09 March 2005

Follow the links below to go direct to the story of interest:

Human Services Implementation Working Group (HSIWG) becomes Interim RWA Human Services Advisory Committee (HSAC)

The Battle for the Future of The Block out in the Open

Redfern / Waterloo Community Justice Forum Friday 11 March 10am-11.30 Redfern Town Hall

What 'Other Eden?': The Redfern/Waterloo Project  Thursday 17^th March State Library of NSW

“Making Connections” Information now available electronically

Redfern Community Centre Guest Speakers on Friday Evenings (6pm – 7pm)

Rally to Reopen the Inquest into the death of the young man from Kamilaroi – March 11^th and March 26^th

Standing Committee on Social Issues Response

Human Services Implementation Working Group (HSIWG) becomes Interim RWA Human Services Advisory Committee (HSAC)

In December the RWPP called for expressions of interest from NGOs and resident / service users to be involved for 5-6 months in the initial HSIWG, which was proposed to implement the first stages developing a Human Services Plan for 4 key service clusters. Unsuccessful applicants were told “the membership of the HSIWG would be reviewed in six months to ensure the appointments most appropriately reflects the next round of priorities” as the focus for the second HSIWG covers different areas to that which will be worked on by the initial HSIWG.

Prior to the first meeting on 3^rd March Minister Sartor decided that the initial HSIWG would become the RWA Interim Human Services Advisory Committee! A group chosen for one short term job suddenly becomes the Minister Sartor’s advisory group on everything to do with Human Services! In keeping with the short term nature of the initial appointments members to the HSAC are only appointed for 6 months. The Terms of Reference have now been posted on the RWPP website Terms of Reference (pdf ~129 kb). The Terms of Reference provides both an indication of where Minister Sartor may go with his other advisory groups, as well as further information on the process for developing the Redfern Waterloo Human Services Plan.

There are some real issues of due process here. Minister Sartor asked for submissions on advisory committees in January and we understand he received over 50 submissions. In a letter to REDWatch in late February Minister Sartor advised that mechanisms for consultation are being finalized and that “advertisements will soon be placed inviting members of the local community to nominate for positions on the advisory committees”. Now, without any announcement about “mechanisms for consultations”, we find that there will be no opportunity for the community to nominate to be part of the human services advisory committee. A committee that was set up for another purpose will do the job. Yes, we all know the Minister has the power to appoint whoever he wants onto what committees he decides he wants, to do whatever he decides they will do but at least he should follow the process he himself said he would follow!

At the very least there should be a couple of people added to the committee who have experience and expertise in social policy and how it should inform the rest of the RWA processes. From a reading of the terms of reference this does not look like the kind of advice the Minister is seeking from this committee in the first twelve months. The HSAC meeting last week recommended that the terms of reference be broadened to include providing advice to Minister Sartor on social outcomes to be pursued in the overall Redfern Waterloo Plan and its components, such as the infrastructure plan; rather than the HSAC just implementing the Morgan Disney report as previously expected. This advice does not seem to have been taken up in the terms of reference just released.

This decision throws up another very interesting problem. The HSIWG had been put together to build a co-operative approach between NGOs and Government Services to co-operatively reshape the way human services will be run in Redfern Waterloo. For this to happen there has to be good open communication between all parties at least until it goes off to Government for their final consideration. The Human Services Advisory Committee on the other hand is to provide advice to the Minister / RWA and comes under the provisions of the act therefore one would expect there will be an expectation of confidentiality on many issues. Hopefully there will be a very lively discussion about the community’s right to know what is happening to their human services when the HSAC next meets on Tuesday March 15^th as well as discussion on the question of confidentiality which is also on the agenda.

The proposed HSIWG structure was to have 6 state government members and 6 non government members with joint government and non government chairs (counted as part of the 6). The Federal representatives who see themselves as ex-oficio and a representative from the City of Sydney Council were not counted in to the initial balanced makeup of the working group formula. Interestingly the Terms of Reference still say that there are 6 representatives of both NSW Government (including the RWA) and Non-Government (including service providers) however the addition of Aldo Pennini from the RWA makes the number on the NSW Govt & RWA now add up to 7. Ooopps! … or did someone think no one would notice!

On the HSIWG side of the HSAC’s work, the draft timetable for finalising the first stage of the Human Services Plan is August 2005 and the meeting agreed to establishing cluster based workshops on youth services, family and children services, health services and Aboriginal services. The workshops will invite both service providers and service users. Each cluster will most likely have four workshops over the next two months. As well, during the next two months there will be broader workshops convened to formalise community outcomes for human services, and to discuss specifics about what integrated service delivery, capacity building for NGOs and community leadership could mean in Redfern-Waterloo. It was also agreed an e-bulletin on the HSAC and what has been so far discussed yesterday would be forwarded to all the NGOs and Government Human Service agencies on the Human Services Review services list, as well as many others. A full communications plan for the work of the HSAC will be discussed at the next HSAC meeting.

The membership of the Interim HSAC is listed as:

Mr Michael Ramsey, Director RWPP (Co-Chair)

Mr Gary Moore, Director NCOSS (Co-Chair)

Dr Phil Lambert, Regional Director Sydney DET

Ms Janelle Chapman, Director of Special Projects DOCS

Mr Carlo Svagelli, Senior Project Manager Aboriginal Community Partnership Program DAA

Mr John Becker, Area Manager Inner City DoH

Ms Gay Horsburgh, Manager Review & Service Development and A/HIV/AIDS CSAHS

Mr Aldo Pennini, Community Relations Manager RWA

Ms Nettee Griggs, City of Sydney Council

Ms Shirley Lomas, (Community Representative)

Ms Lynette Stewart, (Community / Service User Representative)

Ms Mabel Chang, (Interim Community / Service User Representative)

Ms Helen Campbell, Solicitor Redfern Legal Centre

Mr Rob Welsh, CEO Organisation of Aboriginal Unity

Mr Colin Kay, Indigenous Coordination Centre Coordinator for Redfern and La Perouse

Mr Paul Cramer, Manager FACS

Ms Samantha Nolan Senior Project Manager RWPP - Secretariat Support

The Battle for the Future of The Block out in the Open

The Sydney Morning Herald of Saturday March 4^th article Hardly a black face on the Block - Sartor's vision for Redfern which quotes Aboriginal Housing Company sources about the AHC board meeting with Minister Sartor and Minister Sartor’s letter on March 8^th No point arguing around the Block all over again has certainly bought the battle for the block out into the public gaze and will generate some debate along the way such as Monday’s SMH letters It's time for a Frank explanation of Redfern plan.

Since Minister Sartor was involved with the AHC back in the 1980s there have been a lot of changes. The State Government has been working with the AHC for some years until late last year to draw up the existing plans to avoid the very problems Minister Sartor said in his letter that he fears they will create. Somehow the Minister expects us all to believe his block housing project for 19 tenants currently living on the block is going work where an award winning plan that provides for 62 units of mixed income levels will not!

The Minister’s other proposition to the AHC was to set up a working group to develop “a new vision for the Block and its surrounds”. With the AHC sticking to its Pemulwuy vision we wait to see if Minister Sartor will now go ahead without AHC’s co-operation and set up a working group to try and get support for his “new vision for the Block”.

Redfern / Waterloo Community Justice Forum Friday 11 March 10am-11.30 Redfern Town Hall

This forum is being held to provide an overview of the Aboriginal Justice Group program which is being rolled out in Redfern and Waterloo area by the Crime Prevention Division of the NSW Attorney General’s Department. An Aboriginal Community Justice Group is a local group of Aboriginal people who come together to develop ways to address local law and justice problems. The group is able to work with both juvenile and adult offenders, as well as victims of crime. A coordinator will be recruited from the local community to support the work of the local Aboriginal Community Justice Group. Further details from Brad Delaney 9228 8656 or Lana Shaw 9228 8232 or download the registration form from the RWPP website Redfern Community Justice Group Information Forum (pdf ~196kb) .

What 'Other Eden?': The Redfern/Waterloo Project  Thursday 17^th March State Library of NSW

Linda Burney and Elizabeth Farrelly in conversation with Tony Vinson about Redfern Waterloo is an event being presented by The Independent Scholars Association of Australia (NSW Chapter) and the State Library of NSW on Thursday 17 March, 6 pm for 6.30 pm - 7.30 pm Dixson Room, Mitchell Wing $16.50, $11 (ISAA members and Friends of the State Library) Bookings by phone 9273 1770 or email bookings@sl.nsw.gov.au .

This should be a very interesting discussion especially given the state of negotiations on the Block. The publicity material details the questions to be addressed as “Total redevelopment of the Redfern/Waterloo precinct is proposed as an answer to social ills besetting the community and decaying architecture. Is reconstruction of the physical environment the answer to social problems? What of social networks, associations and heritage elements in the existing area? How much of the new development will be locked up in private interests? In conversation, Linda Burney, Elizabeth Farrelly and others will explore the potential and the problems of this dramatic proposal in urban development.”

“Making Connections” Information now available electronically

The Making Connections brochure is updated once a school term and is intended for local community workers. The information is mainly about family support services in the local area. Any local workers or community organisations can have their information placed in the brochure; they just need to contact Jo Fletcher connectredfern@yahoo.com.au. It is up to listed individuals to notify when information needs to be changed or updated, but Jo sends out a reminder prior to when brochure being updated so the material stays up to date. Also if any organisations want to advertise a workshop, course or event Jo is happy to include details. There is also a one page ‘Parent Information Flyer’ which organisations can photocopy and pass onto families. Until recently this information was only available in printed form around the agencies but it is now available by email (contact Jo) and recently the main material was also put on the RWPP website for easy community reference. You can access the web reports at the following links Making Connections (pdf ~177kb) Community Contacts (pdf ~543kb) Events, Courses and Workshops (pdf ~322kb).

While on the topic of contacts and agencies, the list of agencies covered by the Morgan Disney Review of Human Services has been made available to the HSIWG / HSAC. Hopefully after contact details are updated, it too will be made available to the community so people can see the services that exist and hopefully use the information to let others know about what services are available to them.

Redfern Community Centre Guest Speakers on Friday Evenings (6pm – 7pm)

The first session of this programme kicked off last Friday with an excellent address by Aden Ridgeway, Australian Democrats’ Senator for NSW on the topic of “Being Political”. The Guest Speakers programme will run over four weeks and if there is sufficient interest, the Council may even be persuaded to continue it or bring it back later. All sessions are at the Redfern Community Centre, 29 Hugo Street, Redfern 6pm – 7pm (Light supper included after the talk so you can mix and discuss). For further details about these sessions contact the Centre on 9288 5713.

The remaining three sessions are:

- Friday 11 March 2005 - Dorothy McRae-McMahon, Author, Co-editor of The South Sydney Herald and Chairperson of the NSW Council on Violence against Women Topic: Looking Back – Moving Forward.

- Friday 18 March 2005 - Cliff Foley, ATSIC Commissioner for New South Wales Metropolitan and Charles Mundine Topic: “An Overview of the Treaty Issues”.

- Friday 1 April 2005 - Tom Calma, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner and Acting Race Discrimination Commissioner Topic: Social Justice

Rally to Reopen the Inquest into the death of the young man from Kamilaroi – March 11^th and March 26^th

Rallies have been organized to follow up on the calls for the opening of the inquest into the death of the young man from Kamilaroi. Full details can be found at the following link download PDF (163.9 kibibytes). Further information can be obtained from Ray Jackson ISJA01@bigpond.net.au or by phone from Ray (02) 9318 0947 & 0418 436 572 or Raul 0403 037 376.

You will notice that we have followed the traditional Aboriginal naming convention for deceased persons above. Each time we mention anything about the death of the youth that died in tragic circumstances in Redfern twelve months ago, we are aware of different views about the protocols in naming him and so we try to avoid using the name by which he was known. Some in the Aboriginal community feel strongly that the father’s request that the boy should only be referred to as the young man from Kamilaroi is in line with Aboriginal custom and should be followed. We understand that in the lead up to the anniversary of the death his mother has given permission for his name to be used. Here too there are those in the Aboriginal community who argue this is not proper and custom can not be turned on and off. We do not wish to offend and so where possible we try to avoid using the name by which the youth was then known. As the readership of our emails is very diverse some may be confused by variation in names being used so we thought we should provide some background on this issue.

Standing Committee on Social Issues Response

Jan Burnswoods made a final response in parliament on March 2^nd to debate on the Social Issues Committee’s Interim Report. This can be viewed at the following link Standing Committee On Social Issues. To date Parliamentary procedure has prevented discussion of the Final Report which includes recommendations on the RWA. Hopefully some of the committee will have something more to say when the Final report comes up for comment.