Shire pulls out of land talks

Broome Shire president Graeme Campbell has demanded answers from the Department of Housing after it pulled out of negotiations to build an Aboriginal itinerant hostel in the town after years of wrangling over a site.

Shire councillors last week opted to reject $12 million in funding for the hostel rather than cave in to housing Minister Troy Buswell’s demands it be built in an area of town the Shire deemed unsuitable.

Mr Buswell insists the Department of Housing has advised him attempts to secure land at the Shire’s preferred location, the One Mile Aboriginal community on the town’s outskirts, had failed because residents had refused to move.

He had asked councillors to reconsider their decision not to support development at Dora Street, saying other land options were “exhausted”. He warned the Shire must use the money or it would go to Derby instead.

But Bruce Gorring, who has assisted One Mile residents in negotiations with the Department of Housing and Nyamba Buru Yawuru, was surprised to hear talks had ended.

Mr Gorring criticised Mr Buswell for “using people as pawns in an insidious political game” rather than engaging with them in a “genuine and transparent manner”.

He said the groups had been examining residents’ options for relocation into public housing in town from the land, which is leased long-term to the Nillir Irbanjin Aboriginal Corporation.

By late December, Mr Gorring said, some households had indicated willingness to relocate subject

to conditions, including housing becoming available and native title and cultural issues around land-use being met. He said people would “move tomorrow if they could”.

Mr Gorring said One Mile residents were upset at reports of their refusal to move and would discuss the matter with department representatives in Broome this week.

“I’m not quite sure which part of the Department of Housing (Mr Buswell) is getting his information from,” Mr Gorring said.

“I don’t know if this is a case … of the left hand and right hand not knowing what’s going on.”

In the meantime, Broome Shire councillors opted to reject the funding out of concerns building the hostel on Dora Street would increase social conflict in an area already rife with social issues.

The proposed facility would include open-fire tented areas as well as accommodation units in the middle of the residential area.

Mr Buswell has admitted building the hostel at that site would not be suitable without undertaking wider urban renewal, but declined to confirm a timeline for that project.

Mr Campbell said Shire councillors had resolved to ask the Department of Housing how the negotiations fell over.

“We have sought clarification … because the minister wrote to us in mid-January saying it was nogo at One Mile, but in my meeting with Housing two weeks ago, the situation hadn’t altered,” he said.