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

The assertion that there is only one store, that the Commonwealth would be taking over that store and that this is some sort of draconian power does not really reflect the intention as stated in the legislation. Clearly there are a whole range of provisions available before that particular power would be used. But we can say that it is about ensuring that stores operate in the normal way that we would expect stores to work, as I was saying to other senators today. When you go into a store the food is actually marked with a price tag. You would assume the quality of the goods in the store is up to scratch; you would assume that the store is not filthy; you would assume that the store does not have rats running across all the products at night; you would assume that you would have some sort of notice of opening hours, that you would know what they were and that the storekeeper would not just open whenever they felt like it; and you would assume that they would actually have fresh fruit and vegetables.

We have some fantastic stores in these communities—for instance, the Arnhem Land Progress Association is one, also Galiwinku and Palumpa, and I have been to plenty of others. These are outstanding stores that provide all of these things. But, unfortunately and tragically, in some communities that is not always the case. So it is our intention to ensure that, as part of this intervention, normal access to fresh fruit and vegetables is available to people in these communities. As I have said, it is a complex and sophisticated circumstance that we are dealing with and it needs a complex and sophisticated solution. The solution provided is ensuring that every store will have access to the same level of amenities that we who live outside of those communities take for granted.

When we have gone through the process of giving the community stores the opportunity to improve through a conditional licence and assisting them in that way, they will be approached and afforded the opportunity to take on a new operator if the operator is the problem. Where it is feasible, and other avenues to license the existing store have been pursued, the government then may consider facilitating the establishment of a new store. In areas where there is only one store and we have tried every single thing—and we will try all of those things—yet the store still does not provide reasonable service and food to these communities, the government reserves the right to move to acquire it. In some of these communities fresh vegetables and fruit are foreign to them. That should not be the case. So we will go all the way, right up to where we have strived to do everything, but I can tell you that this government is not going to accept: ‘Oh, well, we did our best. We’ll do everything else but you simply won’t be able to feed yourself properly.’ Roger Corbett, who is on the task force, used to be the CEO of Woolworths, ‘the fresh food people’. We are seeking his advice to ensure that the standards we are asking for the stores reflect the standards required in the wider community.

So I say again: this will be a power of last resort. We think the communities deserve the knowledge that, when this legislation has passed, we will work responsibly with the community stores to ensure they are providing those standards, and many of them are. The good stores will remain and will be encouraged. In fact, they may be the sorts of operators we would like to see in the other communities. But at the end of the day we have a compact with Indigenous Australia. We have said that we will stop at nothing to provide the same level of amenity. That does not mean saying, ‘If we can’t get the cooperation then, at a certain point after we’ve tried everything, we’ll simply give up.’ That is not what we are doing in this case. The suite of processes identified in the legislation ensures that this power is definitely a power of last resort. It is important to retain this power to acquire assets of stores, as has been written into the legislation, as a last resort.

Specifically, with regard to your question about appeal, like much of this legislation the right of appeal is through the courts. The assessment process is exactly the same as for the acquisition of any property. It will depend entirely on the circumstances, which in some circumstances may well be a lease, but in other circumstances no lease may be involved. So the assessment of property would be on those terms.

There is no mischief, no hidden agenda from the government. We are simply saying that dietary factors have an absolutely close tie to health. I know the senator is not disputing that. But it is a very important point to make that the health and wellbeing of these communities is a fundamental part of this—all aspects are connected: health, education and housing. That is why, for each one of these endeavours, we have ensured that all of those anticipated blockages to our providing the same level of amenity are removed, whether those blockages are housing, infrastructure, school attendance or inappropriate use of welfare payments or whether it be, as it is in this case, the very simple thing that people take for granted—that is, the provision of food for your health.

Whilst you have not asserted it on this occasion, Senator Bartlett, it has been put to me that we need to demonstrate a close tie between any aspect of this legislation and the prevention of violence and sexual abuse in Aboriginal communities. While I am probably not able to make that assertion directly in this case, one would think the general wellbeing of the community was a fundamental plank in resolving the circumstances that these First Australians find themselves in.

Again, it is important to retain the power to acquire assets. I assure you that this will be a power of last resort. As we indicated in the legislation, this would be considered only when the community store is the only store available to the community but it has not been possible to issue a licence, and the store needs to be licensed to participate in some sort of income management process. We would then go through the full suite of processes in consideration of the store, as I indicated to you earlier. The stores will be given every opportunity to come up to a simple standard that every other Australian takes for granted. I think Indigenous Australians, particularly young Indigenous Australians who are growing up in these communities, deserve nothing less.

Progress reported.