Melissa Price (Durack, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

If we can take any positives out of the referendum process, it would be that it has resulted in a greater level of attention and understanding of the gaps that exist between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Most Australians, regardless of how they voted on Saturday, want to see those gaps closed and for the next generation of kids not to suffer from disadvantage.

I acknowledge the injustices of the past. Indigenous Australians have suffered terrible abuses at the hands of governments throughout our history. However, we must accept that, as a parliament, we cannot change the past or the actions of those in past decades or centuries. I believe it's common sense for us to go forward; we must seek to improve today's conditions and outcomes. To improve outcomes, we must tackle the issues that are responsible for today's disadvantage.

I can tell you, as the member who represents the second-largest population of Indigenous Australians, that, sadly, Indigenous children are at risk of child sexual abuse. This is an evil that has a lifelong effect on victims and leads to worse outcomes. This was demonstrated through the hundreds of powerful submissions from the victims to the recent Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. As a government and a parliament, we apologise for the lack of action that enabled this abuse to take place. Let's not fail our most vulnerable again. Victims will tell you that much better than an apology would have been governments taking action to prevent the abuse in the first place.

Child sexual abuse is not inherently about race. It occurs in all types of Australian families. My own experience has demonstrated that it has much to do with alcohol and drug abuse. Unfortunately, these factors are particularly rampant in regional and remote Indigenous communities. I think people in remote and rural Australia know exactly what I'm talking about. We understand that the issues of child sexual abuse in Indigenous communities are not being adequately combated.

I'm sad to say that such abuse has taken place and continues to take place across my own electorate of Durack. Just a few short years ago, it was reported that there were dozens of child victims in the small town of Roebourne. Now, Roebourne is not far from Karratha in the very wealthy Pilbara region. The then WA Labor Minister for Child Protection conceded that abuse had become normalised through an intergenerational cycle. It is just unthinkable that such high levels of child abuse could ever have been thought of as just being normal.

Those opposite argued passionately for a voice. A royal commission into child sexual abuse in Indigenous communities will give these kids just that. It would allow their stories to be told and enable solutions to be found. I believe it's high time to bring this issue into the light—not hidden like some dark worst-best-kept secret. How can we possibly expect to address disadvantage without confronting this head on? So many of the gaps exist because many Indigenous kids are not growing up in a safe and healthy environment. Again, it's just common sense that action on child sexual abuse would also address issues of suicide, youth justice and substance abuse later in life.

I think we'd all agree it's not normal for children to be abused. Neither is it normal for them to take their own lives or to stay out late at night because they are too afraid to go home, believing that it's safer on the streets. Sadly, and I know that I speak for others who have large Indigenous populations, we know that tonight there will be kids on the street because it's a much safer place to be. We need to use this moment right now. I appreciate that people on the other side are arguing that we need this time to reset and pause, but I think there is nothing like the present for us to focus on this issue, and it is my belief that a royal commission could be the catalyst for such change.

I remind those opposite that the first duty of any government is the protection of its people. This obligation is especially true in reference to our most vulnerable and innocent. The innocence of children must be protected. I urge the Prime Minister and the Labor Party to reconsider their decision to reject our calls for a royal commission. Please, let's make our kids a priority.

See this speech in context