Bob Katter (Kennedy, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs aware that in 1989 the Queensland Auditor-General effectively had no problems with any of the 28 Aboriginal community councils? At the time all were receiving back-up from a full government department, an Aboriginal coordination council and an ‘on location’ information and advisory officer carrying out continuous audit on service delivery and expenditures. Is the minister aware that incoming Labor governments abolished all three of these essential support services? Is the minister further aware that 1980s Queensland legislation provided the mechanism by which Aboriginal community residents could own their own homes, shops, farms and businesses? Is the minister aware that this was also abolished, reducing every one of the three million hectares of DOGIT lands to collective ownership, now owned by trustees appointed by, and at the convenience of, the Queensland minister?

Gary Hardgrave (Moreton, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That’s communism.

Bob Katter (Kennedy, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That’s a very good comment.

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order!

Bob Katter (Kennedy, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Finally, is the minister aware—

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member will come to his question.

Bob Katter (Kennedy, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have been interrupted continuously, Mr Speaker.

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member will come to his question.

Government Members:

Government members interjecting—

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Members on my right!

Government Members:

Government members—That’s a good question.

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Kennedy has the call.

Bob Katter (Kennedy, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I doubt it, Mr Speaker. Finally, is the minister aware that escalating group violence has precipitated the reintroduction of the old racially discriminatory legislation banning alcohol? Since parents have no rights to force their children to go to school, education levels have sunk to their lowest levels in 10 years. Essential services have failed to such an extent that house building in one community has fallen from 13 houses per year to two per year and occupancy rates are soaring to over 15 people per home. Could the minister seriously look at intervening in Queensland and protecting communities such as Mornington Island from Queensland’s continuing maladministration?

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 his question and his obvious clear understanding of the issues, dating back a long time. I wonder who the minister was at the time, back in the 1980s, in Queensland. The issues that the honourable member raises are serious. They go to the heart of the frustration of Indigenous Australians when they cannot own their own homes or businesses. They see very little future for themselves under the DOGIT system that operates in Queensland and under the current native title laws that operate in the Northern Territory.

I am very aware of the situation on Mornington Island. I went there recently and was saddened to learn from the mayor of the situation the council is in. It comes down to the fact there has been inadequate bureaucracy supporting those councils. The Auditor-General has found that they have in fact been dealing outside their financial capabilities. In fact, the Queensland government is looking at what it will do with the council. The reality is that no council is going to succeed if it does not have adequate bureaucracy supporting it. This government now has legislation before the House which provides that CEOs of organisations will be held responsible and will no longer be able to move from one council or one Aboriginal corporation to another and get away with maladministration.

The situation on Mornington Island is deplorable. We have already moved with the state government, and I applaud the Queensland Minister for Energy and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Policy, John Mickel, for his interest in trying to rectify the situation. But the fact is that children on Mornington Island do not go to school and the parents have said to me—as I am sure they have said to the honourable member for Kennedy—that they want the law to apply equally to them as it would to white children anywhere else. That is, if their children do not go to school, the state government should act to ensure that they get them to school so they have an education and a real future. There is an intervention program in place, but we have to ensure that Indigenous people have the right to run their own property, that businesses can operate openly in the market economy, that children are forced to go to school, that they get an education and that the deplorable level of violence and gambling to great excess, which is putting children at risk, is dealt with. That is a commitment that we have in working with the state governments. The summit that we have notified everyone of will be carried out shortly, and it will go a long way to addressing many of the concerns that the honourable member for Kennedy has raised today.