Outback WA charity hits out at ‘arrogant’ Cook government after 20 rebuffed meetings

November 6, 2026 — 3:00am

A West Australian food charity that helps set up community gardens and run nutrition programs for children in the outback has accused the state government of “arrogance and unprofessionalism” after no minister failed to respond to more than 20 requests over three years to discuss the charity’s future.

EON Aboriginal Foundation was set up in 2005 to help combat health problems in remote Indigenous communities, including the prevalence of Type 2 diabetes and kidney disease, by educating locals about nutrition.

It is one of WA’s most successful grassroots not-for-profits.

However, in a scathing letter to the premier’s office sent in March this year, EON Aboriginal Foundation chair Caroline de Mori AM said her organisation was sick of dealing with the “disrespect” she claimed the state government had shown the charity.

“Since your government was elected in 2023, EON Aboriginal Foundation, the successful WA disease prevention and food security provider to remote regions and communities, has made sustained efforts to engage with relevant Ministers, including you, and departments,” she wrote.

“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.

“As a not-for-profit running on the smell of an oily rag, the disproportionate investment of time and resources trying and failing to navigate multiple entry points across government (20 attempts since June 2023) demonstrates a level of arrogance and unprofessionalism by your government,” she wrote.

De Mori asked the premier’s office to set up a meeting with the relevant ministers as soon as possible, and to identify a clear pathway forward. She hoped to put the program in front of the state government, she said, and for them to understand how important it had become.

It has now been eight months since de Mori sent the letter, and she has not heard anything from the ministers themselves since.

More than 60 communities are now on the waitlist to join the program.

“Across the board of the not-for-profit sector, and everyone has the same story,” de Mori told this masthead.

“[The government] doesn’t want to meet with you. They don’t want to talk to you. They only listen to a few of their advisors, and they’re so thin-skinned.

“If you’ve got a message that says to them ‘you could do this better or differently’, then they don’t want to hear it. They don’t want to hear it because it might show them up as not knowing everything.”

De Mori said to date, she had only been able to meet with government advisors, but still had not been able to secure a meeting with a minister themselves.

It is understood Preventative Health Minister Sabine Winton’s office facilitated a meeting with the parliamentary secretary and a government advisor, while Aboriginal Affairs Minister Don Punch’s office said they had been engaging with the charity’s chief executive.

“The WA government recognises and values the important work of the EON Aboriginal Foundation in supporting food security, healthy eating and improved wellbeing in remote Aboriginal communities through edible gardens and practical nutrition education programs,” a WA government spokesperson said.

“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 foundation is also encouraged to continue working with the Commonwealth National Indigenous Australians Agency regarding programs that align more closely with its objectives, including food security and regional economic development.”

However, de Mori said this has felt like a brush-off.

“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.

“We’re bang for buck. To be frank, what we do is relatively cheap.

“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; as if government knows everything.

“Well, guess what? You don’t. Government and big business doesn’t know everything. If big business and government knew everything, these children wouldn’t be suffering.”

Hannah Murphy is a journalist with WAtoday covering breaking and general news. She previously worked for the ABC in the state’s Kimberley region.Connect via email.

From our partners