Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Hansard source

At the outset, I thank the member for Lingiari for her role in Northern Territory politics and the fact that she has been elected to this place. I wish her well in her endeavours, not just for Indigenous brothers and sisters but for all Northern Territorians, all Australians.

I want the member for Lingiari to know that I was a big advocate for Lingiari remaining an electorate when the Electorate Commission determined unfairly, unjustly, that the Northern Territory would have just one seat—not right. Whilst I appreciate that the Australian Electoral Commission does this based on numbers, as a regional member, I know how difficult it is. Imagine if you lived in Alice Springs and had your member in Darwin. It's a long way from Alice to the capital of the Northern Territory. You represent 1.3 million kilometres and many far-flung communities. I've been to the Northern Territory many, many times, and I appreciate the amount of travel that you have to do. So I wish you all the very best and acknowledge the contribution you've already made to public life.

Indeed, closing the gap is crucial. We all know that. I know that there were modest improvements during the coalition's years in government. Life expectancy for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people increased. Nationally, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander males born between 2015 and 2017 are expected to live to 71.6 years and females to 75.6 years. That narrowed the gap in life expectancy from 2005 to 2007 for males from 11.4 years to 8.6 years and females from 9.6 years to 7.8 years. That's still not good enough—nowhere near good enough.

I note the healthy birth weight for Aboriginal children. Nationally, 89.5 per cent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander babies born in 2019 were of a healthy birth weight, which is an increase from 88.8 per cent in 2017, the baseline year. This is the official wording:

This is a good improvement with the national target of 91 per cent on track to be met.

Ninety-one per cent—why wouldn't it be 100 per cent? Why wouldn't we want every child who's born to be of a healthy birth weight? It's a little bit like the road toll. I know we have a Towards Zero target. Well, if it's good enough for the road toll to be zero—and I appreciate that that's utopian. This is not utopian; this is very much more achievable than getting the road toll to zero, and we need to make sure that 100 per cent of Aboriginal kids are born at a healthy birth weight. We need to make sure that 100 per cent of Aboriginal kids have the same educational opportunities as non-Indigenous Aboriginal youth.

There has been a decrease in youth detention rates. Nationally, in 2021, the rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people aged 10 to 17 years in detention was, on average per day, 23.2 per 10,000 young people in the population. That was a decrease from 31.9 per 10,000 young people in 2018-19. Again, we've got:

This … is a good improvement with the national target of a decrease of at least 30 per cent in the detention rate is on track to be met.

But, again, we're putting those figures alongside where we'd like to be. Where we'd like to be is: no Aboriginal kids in incarceration; no Australian kids in incarceration. I appreciate that life's not perfect—it just isn't—but we need to do more and we need to do better, and we will certainly work towards that.

I know that I'm part of the National Party and I know that the National Party has made a decision on the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice. I have spoken with a number of elders in my the community. We have any number of functions when I am back in the electorate and I always take the time and opportunity not just to thank but to talk to, as much as I can, those who are doing the welcomes to country—which are important. I appreciate that Wiradjuri is one of the largest of the 500 or so Aboriginal nations. My electorate, from top to bottom—Yerong Creek to Peak Hill or thereabouts—is all Wiradjuri. But even Wiradjuri elders have told my local newspaper, theDaily Advertiser at Wagga Wagga, that they want to see more detail about the Voice. Not only Wiradjuri but Indigenous nations, Indigenous elders and non-Indigenous people need, want and expect to see more detail on the Voice.

We made a decision as a party that, rather than a voice to parliament—the Uluru Statement from the Heart having been adopted in full—we wanted to see better outcomes for Aboriginal people. I say this respectfully and in good faith: when you go, as I have, and I know the member for Lingiari and others have done the same, to places such as Katherine, Alice Springs and Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory, Cunnamulla, Euabalong, right through South Australia and Western Australia—indeed, anywhere you like to go in this country, but, in particular, remotely—Aboriginal communities have to do without, and they shouldn't have to; they just shouldn't. It's dreadful to see some of the shops boarded up at night. They just don't have the options available to them.

I have been to see the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, Catherine King, the member for Ballarat, at every opportunity I've had since we went into opposition to lobby for a swimming pool and aquatic centre for Mornington Island in the Gulf because I'd been to the Barunga Festival in the NT just after I finished my tenure as Deputy Prime Minister—it was in the weekend before that fateful Monday. I'm sure the member for Lingiari knows the festival well. It's a great festival of culture, sport, music, bridging the gap. I was Acting Prime Minister that day. I was the first one to go since Bob Hawke. I was quite proud of that. I went there with any number of political colleagues and rivals, including the then Indigenous affairs minister, Ken Wyatt.

We then went on to Mornington Island, where we met with Kyle Yanner, who is the mayor of that shire, that island. About 1,100 Aboriginal people live on that island, and they don't have a swimming pool. They applied under the Building Better Regions Fund and didn't get the funding, more's the pity. Despite my requests, despite my best efforts to enable it happen in the subsequent round, when I wasn't chair of the ministerial committee that oversaw that, they still don't have it. I commit myself again right here, right now, to make sure that they do get an aquatic centre. And I commit myself right here, right now, to go back to that island when that actually does happen. It doesn't matter who's in government, who's in power, or whether I'm even in this place; I will continue to fight so that they get justice. I would hate to live on Mornington Island during summer, during the hot season, during the wet season, during any season, and not have the same amenity that most country towns and every city just take for granted. It's not right. It's not fair. It should happen. I know that the member for Ballarat, in good faith, will work with me to make that happen.

Getting back to the Voice, I want to see better outcomes for Aboriginal people. I do want to see detail around who will be elected and how they'll be elected. Whilst I appreciate the member for Lingiari mentioned the 250 representatives who attended Uluru to bring about this statement, 250 is but a small percentage of the overall Aboriginal population. The Aboriginal population does expect and demand more information, more detail, around what is going to be proposed. Australians generally don't like their founding document to be altered, to be changed. There have been, I think, 44 referenda. Only eight times have Australians voted to change the Constitution. So it's an important step we take.

The other thing is: we have 11 fine, outstanding representatives of Indigenous Australia already in the House of Representatives and the Senate. I don't want to see their voices usurped. They've got there rightly, appropriately, democratically elected by the people, to serve the people, to serve Indigenous Australians, to serve all Australians, and well done to each and every one of them. I do not want to see their voices diluted in any way by a quasi-bureaucracy that will soak up, potentially, millions of dollars and not provide better outcomes for Aboriginal Australians.

See this speech in context