The Turnbull government will loan up to $64 million to the Indigenous Land Corporation to pay off its controversial purchase of the Ayers Rock Resort. The concessional loan will be offered to assist with the ongoing ownership and management of the resort. The Treasury hasn’t published the expenditure for the measure in the budget due to commercial in confidence.
In other measures outlined in the federal budget, the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies will receive a boost of $40 million.
The Recognise campaign has already received a $5 million boost to increase awareness of constitutional recognition for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Indigenous Business Australia has been hit with a one-off funding cut of $23 million, which will be redirected to the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. The budget papers indicate this is to ensure "the continuity of business support and capability development services to Indigenous entrepreneurs".
There’s also been a reorganisation of Indigenous education programs, with the Indigenous Support Program and the Indigenous Tutorial Assistance Scheme scrapped. The government will instead consolidate three existing programs from January next to ‘improve progressions and completion rates’ for Indigenous higher education students.
The provision for the funding of this initiative has already been included in the forward estimates.
