Damian Hale (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I acknowledge the member for putting this forward because this is a very serious matter of public importance—the building of the houses in Aboriginal communities. I have lived in the Northern Territory for 35 years and I have lived in the Aboriginal communities at Maningrida and Katherine, and they are dear to my heart.

The minister came in here today and acknowledged that there have been problems. The member for Warringah also acknowledged that both sides of politics have had time to get these things right and that we have failed Indigenous people in this country. I do not like the premise of bringing back the apology as a way of having a go at the government over housing, because the apology reset the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australia. Sure, it is about bridging the gap—on that day we did not close the gap, but we have got programs in place. We did not build a house, but we have got programs in place for that. The former Prime Minister refused to apologise to the Stolen Generations and to Indigenous Australia; our Prime Minister did.

That was the starting point; that was the point where we reset the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australia. Now it is about delivering and, as the minister said, there have been problems with this program. Is it good enough that there has been wastage in the administration? Of course it is not; nobody comes into this place and says that we should be spending more on the administration of the program. It is about getting houses on the ground. The minister touched on the secure tenure—that is very important. An unprecedented amount of taxpayers’ money is going into Indigenous communities: $720 million. If we are spending that money, we need to be accountable to the Australian people; we need to make sure that those land leases are sorted out so that there is accountability within the communities when it comes to looking after the houses and maintaining them.

I did not hear one single thing from the opposition with regard to how they would do something better in this program. We heard from the shadow minister that money had been taken out of Indigenous communities over the years of the Howard government—not put in; it had been taken out. When the need was at its greatest, instead of putting money in, they were taking money out of Indigenous communities. We heard that on 1 July 2008 that was the end of it; there was not going to be any more.

Their record does not look any better than the record of the government at the current time, but they are in denial. It was one of those things that they were going to do in their 13th year, like climate change. They were going to address climate change in their 13th year; they were going to address a lot of things in their 13th year, but they did not get the opportunity to address them. I am very happy that this has been put forward, because I can say on the public record that it comes down to one word, and that is ‘accountability’—and not only from the federal government. We have put the money up and it is up to the Northern Territory government to make sure that they deliver this program into the Aboriginal communities.

There is also a responsibility here for the people who are building in these communities to put an honest step of goodwill forward in training Indigenous people to get the benefits out of their training and the building of these houses. It comes down to that bit of goodwill across party lines at federal, state and territory levels, as well as from the builders. It then comes back onto the people within the communities themselves. They have got to have the pride in their community, which I know they do have. I have been to a lot of Aboriginal communities and I have had a lot to do with Indigenous people, and there is a lot of pride in their communities. They have had enough of listening to federal and state governments argue and bicker over Aboriginal issues for the last 100-odd years. It is time that we actually delivered on these programs.

As the minister said, the review has been done. There is strong evidence that it can work. The commissioner is working with the three alliances. That is very important. Things are starting to roll forward. The secure tenders have been at the forefront of this. I have spoken to the minister about the communities in my electorate. I have five. I look forward to continuing to engage with her as to when I can get houses built in my electorate as well. But we are not going to achieve anything if we continually blame across the chamber. There needs to be a bipartisan approach to making sure that this is delivered, and it has to be accountable across both the federal and the Territory government as well as the communities and the builders who are building the houses.

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