APY Lands Road Upgrade

In the past I have been critical of the lack of infrastructure investment in remote communities. So I was pleased to see the recent press release (link here) from the Federal Infrastructure Minister, Darren Chester, and this link to a South Australian Government web site detailing the work being undertaken to upgrade the main access road into the APY communities.

The work will cost over $100m shared 80/20 between the Federal and SA Governments. However, it will take five years to be completed, which seems an inordinately long implementation phase. Nevertheless, at least the investment is being made.

I have copied below an extract outlining the project from the SA Government website as it succinctly summarises many of the benefits of improved infrastructure not just in the APY Lands, but for remote communities generally. It is worth noting that the commentary on the lead times between identification of the need, and the decision to allocate funding, over ten years in this case. Here is the extract:

The main access road into the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands from the Stuart Highway (Chandler) to Pukatja (Ernabella) is currently used by more than 60% of the total APY population. Providing access to health, education and training services, allows for the delivery of food and medical supplies and the export of livestock and feral camels.

Traffic volumes between the Stuart Highway and Pukatja range from 80 to 100 vehicles per day (based on traffic count conducted in 2013).

Infrastructure Australia invited a submission from the South Australian State Government for infrastructure projects in remote indigenous communities. The current road is highly corrugated and below the natural surface.  As a result, it frequently floods rendering it impassable at various times of the year, increasing costs of service delivery to the Australian Government and South Australian State Government, damages vehicles and goods going into and from the APY Lands, and contributes to the high rate of vehicle accidents in the region. Maintaining the road through grading currently costs $1.5 million per year.

The need for road upgrades has been formally identified through the Community Structure Plans for nine (9) major APY communities, and the APY Road Network Study undertaken in 2006 and 2008.

Effects of the poor road quality include:

·         Australian Government and South Australian State Government costs associated with service delivery are disproportionately high compared to other remote communities

·         Additional maintenance costs to all vehicles using the road, associated with damage caused to suspension, differentials, tyres and the vehicle’s body

·         Damage to transportable buildings being brought into the Lands as part of infrastructure upgrades of housing, school and health facilities

·         A high rate of road accidents, particularly roll-overs

·         Food is damaged and soiled during transport to community stores

·         40 km/h road limit for freight increasing transport costs and time

·         Corrugations injuring and reducing the value of livestock during transportation

·         Difficulty providing emergency health care, including through inability to access airstrips during road flooding and road corrugation causing intravenous drips to fall out of patients in ambulances

·         Environmental effects, including soil degradation and damage to vegetation

In addition to ameliorating these effects, an improved road surface will provide many social and economic benefits, including:

·         Improved access to services in nearby communities

·         Improved security of food supplies

·         Increased access to markets for exports, for example arts and crafts

·         Improved emergency management through improved accessibility in poor weather

·         Improved access to training and employment opportunities

·         Improved living standards as a result of enhanced service access

·         Additional community interaction and social exchange

The project addresses Infrastructure Australia’s objectives to increase the economic standard of living for Australians and to improve social outcomes, quality of life and reduced social disadvantage in cities and regions. It also addresses Infrastructure Australia’s identified themes for action in providing essential services for indigenous communities. The project also demonstrates alignment with the Nation Building 2 Cornerstones and National Road Safety Strategy 2011-2020 of the Australian Government.

My only critical comment on this summary is that it appears to have been written by an engineer, and arguably over-emphasises the advantages to government rather than identifying the issues from the perspective of community members.

The APY Lands have had an extremely problematic history over the past decade, including problems with exploitative book up operators, the fallout from an earlier royal commission on sexual abuse in the region, and the slow implementation of its recommendations, suggestions of serious drug abuse (perhaps associated with organised crime) and a very rocky history of financial maladministration and multiple failures of governance. The situation appears to have improved in recent years, but issues clearly remain (link here).

The reason I raise this history is to emphasise the obvious consequence that the capacity of the APY’s leadership and governance institutions to effectively lobby government for better services is fundamentally compromised when more serious issues take hold. Yet our system of resource allocation is largely based on governments responding to squeaky wheels, and when no-one is advocating for investment, governments generally don’t provide.

Rightly or wrongly, the quality of Indigenous political leadership has consequences for the provision of infrastructure and other services, particularly in remote contexts.

Governments too should be conscious of this dynamic and take it into account in allocating resources. The Federal and State Governments are to be congratulated on investing in the access road.