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

Mr Speaker, my question is to the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. How is the Northern Territory cattle industry helping to close the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians?

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Solomon for raising what is an important issue. The government’s commitment to jobs and job creation goes across every portfolio. Members would be aware of the particular challenges in some of the more remote parts of the Northern Territory, where for generations people had jobs without fair wages and in recent years fair wages have been available but not many jobs. The commitment from the government, through what has been a relatively modest program delivered in a partnership between my department and the Indigenous Land Corporation within Minister Macklin’s department, has been to work cooperatively with the Northern Territory Cattlemen’s Association. We have a window of opportunity at the moment where some of the old stockmen and women are still alive and some of the people who are able to act as mentors for young people coming through are still with us. If we can make the connections with the cattle stations for the training and employment, we can actually close the gap in a way that should have been done many years ago. It is an opportunity that will not necessarily be available in exactly the same way for many more years into the future, with the mentors being available as they are right now.

When I was last in the Northern Territory, it coincided with the visit of my Indonesian counterpart, Minister Suswono, who is responsible for receiving many of the cattle in Indonesian ports that are exported out of the Northern Territory. Together we visited Tipperary Station not long after the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government had been there. There were 14 Indigenous young men and women who were being trained by a senior stock handler in a certificate II course and being able to get basic training with a direct connection following that to particular cattle stations. I think the significance of this program in terms of total employment numbers is very modest, but the significance of how it changes the lives of those involved was made clear when one of the participants, Tanya Callanan, spoke to me afterwards. We had a conversation there on the cattle station. I asked her how this was different from other training courses in which she had been involved in the past and she said, ‘Well, normally I get a certificate.’ I said, ‘Aren’t you getting one this time?’ and she said, ‘No, no, I’m getting a certificate; on this occasion I’m also getting a job.’