Milton Dick (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Adequate, safe and secure housing is critical to every facet of life for every Australian, but for many of our First Australians, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders living in remote communities, housing is anything but adequate, safe or secure. Next Monday the Prime Minister will stand up to deliver his annual response to the Closing the gap report. There is one thing that he absolutely must acknowledge: if you want to improve employment outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, if you want to improve educational outcomes, if you want to improve health, child safety and social outcomes, people need somewhere adequate, safe and secure to live.

For the past 10 years, the Commonwealth government has worked in partnership with state governments to build houses in these remote communities, many of which are in my home state of Queensland. The National Partnership on Remote Housing has been a remarkably successful program which includes among its many achievements reducing overcrowding in Queensland's remote communities by half. This is not simply a housing program. It is a skills, training and employment program, and it's a program that works.

Since the program's commencement in 2008, Queensland has delivered 1,150 new homes and delivered 2,640 jobs, and more than 80 per cent of those jobs are performed by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workers. Right now, in remote communities in Queensland, there are 515 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people employed in housing construction through the national partnership. Ninety-six of these workers are trade apprentices who are learning skills that will take them into long-term careers as builders, electricians and plumbers. This is exactly the sort of outcome we need to close the gap. In fact, this is exactly the kind of outcome we need to lift people out of welfare across the board. The difference this program has made in these communities is concrete, tangible and measurable.

Earlier today in Canberra, it was a pleasure to meet with several of the delegates and mayors of these communities who have been here this week to speak to the government, members of the opposition and the crossbench, not just to impress upon them the importance of continuing this program but also to set the record straight—because the record needs to be set straight.

Yesterday during question time, the Minister for Indigenous Health stood up in this parliament and said the states would have to commit to an equal partnership with the Commonwealth and put money on the table. Well, Queensland has put money on the table and will continue to put money on the table because, unlike the Prime Minister, the Queensland state government is not walking away from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders living in remote communities.

The truth is that the National Partnership on Remote Housing does not require a capital contribution from the states. However, over the past 10 years, the Queensland government has gone above this and contributed more than $650 million towards remote Indigenous housing, including in the communities of Cherbourg and Yarrabah, which the Commonwealth refuses to include in the partnership agreement. Of the 1,150 homes built in Queensland, 199 have been built with Queensland money. Queensland has committed to the ongoing maintenance, upgrade and depreciation costs of these homes, along with the training costs associated with the training of the apprentices who actually build these homes.

There is a young man visiting us in Canberra today, His name is Lenny. He's 23 years old, and he lives with his mother and grandmother in the remote community of Hope Vale, in Far North Queensland, almost 3,000 kilometres from where we sit today. Through the national partnership agreement, Lenny became an apprentice, building homes in his own community. Lenny finished his apprenticeship just a few weeks ago. He's now a fully qualified carpenter earning a steady wage building homes in Hope Vale. His mother currently has a job in Cooktown, but that job will finish up soon, meaning that Lenny will be the sole breadwinner for his family. If the Prime Minister continues with his plan to cut the National Partnership on Remote Housing, Lenny, like many other Indigenous Australians, will be out of a job.

The Commonwealth government commissioned a review into the National Partnership on Remote Housing, which was released in December last year—not by any state government but by the Commonwealth government. That report clearly outlines that Queensland has met and exceeded set benchmarks and recommends continuing the partnership to further progress closing the gap. It even says that housing should be measured as a Closing the Gap benchmark. And what have we heard about the report from those opposite? Nothing.

I say this to the Prime Minister: on Monday, do not come in here and deliver a Closing the gap speech wanting a pat on the back. If the LNP and the coalition government are serious about closing the gap, the Prime Minister and this government cannot walk away from basic human rights like access to safe and secure housing.