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

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. I thank the minister for his response and I acknowledge the previous problems with the CDEP that he described. They were not just expressed by former Senator Ridgeway but by Cape York communities themselves. I ask the minister: how does so-called improving or reforming a program in a way that ends up giving people sit-down money help to address those problems which have been widely acknowledged? How does taking resources out of Aboriginal communities help to improve things for individuals in those communities? I also ask the minister to address one of the other concerns relating to this matter. Many Aboriginal people in the communities on the cape are asking whether there is a hidden agenda of the federal and state governments to close down some remote communities. Given the difficulty in improving your community, you may be wondering whether the government desires to close the community down the track. Can the minister give the Senate an assurance that there is no agenda or plan to do this?