Among major developments over the past months was the
release of the Draft Redfern-Waterloo Human Services Plan, plans to sell off Redfern Public School,
the establishment of three Ministerial advisory committees and the announcement
of two new research agencies, worth $47.5 million, to be built at Australian Technology Park.
The Human Services Plan (HSP) listed 10 priorities that
focused on streamlining and improving health, education, employment and other
services in Redfern and Waterloo.
The key features of the HSP included one-stop shops for
youth services, the establishment of a Redfern-Waterloo Trust, 100 additional
childcare places and measures to improve education levels in the area.
The community was invited to submit feedback on the plan by
mid-November but there were complaints about the limited time frame given to
prepare feedback reports.
The HSP was scheduled for release in August, but was instead
made public in October. The two-month delay had effectively eaten into the time
that was reserved for community consultation.
Some service providers, like the local community centre, The Settlement,
saw no point in providing feedback on the HSP.
The Settlement’s management committee said in October the time
provided for responses was “inappropriate for democratic organisations”
with the Government “allowing themselves unlimited time and expertise to
prepare reports, leaving none for preparation of responses.”
In a statement, the Settlement’s management committee said: “The Plan is a
band-aid over a gaping wound at best, scapegoating of the hard-pressed
volunteer sector at worst.
“We are better off, in our view, getting on with the
job than responding to a Plan with such paltry intent.”
They also criticised the proposed one-stop shops, which they
said would mean a ‘one size fits all’ policy, eliminating services for smaller groups
with special needs.
Geoff Turnbull, President of community group RED Watch, said
while it appeared the Government was “seriously stepping up to its responsibilities
in the area”, a major concern was the lack of community consultation in
its process.
In particular, Turnbull expressed disappointment about plans
to sell off Redfern
Public School to the Indigenous Land Corporation against community
wishes. While the premise will be used to set up a National Aboriginal Youth
Development Centre, Redfern will be losing another vital infrastructure. The
Redfern Courthouse and old Police Station have also been sold off.
The $25 million from the sale of the school will be used by
the RWA to fund its activities in the area.
Turnbull said the Government was in danger of repeating
errors from the past by not working with the community and getting them involved, as was the case
with the Street Team created by the state government as part of the Redfern Waterloo
Partnership Project three years ago.
The Street Team failed to win community cooperation.
“The RWA has not come to grips with the whole idea of
working with the community,” said Turnbull.
“They haven’t
understood there is a lot of knowledge and a lot of good will in the community
and if they are more open with the community and provide the mechanisms where
people can be involved in that process, they will probably get a lot further
and with a lot less resistance.”
The promise of four Community Forums every year, allowing
the community direct access to the Minister of Redfern-Waterloo, Frank Sartor,
was not actualised at the time of going to press.
However, the RWA has established three Ministerial Advisory
Committees, which are part of the overall community consultation framework.
Each committee, comprising of six to eight community members with at least two
Indigenous people on each committee, will give advice to the Minister and RWA
on the three key areas of built environment, human services, and employment and
enterprise.
The other big movement at the RWA has been the launch of a
new building at the Australian Technology Park
to accommodate two research agencies –the National Information and
Communications Technology Australia
and the Defence, Science and Technology Organisation.
The new agencies are expected to create 600 new jobs and the
construction of the new facility will also promote the Jobs Compact which
supports Indigenous employment opportunities.
Geoff Turnbull said while this was all positive, the real
structural issues of unemployment in the area were not being addressed. Work
created in the two research centres would require skilled, white-collar workers
while the large majority of workers in Redfern and Waterloo were blue-collar workers.
Although the HSP would raise education levels and the number
of skilled workers in Redfern and Waterloo
in the long term, the Government needed to provide solutions for the high
number of unemployed people in the area in the short term, said Turnbull.
Despite its achievements, the RWA has made no progress with
redevelopment on The Block. Frank Sartor is still at loggerheads with the
Aboriginal Housing Company, which owns the land, about the number of houses that
can be built in the area. With both parties refusing to capitulate,
redevelopment for The Block remains halted indefinitely and this will impact
the RWA’s overall activities.
“The truth is, nothing will kick off in Redfern until
The Block gets fixed. That’s the one
thing that’s always held this place
back and that’s the one thing that
will help fix this area,” said Peter Valilis, Project Manager of the AHC.