NT in a 'political calamity'

Tony Barass | August 12, 2009

Article from: The Australian

THE post-colonial mindset among Darwin public servants did not allow them to grasp the changing complexities of delivering services to remote Aboriginal communities, causing a breakdown in the basic workings of government.

Rolf Gerritsen, a former director of social and economic policy in the chief minister's office under former Northern Territory Labor leader Clare Martin, also said the political calamity now under way in the Top End manifested itself in a range of issues stretching back to the 1970s, from black-white relationships to poor policy and a reliance on the federal government to dig it out of any hole.

Adding to the hotbed of issues paralysing the Northern Territory, the "quasi-ideological" fight now occurring among Aboriginal leaders such as Noel Pearson and the Dodson brothers, sparked by the federal intervention in the Territory, had only muddied the waters and caused confusion and anxiety among those bureaucrats who knew what they were doing.

Professor Gerritsen, now a research leader in central Australia with Charles Darwin University, said the NT's public service reflected the white community in which it worked, dominated by expatriates who were not long-term residents.

In the three years he worked within the bureaucracy, Professor Gerritsen said, staff turnover was about 35 per cent. And the paralysis that had engulfed the NT had only slowed down the clunky wheels of government even more, with public servants hesitant to sign off any projects or make any decisions until the political crisis was over.

"The public service had always reflected the peculiar nature of the Territory," he said. "We have always suffered from a lack of capacity ... we just don't have the grunt to properly carry out what we are supposed to be doing. We are forever looking for the grant, looking for the federal government subsidy."

But it wasn't just overall ability, it was also a government that was often dealing with completely wrong priorities. He said a recent decision by the NT government to build a $3 million racehorse training area in Darwin after it claimed it could afford only $50,000 for its part in a swimming pool at a remote Aboriginal community revealed an underlying reluctance -- and perhaps admission -- that indigenous problems were just too big to tackle.

"That to me shows you they are more interested in spending their money in Darwin's northern suburbs, where the swinging seats are, than seriously tackling the issues at hand," he said.

"The nice new boat ramps may be in Darwin, the races are in Darwin ... but the ones we're supposed to be helping are not. But you try to get any of the public service out into the remote areas -- it is an impossibility."

Because of that, other agencies often got "top-up" money to deliver programs they weren't meant to, changing the process and effectiveness instantly.

Canberra's inability to grasp the human or geographical complexity of the NT only exacerbated the failure, and added to the costs of trying to deliver services.

"There are way too many programs, and the high administration costs in delivering them makes them almost certain to fail," Professor Gerritsen said.

"The NT government sometimes chews up to 40 per cent of the costs. Transaction costs on the ground are also unbelievably debilitating."

But there were more serious underlying issues at play, he said.

The entire process of delivering services to indigenous communities -- at last count 696, some with as few as 25 people in them -- went to the heart of black-white relationships, and more recently, indigenous relationships among themselves.