Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is the second time, recently, I have followed the member for Wakefield in this chamber. I know he was sincere when he spoke about his side of politics but he forgot to mention that no-one in that media report was calling themselves Dasher and speaking in the third person or doing video retakes to show how they had been involved in that situation. He should have expanded on his own side's downfall.

I rise to update the House on the constituents of Swan about the NBN following the release of the proposed rollouts. The completion of the National Broadband Network in the electorate of Swan is on the horizon following the inclusion of all remaining suburbs in the much-anticipated three-year rollout plan released on Friday. My electorate of Swan is already the most advanced in Western Australia, in terms of the rollout. I know that might disappoint you, Madam Deputy Speaker Price, being another West Australian electorate holder.

It is now on track to become one of the first WA electorates to be completed. The dates for the remainder of the rollouts, in the electorate of Swan, are: Como, 2,500 houses in the second half of 2016; Beckenham, Bentley, Cannington, East Cannington, Karawara, Queens Park, Saint James, Waterford, Welshpool and Wilson had 16,400 houses in November 2015. Where we cross the border with Tangney we have: Ferndale, Lynwood, Riverton, Parkwood, Rossmoyne, Shelley and Willeton, which will be 3,100 houses in the second half of 2017. In Ascot, Belmont, Cloverdale, Kewdale, the remainder, and Perth Airport, Redcliffe and the remainder of Rivervale, it will be 14,300 houses for the first quarter of 2017.

The progress of the NBN under the coalition government since the 2013 election has been rapid, particularly in my electorate. Just two years ago, at the time of the 2013 election, there were only 34 brownfield premises connected across the whole of Perth and only 75 connected for the whole state of Western Australia actually connected. There were more announcements leading up to the 2013 election from those on the opposite side than there were actual connections. In my electorate alone, Labor came and announced the NBN is being switched on about 20 times and there were not even 20 connections in my electorate.

In 2013, I asked the then communications minister how the rollout in Western Australia was going, particularly in Victoria Park. The honourable member said in October 2011 that the then government announced construction had commenced in East Victoria Park. The Labor government had announced in 2011 it had started and two years later there were no ready-for-service premises in that area. Indeed, despite barrels of propaganda, reams of leaflets and flyers and lots of claims on election day, in total there were 34 brownfield premises in Perth. The NBN connections in Western Australia, he said, have been as rare sightings of Brian Burke—and he was correct on that as well. The situation was bleak with the WA rollout facing a series of severe issues. The lead contractor, Syntheo, pulled out of the state. The minister said at the time work had basically stopped in WA and the rollout was in chaos under the previous government. There were many subcontractors to Syntheo who never got paid under the previous government and it was just an absolute disgrace.

Today in the electorate of Swan, after two years of coalition government, we have 28,650 premises ready-for-service across a dozen suburbs, 10,475 of them have actually been activated and, on the ground, build is underway across 14 suburbs. I remind the member for Wakefield there were only 14 connections in my electorate at the last election. Now there are over 10,000 so it is a bit of a comparison. The fact that we are now looking at the NBN's completion in Swan with the inclusion of all the remaining areas in the three-year plan is a remarkable turnaround. The advantages Swan will have by being one of the first electorates to be completed will be significant and shared by businesses as well as residents.

I am looking forward particularly to the work starting on the notorious Ascot exchange, which was promised by the previous government to be fixed in 2009. It still has not been touched but we are working on it, getting it underway because the previous government left the NBN rollout in Western Australia and in my electorate of Swan in a shambles.

Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to congratulate the newly formed Amnesty International Australia Water Gardens group. This is a group of local constituents who have come together to form a local chapter of Amnesty International in my electorate. They meet on a monthly basis to discuss and promote human rights issues. Their meetings are held at the Sydenham library and they are building solid networks in our local community. There are 700 international Amnesty International supporters in my electorate and the aim of the group is to increase that number. Recently they had a stall at the Brimbank City Council's asylum seeker expo as part of their campaign to raise awareness in the local community about important human rights violations.

I had the great pleasure of meeting Meni and Krish, who are from the local Amnesty International chapter in Water Gardens. They came to see me as the federal member of order to draw my attention to Amnesty International's new report on Indigenous youth justice titled A brighter tomorrow: keeping Indigenous kids in the community and out of detention in Australia. This report is the result of extensive research undertaken by Amnesty International between 2013 in 2015 and it makes practical recommendations for the federal, state and territory governments to consider ways in which to reduce their overrepresentation of Indigenous young people in the criminal justice system in Australia.

The most concerning aspect of this report is that it tells us Indigenous young people are now locked up at 26 times the rate of non-Indigenous young people despite the fact that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island youth account for only just five per cent of the Australian population in detention of 10 to 17-year-olds.

These statistics in relation to the incarceration of Indigenous youth should concern us all. It certainly concerns the members of my local Amnesty International group, who care deeply about this issue. They believe that all children deserve a fair start in life. Their message to me and to this parliament is:

… kids have healthy happy childhoods when they live in loving and nurturing communities. We believe that disadvantaged kids should be supported to rise above their circumstances and this is not achieved by current government policies of separating them from their communities and locking them up.

One of the main recommendations of this report is that government adopts a justice reinvestment approach in order to address underlying issues that Aboriginal youth face today. My local Amnesty group strongly supports initiatives such as the New South Wales town of Bourke's Maranguka Justice Reinvestment Project initiative, which came to fruition in 2013 when a local Aboriginal leaders and young people, and community members, organisations, local agencies and government representatives came together to develop programs that helped to keep Indigenous young people out of custody.

This community-led approach to solving problems is widely regarded as a better approach, and the case for change will be made to the New South Wales government shortly. My local Amnesty group want this parliament to understand—and again, I quote:

… such initiatives have enormous potential to reduce the numbers of incarcerated indigenous children, create safer communities and reduce government expenditure on juvenile detention.

There are 16 recommendations in this report in total, amongst them being the recommendation to increase the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 10 years to 12 years of age.

In my electorate there is already an overrepresentation of young people in the juvenile justice system. They are not necessarily Indigenous youth; there are also South Pacific Islanders and some from the Middle East. But the challenges and concerns that our community has for our local youth are similar to the ones we share in common with the community of Bourke. I believe that we can all learn from each other and that whilst there may be some differences, essentially we all share the same belief that caring and stable families and communities form the best environment for the healthy development of young people. Ultimately, it is our responsibility as a community to provide the necessary care and support so that our local kids can flourish.

I would like to thank the Watergardens group for raising this with me. I look forward to catching up with them in the near future. I will continue to advocate on their behalf. I would also like to refer the House to the recommendations of this report. I commend the report to the House.