for millions of dollars for the loss of ‘their’ town camps in Darwin and Adelaide River. One Mile Dam does not belong to the ADF. Bernie Valadian and his ADF have done little for us for years, ever since they built our tin sheds. Now the surrounding apartments are being built to overlook us, we feel threatened by future plans for so called urban development in Darwin. We hear that Larrakia Nation is now planning with the NT Government to use our land for something else, again without involving us. Once again, the Larrakia Nation plans would involve evicting the residents of OMD. The Larrakia Nation has been proven not to have native title over our area and our people have been living here with the traditional Larrakia people for a long time. Ever since the land was assigned to us we have been living here in uncertainty as tenants of the ADF and with continued threats by town planners to be moved aside for a park to serve the residents of the new Stuart Park apartments. The Federal intervention has further added to the uncertainty for OMD residents and Kumbutjil members. Mr Brough, we beg you to come to One Mile Dam Community to see how we live, to hear our grievances and most importantly to explain what your ‘intervention’ will mean to us. We only know what we read in the newspaper. Please answer this invitation to visit us as soon as possible. If it is true that you have taken over the lease from our landlord, the ADF, we would appreciate being formally informed. Also, as leaseholder you have a duty of care to ensure we no longer live in the worse than third world conditions that we have endured for the past thirty years under the ADF, the City of Darwin and the Northern Territory Government. I can be contacted by my mobile, 0410 117 292 Yours faithfully David Timber President Kumbitjil Association One Mile Dam Community ___________________________________________________________ Mal Brough heckled by NT Aborigines Article continues ___________________________________________________________ "It's an appalling circumstance when a government of any persuasion puts a fence up between one part of the community and the other and lets what goes on behind it hide behind it," he told reporters. "There is no street lighting, substandard and overcrowded housing and residents are left to cope with social problems created by blow-ins." Under the plan, the federal government would upgrade Bagot to the standard of a normal suburb. Land would be developed for private and public housing and residents have the choice of owning their own homes or public housing. The government will also reduce people's "disposable income" to limit the money available for gambling, drugs and alcohol. Mr Brough said it was time that residents were "treated the same way" as those living in other Darwin suburbs. He said Bagot residents had agreed to begin negotiations with the commonwealth following several months of talks. But not all locals appeared to be a fan of the minister or his plans. A group of furious people hurled abuse at Mr Brough, who pressed on with his address despite the intense heckling: "You try living like a black fella, you're not welcome here, how dare you tell us how to live". Mr Brough said the measures to "remove the pain from the centre of Darwin" would come into effect in December, when the federal government also seizes control of the Alice Springs town camps. He said the measures were yet to be costed. Mr Brough also announced $6 million from the Aboriginal Benefit Account to fund a crocodile farming business and a business development zone at the remote community of Ramingining in East Arnhem Land. "This is about creating real jobs and real wealth from the Northern Territory's natural assets," he said. "It is part of a new way of thinking that can allow remote Aboriginal communities to make a real contribution to the Northern Territory economy." On Saturday, Mr Brough visited Hermannsburg, about 100km west of Alice Springs. Community members there released a statement on Friday saying they did not care for "political bickering or personal accusations". The comments followed a week in which Labor and Liberal ministers traded barbs about the motivation behind the intervention into territory Aboriginal communities, with rifts emerging within the territory government, and between it and federal Labor. "Whether or not somebody is really sincere, or trying to get political advantage, or make up for past errors, or rush things too fast, is secondary," said spokeswoman Helen Kantawara. "We are desperate to see real changes ... We don't care whether it's (Prime Minister) John Howard or (Labor leader) Kevin Rudd, Mal Brough or (opposition indigenous affairs spokeswoman) Jenny Macklin, as long as these problems are sorted out properly." © 2007 AAP
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