Ian Causley (Page, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Hansard source

In my 23 years in politics I think this is the most serious debate I have participated in, and I have participated in hundreds of debates over the years. The member for Gwydir, the Hon. John Anderson, wished to speak tonight, but he has deferred to me. He represents a large portion of western New South Wales and has been deeply involved in a work program at Bourke that has shown significant results for Aboriginal people. I put that on the record and the fact that I understand and accept that he has allowed me to speak in this debate.

I should provide some background to my contribution to the Social Security and Other Legislation Amendment (Welfare Payment Reform) Bill 2007 and cognate bills. My family first went to the Clarence River in about the 1860s. My great-grandmother was one of the first white children born on the Clarence River. She lived her adult life on the Esk River across from a group of Bundjalong people who lived in their native state. I still know the people of that tribe five generations down the track. I know how their customs were enforced, and they were different from what we are talking about tonight. Some of the laws were very strict and even brutal, but there was none of the sexual abuse or assaults that we hear about today. In fact, the tribe that my great-grandmother knew segregated the males and females at puberty, they never married within their tribe and they were protected by the tribe. That is quite different from what we are talking about today.

I have heard members of the Labor Party say that they support this legislation, but I have been straining to hear their support. Most of their contributions have been an attack on the government. This is a very serious problem and it does not exist only in the Northern Territory; it exists across Australia. I heard the member for Lowe interjecting. The same thing occurs under his nose in Redfern, and I know that he would not approve of that.

Why do I say this? Some nine years ago, Aboriginal women with whom I went to school, played sport and worked and whom I have employed—I know the wonderful Aboriginal people of the Lower Clarence very well—came to see me secretly to tell me what was going on in their communities. The group represented a cross-section of the community. The elderly women I know are grandmothers and elders of the tribe. One woman I know very well and whom I respect enormously said: ‘Ian, we have come to you because we know you and trust you. We are frightened to come publicly, but we want to tell you what is going on in our community.’ This woman said to me, ‘Ian, no female of any age is safe in our community.’ That is a very, very strong statement about something I abhor. I said to the lady: ‘Look, you don’t have to put up with that. The law doesn’t allow that.’ And she asked: ‘What do we do? If we report these things it goes to court, the judges give a tap on the wrist or three months in jail and the perpetrators come back and bash the hell out of us.’ The women were scared. They do not report these things because that is what is going on.

I reported this to Senator Herron—and obviously this was the start of the changes that are taking place at the present time—but the federal government has no jurisdiction over states; only in the territories can the federal government have some say in what is going on in these communities. Absolutely no-one would approve of what was said to me—and I do not think they should. I could give you more, and more terrible, stories of what is going on. People, and sometimes they are the leaders of the community, are perpetrating crimes but nothing is being done.

One of the problems is that the deaths in custody inquiry has stifled our courts. We have laws that can stop this but the courts are reluctant to put people—Aboriginal people in particular—in jail because the deaths in custody inquiry showed that Aboriginal people have a propensity to hang themselves in jail. This is causing problems within the community. We are not getting results. The women in the communities say to me, ‘The law does not protect us.’

I listened to the member for Lingiari and I never heard once in his speech any recognition of the problem. I am not saying that the problem exists entirely in the Aboriginal community—it does not—but the problem occurs more in the Aboriginal community than in the wider community. The New South Wales government have had reports including Breaking the silence: creating the future. The New South Wales government have the same reports that I am referring to and the same reports that the member for Gwydir would have referred to, about Toomelah and other areas. The reports have done very little. The report to the parliament was that the New South Wales government were going to deal with it through their traditional agencies, but I know, through my discussions with the Aboriginal people in New South Wales, that they do not see any results coming from the traditional agencies. They do not see results for the problems that are occurring in these communities. I do not think that the white society would approve of what is going on; I am sure we would not. I am sure that if the people out there, including the church groups who are proclaiming that this is an injustice, knew exactly what was going on in the communities they would not approve of it either. I am absolutely certain they would not approve of it but they do not realise what is going on.

One of the people I know in my community is probably a leader in the Aboriginal community. He actually married a Caucasian girl, and they are quite happy, but certain groups within that community waited until he was away and raped her. I put to you: are we in this parliament prepared to accept that? I am sure it is not acceptable. What are we going to do about it? Are we going to sit here, as we have done for decades, and do nothing or are we going to try to do something about this?

I am not pretending that this is easy; it is not. I am not pretending that Aboriginal people have not been dispossessed; they have been. I am not pretending that Europeans have not interfered in their culture; they have. But we are in Australia today and there is no going back to the nomadic life that the Aboriginals led in the past. These are Australians who have the same rights as every other Australian, and they should be protected like every other Australian. This parliament has a responsibility—as other parliaments have a responsibility—to protect these people. I think we have let these Aboriginal communities down in a very big way.

As I said, there is not a simple answer. I believe the great disadvantage in the Aboriginal community starts with education. I know that successive governments have tried very hard to get Aboriginal children an education. It is difficult because they have a different culture. I think we have to work even harder with the parents to try to instil in them the need for an education. We all know that it does not matter where you come from in this society in Australia—it does not matter whether you are Caucasian, Aboriginal or from another nationality—an education is the very basis of life. If you get an education and you can get employment then you can overcome some of the problems that we see in these communities.

Where do the problems come from? The problems come from the fact that these people are not employed. They are not employed because they do not have the education or the skills to get employment. Some do, but a vast majority of them do not. I do not care whether you are black, white, Chinese, Vietnamese or whatever, if you have plenty of time on your hands and you are not working then you will get yourself into trouble. That is where the alcohol abuse comes in. Once alcohol comes into it, then there is assault and rape. That is the real problem in these areas, so we have to start at the base and ask: how are we going to overcome these problems? I see the member for Kennedy is in the chamber. He was a minister for northern development and Aboriginal affairs in the Queensland government, and I would be interested to hear what he has to say.

But the fact is that you have to start right there: with education. We heard the member for Kingsford Smith mouthing words about disadvantage and health et cetera. Well, it is the same thing. These people do not have the education; they are not getting good food. So the health problems start there—because they are not getting decent food. And from there on—again, it does not matter whether you are in the Caucasian society or the Aboriginal society—the same things will happen.

There is a lady in my electorate who is very well educated in this area. Dr Judy Atkinson is an Aboriginal woman, and I take my hat off to her. She said to me: ‘I woke up one morning under a tree in the Kimberley, after being bashed by my husband, and said: “Life’s got to be better than this. I am going to get an education.”‘ So she went and got an education and she is now a professor at Southern Cross University in Lismore, northern New South Wales. She is doing something that I believe can help in this regard, because we can have the federal government intervention, we can have the money—we can have all these things—but the core of it is that you have to get some results at the end of the day. Professor Judy Atkinson goes into communities and gets the confidence of the community. She picks out people she believes to be leaders in the community and works with those leaders in the community to change the results. She tries to get through to them that things have to change within the community—that they cannot have these assaults and rapes and that there must be an education. She works with the people in the community to get that result, and she has runs on the board as far as those results are concerned. At present she runs a course at the university and is getting graduates from the university. Those graduates will go out and work in the community. It is a process that has to be helped, because obviously there are not enough graduates at present.

At the core of this is the fact that you must start there: in the communities, at the grassroots. You cannot impose these things on the community; you have to get them to understand the right thing to do within the community and get the community to accept that. That is the long-term goal. It is a hard one to win; it is not going to be easy. But you cannot sit back and accept that this can continue. I think that most Australians cannot accept this. Most Australians believe that Aboriginals in this country have the same rights as other Australians. They are Australians like everyone else and they have the same rights. I believe that over the years governments of both persuasions have tried very hard to give them opportunities but, to this stage, we have failed. I am not going to sit back and accept that women in Aboriginal communities can accept this abuse. As I think the Prime Minister said when the minister first saw this, if this were happening in Canberra there would be a hue and cry that you would never be able to put out. That is true. But do not kid yourself that this is happening just in the Northern Territory. This is right across Australia, and state governments are failing in their responsibility to deal with it. It is not easy, I know, but they are failing to deal with it and we must take responsibility. We have to take responsibility for the good of the children and the women, because they are the people who are being abysmally abused.

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