APY lands ban on job chief
John Wiseman; 3/6/08
The supervisor of a federally funded employment program has been ordered to leave indigenous lands in northwest South Australia, widening the rift between the local governing council and service providers. Ken Larkins, who supervises the Community Development Employment Project operation in the Indulkana community on the eastern edge of the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara lands has been told he must leave by next Monday. Mr Larkins yesterday received notice that his permit to live on the lands had been cancelled by the APY executive board. The cancellation follows a complaint to police last week about the presence on the lands without a permit of South Australia’s most senior Aboriginal affairs bureaucrat, Joslene Mazel.
See: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23801149-5013404,00.html
Cost blow-out for NT indigenous houses
Patricia Karvelas; 3/6/08
New houses built in Northern Territory Aboriginal communities have cost taxpayers nearly $900,000 each - three times the limit promised by the Howard government. The Australian can reveal that the new houses, built under a lease-to-buy agreement between the federal government and indigenous tenants, were negotiated on 40-year terms, despite the former government proclaiming it believed in only the 99-year leasing system. The new houses were built in Wudapuli and Nama, two communities 380km southwest of Darwin, about 40km away from the troubled town of Wadeye.
See: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23801060-5013404,00.html
Tags: Aboriginal, Australia, Housing, Land