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Budget 2007-08 > Indigenous Affairs Budget 2007-08

A Better Future for Indigenous Australians

Summary of Indigenous Measures

Housing

• Implementation of Australian Remote Indigenous Accommodation (ARIA) Programme:
  $293.6 million over four years to kickstart a major reform strategy aimed at reducing overcrowding in remote Indigenous communities. This is over and above the current level of Indigenous housing funding of around $380 million a year.

Early Childhood

• Health@Home Plus: $37.4 million to provide home visits by health professionals and support teams for children aged 0-8 in outer regional and remote areas.
• Expansion of playgroups for Indigenous families: $13.8 million for more playgroup services and to develop Indigenous parenting skills.
• Improved access to child care and early childhood services: $23.5 million to establish 20 new Innovative Child Care Service Hubs in rural and remote communities and to provide support for existing child care centres to improve services and improve access to mainstream programmes.
• Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children - continuation: $8.9 million to support the $12.0 million longitudinal study Footprints in Time, to monitor health and development outcomes of Indigenous babies and 4-5 year olds.

Health

• Family centred primary health care: $38.2 million for existing Indigenous primary health care service delivery by funding up to 45 additional health professionals, new and upgraded buildings and clinics in six rural and remote areas and business management training for 100 Indigenous health service managers.
• Establishing quality health standards: $36.9 million for Indigenous health services for upgraded buildings and clinics, patient information and management systems, staff training, and management support to enable them to meet Australian health care standards.
• Continuing the National Illicit Drug Strategy - Indigenous Community Initiative: $14.6 million to fund a variety of projects to provide evidence-based Indigenous-specific treatment guidelines, together with alcohol awareness products and other resources to enable Indigenous communities to address misuse of alcohol and other drugs.

New Opportunities in Education

• The promise of education: $177.4 million to provide an extra 860 places in the Indigenous Youth Mobility Programme-which assists young Indigenous people from remote areas to access training in major centres-and an extra 750 Indigenous Youth Leadership Programme scholarships for young Indigenous people from remote areas to study at high performing schools and universities. To provide new boarding hostel places for Indigenous secondary schools students from remote areas by funding (in partnership with others) hostel facilities in regional centres and to provide much needed capital funding to a number of boarding schools with strong track records of providing secondary schooling for Indigenous young people. Also provides capital upgrades to existing boarding schools to create additional places and extension of Youthlinx and Reconnect programmes to support young people away from home.
• Expanding employment pathways for Indigenous young people: $32.8 million to fund 1000 Indigenous Access Scholarships for higher education and to enhance ABSTUDY entitlements
• Accommodation support for education and health: $29.0 million to provide a secondary education hostel in Kununurra, renal dialysis hostel accommodation in Queensland and the Northern Territory and aged care accommodation in Perth.

Economic Independence and Welfare Reform

• Foundations for Indigenous welfare reform: $10.0 million from existing resourcing for a first stage of welfare reform with the community by establishing new norms and strengthening mutual obligations in the Hopevale community in Cape York around housing tenancy, alcohol management, school attendance, money management, home ownership and economic opportunity.
• Building an Indigenous workforce in government service delivery: $97.2 million to create 825 jobs through the conversion of Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) positions into real jobs in government service delivery at a net cost of $61.3 million.
• Enhancing opportunities for employment and participation in remote communities: $23.0 million to apply work-related activity testing to people by accelerating the lifting of Remote Area Exemptions in remote communities and providing more participation opportunities for people receiving income support.
• COAG work skills vouchers: $21.4 million to fund projects to attract, engage and support Indigenous adults in regional and remote communities to take up training through the Work Skills Voucher programme.
• Improving accountability and increasing returns from Indigenous assets: $2.2 million to research the structure and accountability of organisations managing Indigenous assets.
• Centrelink access sites - continuation of funding: $12.5 million to improve Centrelink services to Indigenous customers and communities in rural and remote Australia.

Cultural Measures

• Digitisation of Indigenous cultural resources: to provide a further $10.2 million to complete the task of protecting the most 'at risk' fragile and deteriorating part of the collection of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies.
• Extension of the Return of Indigenous Cultural Property Programme: $4.7 million to fund repatriation of cultural property held in Australian museums.

Other

• Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) programme - continuation of funding: $50.7 million to provide additional places in the Community Development Employment Projects programme that provide activities to prevent family violence and substance misuse problems in Indigenous communities.
• Continuation of the Cape York Digital Network: $2.2 million to continue funding of this key communication service linking Indigenous communities in Cape York.
• Indigenous liaison pilot programme for the Family Court of Western Australia: $0.7 million to fund two Indigenous Family Liaison Officers to assist the Family Court of Western Australia.
• Continuation of funding for Indigenous social and economic research: $0.7 million to provide funding for social and economic Indigenous research.
• Illegal foreign fishing - Indigenous rangers trial: $0.6 million to fund Indigenous rangers in three remote Indigenous communities to patrol the Australian coastline increasing the surveillance and apprehension of illegal foreign fishers, with $0.3 million of the funds from existing resources of the Australian Customs Service.