Recent developments in WA Remote Essential Services Reform

In July this year, I published a post, Infinite space and bad dreams: the WA Government's roadmap for remote communities, outlining the WA Government’s revised approach to remote essential services after its earlier disastrous suggestions of wholesale closures of communities.

This week, the WA Government announced the next steps in its roadmap, identifying ten remote communities which would receive upgrades in power, water and municipal services over the next few years. The quid pro quo is that they agree to the introduction of water charges, and it seems that each of the ten communities have done so.

The initiative has been named the Essential and Municipal Services Upgrade Program. The web page for the program states that the expected benefits include:

-          improved drinking water and environmental health

-          essential and municipal services infrastructure that meets minimum standards

-          consumer protections that apply elsewhere in Western Australia

-          more opportunities for local jobs and training

In turn, individual households will be metered and charged for power and water services.

These are welcome developments, and the announcement notes that the ten communities encompass around 20 percent of the population of remote Aboriginal communities in WA.

The ABC have reported the announcement, including the reaction of some Aboriginal leaders, the KLC, and raised questions regarding the non-inclusion of a number of other major communities. ABC reports are here and here.

While welcoming the announcement, there are a number of issues which in my view require further attention.

The timeframes appear announced appear slow; it will take a further 18 months to consult the ten communities and develop implementation plans, and capital works are set to begin in 2018. This effectively means that completion dates for this first tranche of communities are likely to be in 2020 or beyond.

Second, there appears to be no sense of urgency, no plan for ramping up implementation for the later tranches, with the result that we could be looking at the best part of two decades before the essential services shortfalls currently experienced by remote Aboriginal community residents are finally put to rest. There would be merit in the Reform Unit developing an overall implementation plan for addressing these needs. It is hypocritical for government to claim credit for “historic upgrades” which meet the most basic and urgent essential services needs of 20 percent of remote residents, but to not have a plan for addressing the needs of the outstanding 80 percent.

Third, the background information provided in relation to the Upgrades Program is very light on; the community profiles give no sense of the existing state of essential services and housing infrastructure in the ten communities identified (or for that matter, the communities yet to be identified); the budget for the program is similarly light on, with the Frequently Asked Questions section indicating that there is $52 million available from the Royalties for Regions Program in 2017-18 to 2019-20, but no indication of the community by community allocations, nor of the split between water, power and other infrastructure.

Fourth, there is no update or indication of how this announcement links into the previously announced plans to upgrade tenure in communities.

Fifth, and perhaps most importantly of all, there is no suggestion that local governments will be required to take on the ongoing maintenance of the existing and new infrastructure. This is despite the fact that the Commonwealth provided the WA Government with $90m in 2013 to take over these responsibilities (refer to answer to Question 210). Without incorporating the responsibility for ongoing upkeep of this infrastructure into the local government system, remote Aboriginal communities will be subject to a perpetual battle to obtain funding over coming decades, and will be extremely vulnerable to ill thought out proposals for closure from future governments seeking to make budget ends meet.

Clearly, there is a long way to go on the issue of remote essential services in WA. To the Government’s credit however, they have put in place a reasonably transparent process, and appear to be progressively moving forward. Other states and territories could take a leaf from the WA book.