Alannah Mactiernan (Perth, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to comment on the contribution by the member for Riverina on the MPI. The biggest deceit that has been perpetrated on the people of rural Australia is that there is no climate change problem for us to deal with. Who are the people who are going to be most severely compromised by the failure of this government to address these key issues of climate change? It is going to be the farming community. You can tell a lovely story and make them feel happy that this is not something they have to take into account—'We don't have to deal with the problems in the Murray-Darling Basin. It's all going to be fantastic. We make everyone feel happy'—but one day you have to wake up and find out that there is no Santa Claus and you have missed the opportunity to deal with this very important issue.

I am just astounded by the hypocrisy of the other side. We had the Prime Minister last night addressing—

Mr Robert interjecting—

yeah, yeah, go on, go on—the Minerals Council and he was talking about the importance, the centrality, the economic sense of price signals. So you get a price signal when you are sick: do not go to the doctor too early. You get an economic price signal when you might need to have your prescription filled: do not have it filled too early. These are important price signals to tell people that they are not really as sick as they think they are. But the price signal that tells industry that polluting the environment with carbon, well that does not work. That is a completely different thing apparently. I do not understand that; I do not understand that logic. I would have thought that the alternatives available to industry to develop alternative strategies to minimise or reduce their carbon were far more profound than the opportunities that were available to someone who is sick, which is just going to the GP.

I want to talk about a couple of smaller issues, but issues that really profoundly concern me about the cuts. The first one I want to talk about is what is happening in the Kimberley and the Pilbara. As part of the northern Australia committee, recently we have been right across northern Australia. It is so evident to all of us, cross-party, that we need to deal with the profound dysfunction of so many of those Aboriginal communities. They really, really need detailed and urgent assistance to strengthen those communities. We have heard some wonderful stories and seen some wonderful successes. We understand that the work that women like June Oscar and Emily Parker are doing in Fitzroy Crossing in getting behind and developing alcohol bans and using that period of relief then to strengthen the community is so important.

And they have a family and learning centre. In fact there are Aboriginal child and health centres—there are four of them—in the Kimberley and the Pilbara. They are all getting their funding cut, all getting their funding removed.

See this speech in context