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

I thank the senator for his question. I know he has a longstanding interest in Indigenous affairs, and he has been informing me on the need to move the intervention in the Northern Territory and particularly in his state of Western Australia.

I am delighted to inform the Senate that, today, we have announced a $740 million plan involving a range of new initiatives. This is to move beyond the stabilisation stage of the Northern Territory intervention. These new measures are as follows. There is $540 million to repair and build housing in remote communities over the next four years. It is not good enough just to go and do the inspections and evaluations; you need to be a government with some credible policy that moves ahead and actually does the work that it exposes. There is $100 million for more doctors, nurses, allied health professionals and specialist services. We have done over 2,000 health checks in 30 communities, which have been on the public record and have exposed an unacceptable level of serious health conditions, particularly in the youngest of those inspected. We will be investing $100 million to move around the Territory to ensure that we ameliorate those conditions. There is $78.2 million over three years to convert the CDEP positions to real jobs. I am delighted to say that up to $30 million is to be matched, dollar for dollar, by the Northern Territory government. It is rare that I would normally elect to praise the Northern Territory government in this, but it is tremendous to see that they have taken a very sensible approach and a partnership approach. We recognise the difficulties with such a low tax base to take over their responsibilities on CDEP, so we have made an offer to match them dollar for dollar to ensure that people move from effective training positions to real employment. We are providing $18.5 million over two years for 66 additional Federal Police, and that, of course, is to continue the provision of the shield of law and order that so many Australians take for granted.

This funding will be provided to the Northern Territory government on the basis that they agree to certain conditions, including a radical overhaul of the way that we are going to deliver Commonwealth funds to housing programs in the Northern Territory, and that they ensure that sufficient classrooms, equipment and teachers are available to ensure that, as the welfare reform packages become effective, school attendance will increase. We want to make sure that the level of amenity is there to ensure that they have the same education that we take for granted.

This provides an enormous opportunity to Indigenous communities to move forward in a safe manner and with an economic future for those areas. It demonstrates, again, that the Howard government is here for the long haul in relation to the critical issues such as health, housing and policing.