Peter Lindsay (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I grieve for the Indigenous people of Palm Island. Palm Island is an Indigenous community off the coast of Townsville in my electorate. There are about 3,500 people on Palm Island. Exactly how many people there are at any given time no-one knows. There are probably, at the most, 150 houses. Where people live, no-one knows. The Palm Island community originated through policies of the Queensland government many years ago where up to 50 different tribes were relocated to the island. There has been difficulty ever since. Not so long ago there was some very nasty rioting on the island and the island’s police station was burnt to the ground. The rioting occurred because one of the Palm Islanders died in custody. There has since been a coronial inquiry that has made certain findings and that has caused the Indigenous community to have a fairly direct reaction.

But there are dark clouds on the horizon. The matter is not finished by a long way. In fact, things will get worse before they get better—if ever they get better—hence my grieving for the people of Palm Island. The process from here is that the Queensland Director of Public Prosecutions will decide whether the police officers involved have a case to answer and whether they should be charged with something. The Queensland DPP is a fiercely independent person who has a clear track record of deciding cases on their merits, not on emotionalism, political direction or whatever else. She is a highly professional lady. It is entirely possible that the Queensland DPP will decide not to prosecute this particular case. We could then well see another riot on Palm Island.

The people of Palm Island are very pleased to see the coroner’s finding, but a coroner’s court finding is entirely different to having a charge laid against you and it being heard by the normal court process. In a coroner’s court, hearsay evidence can be admitted, but it cannot be in the other court system. It could well be that there is not enough evidence to find or even initiate a charge. But, even if a charge were initiated and a court case came to its conclusion, it may well be that the police officer or officers involved would be found not guilty. And, again, we may well see another riot in Palm Island.

I plead with the people of Palm Island: in your own interest, focus on the main game. Do not focus on the emotionalism of all of this. Do not focus on the black racism that is occurring on Palm Island. Do not focus on a hatred of the Queensland Police Service. Focus on why Mulrunji died in the first place. Why was he so full of alcohol? Why was it? What is wrong with Palm Island? Why is there so much domestic violence? Why is there so much alcoholism when there does not need to be? Fix the problem. Look at what other Indigenous communities can do. Look at Warburton in Western Australia. There is not a millilitre of alcohol in that community and they are a very happy and very cohesive community. They are proud of their Aboriginality; you cannot say that of Palm Island. Palm Island is a hopeless, dysfunctional community. I grieve that, in 100 years time, it will be the same unless the Indigenous leadership takes some responsibility and action to stop looking backwards and to look forward and to do something about it.

After the riots, the Beattie government instituted a future directions report. I am really disappointed that it is now claimed that that report, with its 32 recommendations, has been shelved. In fact, after the recent re-election of the Beattie government, the stand-alone Indigenous affairs ministry was dumped. It was absorbed into the Department of Communities. We will now lose sight of all of that. The report’s recommendations wanted to bring governments, the community and the council to the table to negotiate and to tackle issues such as land tenure, housing shortages, unemployment and policing. The two key issues there of course are land tenure and policing. There has to be respect, rule of law and proper governance in these communities, but there also has to be the opportunity for Indigenous Australians to own their own little piece of land and not live in a soviet society. That cannot happen on Palm Island. People aspire to that on the island, but the Beattie government will not discuss land tenure. Certainly, the federal Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, Mal Brough, has been talking a lot about that in the Northern Territory and has been warmly applauded for adopting a particular policy.

If there were land tenure, people could deal in their land, and that would bring a bit of integration between the mainland and the island. It would enable people who could run businesses to take advantage of the many fabulous attributes of an idyllic, beautiful island in the Barrier Reef lagoon. That would bring jobs and solve the unemployment problem. At the moment, on Palm Island, there is no prospect of any more jobs. The Indigenous community has no self-respect. It drinks away its sorrows. I am telling this parliament that if the community does not adopt a leadership it will be existing in the same way in 100 years time. What a terrible way to live your life.

Indigenous Australians are just as capable as any other Australian of a very high level of achievement. We have seen many Indigenous Australians who become doctors, advocates to government and policymakers, and they do very well. There is the view that if you are an Indigenous Australian you will never succeed. That is rubbish. But Palm Island and its residents will never succeed until rule of law, governance, policing, land tenure and the like are addressed in a meaningful way to get an outcome. I call on the people of Palm Island and their leadership to recognise that if they do not do something about it now their people, their children and their children’s children will face an absolutely awful fate.