Monday 13 September 2010

Sack Macklin for maladministration of services to Aboriginal people and communities in the Northern Territory


Further to my post here, Michael Mansell is to-day on the record in calling for Jenny Macklin's sacking as well.  Housing is just part of the maladministration of matters affecting Aboriginal citizens in the Northern Territory.

I met Jenny Macklin at Eltham during the election campaign and asked her what was being done to recover the $35 million wasted by New Future Alliance.  Instead of taking time to give me a reply - no matter how full of gloss that might have been - Macklin clamped her lips firmly shut and sped away from me at a rate of knots.  Statistics coming through do not paint a picture of successful policy implementation - and enough is more than enough.

Taxpayers it is your money being spent 
on The Intervention with very dubious results.  

My view is that taxpayers need a balance sheet of what has been spent, where it has been spent, and what have been the outcomes.  I also want one more thing.  I would like - but I guess I will never see - a breakdown of a budget which shows how much money went into white pockets, and how much into black pockets.  Pearson and the Pollies talk about developing black economies.  Well, there is one under The Intervention.  It enriches non-Aboriginal people.

I would also like a figure on how much was spent on housing for Government Business Managers and other government employees and how much was spent on housing for Aboriginal people - with headings for new housing, refurbished housing, etc.  I would also like a timeline presented on this.  For instance, it is reported that in some communities the Government Business Manager's house came first and better.

I am also told that in spite of Tennant Creek having a long and successful service in BRADAAG, under The Intervention banner drug and alcohol counsellors from Melbourne came into Tennant Creek being paid $500 per day.

Now what was the point of all that, Jenny Macklin?  Can you advise what that was all about?  What did these people do?  What was their success rate........in a community which has put up some great battles against grog including closing the pubs and instituting the first Night Patrol ever.

Tennant Creek is the most creative place in which I have lived.  It is creative in regard to arts and crafts both from black and white cultures.  Above all, it is creative in regard to solutions for social problems.  The leadership of Julalikari has been central to that.  And yet, at extreme expense, people had to be brought in from Port Phillip Bay.  One would find this risible, if it were not so serious and so whitefella self-serving.

So in frustration, disgust, and hope for a better deal for Aboriginal people who are citizens of this country not mendicants, Jenny Macklin needs to be sacked.  If Rudd had to go because the government had lost its way, then by that criteria Macklin has to go - or does Gillard think that Macklin is on the one true path to Aboriginal redemption?  As I said - this could be risible.

Miss Eagle is currently collating
figures and researching housing
under The Intervention.
If you have facts, figures, first person stories,
anything that is correct and reportable,
please forward to:
misseaglesnetwork(at)gmail(dot)com

2 comments:

  1. We agree about her, anyway.
    I have told you my brief encounter with Jenny Macklin, stealing the best lines from a female Labor candidate's speech, when she was there to support the candidate - leaving her to sound like she was echoing Jenny's speech.
    So much for Sisterhood, and Emily's List, etc.
    .
    Anyway, apart from anything, that photo of her with those kids is just appalling.
    Could she find any "whiter" kids than that lot?
    Denis

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes the picture has some strange overtones that I don't want to even think about. Macklin is not measuring up to the promise that was developed in opposition. Too many suss things about the Intervention.

    ReplyDelete

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