Marion Scrymgour (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Labor is working hard to help Australians deal with the cost of living and maintain high living standards, and I'm doing everything in my capacity to ease cost-of-living pressures on families and individuals in my electorate of Lingiari. In the 2022 federal election I pledged about $1.5 billion in pre-election commitments for Lingiari. These commitments represented an unprecedented level of investment in improving the liveability, resilience and economy of the many remote Aboriginal communities, regional centres and towns that make up Lingiari. I'm proud to announce that we are delivering on every single commitment.

I continue to be a strong advocate and build on my proven track record of improving living standards and getting the best possible outcomes for people in Lingiari—in better roads, safer communities, more housing, sporting and recreational facilities, more jobs, better health and education outcomes, greater water security and strong environmental protections.

Over the last four years, the Albanese Labor government has invested over $7 billion in lifting the living standards and improving the social and economic wellbeing of the 73 remote Aboriginal communities in my electorate. We have a plan for the continued sustainability of remote Australia. Labor talk about, and will deliver, more jobs, more housing, quality education, improved health, better roads and an overall improvement in living standards in the bush. The coalition is just focused on culture wars. Where Labor has taken the opportunity to boost living standards in the bush, we've seen the Leader of the Opposition and the Shadow Minister for Indigenous Australians come to Alice Springs and say very clearly that the shadow minister will use her new government efficiency role to cut programs for Aboriginal people. The coalition is not a friend of remote Australia.

The best safeguard to improve living standards is to have a safe and secure roof over your head, and I'm proud to remind the House of Labor's ambitious investment of $4 billion with the Northern Territory government, announced earlier this year, to increase housing stock in remote Aboriginal communities in my electorate. The unprecedented investment will build 270 houses every year for the next 10 years, including an extra $120 million over the next three years to improve housing maintenance and upgrade essential infrastructure in homeland communities.

I heard the member for Mallee saying that her electorate is not the dumping ground for bad policy. Well, that needs to be the same for Lingiari and our bush communities. The opposition shouldn't use Lingiari or our bush communities for their bad, culture-war policies, which are part of their DNA and which they always revert to when they've got nothing else. It's punching down on Aboriginal people and their communities.

That's not what the federal Labor government is all about. We are about delivering jobs. I've had discussions with the Minister for Indigenous Australians about the $707 million investment to create 3,000 new jobs in remote communities across Australia over the next three years. That is welcome, and I know that the minister will be making an announcement soon about that first tranche for organisations and companies to apply to—to put those jobs in the communities. That will be announced soon. Certainly, a lot of employers have been invited to apply for the funds under this program to create those local jobs with proper pay and conditions.

Labor's investment in bush communities across my electorate will continue to have a positive impact on maintaining the living conditions and standards of constituents in my electorate. We are committed to the future pipeline of investments in building the future sustainability of remote Australia. I compare this with the coalition's regressive agenda of cost cutting and harmful policies aimed at eroding living standards and the authority and control of Aboriginal people over their lives. I ask the coalition to stop these culture wars, particularly in relation to our remote communities.

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