Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

This bundle of legislation constitutes perhaps the most important legislation that any of us in this chamber have ever been called upon to address. About six weeks ago a report entitled Little children are sacred, commissioned by the Northern Territory government, was released. It confirmed what the Australian government and, indeed, many of us have been saying for years and years and years. It told us in the clearest possible terms that child sexual abuse amongst Aboriginal children in the Northern Territory is serious, widespread and often unreported and that there is a strong association between alcohol abuse and sexual abuse of children.

We in this chamber have thought about it. I regret to say one of our former colleagues in this chamber is up on child assault charges. I am not for a moment suggesting that he is guilty—that is a matter that still has to be determined by the court—but certainly the allegation has brought that matter very clearly home to most of us in this Senate. There is clear evidence that the Northern Territory government was not able to protect Aboriginal children adequately, and it was for that reason that the Howard government decided that now is the time to stop talking and to intervene and declare an emergency situation and use the territories powers available under the Constitution to make laws for the Northern Territory.

As a result, we are providing extra police, which will stem the flood of alcohol, drugs and pornography. We will be assessing the health situation of children, engaging local people in improving living conditions and offering more employment opportunities and activities for young people. We aim to limit the amount of cash available for alcohol, drugs and gambling during the emergency period and to make a strong link between welfare payments and school attendance. We have been able to do some things immediately without legislation. The Northern Territory Emergency Response Taskforce has been established, led by magistrate Dr Sue Gordon, and a group of very distinguished and dedicated Australians are involved in that task force. We have begun to provide extra Federal Police and to make communities safe. The states have committed to provide police and the Australian government has agreed to cover costs.

We have started to take action, which has been lamentably absent over the past 10 to 20 years. I get angry, very angry, when I hear the likes of the previous two speakers berating the government for moving now on this issue. We are being told by the previous two speakers that we should sit down and have some more consultation, we should have a lot more talks, we should form committees, we should keep thinking about it. What we have been doing for the last 20 years is talking about it, talking about it, talking about it. At last we have a government that is going to take some action, not just keep talking about it, which is what the two previous speakers seem to be suggesting we should do.

My parents used to tell me that back in the old days—this was even before my time—Aboriginal stockmen in the Northern Territory and Northern Queensland were reputed to be amongst the best stockmen in the world. They were highly regarded, they were happily employed—not at full rates, I have to say—they were not involved in grog and pornography and gambling and they did their work and did it well. Some of the money that they were paid was taken from them by their employers, who are now berated as ‘horrible’—and every term that can be thought of by the bleeding hearts. But they used to take out some of their pay before it went to the stockmen, and that was used to feed and clothe the women and the children who lived at the stations in safety. It used to help educate the children in a very basic way.

Then we had Mr Whitlam and that Labor government that we would like to forget come in and say: ‘It is contrary to human rights that this should happen. These people can’t be paid a lesser wage’—and I understand it was not much less—‘so they will get paid the full wage.’ As a result, employment of Aboriginal stockmen over a period of time disappeared and a lot of the problems that we now see in Indigenous communities started at that time.

I am delighted to see that the Labor Party is on board on this, because I remember a few years ago the Queensland government of the time—I think then advised by a Mr Kevin Rudd—refused an application by a Cape York Aboriginal community to get state government backing for their decision to ban alcohol in their community. I will not be definitive about the name; I think it was Aurukun, but if it was not Aurukun, it was one of those up on the western side of Cape York.

The women of the community got together and decided they should ban alcohol in that community. The Queensland government of the day—which, as I said, was, I think, advised by Kevin Rudd—refused to back the local community, saying it was the right of everyone in Queensland to drink as much grog as they wanted and the Queensland government was not going to be part of a measure that might withdraw someone’s human rights. It did not matter that the kids were being belted; it did not matter that the kids were being sexually abused; it did not matter that the women were being assaulted every payday night. The Queensland government was more interested in the latte chattering classes idea that it was better to give them their human rights to have free access to alcohol than to worry about the welfare of the children.

Fortunately, the Howard government and Mal Brough have now had the intestinal fortitude to act. They are copping abuse from the likes of the previous two speakers, who have imputed to them all the improper motives, but they have had the courage and fortitude to go ahead with it. Already, 500 health checks have been conducted on Aboriginal children under 16. Not surprisingly, some cases have been referred to child protection authorities and the results of some initial tests have been referred for further testing for sexually transmitted diseases. This is an encouraging start, but Aboriginal children in the Northern Territory will never be safe and healthy without fundamental changes to the things that make communities dangerous and unhealthy places.

With no work in these communities, there is no hope of getting a job. Many Aboriginal people in these communities rely on passive welfare. Currently, there are too few jobs in the communities. Land tenure arrangements work against developing a real economy. Senator Bartlett talks about pinching their land, but that is simply a deliberate untruth.