What then can be done to ensure that communities such as this do not lose their funding? Please don't tell me to write to the Minister.
Is there an advocacy group working to reverse this 'defund' - there is no accountability to the clients or the public.

Office, boardroom, sports oval, for a community of 200 people. My community of 1500 would love some of that, but you see, we have to pay, out of our pocket, for these things.
Its about time these excesses of public spending were cut back.

Is a pity many of protestors here are not ordered to come live on the communities for a few years.

Good one Graham,

Brough and Pearson and Howard will rejoice now that Davenport will no longer be welfare dependent as there will be no income whatsoever.

polpack, good point. but they know that'll never happen. thats what makes them so brave.

Hasbeen, Yes 200 people,boardroom, sports oval, the need for which was created by aparthied laws over the past 150 years, ie,keeping 'blacks' out of sight and mind and out of your pristine white town - but you know this history so well don't you

Tragedy. I am filled with sadness. These good people have made things work and now they are being cast off.
They have been macerated in a policy shift, and one that may well be ultimately wiser than the previous policy. Was it good policy to encourage communities that were viable only with the indefinite support of funds from outside sources? I suppose the rest of Australia could afford to fund some indigenous communities in perpetuity and you could make a strong moral case for that too, given the injustices of the past. But I now hope that these capable people who have succeeded under the rules of the recent past can now be encouraged to succeed under the rules of the new policies. I am sad at the tragedy of this situation, I sincerely hope that the new policies will yield equal or better outcomes.