The Federal Government says it's investing $1.2 billion in First Nations communities and Closing the Gap over five years as part of Tuesday's budget. Headline measures include new funding for remote jobs, community controlled health infrastructure, and programs to combat gendered violence. Despite these investments, some community leaders have told NITV they feel the budget left First Nations people behind.
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TRANSCRIPT
The Federal government says it's investing $1.2 billion in First Nations communities and Closing the Gap over five years as part of the budget.
The largest single investment was $299 million towards doubling the number of jobs available under the Remote Jobs and Economic Development Program, bringing the total up to 6,000.
Yanyuwa woman and Minister for Indigenous Australians, Malarndirri McCarthy, says this particularly pleases her about the budget.
"What I'm really pleased about, of course, with the area that I have, is the increase in the remote jobs. I know that unless we have dignity in the work that we do, with superannuation, long service leave, holiday pay - all of the things that make you feel good about getting up and going to work - if we can have that support of the Federal government behind us to increase it up to 6000 jobs that's going to make a tremendous difference in our remote regions."
Nearly $220 million will go towards delivering the nation's first standalone plan to end violence against Indigenous women and children.
Our Ways - Strong Ways - Our Voices is a decade-long strategy that was launched this year.
Ms McCarthy says it's a genuinely co-operative program.
"The difference with this plan is that it has been done in co-design with the Commonwealth government and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community sector, and because of that equal partnership, you will now see, I believe, greater results in the space of the protection of women and children."
A group of 40 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community Controlled Organisations will also receive $167.6 million over four years to deliver community -led services for women and families experiencing domestic violence.
There was also $144 million towards improving health infrastructure for Aboriginal Community Controlled health services, and $113 million aimed at improving education outcomes.
Despite this funding, there has also been disappointing around where the budget landed, including from Independent Victorian Senator Lidia Thorpe.
"There's not much in it for our people, unfortunately. I didn't think there would be, but it is very light on in terms of what is needed for our people in this country."
The Gunnai, Gunditjmara and Djab Wurrung woman says she would have liked to see funding go towards supporting more grassroots family violence services.
"I've spoken to those family violence services who actually have women going into the refuges and staying there for their own safety. They're not being funded out of this. I've spoken to people, particularly in remote communities where there's a family violence service that works out of a donga, and they have to close the door at 5pm. And those women have to go back to the perpetrator in in more cases than not."
Senator Thorpe also says the government has failed to address the root causes of racism towards First Nations people, including by funding the Human Rights Commission's National Anti-Racism Framework.
Chief Executive Officer at SNAICC - National Voice for our Children, Catherine Liddle, has welcomed funding to prevent domestic and family violence, but says that overall, this is a budget of missed opportunities.
"There's very little funding dedicated to Aboriginal responses. There were plenty of community-led solutions on the table, and very little commitment at a time when Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families and the services that support them are under scrutiny and needing support the most."
The Arrernte/Luritja woman has told NITV this budget won't deliver generational fairness for First Nations people.
"What we needed to see in this budget was a commitment to community-led solutions, a really big emphasis on funding streams that go, 'We're going to get into families who are experiencing vulnerability. We're going to make sure that the support systems that they need really reinforced around them. And we're going to make sure that that funding is sustainable so that the great practice that we know is possible is being experienced by everybody"
There was also concern that the budget didn't deliver enough funding for legal services.
Yvette D'Ath is the Executive Director of National Legal Aid.
"We have to invest in prevention and early intervention, and it's got to be a holistic approach. Legal assistance is an important component of that in keeping people out of the justice system and out of our youth detention centres and our prisons, but it's also about housing, it's about health, it's about job opportunities."
Senator Thorpe agrees the legal assistance sector didn't get the funding it needs.
"You have to fund Aboriginal Legal Services, and we have to fund self-determined solutions that our people know work for our community, but they're just not being resourced to do it."
But she said there are glimmers of progress.
"We did have a win, and something that I've certainly been fighting for, and that was to exempt Stolen Gen reparation payments for Elders receiving aged care payments."
Ms McCarthy rebuts some of the negativity.
"Well, we've invested over three million dollars in the redress scheme. This is about righting a wrong. We put through a Bill in the Parliament, and that Bill did not include our First Nations people who were on the redress scheme, and so we righted that wrong by ensuring our people who are on the redress scheme and want to have access to aged care now can have it without being means tested."
A point of agreement in a budget marked by concerns it left First Nations people behind.
