Mal Brough (Longman, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

If the former Premier of Western Australia is oohing and aahing about abolishing the states because they cannot deliver Australian fundamental law and order, get up and say it—that is fine. The reason I asked all the states and territories to come together was not to berate them but to do the very thing that the member for Lingiari asked. It was to bring us together not just on the issue of what happens after the event—after a child has been raped, after a young woman has been burnt, after someone has had domestic violence perpetrated upon them year after year or their house has been destroyed or the community centre has been destroyed—but on the issue as to how we are going to prevent those things from happening in the first place.

I am not suggesting for one moment that issues of housing, education, employment and opportunity are not important. But Wadeye is a classic example—and the member for Lingiari is, in fact, incorrect: he invited me to correct the record so I shall—because the federal government and the Northern Territory government, in partnership, signed up to the COAG trial. The COAG trial was to try and ensure that there would be better outcome for the people of Wadeye. It has not occurred; we accept that. Forty million dollars has been spent or committed. Half of that money was for housing, much of which has not been delivered. The reason it has not been delivered—I am sure the member for Lingiari would be keen to hear—is the delay in providing serviced land to enable the housing to be established. There are lengthy delays in providing serviced blocks to these remote communities. In fact, in Wadeye the government provided $1.5 million to the Northern Territory government in June 2004 for servicing of the land and to this date it still has not occurred. I am not blaming the Northern Territory government. It is a statement of fact that, as the member for Lingiari knows, there are huge issues in getting land when no-one, other than the community, can own it.

The fact is that there is a new subdivision out there—and the member for Lingiari referred to it in his comments—which is safer, which is removed and which was supported and dealt with through the federal and Northern Territory governments working together. I ask any member of the Labor Party whether we can seriously say, of 150 people rioting, people being speared in the leg, people being hit over the head with nulla-nullas and people running through town trashing houses and breaking toilet blocks, that there is an excuse that we can give for that. I say no.

In that same trial 24 young apprentices were put into a housing prefabrication factory in Wadeye. We did not need 24 apprentices; it was about opportunities. The last I heard there were five remaining. Why? Because those individuals do not have the basic numeracy and literacy skills to stay there and, probably far more important than that, the education system has failed them of course. Why? Because they do not turn up to school. There is no cause and effect from the parents. That is a reality of life. I was told only this week by a resident of Wadeye, that when some of the young men have been taken to a workplace that very night the elder who has requested that work placement happen and has aided and abetted that person in having a better opportunity has had their house trashed and ruined. If that is a fact, how is a community ever going to dig itself out of the malaise that it is in if we do not first and foremost restore law and order?

I invite the member for Lingiari and those who sit opposite if they missed it to have a look at last night’s Four Corners. It was an excellent program. There were no dramatic overtones to it. It just had statements of fact, and the camera does not lie. Firstly, there was a corner store in a community of about 150 people which has lost over $100,000. How can one store in one community lose that sort of money unless it is mismanagement or corruption? Secondly, the night patrol vehicle, which is supposed to keep the streets quiet and peaceful at night because there are no police there, was in Alice Springs being used as a cab. The fuel is no longer there because of the misuse of a resource that is supposed to be used to keep people safe. Then there was the community hall which 12 months ago or a little longer had a billiard table and other resources to assist people in having something positive to do and to engage the young people. It appeared like there were a lot of bullet holes in it. It was clear that it was trashed. I wonder whether there was a police investigation into that trashing of public property. I wonder if there was a police investigation into the corruption at the store. I wonder if there was a police investigation when they said women could not walk the streets at night because of the violence in the streets in a ‘dry’ community. Are we as Australian taxpayers supposed to continue to pour more money into a community like that until we get the basis that every civilised society both demands and deserves—that is, to have a safe community?

There have been some improvements over the last 10 years. It is worth mentioning them— because there is a lot of doom and gloom. There are communities out there that are doing the right thing, but I am not prepared to gloss over the problems and stand up here and say, ‘The Howard government has spent more than any previous government—$3.3 billion—and we should be proud of it.’ We should be proud when people have the same rights as everybody else, have the same opportunity to live anywhere they choose to in this nation and have an education and the life skills to live in Canberra, Wadeye, Galiwinku or Alice Springs. Today they simply do not have that opportunity.

The death rates from respiratory illness have reduced. These are still appalling figures, so do not let anyone misread what I am saying, but it is important to recognise there has been an improvement. The death rate from respiratory illness from 1992 to 1994 was seven to eight times the non-Indigenous average—today it is four times. Death rates from infectious and parasitic diseases was 15 to 18 times more likely to occur than the non-Indigenous average—today it is five times. The year 3 writing benchmark at school was 73 per cent of all students—today it is 83 per cent. Secondary school attendance has improved. Year 12 retention has improved. Students attending what used to be known as VET has gone up from 2.4 per cent of 32,000 to 33.6 per cent of 57,000—so a dramatic improvement.

Home ownership has improved. I want to deal briefly with this issue of home ownership. The Howard government has made a big ploy that we want to move away from collectivism. If you go to these communities, people say there is no employment. The reality is that the collective, the corporation, owns the land. No individual owns the land. You can never own your own home. Even if you aspire to do that, it is a simple impossibility. You cannot own a business there because the collective owns the businesses. The collective determines who gets the house, the collective decides who works in the community store and the collective makes all the decisions on behalf of the group. I know there was a time when we thought that self-determination and land rights would solve the problems. I believe it was well meant on both sides. It simply has not worked and it will not work.

The people of Nguiu in the Tiwi islands have voted with their feet and said, ‘Let’s change and let’s allow homeownership here. Let’s allow ourselves to able to put in our own sweat and effort and own something for ourselves, make a determination for ourselves like every other Australian and take control of our lives rather than being dependent upon the collective.’ There is nothing wrong with that. That is a direction that the Howard government wants to move in. We recognise that there will be communities that will not be able to participate in that because they are so isolated they simply will not be eligible or able to participate in a market economy, but we can take a lot of people forward.

What underpins this and is the glue that holds it together is that no government, state or federal, has ever dealt with comprehensively the fundamental right to live in a safe community. I could stand here today and read out all of the horrific things that have filled our newspapers, but I will not be doing it because it is there for everyone to see. I understand the horror of those opposite because I feel the same way, but I think that it is important that the Australian public acknowledges and understands the pain these people have put up with for so long. They are demanding that it stop. When people talk about intergenerational rape, it is not something they want their children to have, and we have a role today to stop it, but if you are not prepared to put someone in jail who has raped a child or who has committed domestic violence, not as a one-off but in a systematic approach, then I am afraid we are not going to get to the core of the issue. We can have all the domestic violence units that we like, we can have all the family relationship centres that we like and we can have all of the provisions afterwards, but when someone turns around after a crime has been committed against them and there is no one to talk to, there is no policeman there to act and there is no safety because the person that has perpetrated the crime of serious assault or sexual deviancy against them comes back into the community for up to two years while they are waiting for trial is it any wonder people do not stand up to give evidence?

They are fundamental issues that I am hoping to address in the summit. I want them to be addressed because I believe it is the only way we can go forward. I know that the shadow spokesman and the Chief Minister have been talking about housing. Housing is a key issue, but we have to recognise that throwing good money after bad is a failure and that, over the last four years, the Territory government have failed to spend the money that they have received. That is a statement of fact and they acknowledge that. If they cannot spend the money they had, even if we were of a mind to throw a lot more money at the problem, what would it have achieved? Let us have a bipartisan approach to this and let us put the ideologies behind us. But let us recognise that, if we do not deal with the two fundamentals of law and order and faith in our criminal justice system, we will condemn ourselves and that community to being in the same position in 10, 20 and 30 years time. I think that is unacceptable. It is something that we should all accept as our grave responsibility and deal with it now. (Time expired)

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