Yamatji On-Country meeting fires up as community question Aboriginal Affairs Minister Tony Buti

Aboriginal Affairs Minister Tony Buti was slammed at a Geraldton forum last week by frustrated community members who accused the State Government of failing to engage and meet the needs of Aboriginal people in the region. The Yamatji On-Country meeting, held at Bundiyarra Aboriginal Community Aboriginal Corporation on Thursday, reiterated calls for the State Government to provide a response to a call to action, developed by Midwest Aboriginal Organisations Alliance (MAOA) in 2022. The call to action focuses on six key issues: racism, housing and accommodation, police and justice, education, employment, training and economic development, and health and wellbeing. Mid West-Gascoyne community members were given a platform at the event to question Mr Buti, Commissioner for Children and Young People Jacqueline McGowan-Jones, Greens Senator Dorinda Cox, Department of Communities Mid West leadership group chair Bradley Mitchell and Geraldton MLA Lara Dalton. A Carnarvon resident expressed her frustration to the minister, expressing that government agencies in the Gascoyne were not engaging with the community. She said more than 50 per cent of kids in Carnarvon were not attending school. Mr Buti did not deny that school attendance was lacking in Carnarvon and the Mid West and he said it needed to be improved. A Geraldton man asked when the State Government was going to invest “real money” in the Mid West to address youth crime. Mr Buti said Target 120 was an example of a successful program in the region. But community member Zain Laudehr-May bit back at his response, saying it was a “cop out” to use T120 as an example as it only assisted about a dozen children across the region. “Prevention and diversion funding brought the crime rate down by 85 per cent and Aboriginal people are asking for the funding back,” Mr Laudehr-May said. “When there was funding more than 600 kids were looked after.” Someone else asked Mr Buti when a plan would be put in place to deal with the incarceration of youth. Mr Buti said he had nothing to do with corrective services and that was Minister Paul Papalia’s portfolio. “The numbers have gone down to 55 who are in Unit 18 and Banksia, down from 200,” Mr Buti said. Another woman, a Geraldton resident, asked how the State would ensure Aboriginal culture was taught in schools, to which Mr Buti said “we need more Stolen Generation people to come and teach it”. MAOA co-chair Chloe Collard said Aboriginal Community-Controlled Organisations (ACCOs) were expected to deliver projects with inadequate funding and called for more support and investment. “We know that there are funds being made available and programs being run, but we are still not having this shared with us — and right now our people feel like you are choosing to ignore all the hard work that we have put in,” she said. Elders in the community encouraged the State to reintroduce funding for grass-roots preventative programs to support those experiencing family and domestic violence and mental health struggles, while Aboriginal youth spoke about their own experiences with racism and intergenerational trauma, as well as the need for more cultural education in schools. Mr Buti agreed with the youth and said improving education was the first step to addressing issues for Aboriginal people. “We’ve got to look at things from a surplus, a positive point of view. And I think education, economic opportunity, are the key to many, many of the other areas that we’re looking at, whether it be accommodation, policing, justice and so forth,” he said. “If we can get the education right and get the employment opportunities right. That will go a long way to trying to close the gap.”