Australia's aboriginal leaders angry at being forced out of native communities

Aboriginal leaders in remote communities have expressed outrage at state government plans to cut their funding, which has forced people out of their native areas of outback Australia.

Steven Kopp, chairman of the "Mulan" community located in the Tanami Desert, said on Wednesday that the government's plans had already struck fear into his residents, with some already moving away.

"The stories I'm getting back from the government is just frightening, really," he told the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC). "It makes me sad too, that's all my family too, all moving away from their country."

"They're gone, they've just taken off. People are just looking for another place to move on to because they're just frightened," he said.

The Aboriginal Legal Sevice's Dennis Eggington said that the uncertainty was driving residents out of their homes.

"People are panicking; they're really getting quite upset and there's a lot of anxiety among our mobs out there," he said.

"I think people are just preparing themselves for what the inevitable is.

"That is the history of this country, that's the experience of Aboriginal people. If the government has said they're going to come and move you, then they're going to come and move you," he added.

Despite panic among the aboriginal communities, the Western Australian government is yet to announce which ones specifically would close, but Kopp said that the damage had been done.

"It's really just making me sad really because they grew up here all their life and now they don't really know what to do," he said.

"When they go to (big) towns they just drink and live anywhere, on the street, they just camp out anywhere," he said.

The Western Australian government announced last year that it would be closing up to 150 of the 274 communities due to lack of funding, effectively cutting electricity supplies and other basic services.

Western Australia's Aboriginal Affairs Minister Peter Collier released a statement on Wednesday saying that "the absence of the economic and social opportunities that other West Australians took for granted may be the cause of people having to leave communities. " Endi