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

I will answer Senator Brown’s questions first. In the statement that you made before you put the question, Senator, you implied that consultation was out the door. Then you said that you did not think that it was and you made some other assertions. I agree with you in that sense, Senator. We will be working with these communities. That is absolutely essential in building a partnership and is reflected across all of the communities that have been visited by the intervention task force. Consultation and talking about a partnership role are absolutely a certain matter. Under the law, there are certain provisions with regard to consultation. The expectation that we provide the level of amenity that is needed in a very short period of time may put that at risk. Any piece of legislation that underlines our capacity and our absolute determination to make things better for the women and children in these communities will continue to be supported.

In terms of how much money has been spent on housing and where all the housing has gone, I have to agree with you there too, Senator. We put $100 million each year into the houses in the Northern Territory—I am not sure why we are always having discussions about these matters—but we have fewer houses now than we had five years ago. Those are matters that concern us.

We have had a number of questions about where the money is going to come from for the housing. I think it might be useful to place on the record some additional information about this. The new fund that has taken over from the CHIP fund will provide an additional $287 million in funding for Indigenous housing for three years from 1 July 2008. The additional funding is on top of existing funding that has been provided through the CHIP. The total ARIA funding from 1 July 2008 will be $1.24 billion over three years. This fund will also increase the proportion of funding that is provided to remote Indigenous communities, as a result of a greater focus on remote communities. The increase of funding to these areas will be greater than the additional amount provided under ARIA. The CHIP will continue to operate in 2007-08 as it has done; it has an allocation of $306 million for this year. There is also a payment of $6 million from ARIA to the Torres Strait Regional Authority in 2007-08. The amalgamation of these two programs—as they step over—will provide funding for new housing and for the repair and maintenance of existing housing, including in the communities that are a part of the Northern Territory emergency response.

In response to Senator Milne’s question: the transferral of infrastructure to private interests will only be to the Northern Territory government, a Commonwealth authority or a Northern Territory authority. As to whether we would be preventing a mining lease or similar things, I am not sure that we would move to prevent any particular activity, because this legislation is not intended, in any way, to have any unintended consequences such as impeding business. If Indigenous people in a particular area decided that they wanted, for example, a hairdressing shop, I am quite sure that the Commonwealth would ensure that we had the capacity to provide for whatever businesses were available.