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. Is it a fact that the 81 demountables now being sent to Christmas Island as accommodation for unauthorised arrivals were originally set aside to provide crisis accommodation in the Alice Springs town camps. Given the state of Indigenous housing, why were these demountables never used over the past two years and why is the government putting housing for unauthorised arrivals ahead of housing for Indigenous Australians?

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

I very much welcome the question from the member for Warringah as it gives me an opportunity to set the record straight. Not surprisingly, everything he had to say today is totally false. Let us go to a few of the facts. It is the case that in 2006, following the closure of the Woomera detention centre, and then in 2007, following the closure of the Baxter detention centre, the previous government moved a number of demountables to Alice Springs. The previous government said at the time that they were going to use these demountables for the Alice Springs town camps. These are the facts. What actually happened was that the previous Minister for Indigenous Affairs decided to walk away completely from the Alice Springs town camp residents. Not one of these demountables was used by the previous government for the residents of the Alice Springs town camps. The reason that not one of these demountables was used is this that the previous minister decided to walk away completely—to completely ignore the needs of the Alice Springs town camp residents.

By contrast, instead of walking away from the Alice Springs town camp residents this government has decided to use the demountables. Since we have been in government 230 demountables have been used. Absolutely none were used by the previous government—they walked away from the residents of the Alice Springs town camps—but 230 of the demountables have been deployed by this government in Indigenous communities: 230 of them used by this government, none used by the previous government