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

Today I rise to honour the life of a bright and inspiring community leader named Marbine Austral. Tragically, Marbine recently took her own life. I pay my condolences to her family and, particularly, to all of my people on the Tiwi Islands who are mourning. Marbine was an extraordinary person who lived an extraordinary life. She was the Tiwi Islands' first female ranger, an inspiration for women and First Nations people alike.

Just two years ago, Marbine walked the halls of Parliament House with many other Indigenous rangers and traditional owners to celebrate 25 years of Indigenous Protected Areas. She met many MPs and senators in this place. As a ranger, she was passionate about sustainable land management and conservation. At the time, Marbine also met with me and my Labor government colleagues the Minister for the Environment and Water, Tanya Plibersek, and the then Minister for Indigenous Australians, Linda Burney, as well as Greens senator Dorinda Cox. I still have a photograph on my desk of the five of us together. Marbine was also present to witness the first dingo, Pumbah, to ever visit Parliament House, highlighting the protection of dingoes and to raise awareness of the cultural and environmental significance of these amazing animals.

Unfortunately, Marbine is not the first woman from the Tiwi Islands to take her life. Back in 2012, when I was the chair of the Select Committee on Youth Suicides in the Northern Territory, I wrote the report Gone too soon, in which I called for more to be done to address youth suicide, as too many of our youth were falling through the gaps and not getting the help that they needed. For far too many of our youth, particularly young women, there is not enough hope to protect them from the impulse to end their lives. Clearly, things need to change if we are to stop losing our youth, particularly our young women, to their own hand at such a high rate.

Sadly, since October last year, three young women in my home community on the Tiwi Islands have taken their lives. But we're working hard to do something about this issue, which causes terrible pain and devastation for families and tightknit communities like the Tiwi Islands. I welcome our government's commitment of $842 million, in partnership with the Northern Territory government and the Aboriginal peak organisations in the Northern Territory, which was announced last week, to continue to the close the gap and to build a better future for Territorians in remote communities. Amongst its initiatives, this investment increases the availability of culturally-safe and qualified mental health supports, including scholarships for up to 150 First Nations psychology students. We have expanded the Indigenous Rangers Program to create a thousand new jobs, including 770 positions for First Nations women. We must all work together to support our First Nations women.

Although Marbine is no longer with us—and with the blessing of her family I'm using her name. In Tiwi tradition usually a person's name becomes pukumani and cannot be talked about for 12 months. They've agreed for me to use her death and what happened as an example for us—that we must end the silence on suicides and start looking at what we need to do to try and deal with this issue. Marbine and her family can be proud of all that she accomplished. She was our very first Tiwi Islands female ranger. She has gone too soon. She will be sadly missed. But I think the legacy that she leaves behind will serve as an important pathway for many young people: she went from school into a ranger position, which she was very proud of. I think if we can replicate that and encourage more of our young people to do that, then we will see better results in our remote communities to come.

Mike Freelander (Macarthur, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

How very sad. May she rest in peace.