Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I am unaware of the remarks that the Deputy Leader of the Opposition has referred to. Can I say this about child abuse: wherever it occurs, whether it is in Indigenous communities or non-Indigenous communities, I think all of us in this place are united around one basic precept and it is called zero tolerance. Any kid anywhere, whether they are in an Indigenous or a non-Indigenous community, should be fully protected. When it comes to Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory, the reason we on this side of the House, amidst a whole lot of controversy at the end of last year, supported the Northern Territory intervention was the findings of the report Little children are sacred. As I said at that dispatch box on the day that the Prime Minister at the time announced the government’s intended intervention, my response was entirely shaped by the extraordinary findings within that report about the incidence of child abuse. That drove our support for the Northern Territory intervention. That drives our continued support for that intervention. It drives our determination to review the outcome of that intervention by the 12-month point.

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