Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs. Does the minister stand by her statement in August that 85 new houses would be built in Alice Springs town camps under the Strategic Indigenous Housing and Infrastructure Program? If she does stand by that statement, how does she respond to a Northern Territory government official briefing last week that the program will deliver just 40 new houses for $100 million? Does she maintain that $2½ million per house is good value for taxpayers’ money?

Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Warringah for his question and for the opportunity that it gives me to confirm the statements and the commitments that this government has made to make sure that 85 houses are built in the Alice Springs town camps. Of course, he should be aware that the Northern Territory government has since corrected the statements that he has now, I suspect, brought to the dispatch box knowing that they have since corrected them.

I might just say, while I have the opportunity to contribute to this debate, it was that side of the parliament when they were in government who walked away from the residents of the Alice Springs town camps. The previous minister for Indigenous affairs went up to Alice Springs and said that he would do something about the conditions that people were living in in Alice Springs and he walked away from them. He walked away from the people who are living in the most appalling conditions that we would find in any part of this country. This is not a war zone. This is not a refugee camp. This is on the outskirts of one of our country towns. It is an out-and-out disgrace that for 12 years you left people living in those conditions, and it is now up to this government to fix it.