Monitor The
Your Community Newspaper ~ Roxby Downs
www.themonitor.com.au
Phone (08) 8671 2683
Fax (08) 8671 2843
Volume 7, Thursday October 7, 2010
The Outback Communities Authority board members during their visit in Andamooka last Thursday
Board and APOMA to consult by Celeste Lustosa and Millie Thomas
T
he Outback Communities Authority (OCA) visited Andamooka last Thursday, September 30 after APOMA members raised a number of issues with the new authority and how things were being managed in town. The visit included discussions with the Andamooka Progress and Opal Miners Association (APOMA), after it had expressed concerns about the structure of the Board and lack of local representation for outback communities. “The main issue APOMA brought up were particularly regarding to the way the community manager interacts within the community. “We believe that a certain group of guidelines with the responsibilities needs to be developed, and this is something that has never been done. It’s been a loose work in progress here and we lost sight of what our responsibilities are and they lost sight of what their responsibilities are,” APOMA’s chairperson Peter Allen told The Monitor. But while Mr Allen believes that changes in management are extremely necessary for Andamooka, Presiding Member of OCA, Bill McIntosh says it’s too early to announce any changes. “It’s probably a bit early to announce changes because what we’re on about is consultation. Now, it’s a matter of building a partnership with the communities and as we’re a new organisation
we understand that we have to reform our partnerships and build relationships,” Mr McIntosh said. Mr Allen acknowledged that the Board members have a lot of learning to do before these issues can be resolved. “What came out of APOMA’s approach to the Board Members of OCA was a commitment from us (APOMA) and the chair of the Authority to sit down and build a framework that is sustainable and clear in order to work out these issues. “I think they’ve got a bunch of learning to do before. But I am not suggesting that in any way this is their fault,” he said. Another great concern raised by APOMA was that it has to be taken into consideration where the members of the Board come from. “People that come and live in the city are different from the ones that live in the bush. There is one person on this Board that lives in an outback community and I believe there should be three more, because that’s what the act says and we want it to be applied. “It says in the act that at least four of the members of the Authority will be from different outback communities. There’s Toni who lives in Marree so she is from an outback community but that’s all. And our views are that the reason for four from the seven to be from different outback communities was to ensure that the Authority
acted in a manner that was considered by community people from the outback,” Mr Allen argued. Mr McIntosh said that “the membership of the board is not something I can comment on, that process is currently managed elsewhere but I guess the other comment to make is that on the board we don’t represent any particular community. We take a corporate view of the whole of the outback as board members.” He also stated that the intention is to preserve the character of each town. “What we conceived as a model, where every year we negotiate with individual communities in a process that we call a CARM (Community Affairs and Resource Management) agreement and what we’re thinking is as those agreements develop overtime, they will then become unique to each town. So in other words, we definitely want to preserve the character of each town and people want to basically come to us with a level of basic services that they are happy with and we can fund,” he explained. As APOMA and OCA sit together to discuss what is best for Andamooka, the community manager Bob Jacobs is optimistic that the issues are close to being resolved. “I think it’s getting close to having issues resolved. We’ve got to have a little bit more discussion but I think the new board is going to be very positive move for all of the outback communities,
not just for APOMA.” According to Mr Jacobs, some new developments after the OCA meeting were that consultants will be appointed to produce a flood strategy for Andamooka and they have also passed a resolution to do a strategy on the rubbish tip. “Until we get the consultants report we’re not sure but part of this is to do with moving the rubbish out of Andamooka out of the tip to somewhere else. Or alternatively it might be recommended that we set up a transfer station in Andamooka. “We’ve got to tender who the consultants will be. We’re going to advertise as soon as we can, looking for expressions of interest; that hopefully will happen sooner rather than later,” Mr Jacobs added. It is a definitely positive outcome to have community, APOMA, OCA and community manager discussing what is best for the future of the community, although the meeting could have seen the participation of more members of the community. The ones that were present have a great passion for Andamooka and that is what counts. “This is a community that has always been independent and has put up $2.7 million dollars worth in development over the last 50 years and that in my view makes Andamooka a pretty unique community,” Mr Allen concluded.
ROXBY DESERT MOTO-X CLUB INC
JACK OMO DANIELS PR EIV GIRLS + G AWAYS
in conjunction with
PRESENT A NIGHT OF FUN, MOTOCROSS & FREESTYLE DISPLAYS.
SATURDAY 6th NOVEMBER
Gates Open 4pm till late. $10 Spectator Entry Fee Accompanied kids U/14 Free Full canteen and bar facilities. NO BYO. FOR T H UN RID BMX TIM E FIRST All riders welcome!! D F REE E... JU ER ING
SEN NIO LIG I O R R A H TS TR ND . AC KS
Day memberships available.
ST Y
LER
S
GE A N OSS R R T E A OC A R G R MOT , G E E L OF K E S P A R A Y B I A P S P L SALE & N D I OR O D F AN
FOR MORE DETAILS PLEASE CONTACT CLINT ON 0447717871