Australians will soon vote to enshrine a voice in the federal parliament in our constitution, to make sure Aboriginal voices on the ground are heard by those in power. A referendum is needed to make sure that the Voice cannot be destroyed by governments if they do not like what they hear.
But that is exactly what is happening in NSW.
Australia is home to the world’s oldest continuous culture. Credit: Meredith O’Shea.
We have had local Aboriginal voices known as Aboriginal Regional Alliances for over five years, under an NSW government program known as Local Decision Making (LDM). If this program is removed, communities will again be left without a voice or opportunity to shape local government decisions.
A few years ago, our Aboriginal community on the central coast of NSW formed an association known as the Barang Regional Alliance. This low-income group brought together key Aboriginal organizations in our community with the encouragement of the NSW government. The goal was to find a different way to work with the government to ensure that services and programs work better for our people under the LDM framework. It was our opinion then and now, that we knew better what works and what is needed in our community to improve the living conditions of our aborigines.
The results of this process are not always immediately apparent, but changes and improvements are taking place. We know this works. Here on the ground, we know we can make a difference. They are still withdrawing too much from our children, but here on the central coast we have an accredited and community-controlled out-of-home care service. Last week we were able to get a child back to their family thanks to our work. We are changing the lives of real people for the better.
For the past five years, under the LDM program, Barang has provided a single point of access to government at all levels to increase engagement with the Central Coast community. We have empowered not only our community, but also our Aboriginal community-controlled organizations (ACCOs). This way of collaborating is complementary to the agreements initiated within the framework of the National Implementation Plan to close the gap. It gives life to this plan in our region.
But we are always at the whim of the government. And now the hand of the corresponding state minister hovers the cursor over the reset button. The state government is considering eliminating the LDM program that could undo many of the gains we have made locally.
We think this would be a mistake. This would not only undermine all the work that has been done on the central coast and other regions of the state, but it will also be a rejection of the wider Aboriginal community to which we belong and all the people we have persuaded. to put their faith in the process. Now the minister does not even have the decency to come and talk to us about what we are doing in our communities.
And if LDM is ruled out, it will only need to be reinvented in a few years. But all the relationships, all the trust and all the knowledge we have acquired will be lost. Everything will have to start all over again.