From missions to homelands and back to assimilation | REDFLAG

26.5.15

From missions to homelands and back to assimilation | REDFLAG: But there have been numerous statements by Barnett that the WA government plans to close them down. Addressing the state parliament on 13 November, for example, he said: “There are something like 274 Aboriginal communities in Western Australia – I think 150 or so of those are in the Kimberley [in the north of the state] itself – and they are not viable. They are not viable and they are not sustainable.” The previous day, he said: “It will cause great distress to the Aboriginal people who will move.”

Up to 60 homelands in South Australia are also reportedly at risk. Barnett blamed federal government funding cuts. But two months earlier he had accepted a one-off payment of $90 million from the federal government to take over responsibility for serving the remote communities.