Mark Coulton (Parkes, National Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Water Resources and Conservation) Share this | Hansard source

It is not who is doing away with these programs now. I can tell you that the Gunnedah CDEP, Gunidah Gunyah Aboriginal Corporation, was formed by a great old gentleman called Dick Talbot. He brought his own lawnmower down and started organising jobs for young people mowing lawns around Gunnedah about 30 years ago. In the last two years it has found 140 jobs. I have letters in a stack that thick from local businesses decrying its demise. It undertakes mine restoration and looks after pensioners. It is one of the most highly regarded organisations in that community, and it has gone.

I have written to the Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, Ms Macklin, politely pointing out that this needs to be rethought. If you want to help the Aboriginal community, why not keep something that is working? Nindethana Aboriginal Corporation in Moree have 50 people that they have had to put off. If their young people do not turn up for work, someone goes and gets them out of bed. They mentor them one on one. It is an amazing program. They have contracts with the New South Wales RTA and the local council and yet they are going. I could understand it if this was an oversight by the minister, but there is no flexibility. On all these things that have come through from this government, government knows best. Do not let the local community decide what they want to do—government knows best! The level of unrest in regional Australia is high. I say in conclusion that the only thing that the people in my electorate got their fair share of out of this budget was the debt.

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