Thursday, 12 September 2024

 Peter WALSH (Murray Plains) (10:02): Njernda Aboriginal Corporation in Echuca has lost another CEO, and there is concern amongst those that rely on the services of Njernda’s medical centre and Njernda’s family services division that they are the ones who miss out because of this issue. There has been a revolving door of CEOs at Njernda in recent years. I have been sent a petition signed by more than a hundred members of Njernda asking for an extraordinary general meeting of the Njernda membership so they can find out how their corporation is being managed or, most likely, mismanaged. Several years ago the Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations, or ORIC, did an investigation of Njernda and placed it into administration for a period of time, but unfortunately nothing appears to have changed since that time.

While the board and management play musical chairs, it is those who rely on the services of Njernda that miss out. As one of the locals who dropped off the petition to my office said, ‘We are concerned that again resources and energy is going into internal arguments rather than helping the most vulnerable in the community.’ They believe Njernda could be doing so much more for their community if they stopped these arguments and focused on their role of service delivery.

If an extraordinary general meeting is not held, I ask the Minister for Treaty and First Peoples to step in and assist at ORIC, again appoint an administrator to Njernda to get to the bottom of what the members are concerned about with the dysfunction of the corporation and, most importantly, make their findings available to the membership. Njernda’s role in the community is too important not to have it functioning properly. As I said, the most vulnerable in the community are those that miss out.