At its meeting on 5 and 6 November 2008 the Executive Board established Advisory Committees under Section 12A of the APY Land Rights Act in relation to: Housing; CDEP training and employment; Services; and, Natural Resources Management (NRM). Each community will be asked to nominate a member for each of the Committees. The appointees will be paid positions of up to $22,000 per year tax free, plus the cost of transport, accommodation to attend meetings and on-going management training. The SA Minister for Aboriginal Affairs must approve the remuneration and we will be discussing this with him in Adelaide during the week 10-14 November.
The Advisory Committees will be given important work by Memorandum of Understanding between APY and the State in relation to Housing, NRM and under contracts with non-Government Organisations such as Bungala and other Service Providers.
Draft MOUs have been received from the State on Housing and NRM and will be finalised in Adelaide. The final drafts will be considered at an Executive Board meeting at Umuwa on 18 November 2008 and then approval will be sought at a Special General Meeting on 19 November 2008. Bungala has already agreed to the terms of an NGO contract and a similar contract has been offered to AP Services which has not yet agreed.
However, the State Government has made clear that pending the creation of a local government entity for the Lands, the services presently provided by AP Services will be put out to tender, although AP Services will be able to compete for the contracts. Any successful tenderer will have to sign an NGO contract with APY to regulate their presence on the Lands.
At our SGM on 19 November 2008, we will be asking members to approve proper consultations with communities by recognised experts experienced in capacity building of Indigenous people, but with an important difference to previous consultations. The experts will be working for Anangu and not the government.
The Executive Board considers that what has gone wrong is, that despite all of the money spent and consultations which have occurred over the years, nothing has been done to boost Anangu capacity so that we can take ownership of what is happening on the Lands. In the meantime, greedy non-Anangu take the money intended for our welfare and corrupt vulnerable Anangu to do their bidding.
The new NGO contracts and MOUs will hand decision-making and power back to communities with APY acting as a backup in case something goes wrong and to keep communication and ideas coming to ensure continuous progress.
Anyone in any doubt about the benefits which will flow from the MOUs and NGO contracts need only look at the massive improvement in the level and quality of service from Bungala singe we started the NGO contract with them. Bungala are working hard to treat Anangu like customers and to look after us. We can achieve the same with housing, services and NRM.
This is because in the end we own the land and we make the decisions about who has access to, and what happens on, the land. But we have to stick together and not throw away what our fathers and mothers fought so hard.
Bernard Singer, APY Chairperson