Feast, famine and fraud: Considerations in the delivery of banking and financial services to remote Indigenous communities

Abstract

This discussion paper identifies the current barriers to improving delivery of financial services to indigenous people in Central Australia. It describes existing responses to addressing these barriers, and recommends short- and longer-term options for building on existing initiatives, drawing on demonstrated experience elsewhere in the Northern Territory, Australia and overseas. Many of these issues were identified and discussed at a workshop convened jointly by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) and Centrelink in Alice Springs on 19 April 1999 with participation drawn from indigenous organisations, banks, indigenous community stores, local government, credit unions and government service deliverers.