Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I acknowledge that I am speaking on the land of the Ngunawal and Ngambri peoples. I acknowledge too that my home town, Wagga Wagga, is in the land of the Wiradjuri. I acknowledge that the shadow Indigenous Australians minister, Linda Burney, the member for Barton, is a Wiradjuri woman, having been born at Whitton. I acknowledge the outstanding work that has been done by the Minister for Indigenous Australians, and I know that work continues. I also want to acknowledge the outstanding work that has been done by the former Minister for Regional Health. Amongst other things, the work that the member for Parkes did has been noted and recognised in the fact that Indigenous Australians have not suffered a death, as was acknowledged by the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition, the member for Grayndler, during this global pandemic. The fact that we as a nation have been able to keep this deadly virus out of those remote Aboriginal communities is something we can all be very proud of, something where we can all say we've done a good job.

There is, of course, much more work to be done, as there is much more work to be done in this particular motion with closing the gap. Each and every year we stand here as members of parliament and acknowledge that the work continues. Certainly we can be pleased with some of the targets that we have reached, but we can also look at many of the others, including the incarceration rates, and say there is much more to be done.

I was very pleased to be with the minister to attend the Burunga Festival in the Northern Territory in June and the following day go to Mornington Island. This followed a visit from the Mornington Island mayor, Councillor Karl Yanner, and a group of his supporters and advocates for a better deal for his very remote shire, his very remote community, with a population just a tick over 1,000 in the Gulf of Carpentaria. They came to see me. I was Deputy Prime Minister at the time and I knew that I was going to be Acting Prime Minister in the not-too-distant future, so I thought what better opportunity to go to this island than in that capacity, in that role, and to hear and listen to those communities and their needs and wants. I think this strikes at the very heart of what we are addressing here with closing the gap. This is a community that has large gaps which indeed need to be closed.

It was a pleasure to visit the island, to be shown around this small community and to hear the sorts of issues that they need dealt with, including overcrowding in their housing. This community was identified by the Courier Mail as a community that had been largely forgotten by the mainland, and I wanted to assure that community that it had not been forgotten, was not being forgotten and will not be forgotten in the future.

As I left the role of Deputy Prime Minister, there weren't many things that I did ask to follow up, because I'd done a lot of them. But one of the things that I really wanted to see ticked off—and I will follow it up and I have also spoken to Councillor Yanner—was that I wanted the Mornington Island issue supported. To that end, they have applied for a Building Better Regions Fund for a water park or a swimming pool. It is extraordinary that in the 21st century a community of that size in that area, with the heat and the climate that they deal with not just every summer but indeed every day, don't have a water park for their children. I really would like to see that as part of the BBRF, and, if their application is not successful for whatever reason, then I think we as a government have an obligation to support that in the future.

It was great to go to Barunga the day before, on 12 June in fact, as Acting Prime Minister. I was the highest ranked MP who had visited the festival since Bob Hawke in 1988. With more than 4,000 attendees, the cultural, musical and sporting festival they put on has to be seen to be believed. The Barunga Festival director, Mark Gross, said the pandemic has had an impact on remote Indigenous communities, many of whom have been unable to travel throughout the last year. He said, 'Nothing is more important than keeping people safe, and we are so glad that with the assistance of NT Health and NT Police a sense of togetherness could be reintroduced to start the mental healing of communities after lockdown. Barunga has once again shown the way.' Indeed it did. It was a marvellous festival. I know that Minister Wyatt and many other MPs; senators, including Senator Sam McMahon; and Northern Territory MPs from both political persuasions were there. I know the member for Lingiari was there. We shared in some fellowship but we shared in the common goal of ensuring that this festival remains a feature of the Northern Territory calendar and that we need to do everything we can and will in the future for Closing the Gap measures and interventions and for Closing the Gap togetherness, as MPs, above the political partisanship that we often show. This needs to be done on a bipartisan level and there was certainly a lot of bipartisanship at the festival.

I know that these communities require more infrastructure, and the road leading to this site and this particular camping ground also needs to be fixed up. I would like to see that done as part of the enormous amount of money that we are spending on Northern Territory infrastructure. I know that we as a government will work closely with the Gunner government in the Northern Territory to see if we can do that in the future, because it would be money well spent.

For 35 years the Barunga Festival has been a special event not just for the Northern Territory but indeed for Australia. It brings Indigenous communities together to meet, to compete and to share. The invitation is always there for non-Indigenous Australians to experience a unique window into this remote community and its unique way of life. It is celebrated for the community rather than politics. Its simplicity, potency and focus on people has created a natural case study in reconciliation. Those words come from the Barunga Festival promoters. They are words very well spoken, because what that weekend again highlighted and showed to me is that Indigenous communities do want to take a lot of responsibility for and leadership of their own destiny and their own future. What is done by the Barunga Festival promoters and the Mornington Island community and its leaders, led so very well by Councillor Yanner—he's only a young bloke, but he's doing some mighty things and I know he's got the community's heart and belief very much at the core of his being. They will do some great things, but they will need the assistance of this government and of this parliament. I've given them the assurance that they will certainly have that from me.

Closer to the home, I acknowledge the work that is being done around the Riverina and central west by Wiradjuri elders. I commend what Stan Grant Sr has done in ensuring that the Wiradjuri language has not been lost. The volumes of work that he has produced certainly feature in my home library. They are a good resource for the Wiradjuri language. It is important to acknowledge, and I know this fact was acknowledged by both the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition last week, that Aboriginal languages need preserving and protecting and to be taught in Australian schools for those students and by those schools who wish to do so. I know this is going to be an important fact going forward.

But there is much more work that can, that will and that must be done to close the gap in terms of life span, in terms of health outcomes, in terms of incarceration rates and the like for Indigenous Australians. We need to make sure that we continue to do what we can. I know the 5 August declaration, the Commonwealth releasing its first Closing the Gap Implementation Plan, is a good start, but much more work needs to be done.

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