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

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

There are two supplementary estimates appropriation bills being introduced as part of the government’s national emergency response to protect Aboriginal children in the Northern Territory. They are the Appropriation (Northern Territory National Emergency Response) Bill Nos 1 and 2. I shall introduce bill No. 2 shortly.

These supplementary estimates bills follow on from the appropriation bills that were introduced into the House on the occasion of the 2007-08 budget. They seek appropriation authority from parliament for the additional expenditure of money from the consolidated revenue fund, in order to implement the first stage of the emergency measures to protect Aboriginal children in the Northern Territory from abuse and give them a better, safer future. The measures in the emergency response aim to protect and stabilise communities in the crisis areas. This is the first stage in a longer term approach to improve the welfare of Aboriginal children and their families in the Northern Territory.

The bills are required to facilitate timely implementation of the emergency response initiatives.

The total appropriation being sought through the supplementary estimates bills is in excess of $587.3 million. The total appropriation being sought in emergency response bill No.1 is almost $502 million.

I now outline the major items provided for in the bill.

An increase of $91.25 million will be provided to the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations to implement a range of employment and welfare reform measures in the Northern Territory as part of the emergency response. This includes expediting the removal of all remote area exemptions across the Northern Territory by 31 December 2007. This will provide that all Indigenous people in the Northern Territory with the capacity to work are taking part in activities that will improve their ability to gain employment. Accelerated removal of remote area exemptions is also required to ensure that:

• clean up activities related to the Northern Territory emergency response are available and that job seekers can be compelled to participate in these activities; and
• job seekers take advantage of job opportunities already available in the Northern Territory.

Failure to remove remote area exemptions within this time frame will mean many job seekers in the Northern Territory will not be required to look for work or be able to be compelled to participate in activities in return for their income support payment.

This funding will also provide for Community Development Employment Projects to be replaced progressively with jobs, training and mainstream employment services across the Northern Territory. Support will be provided to existing Community Development Employment organisations to ensure they can continue to play a role in their communities. This measure includes a transition payment to maintain income levels for former CDEP participants as well as support to create jobs from current placements and new places in employment services. The move from CDEP to training and mainstream employment services will result in offsetting savings of $76.3 million to the overall costs of this measure. These savings are not reflected in this bill.

In addition an amount of $24.21 million is being provided to Indigenous Business Australia for investment and community initiatives in the Northern Territory, which includes $18.9 million to provide for an expanded network of outback stores as well as support for existing community stores in conjunction with welfare payments reform. An additional $10.1 million is also provided to Centrelink to fund the activities for the implementation of welfare payments reform, including the deployment of staff to the targeted communities.

A total amount of $212.3 million is being provided to the Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs to implement a wide range of measures in support of the government’s Northern Territory emergency response, including welfare payments reform, housing and land, additional services for families and children, law and order and administrative and logistics support for the response.

This funding also includes an alcohol diversionary program to support young people, primarily aged 12 to 18, living in remote communities to provide an alternative to drinking and other forms of substance misuse.

The government will also provide funding for land surveying and upgrades to essential utility services infrastructure in the targeted communities.

The federal government is making a range of other financial commitments, which will ensure that the services that we need are fully funded, such as:

• the Australian Crime Commission will receive an additional $4 million to gather intelligence and analyse Indigenous child abuse information in Australia;
• $15.5 million to the Department of Defence for logistics support for the initial rollout; and
• $10.5 million to the Attorney-General’s Department to fund additional legal services for Indigenous people and additional Night Patrol programs in 50 communities through the Indigenous Solutions and Service Delivery program.

As can be seen, this is a very large sum of money. It exceeded our initial estimates. It proves beyond a shadow of a doubt the Commonwealth government’s—the Howard government’s—commitment to provide not only the human resources but also the financial resources needed to ensure that we can actually fulfil our commitments to protecting the children of the Northern Territory. I commend the bill to the House.

Debate (on motion by Ms Macklin) adjourned.