Gary Gray (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Resources) Share this | Hansard source

In the East Kimberley, Aboriginal leaders are stepping up to drive a change in direction. They are led by Ian Trust of the Wunan Foundation, Lawford Benning and Ted Hall of the Gelganyem corporation and Des Hill of the Miriuwung Gajjerong Corporation. They are saying that, for the future, a business-as-usual approach is not an option for their people. The leaders' objectives are supported by the local Shire of Wyndham East Kimberley and John Moulden, the mayor of that shire. This has led to the establishment of a complementary trial that will control some of the local flow of alcohol in the Kununurra community. The WA state government has established a complementary effort, led by key ministers of the WA government, to discuss how Aboriginal families, children and individuals can have the best opportunity for success. In this, Minister Helen Morton has been extremely supportive in providing both departmental support but also her own personal oversight.

I have been in the Kimberley recently and spoken to most of the key players in leadership roles. I attended the East Kimberley Aboriginal Achievement Awards, where almost 400 people came together in what is now a regular celebration, every second year, of local Aboriginal achievement. The message from that leadership group was clear. The objectives of Aboriginal leaders are clear. The challenges they face are pervasive and require us to try new mechanisms. Successive state and Commonwealth governments have invested heavily for over a decade in a comprehensive framework of fundamental infrastructure supporting the community of the East Kimberley. That investment has been made across the political divide. It has been made by the former state Labor government, the current coalition government in Western Australia, the current federal government and the former federal government. In a bold future vision for the East Kimberley, significant social investment and hard infrastructure investment has taken place. That investment will only yield dividends when we can collectively stop the damaging behaviour that is linked to alcohol, gambling and drugs.

Achieving the vision that is so strongly embraced in the local area means we must recognise the needs and respond to the leadership by supporting local capability that will allow growth and development to be embedded in a fully functioning community of the East Kimberley. The Prime Minister and Parliamentary Secretary Alan Tudge have recently been in the East Kimberley, and they have seen and heard what I have seen and heard. They have seen and they have heard what the former Prime Minister saw and heard, and they have taken action. This parliament should congratulate them for taking their action. There is a strengthening and growing appreciation of the radical changes that are needed to accommodate the East Kimberley vision and provide a leg-up to families and individuals who face the pressures of alcohol, drugs and gambling. Labor knows that communities want this.

I spoke recently to the Wunan organisation and heard about Ian Trust's 'swimming the river'—a metaphor that he uses for explaining survival in the Kimberley. Ian has strongly supported this action. But part of this action must include additional supports, not just the debit card. This parliament will stand with communities to make sure that they get the support that they need and that the government systematically delivers what is needed to make this initiative work. To make sure that negotiation with the communities can continue, Labor will not oppose the bill in this House. We will work with those communities and we will work with the government to ensure that we can get this initiative through and give it the best possible chance that it can have to succeed.

Last weekend, while in the Kimberley, I was pleased to meet with Grahame Searle, who has been appointed to lead the regional reform initiative from the government of Western Australia. He is a former Department of Housing Director General, and he left his position in Perth to head to Kununurra in order to head up the reform initiative, supporting the state government's significant investments in the area.

Jenny Goolagong has also provided her presence in the area, supporting the Commonwealth's response, which has led to these very significant reforms through the debit card. In addition to that, the state government has put in place a framework for strategic regional advisory councils in the Kimberly and also in the Pilbara. Minister Helen Morton has asked Patrick Davies, Brenda Garstone, Mary O'Reeri and Martin Sibosado to join the Kimberly council to support the state government's reform initiatives.

So we see very significant initiatives supported by the local shire to control alcohol flow in the community. We see very significant measures being engaged by the state government to support a different way of life in the East Kimberley. We see hundreds of millions of dollars of hard and soft infrastructure investment going into the community, supported by the Rudd government, the Gillard government and the Abbott government, and I am sure it will be supported into the future by the current Turnbull government. And we see the continued support from the governments of Alan Carpenter and then Colin Barnett to support this community through a very difficult transition—to support it not just with spending on infrastructure but also with outstanding public servants, who commit their lives to making the lives of the people of the East Kimberley even better and to allowing a situation to grow whereby the next generation of the East Kimberly's youth have a better opportunity for education and healthier lives as a consequence of controlling and limiting the influence of alcohol in this community.

While I was at the Indigenous achievement awards two weeks ago, the fourth time I have attended these awards, I was struck by the quality of the Aboriginal people who are stepping up in their community to provide leadership in a range of functions. We are seeing the Aboriginal community of Wyndham, East Kimberly, stepping up in areas like sport, education and local business; in providing training, arts and culture; and in supporting family and community life. We should listen to what they say, and what they are saying to us when they step up is that they want to give this debit card a try. They want to make it work in the interests of their community, and mostly they want to give it a go in the interests of their children and in the interests of the future of their community. I commend this bill the House.

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