Poverty fight needs war-like commitment

from The National Indigenous Times

By Chris Graham

SOUTH AUSTRALIA

Issue 29, April 16, 2003: A South Australian Aboriginal cultural institute which recently made headlines as the scene of a fiery anti-war protest against Prime Minister John Howard has again been the setting for talk of a war.

But on this occasion, the talk was of a 'war-like' resolve to tackle the problem of Aboriginal poverty.

ATSIC used the Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute last week to launch a submission to the South Australian Government calling on it to adopt a “war-like” stance on reducing Aboriginal disadvantage.

The submission was for the Government's Poverty Inquiry, which is being conducted by the Social Development Committee of the South Australian Parliament.

The Tandanya centre was the scene of recent anti-war protests in which Mr Howard's car was struck with eggs as he arrived to launch an alcohol awareness strategy.

In launching the 98-page submission last week, ATSIC Commissioner for South Australia, Klynton Wanganeen said a high level of planning, cooperation between all levels of Government and their agencies and provision of appropriate resources and funding can win the fight against poverty.

“Obviously our focus is on Indigenous people because the latest evidence shows that at least a third of the Indigenous population of metropolitan Adelaide live in chronic poverty compared to the rest of the community,” Mr Wanganeen said.

“However, our submission is that, if Governments at all levels can put in resources and work in a truly coordinated way with non-Government agencies, church, welfare and community groups, then this is a positive fight where all people, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, who are on that lower rung can be winners.”

Mr Wanganeen said ATSIC believes there are a number of practical ways to tackle poverty and a number of suggestions have been put forward for the SA Parliament consider.

“For instance, our research shows that people trying to cope with recent electricity price rises is a significant factor which is pushing people on very low incomes over the line and into poverty.

“We would like to see the SA Government provide increased assistance to low-income South Australians to meet price increases in electricity rather than see kids go without hot food or proper heat and lighting,” he said.

A special video of local Aboriginal people talking about their own experience of poverty in Adelaide forms part of the submission and it was a key part of last week's submission launch.