Please sign the open letter, in the following link, to the Qld. government in support of the Palm Island Community Store Aboriginal Corporation’s bid to manage the Palm Island store instead of government appointees.
Please distribute the link through your networks.
The Palm Island store is currently owned by the Queensland Government. It charges inflated prices to subsidise the transport of goods to other Aboriginal communities in Queensland. The government has recently announced that the store is to be privatised, and there are two competitors for the tender. One is the Palm Island Community Store Aboriginal Corporation (PICSAC) and the other is a gaggle of bureacrats and mainly non-Palm Islanders supported by the state government.
from the PICSAC
PALM ISLAND
COMMUNITY STORE
ABORIGINAL CORPORATION
ABN 95 384 533 636
C/-Cecilia Sibley, Farm Road Palm Island
July 2007
The Palm Island Community Store Aboriginal Corporation (PICSAC) was incorporated in February 2007, as a result of a public meeting held on Palm Island in December 2006.
The Queensland Government has announced plans to privatise the store, and has designed a tender process.
Anyone wishing to take part in the tender process will need to comply with the tender requirements and have in place a developed business plan setting out how the store will be managed and run, how it will be financed and how it will benefit the community.
We submitted an application to the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations for funding to prepare a business plan. That application was approved and the business plan is now being prepared.
Ian James is working with Lex Wotton and the corporation committee to prepare the business plan so that when tenders are called the corporation can bid to own and control the store on behalf of ALL PALM ISLANDERS.
There is no definite date set at present for privatisation, but is expected in the near future.
To tender successfully, the bidder will have to show how it can run and finance the store, that it represents the majority of the Palm Island community and that it has in place the expertise to ensure sound governance.
Outback Stores Pty Ltd is a professional store management operator, set up by Indigenous Business Australia to assist communities to operate stores. Outback Stores has the knowledge, skill, money and the buying capacity to operate the store efficiently and according to the wishes and needs of the community. Outback Stores is able to operate the store for a community group, provided it is operated for the benefit of the whole community.
Outback Stores has visited the community twice to explain how it can partner a community group and operate the store.
The objective of the PICSAC is to provide a vehicle to represent all Palm Islanders in bidding for the store tender. To achieve this, the corporation needs to widely hear the views of Palm Islanders, and to develop agreement about the objectives of the store.
PICSAC believes that a democratically elected governing committee, comprising a majority of residents of Palm Island, should direct Outback Stores and determine the use of store profits.
It is expected that at the time of privatisation, the government will provide funds for some major spending on the store building and facilities.
This Project is supported by funding from the Australian Government under the Indigenous Small Business Fund, which is administered by the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations.
THE QUEENSLAND GOVERNMENT IS PROPOSING GIVING OWNERSHIP AND CONTROL OF THE PALM ISLAND STORE TO A GOVERNMENT ENTERPRISE.
THE GOVERNMENT MODEL:
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The government has announced it will privatise the store, and that the ownership and control of the store will be returned to the community.
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The Department of Communities has formed a corporation called Palm Island Community Company Pty Ltd which it intends will take over ownership and control of the store.
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The Government Corporation is a Government Business Enterprise which will charge for its fee-based services, and directors’ fees and distribute any profits remaining according to the wishes of its directors.
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Its directors will be made up of 2 from the Federal Government, 2 from the Queensland Government, 2 from Local Government, 1 Traditional Owner, 1 Community representative, with an independent chairperson.
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In this model, 1 community member is elected and 3 are appointed, with 5 outsiders appointed
Although the plans for this corporation have been made public, there is almost no awareness of its existence in the Palm Island community. -
THE COMMUNITY MODEL:
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Palm Island Community Store Aboriginal Corporation (PICSAC) has been formed to create a community vehicle to own and operate the store.
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We can engage a professional management company, Outback Stores Pty Ltd, which can bring enormous buying power, & working capital. OS charges a fee of 4% of turnover, to operate the store using local staff, and the profits would be retained within the Palm Island community.
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Outback Stores operates by direction from a management committee representing the community organisation.
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The profits can be returned in full to the community with none spent on a Government Business Enterprise.
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The use of profits should be determined by a democratically elected committee made up of a majority of Palm Islanders, for the benefit of the whole community.
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Plans are advanced and unless the community acts now, the store will pass from one government department to another government vehicle, and be lost to the community forever. The tendering process is ‘on hold’ at present but planned for September 2007.
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In a comparable PICSAC model, 5 community members are elected, with a maximum of 4 outsiders being appointed.
The government has been promising to hand the store to the community for more than 20 years.
PICSAC is a vehicle for all to join, to enable one tender on behalf of the whole community.
We want to ensure the community can bid to own and operate the store on behalf of the whole community-with no profits to be spent on another government body.
We are presently speaking to as many people as we can to inform all people & obtain support on Palm Island.
PALM ISLAND COMMUNITY STORE
ABORIGINAL CORPORATION
