KCP - Catholic Diocese of Broome

One of the wonderful things about the Kimberley is that it has always been far from the madding crowd. Despite the exploitation of indigenous people by early colonialists, despite the destructive erosion of prime river country through over grazing, and despite an attitude that the region is just an economic resource to be depleted, the Kimberley has retained for itself a mantle of pristine beauty and
natural wonder. How long this privileged status might be retained remains to be seen. The last few years have seen the massive expansion of tourism as the region’s number one industry. To question the wisdom of encouraging unbridled tourism is to invite criticism from those who have the most to lose in any tourism down-turn, the property developers and the speculators.

Recent land sales in Broome have returned prices that were unimaginable only a few years ago. Pokey little blocks bulldozed to look like a dustbowl easily fetch $200,000 while more prized modest paddocks in the old town can return in excess of $300,000. Suburbs composed of the ubiquitous corrugated iron and lattice work are blossoming about the resort port demanding prime Sydney prices and getting them.

The real problem with this speculators’ paradise is that it is merely somewhere for the rich to get richer while the dispossessed are forcefully distanced from the economic playing field. Rent returns for investors are licences to print money for them but any chance of the young being able to secure land and a home is little more than a fading dream.

There is a price to be paid for this inequity. The social dividend that arises from any such unfair system will be a bitter pill to swallow. The marginalized and those without investment portfolios are being left behind. There is an opulence and an extravagance abroad in the region for the well-healed property barons while too many locals are left on the outside looking in. The future can only be glum as it
becomes clear that ‘the have-nots’ will soon be ‘the can-nots’. The redistribution of wealth in the name of the common good and a concerted effort towards creating equal opportunity are goals that need to be taken up by the State Government, the Local Shire authorities and indigenous power-brokers. It is simply not good enough that people who have been dispossessed or who have no capital investment capabilities are unable to share in the wealth bubble so evident in pockets of the prominent in the Kimberley today.

Catholic Social Justice teaching includes the principle of distributive justice. That is, to those who have little in the way of assets, more assistance should be allocated to create a truly level playing field so that all may participate fully and with dignity.

It is time for Kimberley residents to seriously evaluate the burgeoning mega-tourism industry and judge its effect on a sustainable future for the fragile area. Living in the Kimberley must mean more than creating extra wealth for a privileged few. There are many in our society who have been excluded from the economic
boom cycles and shunted by the wheelers and dealers. All the shared responsibility agreements in the world will not alter this state of affairs. Neither will ill-devised industrial relations reforms. What will alter this state of affairs is a keen sense of what is right and a sound commitment to ecology and human dignity.