The Western Australian government has been accused of ignoring more than 20 attempts by the EON Aboriginal Foundation to secure a meeting about the future of its remote-community food and nutrition programmes.
Caroline de Mori AM, chair of the Aboriginal health charity, said ministers had failed to respond meaningfully since the Cook government was elected in 2023, despite EON’s work addressing nutrition, food security and health problems in Indigenous communities.
EON was established in 2005 and helps remote communities create edible gardens and deliver practical nutrition education, including programmes aimed at tackling the prevalence of type 2 diabetes and kidney disease.
In a letter to the premier’s office in March, Ms de Mori accused the government of “arrogance and unprofessionalism” and said the charity had been unable to obtain clear guidance on how it could support the government’s objectives.
“However, despite our strong alignment with stated government objectives and more than 20 written attempts, we have been unable to secure meaningful discussion or direction on how EON can help deliver on your goals,” she wrote.
She said the charity had made 20 approaches since June 2023, adding that the time and resources spent trying to navigate different government departments demonstrated “a level of arrogance and unprofessionalism by your government”.
Ms de Mori asked the premier’s office to arrange a meeting with the relevant ministers and establish a clear pathway for EON’s work. Eight months later, she said she had still not heard directly from the ministers.
More than 60 communities are now waiting to join the programme, according to the foundation.
“Across the board of the not-for-profit sector, and everyone has the same story,” Ms de Mori said. “They don’t want to meet with you. They don’t want to talk to you.”
She said she had so far been able to meet only government advisers and had not secured a meeting with a minister.
EON Aboriginal Foundation says government response was a “handball”
The office of Sabine Winton, the preventative health minister, is understood to have facilitated a meeting with a parliamentary secretary and a government adviser. The office of Don Punch, the Aboriginal affairs minister, said it had been engaging with EON’s chief executive.
A Western Australian government spokesperson said ministers recognised and valued the foundation’s work supporting food security, healthy eating and improved wellbeing in remote Aboriginal communities.
“Minister Punch’s office has been engaging with the foundation’s chief executive officer regarding future funding opportunities and provided advice on a range of available state and Commonwealth funding pathways,” the spokesperson said.
The foundation was also encouraged to continue working with the Commonwealth’s National Indigenous Australians Agency on programmes more closely aligned with its objectives, including food security and regional economic development.
Ms de Mori rejected the suggestion that directing EON towards other departments amounted to meaningful engagement.
“Suggesting other departments we could meet with, all of whom then told us they were too busy, is not ‘engagement’,” she said. “Redirecting EON to Canberra is simply another handball.”
She said EON provided strong value for money but was being denied the opportunity to explain its work to decision-makers.
“We’re bang for buck. To be frank, what we do is relatively cheap,” Ms de Mori said.
“It’s the frustration and the lack of respect for those of us that are doing the hard yards all day, every day, on the smell of an oily rag – as I said in the letter – and they don’t even pay us the respect of listening to people who are doing the hard yards.”
She added: “Government and big business doesn’t know everything. If big business and government knew everything, these children wouldn’t be suffering.”
