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The Forum > Article Comments > Lessons from Palm Island > Comments

Lessons from Palm Island : Comments

By Steffen Lehmann, published 23/11/2005

Steffen Lehmann suggests some improvements for housing in Indigenous communities.

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Well said, Steffen. It is really very simple. Home building, repairing, renovating and expanding is THE core economic engine of a properly functioning economy at both national and local level. Without it there can be no local economy and without a portion of tradeable property rights there can be neither.

But forget modular prefabrication etc, it will only evolve into the same centralised production that now sees all country classrooms constructed in Ipswich without creating a single job in the town where the classroom is delivered to. Just relax the non-safety aspects of the building code and allocate blocks to young couples. Their own nesting instincts will do the rest. Build within their means and expand when needed.

The problem of any foreclosures etc can be met by creating a matching block away from the community that can be foreclosed in a last resort without impact on the community itself.
Posted by Perseus, Wednesday, 23 November 2005 10:08:20 AM
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I agree on home ownership, you want people to function in a capatalist society, you need to give them opportunities for prosperity. In Australia, our wealth generally centres around the family home, and an age old property law "nothing improves the value of a property like ownership" will ensure that when these people are standing on thier own block of dirt, on thier traditional land, and they have the power to leverage, the power to improve value, create a personal nest and hold an asset, the ability to change the fabric of these communities will not be an issue for governments, as the people will change from within.

Specialist Strata title (I do not like community title)the individual properties and create a body corporate/owners corporation for the common property, each owner pay a body corporate for the common upkeep and insurances etc, and give them the driver seat for the first time. let their become an autonomous wealth base like so many other minority groups

It is not hard
Posted by Realist, Wednesday, 23 November 2005 10:52:46 AM
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Your ideas are wonderful Steffen. You are correct in assigning aboriginal social problems to the ivory tower of your speciality.

All levels of government all over Australia have found custom built indigenous housing provides an environment to isolate aboriginal communities away from marginal electorates.

Not to mention new venues for domestic violence (a much more pressing problem). For an aboriginal perspective of this violence read http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200511/s1514707.htm .

Palm Island is a sick community that was articicially created by white policies so its not a sacred plant that needs heaps of loot to make it survive.

You talk of the shabby state of public buildings on the island. Well this is why they're shabby

"An emergency situation was declared yesterday after angry residents set fire to the police station, courthouse, a police officer's house and a stolen police car.

Up to 300 members of the Aboriginal community rioted yesterday over the death in custody of 36-year-old local man Cameron Doomadgee last Friday." SMH 27 Nov 2004

I suggest the authorities do not want to repair much because buildings tend to get burnt or torn down.

Its up to private industry to decide whether a hardware shop (you recommend) would be a viable business proposition or perhaps a violent workplace and source of more weapons.

You skirt around the need for people to stay on Palm Island given its endlessly tragic state.

I suggest any public housebuilding should be away from Palm Island and on the mainland, in white communities, to encourage aborigines to leave and assimilate. This is politically unpopular though because Palm Island makes a convenient concentration camp for social problems and the residents have been persuaded that it is their only home.
Posted by plantagenet, Wednesday, 23 November 2005 10:59:29 AM
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[Deleted for flaming]
Posted by Rainier, Thursday, 24 November 2005 8:28:59 AM
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Yeah right Rainier

You got a better idea? http://www.eniar.org/news/palmisland1.html

Or do you simply accept that Steffan's housebuilding is the solution?
Posted by plantagenet, Thursday, 24 November 2005 11:45:06 AM
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This doesn’t have a great deal to do with the issue at hand, but I’ve gotta say what I gotta say…

Perseus wrote; “Home building, repairing, renovating and expanding is THE core economic engine of a properly functioning economy at both national and local level. Without it there can be no local economy and without a portion of tradeable property rights there can be neither.”

What! A functional economy has got everything to do with utilising primary resources and value-adding those resources. Tertiary activities like home-building are a long way from being the economic engine, at any level, local to national.
Posted by Ludwig, Friday, 25 November 2005 8:29:12 PM
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[Deleted. Refers to earlier deleted post.]
Posted by plantagenet, Friday, 25 November 2005 8:57:57 PM
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Hmmm,
This article reflects the concerns of the author but unfortunately little else. It is great to see QUT out there and once again studying Indigenous communities but what they really need is for Universities to follow thru and run the pilot programs rather than just developing the reports. Rumour has it that Palm Island already has the eguipment and machines to drastically reduce the cost of housing by using local materials. There are already houses built by this method but our academic friend probably didn't bother asking the community.
Palm Island does need drastic increases in its building infrastructure but until the communities has an integrated approach to its development and is allowed to grow its human and social capital with that development nothing will change.
The problem of title is complex but opening it up to normal market forces would be disastrous. The cost of building a house by Qbuild at the moment is between 400 to 450 K. If the community is stay an aboriginal community the house won't be worth a tenth of this, so who would invest in a house? If the community is opened up to outsiders, and lets face it the place is the closest thing to paradise i've seen, the Indigenous communiy will be pushed out by a more than likely property boom.
Posted by Antigone, Friday, 25 November 2005 11:21:59 PM
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So, if we let the residents on Palm Island own land and build homes it will make everything alright?

Whats wrong with getting a job and owning a house in Townsville?

The whole thing sounds like a well intentioned disaster!

I say close the residential community on Palm, create a cultral and heritage centre where young indigenous people can learn to be proud of what is left of their culture. Groom the indigenous leaders of tommorow....at last there could be true indigenous leadership!
Posted by whattha, Saturday, 26 November 2005 2:20:36 PM
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Antigone, the last place one would look for a workable solution would be Q Build. $400k for a house, yeah, that would be right. Avoid all bureaucrats, they regard your need as nothing more than a franchise for them to exploit to the max for their own job prospects. The last thing they want is a problem to be fixed because then there would be no more need for their so-called services.

Hope you are reading this, Ludwig. When you are working on your third million, come and have a chat to me about economic engines.
Posted by Perseus, Saturday, 26 November 2005 9:00:07 PM
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Perseus, regarding your response to Antigone; here we go again with one of your classic totally polarised anti-government, anti-bureaucracy, anti-regulatory statements. It is worth repeating in full because it is a classic; “Avoid all bureaucrats, they regard your need as nothing more than a franchise for them to exploit to the max for their own job prospects. The last thing they want is a problem to be fixed because then there would be no more need for their so-called services.”

O for goodness sake. What a twisted view. Show me a complex society that functions well and maintains a healthy economy without bureaucracy and bureaucrats!

Regarding your reply to me – how about addressing the issue instead of making some inane comment. Justify your bizarre statement: “Home building, repairing, renovating and expanding is THE core economic engine of a properly functioning economy at both national and local level. Without it there can be no local economy and without a portion of tradeable property rights there can be neither.”
Posted by Ludwig, Saturday, 26 November 2005 10:18:11 PM
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Aboriginal communities are generally pretty sad places. But Palm Island has two main problems that make it a worse place than other Aboriginal communities – it is an admixture of different cultures and language groups thrown together from far away, and it is an island! The second point is not something that I have ever seen or heard expressed by anyone. Residents of isolated Aboriginal communities have a sense being pushed out of sight and out of mind from mainstream culture, but on an island, this is all the stronger.

Palm Island is totally different to Thursday Island and associated Torres Strait communities, because the people there are for the most part on their traditional lands.

Palm Island was a dumping ground, no less tragic than the convict dumping ground that was Australia’s foundation, but whereas the undertones of such a ‘shameful’ past have long-gone in mainstream society (and even been turned into something positive - yes I am proud to be the descendent of a convict), the story is still one with negative connotations on Palm.

Let’s get rid of the place! Townsville is only a short distance away. It has an indigenous community at Happy Valley and a lot of indigenous people living in a more integrated manner in the community. It has had its fair share of problems with public drunkenness and so on. But all considered, I think that Palm Islanders would be a lot better off in Townsville… and Townsville would not be worse off for it
Posted by Ludwig, Saturday, 26 November 2005 10:21:01 PM
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You leave me breathless, Ludwig, with your inability to recognise the critical role of housing in the economy. What would you have blackfellas do, then, grow veggies? Tell that to the Cape York blackfellas who had an excellent joint venture farming deal squashed by Beattie's duplicity on Veg Management.

And why should Palm Island be closed down. Are you suggesting now that tropical islands with loads and loads of waterfront land and hillsides with ocean views have no value? Stick to your departmental job, fella.
Posted by Perseus, Monday, 28 November 2005 11:51:27 AM
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RECOMMENDATION 24 of the PALM ISLAND SELECT COMMITTEE states that

The Palm Island Council should not be responsible for housing (both capital delivery and housing management) on Palm Island.

The Minister for Housing should pursue with the Council an alternative housing delivery model as a matter of priority. This model should:

• address both aspects of housing delivery, that is, capital delivery and housing management;
• be independent from the Council;
• incorporate mechanisms for Council and community consultation regarding factors such as housing
location, design and planning;
SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS
• ensure proper planning so that housing being constructed matches the demographics of the Island and examine other ways to address the housing shortage;
• deliver transparent decision-making regarding housing allocation which is based on a fair process
and which is subject to independent scrutiny; and
• aim to maximise community employment in housing construction, upgrades and maintenance, and build the capacity of the community by providing associated training and skills development.

* This recommendation sets out some goods approaches to solving housing problems on Palm Island. However, without an infrustructure plan nothing will happen. What is desparately needed on Palm Island is the capacity of Palm Islanders to develop and have access to expertise in town planning and design. To continually import this knowledge from outside the community will limit housing knowledge and expertise developing from the ground up.

Policy and implimentation need to be community driven - not devolved by policy people whose primary objectives are loyalty to government policy and procedure. A Palm Island housing and land cooperative is one approach. The administration of Aboriginal affairs and the associated politics continues to be constructed within a restictive critique (from Left and Right) of their respective managerial paradigms. Its time they all got over themselves and started addressing the real picture with real solutions.
Posted by Rainier, Monday, 28 November 2005 6:30:35 PM
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Good post, Rainier. It is their call.
Posted by Perseus, Tuesday, 29 November 2005 10:50:34 AM
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“Indigenous Communities must be afforded the opportunity to be the
architects of their own solutions … so they can be active participants in initiatives that affect their lives, and
not silent recipients.”
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Women’s Task
Force on Violence Report, Boni Robertson, 2000.
Posted by Antigone, Tuesday, 29 November 2005 2:42:23 PM
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Perseus, I have repeatedly stated that you make polarised (actually extremely polarised) statements, and you repeatedly prove my point. Did I give any indication that housing is not a very important part of the problem? No. Reread my post. Take my statements (and those of others) at face value and stop inserting your own meaning and then projecting it to the absolute extreme. You just don’t seem to be able to grasp what people are saying, within the intended context. This pervades just about everything you write and every view you hold.

You write: “And why should Palm Island be closed down. Are you suggesting now that tropical islands with loads and loads of waterfront land and hillsides with ocean views have no value?” Notice how far the second sentence is projected from the first? Most people would be battling to see any connection at all, but for you it is just automatic.

To answer your second question; no Perseus I am not suggesting any such thing. What on earth would lead to think I was?

To answer your first question; the rationale was given in my last post. I maintain that it may well be better for the people of Palm to be relocated in Townsville. Afterall, a lot of them spend a lot of time there and many virtually live there anyway. It is interesting that no one other than yourself has responded to this point because let’s face it, I stuck my neck out with that one, fully expecting a strong reaction.

Anyway Perseus, there is clearly no point in debating (headbanging) with you. So Ludwig hereby cuts all direct correspondence with you on any thread on this forum.
Posted by Ludwig, Tuesday, 29 November 2005 9:34:15 PM
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Thank you and ditto, Ludwig, I was starting to wonder if you had taken up online stalking.
Posted by Perseus, Wednesday, 30 November 2005 11:28:05 AM
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