Andrew Bartlett (Queensland, Australian Democrats) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:The need for all political parties and all levels of government to make the long term commitment of working constructively together with Indigenous Australians and communities to address the completely unsatisfactory health and housing situations faced by many Indigenous people.

I have raised this urgency motion today because I believe it is very important for the Senate, and for the political process more broadly, to continually remind itself about the necessity of giving priority to the situation faced by Indigenous Australians. I believe from conversations I have had with many senators in this place over a number of years that the vast majority of us would and do very genuinely want to see an improvement in the situation faced by Indigenous Australians.

What I believe is the unavoidable truth is that, frankly, the political system itself—and most of us within it—really does not know how best to go about it. It is about time we looked at the evidence to back up that claim. There would not be another area of public policy where the political system has so comprehensively failed as in the area of Indigenous affairs. Over the 105 years since Federation there has been a litany of failure on the part of the political process, sometimes driven by malevolence, sometimes by disinterest and sometimes with genuine goodwill, but in almost all cases with unintended consequences. As a general result today we have reached the point where there is obviously still major inequality and a significant situation where the average Indigenous Australian has far fewer opportunities than other people in the country.

Nowhere is this more starkly and inexcusably reflected than in the basic statistic—a statistic that we should remember is reflected by living, breathing human beings—that the life expectancy of the average Indigenous Australian is at least 17 years shorter than the rest of us. What continues to frustrate me and many people is that we have such a stark health statistic, which states that a group of people in our community live 17 years less on average than the rest of us, and yet it is not a political scandal of the highest order and it is not priority No. 1 for all political parties and all parliaments—state, federal and territory. That, I believe, is simply because it is literally in the too hard basket. It is literally an issue which the political system as a whole does not know how to address so we lurch from crisis to crisis, from short-term solution to short-term solution, and the overall situation—whether it is health, housing or violence in communities—continues to be one that is totally unsatisfactory.

What I do not seek to do by this motion is to point fingers of blame at any particular party or level of government. The political system as a whole, as I have said, has plenty of blame to go around. I think we have all failed—all major parties, all levels of government and indeed I would be quite prepared to put smaller parties in that category of failing as well—because none of us, the smaller parties included, have given adequate priority to the need to overcome this single, most disgraceful inequality in modern Australia. We all know the statistics and the different stories and situations, whether in fundamentals such as health and housing or some other areas.

I want to point to one aspect that needs to be given more emphasis. We repeatedly hear that you will not solve the problem by throwing more money at it. Certainly, if you just throw money of any amount—small or large—at a problem without direction and without seeking to ensure that it is properly spent then, no, you will not help. But that should not be taken to mean that it does not need more resources, because clearly, in some of these areas, there is a need for more resources—in health and housing in particular. The Australian Medical Association has estimated that we are hundreds of millions of dollars short of what we need to address Indigenous health. Similar amounts of money are needed up-front, in large amounts, to deal with the ridiculous overcrowding in many Indigenous communities in housing. Whilst these are large sums of money they are also only the price of one or two of the latest high-tech fighter planes of which we are seeking to buy another 20 or 30. It is a matter of priority.

By this motion I do not seek to blame. I seek to put the pressure and obligation on all of us, on all sides of politics and all levels of government to give greater priority to this issue, to keep reminding ourselves of it day after day rather than just responding with the right sounding words whenever it hits the headlines. We need to be working on it when it is not in the headlines. We need to be working on it day after day, continually, and we need to be working on it with Indigenous communities. There is still too much of governments getting together—as we are seeing with the summit in the near future—and determining solutions that are once again going to be imposed on Indigenous communities. It is a long-term task—it will take 20 or 30 years. It will take all of us working together and it will take all of us having to work with and listen to Indigenous communities to find out what will work for them. (Time expired)