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

I acknowledge that we meeting on Ngunnawal and Ngambri territory. I also acknowledge the Wiradjuri people who are the custodians of the Riverina electorate that I proudly serve in this place. I acknowledge two proud Wiradjuri elders, Aunty Kath Withers and Aunty Isabel Reid, who recently, on the eve of Australia Day, were awarded a prestigious Walk of Honour in Wagga Wagga, which means they will have a plaque in the main street, Baylis Street. Forevermore, people will be able to look at that plaque, acknowledge what they have done—not just for the Indigenous community, not just for Wiradjuri people, but for Wagga Wagga and beyond—with their efforts, with their advocacy, to build a better community.

I want to also acknowledge Kyle Yanner. Kyle is a mayor at Mornington Island in the Gulf of Carpentaria. I met him in June 2021. In February 2023 that community still does not have a water park, water feature or swimming pool for its 1,200 or so residents, many of whom are young, many of whom are mere children. In this day and age, I find that a complete disgrace, the fact that a community of that size—and in the gulf, where it gets very hot not just in summer months—doesn't have a water facility they can call their own.

They put an application in as part of the Building Better Regions Fund, that now defunct program whereby regional electorates were given funding. Mornington Island is part of the Leichhardt electorate, so it's a long, long way from the Riverina and Central West I represent. But I gave those people a commitment that we would get them a water park, and I remain committed to that. I have seen the now Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government on a number of occasions to push the case for Mornington Island, to push the case for Councillor Yanner and his community, and I will continue to do so. I will harp on about it until we get an outcome.

We talk about Closing the Gap and the National Apology to the Stolen Generation. Many people quote Aboriginal dialect and Torres Strait Islander dialect, and anecdotal incidents themselves. That's all well and good; that's all fine. But it's not just what we do in this place, and it's not just those apologies we make, it's what we do out in our electorates and it's the funding we deliver for communities, such as Mornington Island, which make a real difference. It's all well and good to say, 'I'm sorry,' and to do welcome to country and all of that, but it's the real, practical difference that we can make as politicians, as parliamentarians, as legislators, that those people out there are seeking. They don't want our apologies and, quite frankly, our welcomes to country. They want a swimming pool, so they can swim in it during summer. They want real, practical determinations and outcomes. That's the most we can do.

I was just at a press conference with National Party and LNP colleagues about banking services. Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price made a very good point, about how you see the chief executive officers—very well-paid, I might add—of our major banks getting all woke and wanting to work on Australia Day yet not wanting to have branches in regional communities, where a high proportion of the population are Indigenous people. It's not good enough that the bank CEOs can withdraw those services while at the same time gadding around their boardroom tables, expressing their sorrow and expressing welcomes to country. They do that on the one hand, but at the same time pull out banking services to remote Indigenous communities. It's just remarkable that this can happen. As Senator Nampijinpa Price said, on their letterheads and e-mails there are welcomes to country and they are expressing what particular Aboriginal territory they are writing their emails from. Yet, at the same time, those e-mails are closing banking services in regional and remote communities, which is really disadvantageous to our Aboriginal populations.

Fifteen years ago, former prime minister Rudd issued an apology. That was a good thing, and I know the effort that has been made since then to close the gap. We've gone a long way. Have we gone far enough? No, not at all. I must pay tribute to former senator Nigel Scullion from the Northern Territory, a former colleague of the member for Wide Bay and of mine, for the efforts he went to make sure that Aboriginal people, whenever there was infrastructure being built, were going to be trained up and working on those particular projects and in those particular programs. That is a real, meaningful and practical way that we can close the gap—giving Aboriginal people that incentive, that hope and that income.

I know that when I was the infrastructure minister and we were looking at Inland Rail and Snowy 2.0, so many Indigenous people said to me at the time that it was so good for their communities and their people, because, in many cases, whether it was the Parkes-Narromine section of Inland Rai or what they were doing at Cabramurra or Tumut or Talbingo for Snowy Hydro, it was the first job some of those Aboriginal people had had. And it was not only about Aboriginal people having their first job; indeed, Aboriginal small businesses were able to tap into and gain procurement through the process. They were being given a hand up, for sure, but they needed it, and it made such a difference to them. I know of some firms that expanded multiple times to be able to cater for, provide the ballast or hospitality for the workers and the like for Inland Rail. The one-stop shop that was opened in Parkes had a number of Indigenous people walk through the door and come out with a job—with hope and with prospects for the future. That's what it's all about. With the Parkes to Narromine section, there were many jobs created from that for Indigenous people alone. That was fantastic.

In Defence, the Defence Indigenous employment program provides a five-month residential course focusing on six key areas with Indigenous mentors at Kapooka: military skills, language, physical fitness, cultural appreciation, leadership and development. It has been highly successful in getting Indigenous people into Defence. I don't think we've gone anywhere near enough in our recognition of the efforts that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have made as soldiers and in other services in the defence and protection of our nation. That service is a good thing.

Charles Sturt University, which started in my hometown of Wagga Wagga, has an aim of employing at least three per cent of their workforce as Aboriginal staff. Three per cent might not sound like much, but it's a good start. And at least by making the assurance they will do that, it's a long way, perhaps, from where many other tertiary institutions have been in the past. This progress is a good thing.

I also want to say that it cuts both ways. I know there was a diabolical interview on 2GB yesterday where Sydney councillor Yvonne Weldon got on there to talk about rubbish bin collection. She started off by expressing the view that it was a great day—14 February—because it was the anniversary of the death of James Cook in 1779. Thankfully, the interviewer, Chris O'Keefe, just cut her off, and so he should have. It does cut both ways. It's all well and good to be talking about things that are good for her mob, but it's not good to talk about those sorts of things which are just beyond reprehensible. I'm glad that the interviewer cut her short and told her that it wasn't acceptable, that it was demeaning and that it shouldn't have occurred.

This is an important anniversary. The Stolen Generations need to be recognised, apologies need to be given and we need to do more on closing the gap. I acknowledge the motion and I acknowledge the fine words of both the Prime Minister and the opposition leader on this motion.

See this speech in context