Jim Turnour (Leichhardt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Kennedy. I know he is a passionate advocate for this area. I do understand the issues he is talking about. I talk to Minister Boyle regularly about this and I know she talks to Minister Macklin. This new land and infrastructure office has only just been established. They have effectively got up and going in the last month. I will be continuing to press that, Member for Kennedy; you do not have to worry about that. You have heard through my comments today the sort of vision that I have, which I think many of us share in terms of the longer term aspirations for Indigenous people.

The Attorney-General is here to wrap up in a minute, but I would like to thank him for the involvement and engagement he has had in my electorate and community. Last year he came up and met with the Cape York Land Council, which I greatly appreciated. He also met with Minister Wallace in Brisbane following on from that to see what we can do to get the federal and state governments to work more effectively together. I know that they really appreciated it in Kowanyama when he would go up and visit the local communities for the handback. I look forward to my constructive partnership with him. He made some very worthwhile comments in the introduction of this bill and I look forward to his comments in a minute in his closing remarks around the bill.

I just want to again emphasise that this is very much about ensuring that we can expedite the rollout of our commitment to social housing and other community infrastructure. We do understand that we need to balance the traditional owners’ rights and respect for them. The Attorney-General has put requirements into this legislation, and he can have influence in how those consultations are undertaken with traditional owners. There are specific time periods involved in that. There needs to be a consultation report that is produced as part of that.

In some ways this is going to create, and is creating, some angst in communities, with mayors and councils concerned about their roles into the future. My commitment is to work with the Attorney-General, Minister Macklin, Minister Boyle and the local governments and their CEOs as well as their broader communities to make sure we can roll out this investment in housing. It is $5.5 billion over 10 years. It is a significant investment. It is part of our commitment to closing the gap. Whether it is in housing, community infrastructure, health or education, the Rudd government is making record investments in these practical measures. Also, the first order of business when we came to Parliament House—and I was a very proud new member of the Rudd government—was to apologise to Indigenous Australians. We really are getting on with the job of implementing practical measures while we recognise and respect the needs of traditional owners and the wrongs that have been done in the past as we build a brighter future for Indigenous people. As I like to say in my electorate of Leichhardt, ‘What am I all about? Building a better future for Leichhardt.’ This legislation is very much about that. I commend the bill to the House.

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