Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party, Shadow Minister for Trade and Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

Childhood sexual abuse does not discriminate on race or income. Childhood sexual abuse occurs in white families, brown families, black families, rich families, middle-income families and poor families. For up to 80 per cent of our Indigenous brothers and sisters, there is not much of a statistical gap on such matters as life expectancy, income, education and many more, and there shouldn't be. There is, however, a big gap when you talk about some of the more rural and remote communities in many areas, and one disturbing statistic concerns childhood abuse in rural and remote communities. This isn't a slur on race. It's a slur on disadvantage, it's a slur on geographic isolation, and it's a slur on drugs and alcohol addiction.

This domestic and sexual abuse in these remote communities would be called out if it was white on white or white on black, but the fact that this is black on black doesn't mean we should not call out this abuse. The Australian Institute of Family Studies, the detectives from the child abuse unit in Western Australia and the police operations in the Pilbara on record have said they've identified many people who do not report childhood abuse in these remote communities, and the figures on STD infections and abuse are already well above the norms statistically without this underreporting.

In defence of the government, these statistics are not new. We as the previous government introduced the cashless welfare card— (Time expired)

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