Bob Katter (Kennedy, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, excessive bureaucracy. I thank my honourable colleague from the great city of Bundaberg. It is because of excessive bureaucracy and the cost of it. I ask, Mr Clare, if you could please take note of this. There will be a huge bureaucratic absorption of that money. The communication breakdown between the government handing out that money and the people who are disabled receiving that money is already in many people's opinions—not just Wayne Maitland's—a huge problem now. They are simply not getting the message through on where that assistance needs to go.

Many people have heard me say many times in this place that the amount of money going into first Australian affairs, Aboriginal affairs, in this country is excessive—and I speak with extreme authority because I was a minister in this area for the best part of a decade, and I did so well that I do not hesitate to say that there are still two books on the reading list at the university which are highly laudatory of the things we did in those years. I took all the credit for it. I do not think there was a single thing I did that I deserve credit for—it was the first Australian people themselves that were involved in every initiative—but I was perspicacious enough to realise that the people I had to listen to were the people with black faces that lived in the community areas and in the towns and cities of Australia. That is all I was interested in listening to. I was not listening to the bureaucrats and the do-gooders and all the people who man these mechanisms that absorb the money. Wilson Tuckey and Ian Causley said in this place again and again that the money should be put in a box with a chain around it and it should be sent to Doomadgee or Yirrkala or wherever. At least that way the people who need that money will get it. Whether they misspend it or not, at least it will be misspent by black people instead of white people in Australia. But the vast bulk of that money goes into white pockets.

I plead with the minister to take into account that this money needs to go to the person who has been born with a disability or has lost a limb through injury in their lifetime. The money should go to them and not be absorbed by the in-between people. A lot of them are well-meaning people, but that is not the way that it ends up. As minister I really came to loathe and detest the do-gooder class, even though there were some very good people amongst them.

Finally, Wayne said the government are listening to the big service providers, where there is huge money involved. They are not listening to the little local groups that are close to the people with disabilities. I asked him to give me examples. He immediately mentioned St John's, who are his contact point, and Blue Care. So we would plead with the government to ensure that, unlike in the field of first Australian affairs, the money actually goes to the people it is supposed to go to and not to do-gooders dreaming up new and ever more sophisticated methods of service delivery. (Time expired)

(Quorum formed)

Debate adjourned.

Leave granted for second reading debate to resume at a later hour this day.

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