Andrew Bartlett (Queensland, Australian Democrats) Share this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. I thank the minister for his answer and I certainly fully support the government’s decision to set targets and commit itself to targets. The reason I am raising these questions is to question the prospects of meeting them on the basis of the funding that has been provided. Accepting what the minister has said about the pre-budget announcements, is it not the case that the majority of that funding was also dedicated to the Northern Territory intervention? And, without in any way dismissing the importance of increasing resources to the Northern Territory, is it not also the case that the minister’s own document detailed in table 2 that the numbers, both in the rate and in actual numbers of children with substantiated child abuse notifications is dramatically higher in both New South Wales and Victoria? Does the minister believe that there is a case for expanding the resources provided for Indigenous people in communities in those areas as well, rather than have a disproportionate amount of the available extra new funding provided solely to the Territory?