Barry Wakelin (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Social Security and Other Legislation Amendment (Welfare Payment Reform) Bill 2007 and related bills is important legislation. I give my full support to the minister and the government for the very strong effort that they have put in over recent weeks to deal with the emergency in Aboriginal communities. The Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs introduced the bills—which I do not intend to revisit—into the House this morning. This is a very complex and large undertaking, and the amount of money required to deal with this emergency is approaching $600 million.

Most of us have been aware of these issues for a very long time, and so we should not be surprised that the national government felt provoked to respond to them in a broad-ranging way. However, I am sure that we all feel some frustration and some disappointment with the states and the territories, as they have really struggled to come to terms with these issues. I did some research in this place some years ago on sexual abuse in Aboriginal communities. I know this is one part of the problem, but it is a significant part of it. The research, which I brought out of my archives yesterday, is dated June 2003. When I looked through it, I saw that the public information available on this issue goes back at least a decade. Of course, when you represent an electorate like the one I do, you know of these issues of violence. They are spoken about quietly, often late in the evening at social functions held in various locations. We have all lived in hope that these problems would be resolved, but we know now that they were only getting worse.

I can only repeat—not verbatim, but fairly accurately—the sentiment I felt while driving through my electorate, which borders the southern Northern Territory through to Darwin. When I was in Darwin, an Indigenous person who I respect said: ‘We can’t quite see it all at the moment. It is such a complex and comprehensive response.’ She went on to say: ‘I know one thing. We can’t keep going the way we were going, and therefore I’m prepared to give it significant support.’ This person was not particularly political. My guess would be that she was probably not a supporter of the government. But these things are way beyond party politics.

In responding to the shadow spokesperson on three or four of the issues, as far as the lack of appeal by Indigenous people within Centrelink goes, I bring to the attention of the House that there is an authorised review, the ARO response. There is the ability to have the case tested by the authorised review officer. Certainly it does not go, as I understand it, to the SSAT, the Social Security Appeals Tribunal. I well understand why, in the initial stages, you would not have that, because you would simply block up the system. This is quite new and quite different but there is an ARO there.

I think that there is something very important to note in dealing with the Racial Discrimination Act. I am not a lawyer and I am not pretending to interpret what that was all about many years ago, but I know one thing: the Australian people want to discriminate against violence. They want to discriminate in favour of care and justice and a decent life.

I appeal to every Aboriginal leader—and there are many distinguished leaders throughout Australia. To the Aboriginal leadership I say: never before has this total Australian community needed your support like it needs it now. This is an opportunity to move forward and overcome one of the very dark parts of Australia’s social system and one of its glaring social justice challenges within the nation. Not for the first time I pay tribute to Warren Mundine. In the paper yesterday—and I am sure that many would have seen it—and in the editorial in the Australian again today he referred to the government’s plan. In yesterday’s Australian Warren Mundine, for whom I have the utmost respect, said he was:

... ‘disgusted’ that people are describing the federal Government’s intervention in the Northern Territory as an invasion and has called on the Labor Party’s left wing to get ‘real’ and accept the plan.

This is a distinguished Aboriginal leader, an immediate past president, I think, of the Australian Labor Party in that shared process that the Labor Party has, and he is saying in a very clear way: please support the plan, that some of the nonsense around the old ideological approach to this issue needs to be challenged. Thank you, Warren Mundine, and I thank every other Aboriginal leader who comes on board. It does not mean that this is not without challenge. Debate will not be suppressed in any way. There will be a full and open discussion about this, and so there should be in our system. There is no doubt in my mind that the basics of it are right and that the problem is so drastic and challenging that it had to come to this.

It is worth going to a few generalisations. The minister has referred to them quite often in the last few weeks but I will go to them anyway. The government strategy has three components: stabilisation, normalisation of services and infrastructure and, in the longer term, support. It is going to cost the taxpayer in the first 12 months, as I understand it, something approaching $600 million.

The question is asked: why has the government acted now? I have established some of those reasons but perhaps I should establish a few more. The brief in front of me reminds me that the Commonwealth convened a summit last year and provided $130 million, which included support for additional policing and alcohol rehabilitation in remote communities. I can remember it in my own electorate. I can remember the issues and the discussions with the states. We tried to work with the states in the old way but it did not provide the urgent response necessary. We know why. We know the report that came out of the Northern Territory government. That was the response. It sat for six or eight weeks until the federal government felt provoked to respond. That report was known as the Little children are sacred report.

The task force is led by magistrate Dr Sue Gordon, who in her own right had her own committee in Western Australia some years ago after some horrific incidents over in urban Perth. She has been a leader in the whole business. The task force includes a very significant number of very distinguished Australians. The rollout is occurring and the ICC manager within my electorate has been seconded to the Northern Territory, and I wish him well with the work that he is involved in there now.

The police will be under the Northern Territory Police Force command and will have normal Northern Territory policing powers. Even more importantly, police and government officers are being supported by the Australian Defence Force, including NORFORCE—we have seen a few cartoons and almost cheap shots at what is an incredibly serious issue—which will provide communications, transport and other logistics. NORFORCE is well known and well respected. This will ensure that people can stay in the communities to work and to provide services for Indigenous people.

I have been going to Indigenous communities in my electorate for over 15 years, as a candidate and then as a member. I go through for a couple of days every few months. It is all right for me: I camp or I bludge a bed off somebody, but it is a challenge to live out there without proper logistical support. There is no motel just down at the corner; there is no rental accommodation just up the street. Accommodation is a very practical part of it.

I agreed with the minister when he spoke today about goodwill. I have been to Palm Island and to Oak Valley in my own electorate where the Army were involved with the previous program, ACAP. You could just see the goodwill with the way the young responded to the fellows and young women in uniform. They are out there doing an important job. It is not about the nonsense that we see in smart alec cartoons. They are out there supporting this effort. Once safety is established, arrangements will be put in place to respond to the identified needs of each community. We are still working through that.

The permit system is well defined by the minister. It is affecting 0.2 per cent of the Aboriginal land in the Northern Territory. Let us be really clear about this. Land acquisition is to be done under just terms. Health checks, alcohol, welfare reform and income management are to be done under just terms. The hotline—perhaps this has not come out that much in the last few days—is set up for people who want to find out more about the Australian government’s national emergency response to the Northern Territory. People who would like information or wish to volunteer should call the national emergency response hotline on 1800333995.

We heard the minister say—it may have been during his second reading speech—that up to 400 people have registered as volunteers. Overall—and I do not think any Australian is going to disagree with this, other than those who are the perpetrators of serious crime—the safety of children is any government’s top priority. In this case it just happens to be the Australian government. We do this in the interests of the children and in the interests of the communities in which these children live. Children cannot live in isolation. These children live with adults, with parents, grandparents and brothers and sisters. We do it because it is simply the right thing to do.

We could look back over the last 20 or 30 years to see the lost opportunity but there is no point in that—it is done; it is over. We have an opportunity now to do something about this. I welcome the government’s legislation and wish it speedy passage through what will be a long-term, difficult and challenging matter. This is a very brave and committed start. I thank the House.

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