It is the common claim made in the Australia (as around the world with regard to many disadvantaged groups) that the Aboriginal community has received extremely high levels of funding, and the “fact” that there is little to show for this investment is its failing, not that of the general community.
It is one of those assumptions seldom put to the test, but in the case of one community – Wadeye in the Northern Territory, which has been in the news recently for all of the wrong reasons – it has been. The results are telling:
Governments had spent far less per head on an Aboriginal person in Wadeye than on the average territorian – almost $2000 a year less. Wadeye, the sixth-largest town in the territory, was being short-changed to the tune of $4 million a year. Less was spent there despite the region’s average life expectancy being 46, despite an average 16 people living in each dwelling, and despite high levels of sickness, unemployment and illiteracy…
Governments spent 47 cents on a school-aged child in Wadeye for every dollar spent on an average territorian child. And compared with spending on schools in large urban areas such as Darwin, the real figure could be five cents.
The results are pretty much what you’d expect.
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