Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation) Share this | Hansard source

I can inform Senator Bartlett and the Senate that the minister is aware of the views that Senator Bartlett has expressed in his question. We are, of course, widely recognised as a consultative government; and so, of course, we will listen to those people that have concerns in this particular area. I should also say that, because we are a consultative government, we listened very carefully to some of the concerns about the way CDEP was being administered. Comments such as:

CDEP was ... a poor substitute for real jobs and not enough was done to provide the pathways for real outcomes. It sat there for 25 years and longer and the governments, irrespective of their persuasion, didn’t look ... beyond that.

They are the words of former Australian Democrats Senator Aden Ridgeway.

We as a government said CDEP should be put out to a competitive tender process. The organisations that have complained about the outcomes are, not surprisingly, those organisations that were not successful in that competitive tender process. I am advised that the competitive tender process was done on the basis of the normal sorts of qualities that are looked for—issues of governance, financial capacity and viability.

The government and the minister in particular make no apology for the fact that with our CDEP funding we are concerned about the individual outcomes for individual participants in the CDEP schemes. We are not about providing funding to particular organisations; that is not the aim of using taxpayers’ money. We want actual outcomes for individual participants. We want to engage those individual participants in a meaningful way in self-help, in community projects and in ensuring their genuine job readiness so that they can participate in the ever-growing employment market in our country.

So whilst on one hand the government accepts that there will be concerns expressed by those organisations that did not successfully tender, on the other hand there are organisations that were successful and that are confident that they can deliver for the benefit of the Indigenous communities for which this money was made available. As to whether the minister would seek to have further discussions with the Aboriginal communities referred to by Senator Bartlett, I am willing to see whether the minister is desirous of adding to the answer that I have provided. If he is, I will get back to the honourable senator.