Trish Crossin (NT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I understand we are debating sections of the Northern Territory National Emergency Response Bill 2007 and we are doing that until about five o’clock, when we have a first speech in this chamber. I know we are dealing with part 4 of this legislation, which goes to the compulsory acquisition of the leasing of people’s land, but I do want to take this time, while I have an opportunity this afternoon, particularly in what is a fairly significant week for people in the Northern Territory, to raise a few issues.

I am getting to a question, Senator Scullion. As the days in this debate roll on about improving lives of people in Indigenous communities, I notice that the object of this act does not mention the words ‘child’ or ‘children’ at all. I notice that in your opening presentations in the debate on these proposed amendments, a lot of emphasis was put on the Pat Anderson and Rex Wild report. I do want you to know, as minister representing Minister Brough in this chamber, that I vehemently tried to negotiate very hard with Guy Barnett, the Chair of the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs, that we hear from the authors of that report in last week’s Senate inquiry, but the government members, of course, did not allow those people to be witnesses before the Senate committee. It makes me wonder how genuine this government is about focusing its efforts on children and on empowering communities.

I want to take this opportunity to mention references in a speech that was given on Tuesday night by Senator Heffernan. When I sit down from this deliberation, I want to ask whether or not this government has gone through the contribution of government members in this chamber and, either publicly or privately, sought to correct the record about their inaccuracies and their gross misrepresentation of Indigenous people in the Territory. In his contribution on Tuesday night to the debate on the second reading amendments, Senator Heffernan made accusations about the people at Yuendumu and the Mt Theo program. I am not going to insult my constituents in those communities by repeating what he said, but it is there in the Hansard record, as stated at about five o’clock on Tuesday night.

I want an opportunity to read into Hansard this afternoon this response from the people of Mt Theo, given that tomorrow is an extremely significant day for the people in those communities. Those people who run the Mt Theo sniffing program, Peggy Nampijinpa Brown and Johnny Japangardi Miller, along with a non-Indigenous support person, Andrew Stojanovski, will be awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia. On behalf of those people, I want the Australian public to hear a statement I received from the people at Mt Theo-Yuendumu:

The Mt Theo Program (MYSMAC) is deeply saddened by accusations made by Senator Heffernan in Parliament on Tuesday 14th August 2007.

The Senator alleged that one of the managers had been “having sex with all the children” at Mt Theo Outstation during their rehabilitation from petrol sniffing. We are distressed that the Senator would make such damning unsubstantiated comments stated as fact under Parliamentary privilege. Mt Theo categorically denies this allegation.

It is even more offensive in the light of the fact that on Thursday 16th August Mt Theo founders—

the three people I have just named—

will receive the highest honour conferred on Australian citizens, the Order of Australia Medal, for their work with young petrol sniffers through the Mt Theo Program.

The Mt Theo Program has been repeatedly hailed as an outstanding and unrivalled success in its efforts to fight substance misuse and promote hope and meaning for young Warlpiri youth. Furthermore, we are acknowledged as a model of excellence in community initiated solutions in two recent inquiries ...

One inquiry was conducted by the Senate Standing Committee on Community Affairs Committee. Its report, Beyond petrol sniffing: renewing hope for Indigenous communities, was tabled in this Senate in June 2006. The other inquiry produced the Little children are sacred report, which we now know as the Anderson-Wild report. The statement continues:

Our representatives have traveled internationally to represent the Australian Government as an innovative and successful approach to substance misuse.

In June 2006, at the tabling Beyond Petrol Sniffing. Renewing Hope for Indigenous Communities, Senator Heffernan publicly congratulated Mt Theo staff present on their hard work and the success of the Program, and held a subsequent meeting with them where he reiterated his praise for the Program and made no mention of the claims he has now made in Parliament.

We are at a loss to understand why the Senator would not formally raise this grave issue with the Mt Theo Program prior to using Parliamentary privilege in such a defamatory manner. Such a discussion would have saved the Senator the embarrassment of making false accusations of such an inflammatory nature and casting an undeserved cloud over 13 years of extraordinary community commitment to the safety and well-being of young Warlpiri people.

Mt Theo Program calls for an apology from Senator Heffernan.

My question to you, Senator Scullion, is: from this moment forward will we see a change in some of your government members in not assuming and not making false and wild, grossly inaccurate comments about Indigenous people, particularly those people who are running successful programs and have done so for most of their lives? Can we now see a change in attitude so that everybody works cooperatively and on the same program to achieve the same outcome with the passage of this legislation?