Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and 10 of her ministers delivered ministerial statements on Tuesday praising their work in improving the lives of the state’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population.
The occasion was Palaszczuk’s announcement that the government had formally committed itself to the development of a First Nations treaty.
Not one of the ministers mentioned the housing crisis in many of the state’s Indigenous communities, including the Thursday Islands, 2,200 km north of Brisbane.
Public servants from 37 state and federal agencies soak up much of the available accommodation on Thursday Island.
Thursday Island and the broader Torres Strait and Northern Cape region have a homeless rate of 376 per 10,000 residents, which is eight times the Queensland average.
Multiple families occupy 10% of Indigenous households, compared with just 2% state-wide; only 7% of Thursday Island residents own their own homes, a fraction of the Queensland average of 30%.
Crowded housing has also contributed to the Indigenous communities having Australia’s highest rate of rheumatic heart disease — caused by the Streptococcus A bacteria, which is transmitted by close contact.
Palaszczuk and her ministers will no doubt hear about housing shortages and related health issues when the government holds its first regional cabinet meeting on Thursday Island on 6 September — for the first time in more than a decade.
“This is a great opportunity for the community and local government leaders to share ideas, priorities, challenges and opportunities,” Palasczuk said yesterday.
“Whether it’s access to services, opportunities for job creation, Path to Treaty, native title, housing or environmental matters, my Cabinet wants to hear about those issues.”
The challenges for any state government trying to provide adequate services and opportunities to the Torres Strait are enormous and not just because of the distance — Brisbane is further from Thursday Island than it is from Melbourne.
The region has limited economic opportunities – more than 80% of the population is in the most disadvantaged quintile, compared with 20% for the state.
Isolation and access are also huge problems.
A couple of state elections ago, the Local Government Association of Queensland turned the problem of accumulating waste metal on the region’s islands — from old cars to whitegoods — into an election issue.
“We’re impacted by the high volume of government services based on Thursday Island when it comes to waste management,” Torres Shire Council Mayor Vonda Malone said at the time.
Cost of removal was just one of the issues. There were also environmental and health implications such as mosquito breeding and the presence of dengue fever.
Much of the metal waste has since been removed from the region, but only with the help of the Royal Australian Navy.
Even when the state government has a clear strategy, delivery in the region can be difficult.
The government has committed more than a billion dollars over 10 years to improve housing for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders living in remote communities.
The government’s own data shows there were only five approved new houses in the Torres Strait region in the 12 months to 30 June this year.
“From justice, equality and opportunity, health care, housing, education, water security, tourism, roads — my government’s commitment to this region is clear,” Palaszczuk said yesterday.
The response from local citizens will be interesting at next month’s public forums on Thursday Island.
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Federal authority to transfer Torres Strait native title services to not-for-profit
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