Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Minister for Community Services) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Boswell for his question and acknowledge his feelings of abhorrence of child abuse wherever it occurs in Australia. This issue is seen in exactly the same way in the eyes of every Australian. I rose in this place yesterday in response to an unsolicited question from Democrat Senator Bartlett and I made it absolutely clear that this government will stop at nothing to ensure that the protection of Indigenous people and their children in these communities remains a priority of the highest level.

This is no less than a national emergency. I am happy to inform the Senate that we will not be dealing with this in any other way than as a national emergency. We have had the cyclone of child abuse leave battered the minds and bodies of the most vulnerable of First Australians across the Northern Territory and very likely across the top of the entire Australian continent.

We have today announced a range of initiatives that deal with the emergency response in much the same way as we would with any other type of cyclone. We will first move to stabilise the communities in which this is happening, and then will we move to normalise them. In the most recent report, which is entitled Little children are sacred, one of the principal recommendations and recognitions in the report is that there is a very close association with substance abuse, particularly alcohol—the rivers of alcohol that run into Indigenous communities—that needs to be dealt with. The initiatives announced today indicate that in all Aboriginal lands in the Northern Territory described under the Aboriginal land rights act, and town camps and other Indigenous communities identified by the act, there will be no trafficking of any alcohol, there will be no consumption of any alcohol and there will be a total prohibition on alcohol, with the only exemption being for existing areas that are licensed under the Liquor Licensing Act.

Today we have foreshadowed amendments to the welfare act that ensure that those persons who have been on welfare for more than a two-year period will have coupons for 50 per cent of their welfare payment. This will ensure that the safety and welfare of the family and the children are met. Of course, the future of these individuals is a function of school attendance and there will be announcements made in much the same vein with regard to welfare payments and school attendance. Also, every child in these communities is going to have a health check.

The Commonwealth will compulsorily acquire some 50 townships. We will then move, under the Constitution, to ensure that compensation is paid on just terms. We will be providing extra police—10 police from every police force around Australia—to assist the Northern Territory with the provision of safety and law and order and to provide the same cover of law and order that we enjoy in all other parts of Australia. We will be assisting with the clean-up of the communities by ensuring that we have the Welfare to Work process. We will be banning the possession and use of X-rated pornography in these communities and in these areas. We will be abolishing the permit system as it applies to public roads and public areas within townships.

These are wide-ranging changes, and many will say that many rights will be trodden on. There is no doubt about that. But we fundamentally believe that it is the right to protection of the youngest and most vulnerable of our First Australians that should come first.