Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for External Territories) Share this | Hansard source

At this very first opportunity, I thank the member for Longman for her wonderful speech and also the member for Burt for the preceding one. It gives all of us who have been here any length of time a great deal of confidence to know that the quality of people who have come into this parliament at this last election is so high. I commend the member for Longman for her contribution and say to her, if she continues with that application, sincerity and commitment, she will be here for a long time. I know that she will represent the interests of the people of Longman well. My sister, incidentally, lives in Burpengary, so she is one of her constituents. I am sure she will make sure that I am advised if and when something needs to be said—and I am sure it will not need to be. I commend the member for Burt, similarly, for a magnificent contribution. I am personally struck on this side of the chamber by the very high quality of the first speeches that have been given in this parliament. This is my 10th parliament and 11th election, so I have seen a lot, and I have to say that the first speeches in this parliament have been among the best over almost 30 years. To those people who have made those speeches, on both sides of the chamber, I say, 'Well done.'

I am in continuation in this debate, and, as I recall—not that I have read the Hansard too recently—we were talking about the budget, but I was referring in my contribution to the election of the new Labor government in the Northern Territory. I made some comments about the success of that election campaign. I congratulated the new Chief Minister, Michael Gunner, and his team of ministers and wished them well. I made the observation that one issue around the budget will be of importance to them on a continuing and ongoing basis—that is, the debate about the GST. I will not make any further comments about that discussion, because I do want to say some other things. But it is important to understand that the CLP administration which was recently defeated in the Northern Territory has left an enormous budget black hole for the incoming Labor government. Why are we not surprised?

It is equally important to understand not only that they left a black hole but that they made things very difficult for the current government—the new government—to meet all of its commitments and promises, because of the state of the budget. That is not new, but what is new, in my view, is the scandalous way in which decisions were made by the outgoing government close to the election that they knew would be legacy commitments which the new Labor administration would have to meet. They knew they were going to be done like a dinner, and they were done like a dinner. There are now only two CLP members in the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly. The former Chief Minister scarpered so quickly you could hardly see him for dust, but they have left enormous problems for the new government. I say to the federal government, to the Prime Minister and his Treasurer: you would be aware that the Northern Territory gets—I do not know the precise figure—in the vicinity of 75 to 80 per cent of its budget revenue from the Commonwealth, either in special purpose payments, general purpose payments or tied grants. So it is important, when you are contemplating the future funding of the Northern Territory, that you are aware of the scurrilous nature of your brothers in arms in the CLP and how they have left the Northern Territory budget.

I have the great privilege in this parliament of being responsible, on the opposition side, for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health. In the context of the budget, we have seen successive cuts to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander expenditure: $500 million from the 2014-15 budget onwards, $130 million of which came out of health. This is at a time when we are supposed be trying to address the gap between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health outcomes and those of the rest of the population. You cannot cut your way to good health. During the former, Labor government, when I was the minister responsible for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health, we developed, in partnership with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community, as a result of consultations around the country, the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Plan, which scored bipartisan support. The incoming Abbott government reaffirmed their bipartisan support and then developed—in partnership, again, with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people—an implementation strategy for that plan. We are now four years on, and not one dollar has been spent on that implementation strategy. It is a plan for 10 years, and we are in the fourth year of the plan and nothing is happening.

I think this should be a source of acute embarrassment for the government, because, if we are to address the drastic needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and, in particular in the Northern Territory, to address issues to do with chronic disease, obesity, diabetes, kidney failure, rheumatic heart disease, cardiovascular disease and so on, then we will need to make sure that these programs are funded properly and that there is an ongoing funding commitment to Aboriginal community controlled health services not only in the Northern Territory but right around the country. They, as I continue to say, deliver some of the best examples of comprehensive primary health care in the nation—if not the world. They are innovators. They understand their communities. They understand what needs to be done to address the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health needs of those communities and the Australian nation as a whole, through NACCHO, the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation. And they have state based organisations.

But here I want to commend. I ask those who may be listening that if you are not aware of the work of Aboriginal community controlled health services around this country try to get to be aware of it, because they do fantastic work for their communities and as a result have an impact on the national health outcomes for all Australians, but particularly for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

I know my time is almost up but I have a lot more to say about these subjects. I do commend the virtue of talking about health in a much more detailed way than we have currently seen from this government. And no more attacks on Medicare thank you! (Time expired)

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