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 Indigenous community stores report- Everybody’s Business
The Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs released its report Everybody’s Business: Remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Community Stores.
Chairman the Hon. Bob Debus advised: “The Committee has found that remote Indigenous communities are operating a range of store models to meet their food security needs with varying degrees of success. Group store models like the Arnhem Land Progress Aboriginal Corporation and Outback Stores offer security from boom and bust cycles, but not every small community can sustain a viable store despite the need for one.”
The House of Representatives Committee report makes 33 recommendations to ensure remote communities can obtain a secure and affordable food supply using the store or food delivery model that best suits their circumstances, including:
- requiring every remote Indigenous community store to develop a specific healthy store policy,
- establishing a national remote Indigenous food supply chain coordination office,
- establishing a remote community store infrastructure fund,
- supporting community garden, traditional foods and farming projects,
- commissioning a regional cost of living study for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders living in remote communities,
- requiring the registration of stores under the Corporations and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Act 2006,
- revising the operational objectives of Outback Stores as a commercially viable store network and ensuring government food security objectives, and
- working with individual communities to develop or maintain stores or supply delivery models that meet the unique needs and situations of those communities.
Mr Debus thanked former Chairman the Hon. Richard Marles for his contribution to the inquiry. The Committee also acknowledges the support of all Indigenous communities and other stakeholders who participated, especially those traditional owners and elders, clans and families in the remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait communities visited.
More information
Visit: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs Committee – Inquiry into remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait community stores
Read: Everybody's Business: Remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Community Stores.
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