Andrew Laming (Bowman, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Health Services and Indigenous Health) Share this | Hansard source

It is one thing to join hands in this chamber and support a motion reflecting on the 20th anniversary of the ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, but no opposition can stand by and allow us to debate in a very banal and anodyne way on elements of that UN convention without identifying the complete failure of successive governments to provide shelter and protection to Indigenous Australian children. I am glad the previous speaker, the member for Newcastle, made a passing reference to that important area.

Over the last three years we have seen a shift under the current administration, from inadequate effort to resolve Indigenous housing to inadequate Indigenous housing, with huge amounts of good money going after bad, while, in many cases, poorly run administrative programs have seen this government criticised—with which I absolutely agree. But I have even greater sympathy for the Indigenous children who do not receive housing because it is not being administered appropriately.

We all know the history: it was a Territory government responsibility to provide shelter to Indigenous children, and they relied quite often on federal top-ups. But it was in 2007 when the game-shift occurred and the emergency intervention saw around $547 million committed over four years to Indigenous housing.

That was meant to change things. It was meant to work towards providing Indigenous housing in those overcrowded communities where young children go to bed at night—let us not forget this—in crowded bedrooms, sleeping with extended family members or, sometimes, strangers, because of the lack of housing stock. And to gloss over that, in point (3) of this motion, by saying that, ‘on the whole children in Australia fare better than’ children overseas, is to completely miss the point that nothing has been achieved in these last two years. We hold up the SIHIP program as an example of that, where we had the promise, originally, of $547 million, increased by $456 million to $1.1 billion, but then we had all that money going down the drain into houses that are not being improved with value for money.

If we are concerned with, as we are in our debate on this motion today, the protection of children and the provision of adequate shelter, then we need go no further than the Bath report in the Northern Territory, which found that, for over 800 children, child abuse cases have not even been examined by the Northern Territory government. I do not care what their excuses are.

In reality, what have we had? We had the year 2008, were nothing occurred except consultation on colour schemes for homes, massive administration, and bureaucracy moving through. By February 2009, not a single house had been built. By mid-2009, just two homes had been built. That was completely inadequate. Then, when we started investigating what was happening with SIHIP, the truth was revealed: there was no chance that 750 new homes could be built; no chance that 230 derelict homes could be flattened and replaced; and no chance at all that, under those current budget allocations, 2,500 improvements could be made. When we all held our breath, hoping that there would be improvements for children living in these squalid and overcrowded conditions, what happened? We started getting what were called ‘functional upgrades’ where they checked the plumbing, the electrics and then walked away—sometimes collecting $75,000 per home. Constructing dwellings in Indigenous Australia for $875,000 apiece, in communities where there are up to 20 or sometimes 30 people sharing a home—this is inadequate.

I call for a minister who is prepared to go and sleep in those conditions and see what it is like firsthand. We need someone who will say, ‘$1.1 billion of wasted money is simply not good enough.’ We see money being dished out to contractors, as we see the alliance breaking apart. It is an appalling situation for children—appalling. It is one thing to be debating a fairly banal piece of private member’s business here, but quite another to stand by while the following things are happening. The improvements to homes have been little more than functional. We have seen a complete stalling in some communities. We have seen a huge bureaucratic overlay—$45 million spent even before the first house was constructed. And then we have seen examples like those in Ali Curung, where they paint around a hole in the wall, where they provide nothing more than a bench. This is not a jail—this is a home for Indigenous Australian children. What are we left with? We are left with massive gouging by a program that has failed to deliver for Indigenous Australian kids.

What we need is independent scrutiny—to step away from this current minister and the Northern Territory government—maybe through a judicial inquiry. But we cannot afford to look back on $1.1 billion in the rear-vision mirror and say, ‘Gee that could’ve been spent better,’ because there are thousands of kids out there who do not sleep or who, when they do sleep, are sleeping with strangers or extended family, listening to parties and seeing, as I have said, that dreadful combination of piss, petrol, potato chips and poker. They lead their lives unable to go to school, and unable to have a chance at employment or a healthy life because of the quality of their housing.

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