Mark Coulton (Parkes, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to speak on the Prime Minister's speech on Closing the Gap. I would like to say from the outset that the Parkes electorate, after the seat of Lingiari, has more Aboriginal people than any other electorate in Australia. According to the 2011 census, there are 21,891 Aboriginal people in my electorate. I take the responsibility of representing those people in this place very seriously. I also take it as a great honour to represent those people. But, unfortunately, an Aboriginal boy born today in the electorate of Parkes has a life expectancy 15 years less than a white boy born on the same day. The median age of Aboriginal people in my electorate is just 21. That indicates that the life expectancy is, indeed, very short of the other end of the scale.

I have been the member for Parkes for just over five years. Achieving things for Aboriginal people in my electorate has been my greatest challenge. I do not take any joy in the fact that, of the things I do as a member of parliament—things we can all achieve as members of parliament—I should be doing a lot better for Aboriginal communities. When representing Aboriginal people, it is all about personal contact. People ask me what the views are of my Aboriginal community, and I say, 'I haven't got an Aboriginal community; I've got a hundred Aboriginal communities.' Each of those communities is individual: each has its own thoughts, aspirations and problems. The nominated targets for Closing the Gap are very relevant to the people that I represent. This is not all about bad news. There are a lot of good things happening in my electorate. The Aboriginal Employment Strategy, which has been very successful, was spawned in the town of Moree.

When I go around my schools, I see that the student leaders and some of the younger people are doing remarkable things. There was a young lad I first met when he was as a student at Moree High School. Last year he was a member of the youth parliament, and he came to Canberra and he mixed it with the best. He now works for a department here in Canberra and is into a successful career in the Public Service.

But, as we talk about Closing the Gap, I think we need to do a lot better. There have been some government decisions made over the last five years that have been detrimental to some of my communities—for instance, the removal of the CDEP. While it was far from perfect, and while it was never intended to be permanent employment and in some cases ended up being such, it was at least something. When the CDEP was removed from the village of Toomelah, the overall situation in that community deteriorated quite a lot. Unfortunately, quite often, from Canberra, we do things with lines on maps. In 2008 Toomelah and Gunnedah—which was then in my electorate—Narrabri and Moree were no longer considered to be remote and so CDEP would be removed. Now that line has moved further west and the communities of Coonamble, Walgett and Lightening Ridge are going through the same pain. While in theory it may be fine, and these services will be replaced by other providers, it does not take into account the personal relationships that are involved in providing these services. In all these country towns, the personal relationships that you build over a period of time are particularly important.

The other thing is that, if we are going to do the best thing by our Aboriginal people, we must not accept lower standards than we would for the rest of the community. By accepting lower standards and glossing over the problems, and praising things that are less than adequate, we disrespect those people we are trying to protect.

Unemployment is a big issue and is at the core of a lot of the problems in my communities. But it is not that there is a lack of work—unfortunately, the nature of my communities, and the nature of employment with agriculture, is such that a lot of the work that Aboriginal people did has now changed. The real challenge is to give the younger people the skills required to take up those positions. It is a great disappointment to me that we have people from all over the world working during the wheat and cotton harvest, and in the foundries, the workshops and the mechanical shops in my electorate that could be done by local people—but that has to be addressed through education.

I would like to speak about another couple of issues. One of the programs I am working on at the moment is in relation to the coalition's Green Army policy, should there be a change of government at the next election. I would be very keen for a training program, particularly the Boggabilla-Toomelah area, into full-time work in skills of resource management—weed control, river bank stabilisation: outdoor manual work that would be appropriate and that these people would enjoy. On the Macquarie River trails there is a great program, RiverSmart, looking at highlighting the benefits of the river, basically to help ensure the health of the river but also to promote it for tourism. It is a wonderful opportunity for Aboriginal employment, not only in constructing walkways and things like that, but also in guiding and tourism type work. That is something that I certainly hope we can get off the ground.

Another shining light in my electorate is the Currawah Adventist Aboriginal College. The Seventh Day Adventist Church have constructed a boarding school at the village of Gongolgon which is about 100 kilometres south of Brewarrina on the Bogan River. I went to the opening of the school and I was very, very impressed with what the Seventh Day Adventist Church are trying to achieve. They are drawing children, mainly from disadvantaged families and dysfunctional homes, from right across eastern Australia and the children are going to the school in the middle of, basically, nowhere. Those school children went to Canberra last year. They were well presented, enthusiastic and keen to learn about our parliament. They were as good as any school that I have escorted around this building. They were a real credit to the teachers and staff at the Currawah Adventist Aboriginal College, and those boys and girls were also a credit to themselves. That college is in danger of closing. They were hoping for some sort of financial assistance, maybe through Aboriginal Hostels Limited, particularly from the government to keep going. They will be in Parliament House tomorrow or the day after for some meetings to try and obtain funding assistance to keep the school open. That is real benefit and real achievement and is making a difference in these young people's lives.

I would like to close by speaking about the Clontarf Foundation. I have just come from a function where the Governor-General was the special guest as the Patron of the Clontarf Foundation. Of all the programs I have seen since I have been an member of parliament in any sphere I have never seen a program that has been more successful in obtaining the outcomes that they desire than the Clontarf Foundation. The foundation have four academies in my electorate that have been open for less than 12 months. Last Tuesday morning I had the privilege of attending the Clontarf Academy in Moree. I went on the bus with the tutors and we picked up the kids from their homes. The sun was not up—it was pitch black—but the kids were ready to go. We had an hour of training in rugby league. It started off in Perth with Aussie Rules but it has been adapted in New South Wales to Rugby League.

Twelve months ago many of the boys were not attending school. One boy had missed a whole year of school. They were now enthusiastic and were attending school. They were polite and respectful and they had a real purpose in their lives. As a member of parliament very rarely do you actually get to see a program that works like that. There are many places where the Clontarf Foundation could roll out. At the moment, I think, there are 9,000 boys in the academies across Australia. The foundation have identified double that number that could benefit from the academy. I would recommend all members in this place to look at the work of the Clontarf Foundation. There is a great potential to help the boys in Dubbo, Wellington, Nyngan, Cobar, Lake Cargelligo, Condobolin, Narrabri, Walgett and any other number of possibilities. Tonight we heard from a man, Geoffrey, who is 28 and who started with the academy as a teenager. He was a wayward Aboriginal boy and is now fully employed as a boilermaker working in a mine. He has a partner and two children. The Clontarf Foundation have helped him all along the way and now he is being a real father to his son and daughter. He spoke tonight—and it is as good a speech as I have ever heard in this place—about his lifelong journey from an errant boy who was not attending school to a proud father with full-time employment raising two children in Western Australia, if anyone wants an endorsement of what this can do.

The apology given by Kevin Rudd in 2008 is still very special to the Aboriginal people in my electorate. They talk about it still. That was a milestone. But we really need to embrace programs that work. We need to accept no less a standard for our Aboriginal brothers and sisters than we do for ourselves, and we need to put our energy, our emotion and our commitment into genuinely closing the gap so that by the time these children are adults the Aboriginal community and the Australian community are one, in every aspect of their lives.

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