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

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. I remind the minister of my actual question, which was whether the government would adopt the Millennium Development Goals to apply them specifically to Australia so that we apply the same goals to our own people who are in extreme poverty—Indigenous Australians—as we are signing up to for people in other countries. If the minister could answer the question, it would be appreciated. Is the minister seriously suggesting that the government’s action in reducing the rights of traditional owners in the Northern Territory as to what happens on their land is going to take them out of poverty? Is it possible for the minister, for once, to answer a question about the outrageous inequality faced by Indigenous Australians without resorting to cheap, petty partisan point-scoring?