Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Housing and Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

The government’s treatment of Indigenous Australians in remote areas of this country with respect to housing is the first marker of what the rest of our nation can expect from the Rudd Labor government. Our first Australians, I am sad to say, have truly become the first victims of the government’s cynical approach to government in this country—of rhetoric over reality—and their incompetent failure to deliver what they promise. The Strategic Indigenous Housing and Infrastructure Program is a national disgrace of which this government should be ashamed but, instead, refuses to accept responsibility.

In September 2007, the previous government signed an MOU with the Northern Territory government as part of the much acclaimed Northern Territory intervention. The delivery of housing was a central component of our promise to Indigenous Australians as part of this unprecedented and highly effective initiative. On 12 April 2008, the Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs affirmed this agreement and promised $647 million to build 750 houses. That included $547 million of federal taxpayers borrowed money—the government were the senior equity partner. Work was to commence by October 2008 but this date, like many, would come and go. During the period between October and December 2008, $25 million further was allocated to the program’s budget.

A new date, of February 2009, was established and that too passed—however, not without the Prime Minister coming into this place and, once again, making promises that he has clearly been unable to deliver. July came and went, and in this House just a few weeks ago I asked why, after 18 months, not one house had been built under this program. Of even greater significance was the fact that, despite not one house having been built under this program after 18 months, they had managed to achieve one thing—and that was to spend $45 million of taxpayers’ money without building a house.

This is a terribly difficult area. The government’s response has been to say, ‘At least we promised more,’ but they fail to see that promises matter little to the Australian people if they are not translated into promises delivered on the ground. In this case it is houses for Indigenous Australians in remote areas. This is a difficult area. Of all issues it is most unwise to raise expectations among Indigenous people in this country. There are many, many difficulties, of which I am sure the minister is aware; but maybe she is not. The government either were unaware of these complications when they announced this program or simply unwise in making these promises—in writing cheques that they could not cash in the form of new housing for Indigenous Australians living in remote areas.

But there were many warnings. In April, the minister’s own parliamentary secretary, Senator Ursula Stephens, issued a warning that has remained secret for a year—a secret memo. Senator Stephens warned the minister that the program had fundamental problems. Alarmingly, the memo said

No houses will be built under this program until 2011—

three years after the intended start date—

and it is unlikely to meet its 20 per cent target for Indigenous employment.

This memo was written in April 2008, not long after the program was announced. The memo also said that lawyers at the gathering suggested that tendering processes were anticompetitive and could be a breach of the Trade Practices Act. Not even the construction industry, who stood to gain from the project, thought it was a good idea. Representatives of the industry were said to be flabbergasted by the approach and likened it to a shoddy defence procurements model. Most extraordinary of all, this was a report by one of the Rudd government’s own senators.

I note that the senator who wrote the memo has been moved on to other duties. Then there was Jim Davidson, who was employed by the managers of the program, Parsons Brinckerhoff. Jim exposed the fact that 750 houses would not be built at the cost provided by the government but that only 300 houses would result. He also warned that 70 per cent of the program funds would go on indirect costs, such as travel costs, administration and consultant fees. Jim went the same way as the senator; he had his contract terminated one month ago. Then there are the consultants themselves: Kerry Gearman and Bronwen King, who were appointed by the Northern Territory government to undertake some work. In the Australian on 19 August we hear about what they got up to. The article said that, following the dumping of Mr Davidson:

… two former public officials spoke of their despair at the massive bureaucratic wastage and incompetent management of remote housing they observed during their employment with the Territory government.

Tasmanian couple Kerry Gearman and Bronwen King were employed as remote audit building managers by the Department of Planning and Infrastructure, and later were seconded to work with the body in charge of public housing in the Northern Territory. The couple, who were paid a salary of $71,000 each, told The Australian they spent five months, along with five other managers, doing “absolutely nothing” during their employment with the NT government.

“They paid us wages for months to basically do nothing, because there wasn’t anything for us to do,” Mr Gearman said. “We were told to do a bit of research, go and introduce ourselves to people, but essentially we were given nothing to do.”

This couple also left the scene, but this time of their own volition. They also said, it was reported, that there were ‘many examples of bureaucratic wastage and inefficiency in the Northern Territory government’s program’. The article continued:

In one instance, seven remote audit building managers employed by the NT government were each given new Toyota Hilux utes, worth more than $50,000 each, to be used twice a year for trips to remote central Australian communities.

The couple said:

“When we left, the cars were sitting out in a carpark—

and forgive me for the following language, Mr Deputy Speaker, but I am quoting the consultant here—

collecting bird shit and leaves,” Ms King said. “From the time I got the car in March until I left, the vehicle had only done about 36km.”

As I said, Kerry and Bronwen quit. Then there was Alison Anderson, the Labor minister responsible for the program in the Northern Territory. To her great credit, she was sick and tired of warning this government and said enough was enough. She resigned in absolute disgust. She was prepared to tell the truth and refused to sign up to Labor’s efforts to spin this problem away. In the Northern Territory News on 15 August she said this:

“Labor lives on the Aboriginal vote, it talks constantly about Aboriginal people, but what it is really good at is spending Aboriginal money,” she said.

The article continued:

After being promoted to cabinet following last year’s election, Ms Anderson (pictured) said she had spent 12 months in the inner sanctum—

I do not envy her—

“watching, listening, learning”.

“There is money being spent, always money, rivers of money—but it never seems to reach the people on the ground.”

She resigned and she walked away from Labor’s machine of spin that was seeking to cover this up and say that all was well.

Early last month, in contributing to this debate, Professor Marcia Langton hit the nail on the head when she said, talking about this program, that the Northern Territory was a ‘failed state’ run by a ‘rotten government’ obsessed with looking after its political mates and doctoring its own image. If I had not known that she was talking about the Northern Territory government—had she not mentioned that—then I think it would be reasonable, for all in this place, to ask the question: which Labor government in this country was she referring to? Because they all pretty much relate to that description: they are obsessed with looking after their political mates and doctoring their own images—each a failed state run by a rotten government.

But what of the federal government’s response to this? They are the senior equity partner here. They are not some passive partner in this project; there are hundreds of millions of dollars at stake in this program which has been put up by the federal taxpayer and for which they are accountable. They are the custodians of $572 million of federal taxpayers’ borrowed money which is at risk in this program. The response of the Labor senator for the Northern Territory was:

“The SIHIP team are doing an incredibly good job,” …

That was the response of the government senator for the Northern Territory in relation to what I have just exposed here and spoken about in this place today. She said, ‘I think they’re doing a great job.’ They are doing a great job when they go out there and buy Hiluxes and let them go out for a little drive, when they pay people $71,000 to do nothing or have 70 per cent of fees just go in waste and mismanagement—this is apparently a ‘great job’. It is a bit like she was saying: ‘There’s nothing to see here. You don’t have to look.’ It reminded me a bit of Richo the other night talking about tape recordings in New South Wales—it was a case of: ‘There’s nothing to see here. We don’t need to look here. You can look somewhere else.’ And that is what Senator Crossin was doing in relation to her assessment of the scheme.

But what of the minister who sits opposite me here today, the Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs? I refer to the subsequent articles that appeared in the Australian again which reported on her response to all of this. Remember that we are now in September and this program was announced in April. Deadlines have passed on numerous occasions and still, after all of this time, not one house has been built in this program. I will again refer to what former minister Alison Anderson was reported as saying in this article. She said:

“I warned her that she had to watch her money and it’s obvious she didn’t,” …

“I think she’s been warned and she didn’t keep an eye on her money and for her to say, ‘I’ll keep a close eye on it now’ just isn’t good enough.”

The article goes on to say:

Ms Macklin yesterday warned—

here it was: a stern warning, all this time later—

the NT government that if it did not improve its performance—

well, that would not be hard given where it is now—

in the management of SIHIP Canberra would take over the project. Ms Macklin moved to embed commonwealth officials within SIHIP teams …

So they have sent the bureaucrats up there and it is all going to be well—the bureaucracy is going to cure the bureaucracy in the Northern Territory; that is the mission that they have been sent up to do. So, rather than taking responsibility for this and going and fixing this thing, she has sent an envoy from the bureaucracy to go and embed themselves in the Northern Territory bureaucracy. This is the answer.

So basically what the minister has said here is: ‘I’m going to warn you strongly. And if you do this again, you know what might happen? I could well warn you again. In fact I may even write a very stern letter to the Northern Territory government.’ So they had better watch out up there in the Northern Territory because the minister is on the charge—she is embedding officials and she could very well warn them again if they do not move forward and actually do something in sorting out this program, which has been an absolute disgrace and an absolute tragedy in terms of what is happening.

One of the points I would make on this is that what the government is trying to do here is what it has instructed its backbenchers to do in relation to programs when things go wrong. When things go wrong, whether it is the ‘Julia Gillard school halls program’ or whether it is this program, whose fault is it? Is it the fault of those who sit on these benches here in front of us? Is it their fault? Is it about their accountability and is it their responsibility? No, we are going to blame the states and we are going to blame the territories—that is their job. But I thought we were going to end the blame game after the last election. Apparently we were going to end the blame game. But, no, the instruction, the message they have sent their cyborgs to run out to the doorstop interviews with every morning—they go out there and repeat the lines—is: ‘No, don’t look at us. We just spend the money. We just borrow the money, spend the money and hand the money over. We are actually accountable for the money, but don’t look at us when all of this goes wrong.’

Perhaps the government is going to accuse us of nitpicking—maybe we are nitpicking with a $570 million program. When it comes to this program and all the other programs we have pursued in this place, where we have highlighted example after example after example of waste, mismanagement and reckless spending which is going to drive up interest rates, there are plenty of nits to pick with this government. They are over every single program they have got their hands on—because their spending is completely and utterly out of control. I would say about this program: the intention of getting Indigenous Australians into quality housing is an admirable one—so admirable that we supported this funding. That is why we are so annoyed about the failure to deliver. We want to see these homes built and we want to see the conditions of Indigenous Australians improved in this country. We are more than sorry that this has happened because we want to see these things actually translated to action on the ground.

One of the most upsetting things I have seen with this program is that it has meant Indigenous Australians losing faith in the Northern Territory intervention. This was a promise that sat at the heart of this intervention that enabled us to move forward and make sure the children were getting fed, getting looked after and getting health checks. The faith of Indigenous Australians in this program has now been shattered by the absolute incompetence of this government to follow through on its core promise. For that, probably more than anything else, the government should hang their heads in shame. They have absolutely trashed the intervention through their incompetence and failure to deliver this program. (Time expired)

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