Introduced as a radical break from the era of the now-defunct Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) last year, SRAs have been lauded as a success by Indigenous Affairs Minister Amanda Vanstone.
Under the agreements, services ranging from kidney treatment centres, to the installation of petrol bowsers and sporting facilities are provided to communities in return for pledges to improve basic hygiene and school attendance among other requirements.
A Senate estimates hearing last month has heard confirmation from government officials that the programme has been slow to deliver on its promises.
The tiny Western Australian community of Mulan is home to 150 and jumped to national prominence in December last year when news of SRAs first came to light.
Mulan’s residents agreed to ensure their children showered every day and had their faces washed twice a day, and to maintain proper rubbish disposal, in order to qualify for a $170,000 fuel bowser.
The closest petrol pump is 44 kilometres away.
But, according to the Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation (ANTaR), Mulan is still waiting for the agreement to materialise.
“After almost a year of meeting the government’s requirements, the Western Australian community of Mulan had still not received the petrol bowser it was promised last year in a blaze of publicity on December 9,” ANTaR national director David Cooper said yesterday.
“Even more disturbingly, the western New South Wales region of Murdi Paaki participated in the early trials of the programme.”
“It still hadn’t received any of the 200 air-conditioners promised by the government after two and a half years of meeting the programme’s requirements,” Mr Cooper said, highlighting a further example of concern.
A study conducted by the Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning Senior Research Fellow, Ruth McCausland, has also challenge the government over its perceived ad hoc approach to indigenous services.
“Minister Vanstone claims that communities have for the first time been given the opportunity to identify the issues that are a priority for them, and to propose solutions that will be listened to,” Ms McCausland told the Australian Associated Press (AAP).
“However, the government’s framework for negotiating SRAs seems to be more about implementing government ideology in a rushed and ad hoc way than genuinely working with indigenous communities to achieve their desired outcomes and aspirations,” she added.
Ms McCausland has also questioned the inclusion of basic services such as water supply under the auspices of the SRAs.
She said the 90-120 people of Coonana, Western Australia, had entered into an SRA “to improve their water supply.”
“An adequate and clean water supply should by any measure be a citizenship entitlement in a country such as Australia.”
Mr Cooper has called on the government to rethink its approach to indigenous policy and to demonstrate stronger commitment to one of Australia’s most vulnerable communities.
“It places all of the responsibilities on indigenous people and none of the accountabilities on government,” he said.