Jamie Briggs (Mayo, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I do not think there is a more important topic that faces this parliament than closing the gap between Indigenous Australia and the rest of Australia. It is a shameful matter that there is such a large gap, particularly when it comes to protecting kids in this cohort of our community. I am reminded of my experience of 2007, when in a former existence I was working for the then Prime Minister on the Northern Territory government report—which, shamefully, they sat on for two months; it was released in late June—which led to the Northern Territory intervention. That report, which recounted stories and showed what was going on in the backblocks of our country, revealed an utter disgrace and led to what I think was a breakthrough policy and a breakthrough moment in our country’s history. We recognised that we had not done enough, that we had allowed a situation to develop that was appalling beyond belief, particularly when there were stories of kids under five being sexually assaulted on a regular basis out in these communities. They were stories that for too long had been ignored by too many.

For too long we have focused on a generational debate about what was said or done generations ago—things that we cannot change now; we never could—rather than trying to genuinely improve outcomes, particularly for the next generations. The work we need to focus on is getting to the next generations of Indigenous kids so they can help themselves get out of situations in regional Australia, hidden away from mainstream people, that are unacceptable in the extreme. This is the problem I have with what the current government is doing. Most of the work is well intentioned, and the report to parliament every 12 months—as the Leader of the Opposition described it, a state of the union style report—on outcomes in Indigenous communities is a valuable thing and something to be welcomed, as is the commitment of the Prime Minister and his government to focus on these issues.

What worries me is that at the heart of the government’s approach is government—government programs being there to fix all the problems—whereas, if we look back over the generational mistakes that we have made, they have always been that government has been too involved. One of the reasons that we have such significant issues in these communities is that for too long there has been, as Noel Pearson identifies, the corrosive combination of generational unemployment and welfare dependency. People have come to expect that the government will hand them money and houses—the means to live their lives. There has not been the incentive for them to take their lives in their own hands and try and do their best, as there has been in mainstream Australia. That has led to some of the circumstances hidden in regional Australia, which for too long we did not acknowledge and we did nothing about.

The first, and I think most important, issue that was addressed in the Northern Territory intervention was law and order. Without it, you cannot possibly improve educational outcomes for early childhood, which is vital. I agree with the comments of the member for Dobell in that respect. It is absolutely vital that we get these kids into education early—that is, into good, solid education that retains them at school. We need to not just have their names ticked off the roll every day but to make sure they are actually getting an education. You cannot educate a child who is being abused at home. There is no possible way that a child is going to take anything in when they will be going home to a situation where they are not safe, where they are being abused by those closest to them—and they might be suffering from substance abuse. That is a generational problem. In some communities the exploitation of children has become acceptable; it should never be acceptable. The 2007 report that spurred the Northern Territory intervention highlighted just how disastrous the situation was and how we had failed the kids for too long.

We must first get the law and order situation right. We must ensure that women and children are safe in their own homes. I am reminded of a committee trip I was part of in late 2008 to Wilcannia, which is a well-known town with a largely Indigenous population. Wilcannia has for many years had trouble with law and order and problems with health outcomes, educational outcomes and long-term, generational unemployment: the very same problems that beset Indigenous communities right across the country. I grew up in Mildura, which is about four hours south of Wilcannia by road, and I remember that it was always the story that Wilcannia was a dangerous place to travel to because of the law and order situation.

When the committee visited Wilcannia, we met with some of the local Indigenous people who were working very hard to resolve these situations. One was a health worker, a nurse, from Broken Hill, who was doing a tremendous job travelling up to Wilcannia and the surrounding settlements as well as working in Broken Hill itself. There was also a young guy who was formerly part of a dance troupe—whose name I forget—which performed for some time in the 1990s. He had a genuine interest in improving the lives of the kids and had set up a community drop-in centre. He was working very hard on the problems that challenged those areas—one being access to fresh food at reasonable prices, which of course is one of the major challenges out in these communities and which, I think, there are still some genuine problems with. The nurse pulled me aside at one point after a discussion and we talked about the 2007 intervention. She pleaded with us to keep the intervention going, saying that it was protecting the women and children and that, while they would always be reluctant to talk—because of fear of retribution and so forth—for too long women and children in her community had been in fear of going home. It is an absolute and utter disgrace that in our country women and children are fearful of returning home. Home is supposed to be a sanctuary, a place where you are meant to be safe.

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This is where we must focus, and I urge the government not to lose sight of the importance of maintaining law and order in these communities, because that is the very first step, the first building block, to ensuring that we close the gap. All the well-intentioned promises and direction of the government and the Prime Minister on this issue will be undone if we lose focus on ensuring that people are safe. If they are safe then we can start to address the health, housing and educational challenges and the opportunities to improve the lives of the next generation. This is a 20-year challenge that this parliament must maintain its intention to fix. In that respect, the yearly report is a great idea and one that is supported by both sides of parliament. I note the Leader of the Opposition’s address in response to the Prime Minister’s statement. He very clearly articulated that he thinks this is a worthwhile move and something he intends to do each year from the time he becomes Prime Minister later this year.

It is important at this time to reflect on the outcomes we are achieving. I agree with the member for Dobell that it is early to be looking at the results. Many of the results have been affected by improvements in data collection. They are important improvements, there is no doubt about that, but we make a mistake in starting to pat ourselves on the back too early when clearly some of the improvements are simply due to the improved collection of data in the early stages of this project.

I stand committed, as someone who wishes to be here for some time, to maintaining an interest in and focus on making sure we as a country get this right. I think it is a great shame that we ever allowed ourselves to get to a situation where women and children in communities were not safe, were not protected in their homes and had nowhere to turn, nowhere to go. We cannot allow that in our civilised society. We are the best country in the world. This is a black spot we need to fix. It will take us 20 years, if not longer. I commend the government for focusing on it and I hope that we continue to do so going forward.

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