Dave Tollner (Solomon, Country Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs. How is the government working to overcome abuse and violence in Indigenous communities? What support have these initiatives received?

Mal Brough (Longman, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Solomon for his question. I note his genuine concern for the people he represents in Darwin and the Northern Territory and his understanding of this very difficult issue. The federal government this year committed a record $3.3 billion to assist Indigenous Australians to have a better life. As we have all seen this week, horrific incidents of child abuse and domestic violence are occurring throughout Australia, which is totally unacceptable. This has occurred despite the best efforts of all levels of government of all political persuasions over a long period of time to deal with it. Today, the Co-Principal of Wadeye School in the Northern Territory reiterated how challenging this is. I remind the House that Wadeye is the site of a COAG trial where the Northern Territory government and the federal coalition government committed and spent some $40 million over the last three years on a range of programs in this community of 2,500 people. We are talking here of domestic violence programs, of interventions after the event, of employment programs and of housing and infrastructure programs across both the Territory government’s and the federal government’s range of portfolio responsibilities. Despite this genuine commitment by the Northern Territory government and the federal coalition government, there is still a belief that there is no future. Let me explain by reading what the co-principal had to say to the ABC today. She said:

I’m seeing people very scared, intimidated, afraid to speak out. Shop access is blocked, therefore food supplies are restricted. The health clinic access is difficult because they can’t get there. I’ve had to offer the school as a shelter when houses have been vandalised.

Her husband is the local GP. He said he recently treated a six-year-old child who had been raped. He says that the Northern Territory Department of Health and Community Services told him not to talk to the media. Unfortunately, these are not isolated incidents. The fact is that the best of goodwill and the best of intentions will do nothing unless we are able to address the fundamental issue that every society not only demands but relies upon to be successful—the basis of rule of law and that policing be present, be visual and be trusted. That simply does not happen in these communities.

Dick Adams (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

More police!

Mal Brough (Longman, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There are four police operating in the town of Wadeye. Up to 300 people have been rioting in the streets, with some $300,000-plus damage done to housing there as out-of-control youths rampaged through the streets.

This week I called for a summit of state and national leaders in order to have an action agenda that will address this fundamental issue. I have asked in goodwill that the territory and the state leaders send people to a summit with the federal government because, whilst law and order always has been and is today a state and territory responsibility, the disgusting things that are happening to the children of this nation are also a national responsibility. This government is prepared to stand up and work with state and territory governments to overcome it.

We are prepared to put resources into this issue. Last week I announced in Alice Springs a further sniffer dog team. Why? Because across the Northern Territory, South Australian and Western Australian borders there is not only drug trafficking and petrol trafficking but also abuse occurring that only further police resources will fix. People must have confidence: they must have confidence to report crime and they must have confidence to stand in a court of law and give evidence. Today they do not have that confidence.

I welcome the contribution by the National President of the Australian Labor Party, Warren Mundine, who has put partisan political views aside and has recognised that now is the time to act as a nation. I ask again all state and territory leaders to join with me to ensure that we together allow every Australian to have the right to live in their home safely, to have faith in the criminal justice system and to know that police will be there when they need them. It is not too much to ask. This is something on which we must put party political views aside and address. It is a national disgrace. It requires a national answer. I ask all those leaders to participate in the goodwill that is intended.