Brough signs new Indigenous housing agreement
Posted
Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough has signed a housing agreement with the country's largest Indigenous community near Cairns.
Leaders from Yarrabah signed the deal in Brisbane today, which is similar to one signed by the Hopevale community on Cape York.
The agreement will see the Federal Government provide $20 million to build 40 homes for sale and rent.
In return Yarrabah residents will surrender part of their welfare payments to a management program, in what Mr Brough says is a significant step in ending the community's welfare dependency.
But he has taken a swipe at the Queensland Government for stalling the deal by not enacting land reform legislation.
"I too am incredibly frustrated by the fact that while the Commonwealth has put forward the money, the resources and the commitment, we're still waiting for the grinding wheels of the state bureaucracy to move," he said.
Yarrabah Mayor Vince Mundraby says the community is totally behind the effort to end its welfare dependency.
"Four-thousand-three-hundred-and-twenty people in Yarrabah support this agreement," he said.
"We are totally different to any other community. We actually engage with our community and that is where this council got the mandate from the people."
