Laurie Ferguson (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I have—the Institute of Criminology. Anyway, you are going to speak next. Ten to 17 year-old Aboriginals are 24 times more likely to be incarcerated. They are three per cent of the Australian population and yet 13 per cent of homicide deaths and 11 per cent of homicide offenders are Aboriginal. They are the latest criminal statistics. Despite the prevalence of involvement in homicide, despite the over-representation in incarceration, despite deaths in custody, and despite objections otherwise, we have a situation where amongst the decisions made in the last budget was the one to strenuously cut legal aid. These people do need representation. We do not want a system like in the United States, where people are jailed simply because they have inept or no legal representation. You cannot tell me that a significant number of people in that situation do not go there for that reason.

So we have a situation where, after these federal reductions, the Barnett government at the moment is cutting $30 million to $60 million from health services. Because of those decisions last year, and the agreement to turn this issue back to the states, we have a situation where these remote settlements are now threatened. Perhaps it is a lifestyle that many of us would not want to live in a million years. Perhaps there are some people who could benefit from it. We have a situation here where land is important to these people. If the previous speaker feels quite emotional about it, I can also testify to it. My wife is Indigenous and I feel a great involvement in these affairs locally. I have a very strong commitment. It is not good enough to say that there is waste and an ineffective trickle-down effect here. The situation is that if these schemes are so dreadful and so unjustified, I would have liked to have heard individual defences last year as to why these particular measures had to be reduced. There might be other measures that I have not quoted from the budget that there might be more reason for.

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