John Forrest (Mallee, National Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Trade) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Sydney for that question. Yes, I have. I remember at the election of the coalition into government in 1996 I was nominated as Chair of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Family and Community Affairs. At that time the former government had been conducting an inquiry into Aboriginal health and we as a new government wanted to continue that inquiry. In fact, it continued over another term of government, because it was like a work in progress. I was deeply struck by those visits to those remote communities.

I can remember the member for Scullin and I—I think at that stage he may have been deputy chair—were in a remote Aboriginal community in northern South Australia. We had our accommodation organised and early in the morning I went for a walk and I found the member for Scullin, who is now the Speaker of this great debating chamber. We were both deeply moved by what we were seeing and we made a determined effort to do what we could to progress the issues, like health issues that are eminently preventable, based on very simple concepts of hygiene, emotional status and so forth.

Mr Deputy Speaker, I have managed to pad out the time. The relevant member to speak is now present in the chamber.

See this speech in context