Media Release

AUSTRALIAN Party Leader Bob Katter joined Yarrabah Shire Mayor Percy Neal and Cr Bevan Walsh today in Canberra to lobby the Federal Government about a number of crucial issues confronting the Yarrabah community, one of the largest indigenous communities in Australia.

The meetings follow the Federal Member for Kennedy’s repeated pleas this week for Government to reinstate the use of work-for-the-dole (CDEP) wages for First Australians to build their own homes instead of paying fly-in, fly-out non-indigenous contractors at double the cost, as well as the granting of inalienable freehold title in First Australian communities to facilitate home ownership.

"You will not let them build their own houses. You will not give them the title deeds so they can do it for themselves," Mr Katter told the House of Representatives on Monday.

"When I went (to the Torres Straits last week), people were screaming out in rage about closing the gap. The gap is widening into a gulf."

The Yarrabah delegation is meeting with Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin, Indigenous Employment and Economic Development Minister Julie Collins and Environment Minister Tony Burke.

Mayor Neal wants the False Cape area, subject of a failed development, to be purchased by the Indigenous Land Corporation so that it can be protected and rehabilitated by the people of Yarrabah to facilitate tourism and economic opportunities.

Cr Walsh wants the new remote employment services arrangements to be applied to Yarrabah instead of the mainstream arrangements introduced in 2009.

Cr Walsh said: "Seven hundred people are unemployed in the Yarrabah community after the abolition of CDEP in 2009, and after three years of the mainstream arrangements, we still have 700 people unemployed."

Mayor Neal also wants to build a new shopping precinct in Yarrabah as a stimulus to First Australian business development in the community.

Mayor Neal said: "The Yarrabah community wants to develop a good working relationship with Government and has invited Minister Collins and Minister Burke to visit the Yarrabah community in the near future."