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

[by video link] It's a pleasure for me to speak in this debate on this report. I acknowledge the traditional owners on whose country I'm speaking, the Larrakia people of the Northern Territory. I acknowledge the contributions already made by the chair, Julian Leeser, the member for Berowra, and the members for Newcastle and Werriwa and thank them for their friendship and collaboration during the time that we've been doing this report along with the other members of the committee. I take this opportunity to also thank the secretariat for their massive contribution. As the member for Werriwa implied, this may well be the last time I get to stand up in this chamber—in my case, sit down!—and make a contribution on the tabling of a report from this committee. I do want to make a couple of observations.

This committee, as long as I've been involved in it, has always worked in a collaborative and bipartisan manner. I want to thank the chair for his friendship and leadership and emphasise to the parliament that it is possible to get an agreement around very contentious issues if you've got a mind to do so. We have in this case done exactly that. This committee's report traverses a whole range of very important areas of public policy, which have been outlined by the member for Berowra, the member for Newcastle and the member for Werriwa, and I don't intend to traverse the content of the report or its recommendations.

It's safe to say that these reports are important, but, sadly, they are not often enough taken up by governments. I say to the government: this report provides you with a pathway; this report provides you with an opportunity to do something different in relation to promoting Indigenous business and employment opportunities, particularly for those people who live in rural and remote parts of this country. As you would know, Mr Speaker, that's a passion of mine and always has been, but we need to understand the difference in diversity that exists across our First Nations peoples across this great nation of ours and appreciate that we might need different responses in different places. That's why the reforms proposed by this report, the recommendations made in relation to CDP, are so dreadfully important.

I don't intend to take up any more of your time, but I do want to again thank all of the members of the committee. I particularly thank the member for Berowra and the member for Werriwa for their kind words about my participation on this committee.

See this speech in context