remote – Michmutters

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Australia

Kowanyama’s takeaway liquor license has good and bad sides for remote Cape York community

An Aboriginal man in a black striped shirt and wide brimmed hat stands in a outdoor bar area.

To legally buy alcohol from this Queensland pub you must blow in the bag – and you must blow zero.

Kowanyama, a remote town on western Cape York, was one of seven Indigenous communities in Queensland where prohibition was introduced in 2008.

In 2014, the local canteen reopened serving restricted amounts of alcohol.

This year the community has gained more freedom regarding alcohol, successfully applying for a takeaway license.

But that freedom is restricted.

Each person is limited to buying 12 mid-strength drinks per evening, and only from Wednesday to Saturday between 5pm and 11pm.

To enter the canteen patrons you must sign in, take a breathalyser test, and return a zero blood alcohol reading—even to buy takeaways.

A laminated sign hangs from a fence warning people not to bring alcohol on a premises in Kowanyama.
Some Kowanyama residents register their homes as ‘dry places’, with penalties for anyone who brings alcohol in.(ABC Far North: Mark Rigby )

They can then, for example, have four drinks at the bar and take eight home.

Producing a members or visitors card at the bar allows staff to keep tabs on how many drinks people have had, while customers are kept informed of their limit by a flashing digital display on the cash register.

A similar canteen has this month opened on the opposite side of Cape York, at Lockhart River — another of the seven communities where prohibition was introduced in 2008.

Venues on Mornington Island and at Pormpuraaw, on western Cape York, are also in the process of applying for extensions of their existing liquor licences.

‘Hardly anyone here’

Many in Kowanyama gathered for the annual Rodeo Ball this month, hosted at the canteen.

Thomas Hudson, President of the Kowanyama Sport and Recreation Association which runs the canteen, said the aim of the ball was to bring the community together.

An Aboriginal man dressed in jeans and a plaid shirt stands under a string of balloons reading 'Rodeo Ball'.
Kowanyama Sport and Recreation Association president Thomas Hudson spearheads the annual Rodeo Ball.(ABC Far North: Mark Rigby)

“For people to dress up and be proud of themselves because we don’t do that every day here in our community,” Mr Hudson said.

Attendance at this year’s event, the first since its inception where takeaway alcohol has been available, was down on previous years.

The steady stream of people buying from the canteen takeaway counter before its 8pm closure confirmed what ball attendee Clive ‘Smokey’ Gilbert suspected – that many were choosing to drink at home.

“There’s hardly anyone in the canteen here,” Smokey said.

“When no takeaways were on this pub used to be crowded but you don’t see that now, they’re always going home now.”

Two Indigenous men stand side by side under fluorescent lights in a bar.
Clive ‘Smokey’ Gilbert (L) and Kowanyama Aboriginal Shire Mayor Robbie Sands (R) attended this year’s Rodeo Ball.(ABC Far North: Mark Rigby)

Fellow Kowanyama resident Gwendolyn Dick said despite the below average attendance, the ball did succeed in bringing the community together during an extended period of sorry business.

“We had four deaths just recently, and another one in the last week or so,” Ms Dick said.

“It’s good to see all the families from in the community come together all in one because we often can’t during the sorry business and the funeral.”

Return of rights and responsibilities

Most in Kowanyama welcome the return of the canteen and of takeaway alcohol sales, including the community’s women’s support group.

Security providers and canteen customers said the increase in takeaway sales had resulted in a reduction in fights and anti-social behavior at the pub.

“It’s something good for the community,” Smokey said.

“It keeps them out of trouble and people enjoy their beers at home watching the football.”

Silhouetted figures bathed in fluorescent light in an outdoor bar.
Rodeo Ball attendance was down in 2022, with takeaway sales meaning more people are choosing to drink at home instead.(ABC Far North: Mark Rigby)

For Michael Yam, a former mayor of the Kowanyama Aboriginal Shire Council the resumption of takeaway alcohol sales at the community’s canteen is a return of the rights and responsibilities of the townspeople.

“It’s about time they gave us something back,” he said.

“It’ll probably minimize the sly grogging because, as we know, in our community there’s always opportunists that are going to do it.”

And he said there were benefits to people choosing to drink at home, rather than at the canteen.

“Some families take their drinks home so that they can be home with their kids instead of drinking in the club all the time, away from their little ones.”

Lockhart River Aboriginal Shire Major Wayne Butcher said that community’s newly opened canteen had been “14 years in the making.”

“It’s created 10 new jobs in the community overnight so it’s great to see a lot of young people working as crowd controllers, security or people serving alcohol behind the bar and preparing food,” he said.

“That’s the other side of the coin that we don’t get to look at too much or focus on.”

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Australia

Sport, music and culture shine at Barunga Festival 2022 after COVID postponements

Aboriginal Dancers dance on sand.

The dust barely settles as it drifts across thousands of spectators circled around traditional dancers from Groote Eylandt kicking up a storm this weekend in the remote NT community of Barunga.

Historically, the buŋgul, a meeting place of dance, song and ritual, at Barunga Festival is largely admired from the sidelines — but this year was different.

“Barunga is one of those different places, it brings so many people from different communities to try to share together in one place, that’s what Barunga is all about,” Groote Eylandt dancer Leonard Amagula says.

“It is reaching out to other communities, reaching out to the young ones, to grow up and see we are doing wonderful things.”

Dancers on sand can be seen through the crowd.
The crowd is invited to take part in traditional dances. (ABC News: Max Rowley)

It starts as a trickle, and then legions of people from the crowd swirl into the centre, and press together behind the Groote Eylandt Anindilyakwa experts, billowing sand across the tiny community about 400 kilometers south-east of Darwin.

It’s one of those special moments that makes the three-day festival what it is; a place where both historic agreements are made and the promise of treaties echoes loudly.

And a place where remote Indigenous culture is strengthened simply by sharing in it.

A ‘rough but happy’ beginning

The festival has a long and important history that started over three decades ago in 1985.

Mr Amagula has been a regular attendee since his teens.

Back then, he says, it was “kinda rough but happy” and much larger with far more people traveling in from other Aboriginal communities.

A man in a hat files a Didgeridoo at Barunga.
Cultural workshops including yidaki (didgeridoo) making ran all weekend. (ABC Katherine: Roxanne Fitzgerald)

This year, after the festival was postponed due to COVID, creative director Michael Hohnen says that balance was almost struck again.

“Because it was not a long weekend, [there] was probably a few less people and the date change, a lot of people can’t plan for that date change, but I actually like this energy a lot,” he said.

“We didn’t push it at all in anywhere but remote communities … that’s what Barunga [Festival] is supposed to be, the community invites visitors in.”

weaving workshop
Festival attendees learn weaving from Barunga elders. (ABC Katherine: Roxanne Fitzgerald)

A succession of local NT bands took to the main stage across the three days, as MCs called musicians up for their slot and announced the winners of sport trophies in between sets – the by-product of a festival thin on staff running on ‘Barunga time ‘.

On Saturday night, singer and political activist Walmatjarri elder Kankawa Nagarra – who toured with Hugh Jackman in Broadway to Oz – opened the main stage concert delivering a string of songs that delved into a life of hardship as she moved from mission to mission.

A woman playing guitar on a stage at barunga festival.
West Australian political activist, singer and songwriter Kankawa Nagarra was a special guest at the festival. (ABC News: Max Rowley)

Then Salt Lake and Eylandt Band from Groote fired up the crowd.

A link to political past

Dissimilar to past years, where the rallying cries for action from leaders have been loud and fearless, it was quieter on the political front, leaving the festival’s roots in sport, music and culture to shine.

But at a festival steeped in political history, the past couldn’t be ignored.

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Categories
Australia

CBD commercial occupancy rates have fallen across the country — so what will it take to get workers back into city offices?

Sydney skyline at night.

The early days of the COVID-19 pandemic triggered a mass exodus of workers from central business district (CBD) offices — but, from this, came a new, hybrid work model that accommodated for employees’ unique needs.

While remote work remains the preference for many, some offices have struggled to convince their staff to make the trek back into central business districts and, experts say, it has come at a cost to newcomers.

In almost every major Australian city, during the month of June, new data from the Property Council of Australia shows commercial occupancy rates fell.

That rate is the measure of the area of ​​rented space compared to area of ​​total space available.

Melbourne’s commercial occupancy rate dropped from 49 per cent to 38 per cent, while Sydney’s fell from 55 per cent to 52 per cent.

Brisbane’s fell from 64 per cent to 53 per cent, while Adelaide’s dropped from 71 per cent to 64 per cent.

The only markets to record an increase in commercial occupancy were Canberra and Perth, where the rate rose from 53 per cent to 61 per cent and 65 per cent to 71 per cent, respectively.

Is working from home to blame?

The main culprit, according to the Property Council’s chief executive, Ken Morrison, is illness.

Mr Morrison said the results were disappointing, but not surprising.

“Office occupancy numbers have gone backwards for the first time in six months as a wave of [COVID-19’s] Omicron and flu cases kept workers away from the office,” he said.

A man addresses an event in a ballroom at night standing at a glass podium
Ken Morrison says illness likely triggered the fall in occupancy rates.(Supplied: Property Council of Australia)

“We have been seeing a steady increase in the number of workers returning to offices, but this stalled in June and has now declined in most capitals.

With winter nearly over, he said, it was encouraging that the latest COVID-19 wave had nearly run its course and that “recovery momentum can resume.”

Remote work not a ‘zero-cost exercise’

When occupancy rates drop off, small businesses, such as cafes, can miss out on a vital revenue stream.

Mr Morrison said governments needed to be mindful that encouraging people to work from home was not a “zero-cost exercise”.

“The costs are real and we see them in the vibrancy of our CBDs,” he said.

“We know office occupancy has been slow to recover, unlike other indicators, which snap back quickly.”

Are falling occupancy rates here to stay?

Tom Broderick — who heads up CBRE’s capital markets research — doesn’t think so.

“I think this appears to be a bit of a blip, with these most recent figures,” he said.

A man with short gray hair wearing a black and white suit and tie smiling
Tom Broderick says having fewer people in offices makes it harder to collaborate. (Supplied: Tom Broderick )

The July survey found the preference for greater flexibility, including working from home, was a better driver of occupancy levels, but this decreased from 63 per cent to 48 per cent.

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Australia

Locum doctor fee rises lead charity to withdraw financial support in five NSW towns

Man in white doctor's coat speaking to woman whose face can't be seen.

A year or two ago it used to cost just over $1,000 a day for a locum GP to cover while a town’s permanent doctor was on leave. That has now tripled to close to $4,000.

It is this “eye watering” increase that is being blamed on a medical charity withdrawing its financial support to pay for fly-in fly-out doctors in five New South Wales towns.

“It’s a dramatic change, we’re moving from GP locum rates of $1,200 a day up to anywhere between $2,500, $3,500, $3,750 a day,” Rural and Remote Medical Services (RARMS) CEO Mark Burdack said.

“We’re looking in some instances, in some towns, locum rates more than tripling in the last year.”

RARMS has announced that since September 30 it will no longer help pay for locums in Gilgandra, Warren, Bingara, Tenterfield and Braidwood.

The practices in these towns will remain open, but the charity’s decision means they will be saddled with the locum bills.

“We can’t afford to pay locum costs moving forward.

“That means each of the towns, if they lose a general practitioner, if they decide to go, they will potentially be up for anywhere between $2,500 and $3,500 a day to get a locum in.”

The main street of a small town
Bingara in north-west NSW is one of five towns affected by RARMS’s withdrawal.(Supplied: Lisa Herbert)

‘Not in a position to subsidise’

Mr Burdack said the organization had managed to weather the costs for the past few years because of the federal government’s JobKeeper payments.

He said a request for this to be extended was knocked back.

“Unfortunately that’s not something that has been taken up and as a result without that JobKeeper money we’re simply not in a position to subsidize locum coverage in those communities when there’s not a permanent doctor,” he said.

a man looking ahead
RARMS CEO Mark Burdack says negotiations are taking place to help fill the gap left by the charity.(Supplied)

RARMS said permanent doctors in Tenterfield and Braidwood have agreed to take over the full management of those practices.

Mr Burdack said at Bingara, north-west of Tamworth, the local council had stepped in.

decision no surprise

But Gwydir Shire Council Mayor John Coulton said the council was not taking over the Bingara health service and the decision of RARMS came as no surprise.

“We were very suspicious of this happening,” he said.

“We spoke to Mark Burdack in May, he couldn’t give any guarantees they could stay open under the present set-up.

“This is not a function of local government, we are going to do everything we can to facilitate another arrangement.

“We’ve been speaking to different sources that we may be able to use at this stage we have nothing.”

“We had a hook-up yesterday with Gilgandra and Warren, two other councils in the same position, and we’ve been bouncing off each other.”

RARMS says it is negotiating with the Western NSW Local Health District and Western Primary Health Network on future arrangements at Gilgandra and Warren.

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Categories
Australia

Disability advocates call for better support for people in rural, regional and remote NSW

A close up of an older woman with glasses wearing a cardigan outside her home.

Pauline Follett has been struggling to get on the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) for three years and is “frustrated” with the health system.

The 54-year-old has been living with cerebral lupus for nearly 30 years and depends on her disability pension as her main source of income.

Lupus can damage nerves in the body through inflammation of nerves or the tissues surrounding them.

The condition affects Ms Follett’s balance, which makes it difficult for her to walk and do tasks such as cooking, cleaning and driving.

She lives by herself in Gol Gol, in far west New South Wales, and has limited support.

“It becomes very difficult when you become too unwell to stay in one’s home. You have to have support when you’re disabled,” Ms Follett said.

An older woman pouring a kettle in her kitchen with her walker in front of her.
Pauline Follett lives on the border between Victoria and New South Wales.(ABC NewsRichard Crabtree)

The first time she applied for NDIS, she said the assessors focused “on the wrong thing”, that she lives with osteoporosis rather than lupus.

The second time Ms Follett applied, she said she was told her specialists could do more for her.

The support she receives is from a local disability service provider, but only includes assistance with transportation and cleaning.

And that support is not guaranteed, as Ms Follett is reassessed for it every six weeks.

That has meant she has made nearly 30 applications over the past three years to maintain the help.

“It’s all up in the air, all the time … You’re not guaranteed, it’s very tiring,” she said.

“You have to be on the ball all the time, which is difficult when you’re ill.”

Uncertainty exacerbates condition

She likes living in her own home but without the right help, she believes she could be forced to leave and fears being unable to find stable aged care accommodation, which would put her at risk of homelessness.

An older woman standing with her walker outside her home.
Pauline Follett hopes to get NDIS support after being rejected twice.(ABC NewsRichard Crabtree)

“Item [aged care] is difficult to get here. It’s not as readily available to us, so to have something like that. It’d be very hard to access,” she said.

Ms Follett said the uncertainty of NDIS providing support had affected her mental health, which had taken a toll on her physically.

“I’m very stressed, and with my lupus, stress is something that exacerbates my condition, so it makes it worse,” she said.

Ms Follett is not alone in finding access to services difficult.

Calls on government to do more

Disability Advocacy NSW released The Aussie Battlers report to the ABC, detailing issues people living with disabilities face in rural, regional and remote (RRR) NSW.

It showed 61 per cent of cases in RRR areas had difficulties meeting evidence requirements due to limited accessibility of service providers.

In RRR NSW, 73 per cent of people reported their service accessibility as poor or very poor.

Disability Advocacy NSW policy officer Cherry Baylosis said the results were not surprising.

A close up of a woman with brown hair wearing a patterned shirt.
Cherry Baylosis contributed to The Aussie Battlers report.(ABC Broken Hill: Youssef Saudie)

“It is concerning when I confirmed these experiences persist despite some of the efforts that were made,” Dr Baylosis said.

She is calling on the government to involve people with disabilities in policymaking.

“At the very least to have consultations with people with disabilities who live in remote areas for better engagement and participation, and then developing considerations within policy based off that,” she said.

“I would like policy to take into consideration the complexities of people with disability living in regional, rural and remote areas to consider the complications — such as the cost of living with a disability.”

Delays from service providers

There are 750 NDIS recipients in far west New South Wales as of June 30, but far west NSW Disability Advocacy district manager Eveleen May said there would be a “lot more” people who were in need of assistance.

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