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. Is the minister aware of further evidence of endemic violence and abuse in some Indigenous communities? How should next week’s intergovernmental summit help address these problems? Additionally, can the minister update the House on this week’s meeting with the National Indigenous Council?

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, Mr Tollner, for his question. Last night the Lateline program had a very sobering account of a Central Australian community, Mutitjulu, where allegations of child abuse, sexual abuse, serious violence, trafficking of petrol and other substance abuse were put to the test. Doctors, youth workers and workers in women’s shelters came forward and gave evidence—as did a senior female elder from Mutitjulu who gave some very moving testimony—about the heart-rending pain caused by the crimes that have been committed in their community. These are things which we hope to address directly and fully at the summit next week with our state and territory ministerial colleagues, in a bipartisan approach which can put an end to these blights on our society. The program last night on Lateline clearly demonstrated that there is an absolute need to restore law and order in these communities today. Unfortunately, it was also sobering to hear from the doctor and others that this is not restricted to Mutitjulu. As many in this place have heard before, it is very widespread.

During the week I met with the National Indigenous Council, and we discussed these issues. They are an advisory body to the ministerial task force, and many of my colleagues were present at that meeting. They raised many important issues and gave good advice to government. One recommendation to government that I am taking up is to have an independent audit of the safety of these communities and the need and appropriateness of policing in these Indigenous communities to ensure that they have the same right as others to a safe environment and that their children are free from the predators that were described in this program.

Dr Sue Gordon, herself a magistrate in Western Australia and the chair of the National Indigenous Council, had this to say:

An audit is the only way we will get a true picture of the actual needs and resources required at each community. A national audit may also shed light on the number of police stationed in a community at any one time. Police numbers may be higher on paper than the numbers actually stationed in communities. It is important to understand the true situation.

The federal government is spending some $2 million to provide a police station to Mutitjulu. We all understand that policing has always been a state and territory responsibility, but we also understand that this situation is a national disgrace and that it needs a national response—and we are willing to step up to the plate and work with our colleagues in addressing those needs. The NIC also recommended that we fast-track cases involving sexual abuse so that perpetrators are not back in the communities where often, in doing so, they are able to reap what is called in these communities ‘retribution’ or ‘payback’. The recommendations included: a greater use of protected bail conditions; the supporting of boarding schools to remove children from dangerous environments—expenditure on that was also increased in the last budget; and that it was important not to ignore these problems occurring in urban areas. I say this to the lady who wrote to me from Perth this week and to the numerous other Indigenous people who called my office and said, ‘We know that this is a remote Australia problem, but please don’t forget us, because there is pain in many Australian communities—in regional Australia and remote Australia but equally in some of our suburban areas and our cities as well.’ We will not be forgetting them.

Finally, I am asking the states and territories to come here with goodwill and with an acknowledgment that this is a problem that we must deal with today. We do need more police. They have to be where they are needed. We need better interaction between the courts and the police. We need to engage locals and empower them so that women, in particular, can feel that they can talk to someone in confidence and in trust about the pain and indignities that they have suffered. It will take a coordinated and comprehensive approach, and the federal government stands ready to deliver that to make the lives of Australian people safer and better so as to realise the same opportunities that we all take for granted.