Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

The minister did not answer the question about household occupancy rates, and I ask him if he will. What is the household occupancy rate in Indigenous communities expected to be at the end of the five-year period compared to the rate at the start of the five-year period?

The minister said that government funds had been spent on housing in the Northern Territory and that there are now fewer houses. We all know that that applies to the whole of the Australian community. Billions of dollars have been put into housing, but there are fewer houses held in government hands now than at the outset, simply because they have been privatised or disposed of in other ways.

We have to be very careful with the statistics here. It is important that we know what the government’s game plan is. When it comes to this housing allocation in the Northern Territory, the land is being taken from the Indigenous people—for five years in the first instance—without consultation. That is what I meant. This government did not consult with Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory before taking this action. The government says it is going to consult from here on in, but its record belies that will be anything other than paternalistic approach to the future for Indigenous communities. If this is so serious that it is going to lead to the removal of the Indigenous people’s authority over their own land, what is the outcome in terms of reducing the household occupancy rates, which the minister cited as being the problem which connects us to the violence and abuse?