Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has backed Senator Jacinta Price’s call for an audit into public spending on Indigenous affairs
“It would be a travesty to see money taken away from those who are most deserving of it and for it to be diverted into the hands of those who are misappropriating that money. That’s a no-brainer,” Mr. Dutton told reporters on Oct. 3.
“When you’re dealing with taxpayers’ money, the money needs to be spent in accordance with the law and to the benefit of the people it’s supposed to help.”
Mr. Dutton noted that regional and remote communities were not seeing the benefits of taxpayer-backed public spending.
“The huge amount of money that goes into the funnel out of Canberra becomes a trickle when it gets to many of the regional and remote areas, and that’s why we don’t see the housing, we don’t see the jobs, we don’t see the educational outcomes, we don’t see the life expectancy like we would expect to see in capital cities.”
Misappropriation Scandals
Over the past two decades, a number of scandals have come to light surrounding corruption and fraud related to public financing of Indigenous programs.In 2016, an investigation conducted by ABC’s Four Corners program uncovered instances of senior executives and bureaucrats at the helm of certain initiatives lining their pockets with money from their organisations.
Most notably, the ABC alleged the embezzlement of $3 million by Craig Dale, a project manager tasked by the Western Australian government with rebuilding the remote community of Warmun after it was ravaged by floods in 2011. After the ordeal, it was then revealed that Mr. Dale had also defrauded the Commonwealth Bank of just under half a million dollars.
Another instance comprised the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission’s (ACIC) 2013 investigation into the alleged misuse of funds by staff within the Julalikari Council Aboriginal Corporation, essentially a fund aimed at financing local community programs in the Northern Territory.
Leading proponent of the ‘No’ campaign against the ‘The Voice’ Warren Mundine has said he’s not surprised by such misconduct given the poverty evident in remote Indigenous communities.
“I’m not surprised, sadly, that those investigations are happening,” Mr. Mundine said when asked about the Warmun scandal.
“You go into some of these communities and you see people living in abject poverty and you know that they have a trust fund or they have an organisation (that receives) millions of dollars, which is their money.”
Referendum Update
Efforts to shine a spotlight on this issue constitute the final phase of campaigning in the leadup to Australia’s 45th referendum held on Oct. 14, when the nation will be asked to vote on whether to constitutionally enshrine an Indigenous Voice to Parliament.A media survey published by Essential Research on Oct. 3 found that although marginally rising, support for the Yes vote still remains behind that for the No vote.
The survey found that the Yes vote’s backing has climbed two percentage points to 43 percent between late September and early October but is still 6 percentage points behind the No vote, currently sitting at 49 percent.
