Aboriginal Affairs & Heritage

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Rock Art Site Damage

Letter to the Editor of the West Australian: ‘Opinion – Aboriginal kids at risk on streets of Kununurra’, Jessica Strutt, p 21, 20 October 2009

20th October 2009

Dear Sir

‘Opinion – Aboriginal kids at risk on streets of Kununurra’, Jessica Strutt, p 21, 20 October 2009

Jessica Strutt was exactly right when she said, in reference to the need for child protection services in Kununurra ‘isn’t the establishment of such a safe house exactly the type of facility we would expect the Nationals’ Royalties for Regions scheme to fund’?

Yes Jessica, it is! Yet time and time again we see valuable Royalties for Regions funds being spent on things like sculptures and bowling greens.

Absolutely, art and community recreation are deserving recipients of funding and important to many communities. But surely, Royalties for Regions money should be spent on protecting vulnerable children who are roaming the streets at night before a single dollar is spent on landscaping upgrades.

I am sure that the Government has spent Royalties for Regions money on worthy causes and that many regional community members are happy with the funds they are receiving.

But when the situation Jessica described is continuing, not to mention the atrocities happening in other regional towns, how can the Government justify spending Royalties for Regions money on anything other than fixing this dire problem?

Yours sincerely

The Hon Robin Chapple MLC

Member for the Mining and Pastoral Region

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