Marion Scrymgour (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Just in continuing—organisations in our regions, and particularly in the bush, are the most important drivers of social cohesion and opportunity in the regions and in communities. It has been the modus operandi of coalition governments for a few decades now to try and bring in bureaucracy-approved competitor entities from outside. Sometimes they claim not-for-profit NGOs, sometimes a favoured entrepreneur. That replacement entity gets the contract or contracts, and the local community organisation shrivels up. It is usually then that any governance problems which may have existed get worse.

I'm not suggesting there haven't been a few larger entities which have gotten themselves into difficulty without any outside pressure or assistance. But, when it happens, it isn't some phenomenon unique to Indigenous corporations. In the Northern Territory, there have been several organisations, such as NAAJA and the Northern Land Council, that need to look at why they are there—for the advancement and welfare of the people that they purport to represent. A failure to do this will be at their demise.

When it comes to calls for an audit, which were in the motion moved, I would like to suggest an alternative audit. The audit I would suggest would be put into practice and could be fostered and agreed to by a coalition government, especially when it comes to Indigenous affairs. There is a piece of legislation that could be extended to deal with some of these anomalies, and that is the PGPA Act. Under this act are the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Rule 2014 and other federal legislative instruments that establish the requirements and procedures necessary to give effect to the governance, performance and accountability matters covered by the PGPA Act. In my opinion, and for what it is worth, it is time to transition all organisations that receive Commonwealth funding to be accountable under this legislation.

The second thing they've called for is a royal commission into child sexual abuse in Indigenous communities. I am just as committed as every member of the federal parliament to ensuring that perpetrators are detected, prosecuted and punished and that victims are protected and supported. Just as importantly, the values and mindsets of cohorts within the community who can become potential offenders need to be challenged and changed so that future victims are protected. I think having a royal commission is just a strategy for delaying and not taking action.

The cashless debit card has been reinstated in vulnerable communities. I don't comment too much about communities outside of my backyard, so I'll let others speak in relation to places outside of the Northern Territory. But, in the NT, people have become income managed since the intervention. They are stuck with the BasicsCard. The cashless debit card is pretty much a nonissue.

Summing up, I do want to acknowledge the important leadership and deep commitment shown by the Prime Minister, Minister Burney and Assistant Minister McCarthy to address across this country of ours, but particularly in the Northern Territory, the obvious inequity that has been happening across Indigenous affairs in this country for a long time. Maybe, when people stand up and point the finger at Labor, they should take note of the other fingers that are pointing at themselves. Many of them have just downplayed the severity of the issues facing the Northern Territory for a decade. I think that sometimes, particularly in relation to this issue, we've got to come to a place where both sides need to agree that we have, in this country, probably the biggest crisis facing Indigenous affairs.

I think it is imperative for both sides to put aside the politics, the finger pointing and the bickering and to work together to try and get the best outcome. That's what my constituents say to me: 'Why can't you politicians in federal parliament sit down and just work through a process where we're going to get better outcomes on the ground in our communities?' This is true. Sometimes, we've just got to let go of our own ideology and the politics and look at what we need to do to try to get the best outcome, particularly if we're looking at generational change. In a lot of communities that I travel in, suicide rates are still too high. We need to start looking at that.

So, on that note, I just hope that we can close the gap.

Keith Pitt (Hinkler, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I, of course, move to support the motion by the member for Durack and, in particular, the acknowledgement that it was the Labor government that spent $450 million on a divisive Voice to Parliament, and, not only that, they removed the cashless debit card from trials around the country. I want to acknowledge the work of the members for Grey, Durack and O'Connor because they are the individuals who actually lived through the implementation, the rollout, the development and then the removal of the cashless debit card in their electorates—an actual element which works. It's a policy that works and a policy that was supported enormously by local communities. We saw the Labor government wanting to implement a voice to parliament across the country, and they're now, after the defeat of the referendum, talking about local voices, but they won't listen to the local voices on the cashless debit card. This is a policy which is difficult. It is tough, but it works.

We should look at the reasons we implemented it, particularly in my trial site area of the Hinkler electorate. We started that trial in January 2019. It ended in September 2022 after the Albanese government repealed the legislation. Eighty per cent of recipients' payments went on the card and 20 per cent into their bank account. The 80 per cent couldn't be used to buy alcohol, gamble or use illicit substances because recipients didn't have cash.

Here's one of the prime reasons we implemented it. In September 2017, when Hinkler was announced as a trial site, the statistics were very, very sobering. Of those who were under 30 on welfare at that time, 90 per cent had a parent who had been also on welfare in the last 15 years—the majority of which were on welfare for at least nine of the last 15 years. Without any intervention, it was projected that 50 per cent of those under 30 on welfare would still be on income support in 10 years time. They are the reasons that we support tough policies, like the cashless debit card—because we are failing the vulnerable in our community. We are failing them, and yet the Labor government has taken away something which works. They ran an enormous scare campaign, and I'll come to that in a moment.

But, in terms of support, we ran any number of consultations and discussions. It was even tested by the local newspaper with research and polling, and the lowest number I ever saw was 65 per cent support. In fact, it was as high as 70 per cent in some places. Rents were being paid. There were increases in the purchases of food and items for kids. Support organisations were saying that they were handing out less welfare support. These are the things that actually happened on the ground for real people with real kids in real communities.

We saw in March 2023 the Labor Party issue what they call their 'local services plan', and guess what it did? It verified the reasons the CDC was rolled out in the first place. There were five priorities. The first was data sharing. We would have done that, but the Queensland Labor state government wouldn't give us the data. Next were collaboration; alcohol and drug use and mental health; family and domestic violence; and employment. In 2020 at the state election, the then Palaszczuk government actually committed to building a rehab and a detox facility in Bundaberg. Guess how much of that is built? A duck egg, none, zero, not delivered—construction still hasn't started.

We are for doing things that matter. We are for moving with policies that will actually make a difference. We see that the Labor Party has now implemented what it calls 'voluntary income management', where 50 per cent of the payments go onto a card—and guess what? It's the same card, with the same provider, with the same technology, operated by the same financial institution—all of the issues that the Labor Party complained about when the coalition was rolling it out. It's the same. They haven't changed it. There was a scare campaign that age pensioners would be going onto the CDC. Well, from the most recent data, from 29 December 2023, in the Northern Territory, guess who's got age pensioners on the cashless debit card? The Labor Party. There are 18 of them. In fact, they've got 7,384 individuals in the Northern Territory on the CDC. But, in my electorate, where we had some 6,000, making a real difference, the number is now 16.

I've had a look at the complaints from the Labor Party right through the campaign and all the way through previous terms of government. They were all about how much this card cost per individual. Can you imagine the differential between 6,000 on the card, in terms of participants, and 16? It is enormous. It is absolutely outrageous that those opposite would run a campaign based on elements which they themselves then delivered. They have put age pensioners on the cashless debit card. They have used the same provider. They have used the same technology. The only difference is that there are 7,000 individuals now in the Northern Territory using the CDC. If the coalition are returned to government, we will reinstate the cashless debit card.

Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Durack has said that the Voice to Parliament referendum was 'divisive', language that is parroted by all those on that side. They mean divisive in a pejorative sense, in a black-and-white sense, in a First Nations and non-First Nations sense. Obviously the nation divides every election day. We make a decision, we cast a ballot and then we unite. It's no big thing to actually make a decision, especially when it comes to changing the Constitution. An idea—taking something to the Australian people and saying, 'This is something you should consider'—should not be something that scares people. The fact that our birth document does not mention First Nations people is surely something all sensible people would want corrected.

But the most divisive thing that I saw about this constitutionally entrenched and budgeted-for process was the misinformation peddled by the member for Durack and her colleagues—not all of her colleagues but some of her colleagues. For example, Senator Price from the Northern Territory, on referendum day, Saturday 14 October, was actually in my electorate of Moreton, on the south side of Brisbane. She was hard at it, spreading poisonous words and misinformation at some of my local booths, standing amongst some of the poorest people in Brisbane, before going off to party that night with a couple of millionaires—unbelievable.

When I think about the 'yes' campaign in Moreton, it makes me feel very, very proud, because people of all ages and political persuasions turned up in large numbers to take part in a grassroots, community based campaign, and none swanned in on jets from the Northern Territory; they were all locals. Most had never doorknocked before, and most were not political. They were nervous but passionate. It was their shared values that motivated them to doorknock and to talk to strangers about why they were voting yes, because they believed in constitutional recognition for our First Nations people and for the opportunities for change that a Voice to Parliament could provide—a simple advisory body that could help solve a wicked problem.

Obviously the people of Australia said, 'Not yet,' but we know that change is in the wind. This group of people in Moreton, like the broader 'yes' campaign, were peddling hope, a positive vision for a better future and the acknowledgement and honouring of the 65,000-year history of our First Nations peoples. There was no dog-whistle division in Moreton. The 'yes' campaign brought people of all descriptions together in a very positive environment. The Albanese government is now focused on our deep and unwavering commitment to working with our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community and taking action to address entrenched inequality. Surely that's something that we can all agree on?

In the months since the referendum, the Minister for Indigenous Australians met with community members across the country, as well as the Indigenous affairs ministers from every state and territory. Indigenous Australians want action, not more reports and a punching-down by hypocritical, shortsighted politicians looking for cheap political points. They don't want another royal commission into child protection and nor do the 157 stakeholders working in the child protection sector. Instead, we listened to their recommendation for the appointment of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children's commissioner to work on the scourge of child abuse and ensure that every child has the right to grow up safely and healthily. They don't want another audit on Indigenous affairs spending, especially when there have been more than 20 audits since 2014. The National Indigenous Australians Agency has already begun implementing all of the Auditor-General's recommendations to ensure strong governance and accountability in programs and services, and this will be backed up by new integrity branch.

What Indigenous Australians want is action on health, jobs, education, housing and justice. The Albanese Labor government listens to First Nations communities. We are working and collaborating with them to design and implement the programs that they want and that will work. The remote jobs program is creating 3,000 jobs with proper wages and decent conditions over the next three years. We want to double the number of Indigenous rangers by up to 1,000 jobs by 2030. Our fee-free TAFE courses attracted over 14,000 First Nations students, opening up pathways for future employment, diverse opportunities and, importantly, purpose and wellbeing. And $100 million is been invested in urgent work on new and existing housing and essential infrastructure in the Northern Territory homelands. Obviously, we must always put First Nations leaders at the centre of all such decisions. Under the Albanese Labor government, First Nations people will go forward.

Rick Wilson (O'Connor, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Trade) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to support my very dear and valued colleague the member for Durack on the motion which she has moved in this place predominantly addressing some of the issues around closing the gap. Those of us who represent electorates that have large populations of very remote Indigenous communities, where I think everyone in this place would agree the level of disadvantage is completely and utterly unacceptable and third-world in its nature, just want to see the improvements that we need to make. Many things have been tried from both sides of politics in, I believe, good faith in all instances. There is no doubt that people in this place, on all sides and from all parties, want to see major improvements made.

Having said that, I've seen lots of these programs that have been rolled out in my electorate fail quite dismally, to be quite honest, and fail the people who deserve help the most. As I say, that is those people living in my very remote communities such as Warburton, Warakurna, Laverton and Leonora. These are places not known to many Australians, but certainly to the people living live in those communities it is their land, it is their home and it is their culture and lifestyle. We need to support them and provide them with the amenities that we all enjoy in broader society while enabling them to live in their home territories and their homelands and to live their traditional lifestyles.

There are programs that we have tried. There has been a multitude of them. In the town of Leonora we discovered that there were 53 separate programs targeted at children. In Leonora around 800 people live in the township. There would be maybe 100 children in the town. So we've got one program specifically targeted at children for every two children. We've never been able to identify the amount of actual expenditure on those programs, but I would say that the amount of money per child being spent in the town of Leonora would be eye-watering. So, while we've seen many programs, we have seen many that haven't necessarily been particularly successful.

Children in the town of Leonora are still not attending school in the numbers needed for them to achieve and move on. That's not to say there aren't some success stories. There are some wonderful children in Leonora. When I was in Leonora recently with Senator Kerrynne Liddle, I met with a young Indigenous girl who was off to Murdoch University. She studied years 11 and 12 via SIDE learning, which is remote learning. There is no year 11 or 12 at the Leonora District High School. So there was this beautiful young girl, with all those hopes and fears and nerves about moving to the big smoke and going to university, and I wished her the very best of luck. That was a success story. But, more broadly, we are seeing an abject failure in policy in this space. That is why I support Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price's call for a royal commission into these programs.

We need to know what is working and what is not working. The previous speaker, the member for Moreton, said, 'Oh, we just need to ask the people that are delivering those programs.' Well, quite frankly, they are the last people we need to be asking. Of course, they have a vested interest in talking up their book; they have a vested interest in telling the government that the millions and millions, in fact, billions of dollars being invested in this space are being well spent and achieving the desired result. Well, patently, they're not achieving the desired result. Those people who live, work and travel in my electorate and who see those remote communities firsthand would be able to tell you that those programs—I think it's up to $30 billion worth—are failing dismally. We need to look closely at how these programs are being rolled out, why they are succeeding in the odd cases they are succeeding, and why they are failing in the many cases they are failing.

Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last year, the government delivered on its election commitment to put the Voice to Parliament to a referendum and to put it to the Australian electorate. While it may not have been the outcome that many in our country had hoped for, we respect the decision that was made by the Australian people. I certainly do. This motion proves, though, that the only people still politicising the results of that referendum are those opposite. They accuse the federal government of having no plan B for Indigenous affairs. I reject that really weird assertion, given that for 10 years they had no plan A, B, C or D—no plans at all. When they did have a plan, it was for an intervention. I worked as part of that intervention. There was very minimal benefit to that enormous expense, but it also came at the expense of the disempowerment of a whole generation of First Nations people in the Northern Territory. That's the reality. What those opposite love to do is paint those out there in First Nations communities with the same brush, and that did a lot of damage.

All we hear is relentless negativity from those opposite, for opposition's sake. Opposition raised to a performative art form, dividing Australians with every opportunity they get. Those opposite's big vision for Australia, particularly when it comes to First Nation's people, is to have a royal commission. They had a royal commission into youth justice that came out of the Don Dale Detention Centre in the Northern Territory and then didn't fund a dollar of putting the recommendations in. If those opposite got back onto the Treasury benches, we wouldn't see anything happening at all. I agree with those who say that we need to talk to the experts. Again, those opposite aren't that keen on talking to the experts, but they love fanning fears of woke corporations like the big two, particularly the big, bad Woolies that decided not to sell a particular type of flip-flop. So they thought, 'Let's tell everyone to ban that organisation.'

Meanwhile, we're looking into both of the big two and getting the ACCC to do an inquiry into them. We're not so worried about flip-flops and the culture wars. We want to see the big two stop ripping off Australians. We all know the cost of living is expensive. But, again, after 10 years of those opposite doing next to nothing and getting us in the situation we're in, we find ourselves having to act on a whole range of issues. So I reject that we have no plan B—especially from those opposite.

There is an entrenched inequality in this country. There's entrenched poverty in a lot of communities. We have been acting since the referendum, and any fair-minded person, any person looking at the state of affairs in Australia, would see that the Minister for Indigenous Australians has been out consulting, as have Senator McCarthy and Marion Scrymgour, my colleagues in the Northern Territory. They've been out there all across Australia and, in Marion's case, all across the Territory. The priorities are clear: health, jobs, education, housing and justice.

We're not just listening to them; we're acting on their advice. The new Remote Jobs and Economic Development Program will change lives in remote communities. After a decade of those opposite and their failed CDP programs that did next to nothing to lift people up in those communities, we want real jobs out in those communities, and it'll be a game changer. We're also investing $4 billion in housing in remote communities. Again, there was not enough done by those opposite over 10 years.

That's what real plans mean. You fund them; you fund the initiatives in housing, education and health that will improve lives; and you make real jobs—real jobs like the ones we're going to see First Nations Territorians working in in the Northern Territory. And that's what leadership is.

Henry Pike (Bowman, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise in support of this excellent motion by the member for Durack. Last year the Labor government devoted their time and energy to championing the Prime Minister's divisive Voice to Parliament proposal. They told us that Indigenous Australians needed our help and that the divisive Voice was the only way to close the gap and to improve the lives of Indigenous Australians. Yet the Voice was defeated soundly at the ballot box by everyday Australians who did not want to be divided by race. It cost Australians $450 million, and, even if it had been successful, it would not have achieved anything to close the gap in this country.

Since that point, despite being in government, Labor have offered no alternative solutions to the problems plaguing Indigenous Australians. In the months since the Voice, they have proposed no new legislation for issues specific to Indigenous Australians. As is so often evident with this government, it had no plan B. Labor had no practical solutions, despite the coalition proposing multiple. When Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and Senator Liddle tried to push for a committee inquiry and audit into spending and accountability in Indigenous communities and land councils, those calls were rejected by the government. The government could not even look into whether any money is being wasted, and of course we know that millions of dollars are being wasted across this country.

When the opposition leader called for a royal commission into child sex abuse in Indigenous communities, the Labor government ignored these calls. Programs which were working in vulnerable communities, such as the cashless debit card, have been scrapped, and, when the plight of these communities is raised with the government, they tie themselves in knots to explain why these communities are experiencing increases in violence. It's clear that the Labor government has no plan for Indigenous Australians.

Last month, we again sat in this House as the Prime Minister spoke on the annual Closing the gap report. He acknowledged that not enough was being done to change the confronting statistics and improve the lives of Indigenous Australians. But, yet again, Labor offered no real solutions. The government's new remote jobs program has no modelling or proper planning. Aboriginal justice organisations like the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency are in turmoil, and the problems of crime, domestic violence and alcohol and drug abuse continue to grow every single day.

It's clear that there is more work to be done in order to close the gap in my electorate and improve the living conditions for Indigenous communities in Bowman. I've spoken in this House before about how, just 38 kilometres from Brisbane's city centre, on North Stradbroke Island, many Indigenous Australians live in near Third World conditions. Many of these areas predate European arrival as sites of Indigenous habitation, yet the current residents have no official tenure over the land they occupy. In the settlements near Amity Point, Myora reserve, One Mile and Two Mile, Australians are living in informal settlements with no established roads, mains electricity, running water or sewerage. Some of the dwellings are well maintained and built, but others are often made up of scrap materials or extended from mobile homes and are usually powered by generators.

In One Mile, one council-supplied skip bin is provided for the weekly waste of over 60 people who reside there. Some of these encampments are on unallocated state land, but most are on land subject to native title. These homes cannot be formally sold, leased, secured or insured. I worry for the welfare of my constituents living in these encampments. I worry for the severe bushfire risk that they face. I worry about the lack of security, both financial and physical, that these properties provide their owners. And, with the complete lack of housing options within North Stradbroke Island, I worry that this situation will only get worse.

The Indigenous elders on the island are looking to solve some of the problems in this area, and I've met with them regarding their Aboriginal rights of residence program, which could help these communities invest in essential infrastructure and enable true ownership of their homes. They are proposing practical action—the sort of action the federal government could have supported, if it hadn't wasted $450 million on a failed referendum. The Voice would not have helped the people of One Mile or these other settlements, and a lot of the people living within those communities rejected the proposal at the ballot box.

Australians deserve a government who brings practical solutions to the table to fix the issues plaguing Indigenous Australian communities. I call on the government to take practical action to enable and support communities across the country to deliver real solutions on the ground.

Terry Young (Longman, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time allotted for the debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting