Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary Assisting the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

The Audit report No. 10 2007-08: Performance audit: whole of government Indigenous service delivery arrangements is timely in view of what is happening in many of the Indigenous communities in my state of Queensland, where the state government simply seems uninterested in and incapable of assisting the people in those communities. It highlights again that the Commonwealth has a responsibility and has discharged that responsibility in the only area that it has constitutional power to do so—that is, the Northern Territory—but has been simply kept out of helping in Queensland by the state Labor government for what were fairly crass political reasons. I hope, for Indigenous people’s sake, that the Labor Party, now having achieved power federally, is able to impose on the administration of Indigenous communities in Queensland as it did in the Northern Territory, although I fear that the actions of the Rudd government in winding back the intervention in the Northern Territory are not a good precursor to positive action in my state of Queensland.

I want to highlight the difficulties in one Indigenous community in Queensland, that of Aurukun. It was reported yesterday in the Cairns Post by a reporter, Margo Zlotkowski, that the Aurukun community has spent an unbudgeted $65,000 per month since December on nine security guards who are providing round-the-clock patrols in that community. As the CEO of that community said, ‘We’re going to end up being bankrupt in a year if we keep paying that.’ The CEO went on to say that one of his employees gave notice to leave because she was so terrified after having had rocks thrown on her roof and regular threats made against her that she would cry uncontrollably at night when any trouble flared. He said, ‘One night she fainted. It was just terrible.’

In Australia you have a situation where employees who go to these communities to help are absolutely terrified for their future. There is the recent case on an island in the Torres Strait where a nurse was raped by 10 men and when she called upon the Queensland health department for assistance they said, ‘Oh well, if you can get yourself down to Thursday Island we’ll have a look at the problem.’ The approach of Queensland Health in that particular instance alone is just incredible in a country like Australia.

There are endemic problems in these communities, which the Howard government recognised in the Northern Territory and started to do something about. Not everyone agreed, but it was the first time ever that I can recall—certainly in my time in the parliament—that a government has really taken action instead of talking about it. But within 100 days of the change of government we seem to be going back to a situation where we will talk about it again, we will have lots of reports, we will have lots of hand wringing and we will have lots of high-profile media issues like saying sorry and delivering apologies. It makes great media, but what does it do for those on the ground? This Auditor-General’s report shows that we have to do much better in the delivery of services. As I said in my speech on the apology, all the apologies in the world given in this lovely building in this lovely city will not make one iota of difference to the Indigenous people who are living in Third World situations in the north of Australia. I am just so distressed at the fact that Mr Rudd is already winding that back.

We will go back, as I say, to talking about it. We will have lots of little meetings with the intelligentsia—people in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra will wring their hands and work out strategies—but the Indigenous people will go on suffering because the government seems to be unprepared to continue the firm and real action that was taken by the previous government. I can only hope that in the next three years this government does see some sense in trying to improve the lot of Indigenous people.

You do not improve the lot of Indigenous people by saying: ‘We all accept that pornography is bad. We all accept that it has an influence on child sexual abuse, but rather than cutting it off as the previous government did, we are now going to let the community decide whether they should have it.’ Yes, sure the kids and the women will have a lot of say in that. But that seems to be the proposal from the Labor government. It is legislation that is not yet before this chamber, as I understand. It is yet to come. Perhaps I will have to look at it a bit more closely, but it seems from newspaper reports on that legislation that we are simply turning the clock back to the stages where governments do absolutely nothing.

As with the case in Aurukun, there does need to be firm action taken. Will the Queensland government take it? I cannot imagine they would. Governments of both persuasions have done nothing for the last 20 years—principally Labor, I might say. I think our side did try to do something about it, but not in the same vein as Mr Brough did. Certainly, in the last decade that Labor have been in power in Queensland they have done absolutely nothing. They talk a lot and get their photos taken a lot, but the problems go on.

This situation in Aurukun really does need to be addressed. According to the Cairns Post report, the community is looking at the installation of security cameras so that they will not have to employ a security guard for $65,000 per month. They are looking at installing 14 cameras in key areas such as the council chambers, the store, the tavern, the works depot, the airport and the health clinic and that would cost about $350,000. Seriously, if the Queensland government will not provide that money, I would urge the federal government to see whether there is some way that they can assist with it. Because if you keep spending $65,000 a month just on a security guard, you are going to go broke and the services that these community councils do provide will simply no longer be there because they will not have the money to pay for them.

It is the sort of issue that a government which is serious could actually do something about in a practical way. Do not get up and talk about it, do not wring hands, do not get photos taken, but put some money into it and address the root cause of the problem. One would hope that you would not need security cameras or security guards if the real, underlying problems were attacked, but in its first 100 days this new government has not shown any inclination to get involved in the job that has to be done.