Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern Australia and Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

The events of recent weeks have thrown into stark relief some of the more horrific and sensational circumstances that Indigenous Australians confront every day of their lives. I would like members across the chamber to agree that dealing with these circumstances is our most urgent national priority.

It is important that we do that. I acknowledge that none of us on either side of the House can come into this place with clean hands on this subject. It is clear from our perspective—certainly from my own—that we could have done more when in government to address the underlying causes of poverty in Indigenous communities. It is unfortunate that the social justice package which was being developed by the Keating government was never put into any agreement or funded. What we have seen subsequently is a matter of some concern. I note that, now more than two years ago in an article in the Age, Michael Gordon wrote:

For much of his eight years plus in office, John Howard has concentrated on what he calls practical reconciliation, refusing to say sorry for injustices and placing little store in symbolic gestures. But (outside the COAG trials) he delivered little, partly because so many responsibilities are shared. The explicit promise of yesterday is that money will now be used more effectively and the lives of indigenous Australians improved.

Importantly for all of us, particularly those of us on this side of the chamber, he went on to say:

Turning this promise into reality will require diligence, rigour, vision and more political will than has been on display from either side ...

That is still the challenge that we all in this parliament face, right here, right now, today. It is worth reflecting upon the success that the government may or may not have had in addressing these needs.

It is clear to me that, whilst the Howard government has been in power for 10 years and despite its rhetoric about practical reconciliation, which it has embraced wholeheartedly, little has changed. We now know that the COAG trials that Gordon refers to have been a sham. It has diverted more funds into the bureaucracy, and very little money has hit the ground where it is needed. In the celebrated case of one Tasmanian project, the administrative costs were 10 times that of the project itself.

I note that the Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs seated at the table referred to the COAG trials with the Thamarrurr Council at Wadeye recently. In that reference, he has made the assertion that the Commonwealth had put $44 million into the community through the COAG trials—

See this speech in context