Comments on: What if the Senate held an inquiry into remote stores — and nobody came?

By: Richard Holland

Richard Holland — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

I'm a fairly frequent visitor to Central & Northern Australia, and I patronised the stores that exist in Aboriginal communities.

It appear to me that there are commercial interests in Central & Northern Australia who have made a very good living, both honest & dishonest, at maximum cost with minimum service.

When prices were queried, sometimes 300% on what Alice Springs, Port Augusta & Katherine Woolworths Stores charge, you always got the good old bush excuse, "It's the freight component that we have to add on".

Bullshit!

I've visited some of the Outback Stores, their range of products is good, they sell what I term as healthy food, not bloody greasy chips, potato scallops, or super coke, you see fresh fruit, sandwiches, and a vast increase on what was previously displayed. And sportsfans, they are not ripping off the communities.

Keep it up, I say.

By: Frank Baarda

Frank Baarda — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Ali, we were writing our comments simultaneously.
Fair enough, Bob did get some of his facts wrong. As a fellow Yuendumu resident I found the overall thrust of his article to be quite accurate and reflecting the reality of what is happening out here.
I was unaware that: “Other than the announcement of an inquiry, it is not the job of an Inquiry to bring out anything other than a media release…..” No wonder that so many Government inquiries end up not seriously addressing what they are inquiring into.
As for your suggestion that Bob Gosford could better spend his energy on assisting Yuendumu residents in putting their own submission together- again fair comment.
Mine was one of the over 200 submissions to the Review Board (Peter Yu’s team’s excellent review of the Intervention). The way their report was ignored and twisted around is not much of an incentive to us out here. As a generalisation- the authorities only take notice of our submissions, pleas, complaints etc. when we tell them what they want to hear. Otherwise they dismiss us (whitefellows) as “ante-deluvian, ideologically driven ‘gate-keepers’ or worse.

By: Frank Baarda

Frank Baarda — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

The corollary being: What if the Senate held an inquiry into remote stores — and they went to nobody?
I manage the Yuendumu Mining Co. which runs Yuendumu’s second locally owned store. The Social Club was the first store. The third store that has the monopoly on Income managed money on Yuendumu was set up after the other two stores refused to co-operate with the authorities when they were set on introducing Income management. The setting up of the third store was a very quick ‘spare no expenses’ process. The Social Club licence application is taking much longer. I wonder why?
Public announcements from Jenny Macklin’s office and newspaper articles have implied that “fresh food, and variety of goods at competitive prices” have only just become available to long suffering Yuendumu residents.
The last time the ‘Mining Shop’ was surveyed by the NT Govt. Nutritionist (2006) our ‘basket of food’ total cost was only 7% dearer than ‘Alice Springs Supermarket’ and cheaper than ‘Alice Springs Corner Store’
Our cost for fruit (fresh and canned) was the lowest of all (even lower than the Supermarket). We have been selling a good variety of fresh fruit and vegetables for over three decades.
At present the monopoly store is the dearest in Yuendumu.
So have we (or the Social Club for that matter) been ‘inquired’ into? Has any one from the Senate Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Affairs contacted us or even made us aware that they were taking submissions? Are they aware we exist?
I suspect that the “our policies will be evidence based” Rudd Government has already decided what it wants the inquiry to tell it.

By: Ali Corcoran

Ali Corcoran — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Bob Gosford, whose background is as a lawyer, might help his case considerably if he got his facts correct. Getting facts correct is a duty, not a virtue. Gosford is nether dutiful or virtuous in this regard. It is a House of Representatives Inquiry, not a Senate Inquiry, as even his own web link confirms. Other than the announcement of an inquiry, it is not the job of an Inquiry to bring out anything other than a media release: if they said anything more he would hav eacused the Inquiry of having preconceived ideas. He is simply wrong to say there have only been seven submissions received. I am aware, for example, that Outback Stores itself has submitted, and am aware of others that have been given short extensions and so on. This is very common with parliamnentary inquiries if Gosford had a clue how these things work.

While Gosford is arguing — laudably in my view — against the effective state-sanctioned monopoly of Outback Stores on townships such as Yuendumu, his home town, he does his cause no credit through his woeful approach to accuracy.

Stores on communities are vital health hardware. That’s what the Inquiry is aboutThe issue of free market economics and the level to which competition on very small, remote communities is advantageous is another issue, which I am sure will be taken up by the Inquiry — and those who given written submissions to it, and those who give oral submissions at hearings.

Gosford would be better off working with people in Yuendum to put a submission together than carping from the sidelines without benefit of data or other evidence.