Damian Hale (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs. What action is the government taking to protect vulnerable children in the Northern Territory’s Indigenous communities, and what are the impediments to this action?

Andrew Laming (Bowman, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Laming interjecting

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Bowman is warned.

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 Solomon for his very important question, because it is a terrible fact that exceptional disadvantage continues in Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory. It is the case that both the previous government and now this government have recognised that urgent and continuing action is needed to address this terrible disadvantage. That is why I persevered to get a deal in the Alice Springs town camps. We have started action in those town camps, but we have a huge amount left to do.

The government have also strengthened the Northern Territory emergency response, investing an additional $1.2 billion, because we recognise that we have to be there across the board for the long term. There are now 65 additional police deployed. I would also like to inform the House that there are now 16,000 people on compulsory income management in the Northern Territory. That compares to the around 1,400 people who were on compulsory income management when we came into government.

We have also recently introduced legislation into the parliament to make sure that the Northern Territory emergency response can be effective in the long term. We are introducing major welfare reforms to extend what are clear benefits of income management to more vulnerable Australians. We want to start in the Northern Territory, but we want to be able to extend income management to other vulnerable Australians across the country.

It is the case that our reforms will make sure that people’s welfare payments are spent on the essentials of life—spent on food and rent, not on alcohol and gambling. The number of people on income management in the Northern Territory with our reforms is estimated to be 20,000. So 20,000 people are expected to be on income management under the reforms that we have introduced. This is all about personal responsibility and all about making sure that we do everything we possibly can to get children to school and to get young people engaged in work and training. We want to fight passive welfare and to link the payment of welfare to making sure that children go to school on a regular basis and that they continue their studies and go to work. I want to make it absolutely clear that these arrangements do not apply at the moment. The changes that we have proposed will make sure that income management can be rolled out in the towns in the Northern Territory—in Tennant Creek, in Katherine and in the suburbs of Alice Springs and Darwin—where we have significant and desperate circumstances for many, many people.

I have to say that it is extremely disappointing that the opposition have said that they will not support these vital reforms. It is very, very significant that the opposition are not supporting these vital reforms, which would have seen such a significant improvement to the lives of so many very vulnerable people in the Northern Territory—particularly when it would have seen an expansion in the number of people on income management. The Leader of the Opposition has previously said that he wants to see income management extended to other welfare recipients, and that is exactly what this government reform will do. The Leader of the Opposition has also said that he wants to see the Northern Territory emergency response become sustainable over the longer term—and that is exactly what these reforms will do. We do need to have welfare reform to make sure that the Northern Territory emergency response is sustainable for the longer term and that the benefits of income management can be extended to other vulnerable Australians.