David Johnston (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Resources and Energy) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Deputy President. The reason the so-called stars have not fronted in the state election is because they know this government is the subject of one Corruption and Crime Commission investigation after another.

I want to talk about my recent visit to Balgo Hills, which is a great little window of exposure on what this dysfunction is all about. This is a community 300 kilometres south of Halls Creek in the Tanami Desert. We have more than 400 Aboriginal Australians living in 30 houses. No wonder there are social problems in a community such as this—400 in 30 houses—and Labor have been in power in Western Australia for eight painful years. We have two highly professional police officers—the likes of which are very, very hard to find living in a remote community—enforcing the law with great skill and compassion, with tremendous cultural awareness. They are two truly great Australian policemen whom I pause to congratulate.

I met them; I discussed how they are battling along with very limited government support. This is a statistic that is important: they make more than 300 arrests annually between the two of them. They have to manage this community and three outlying communities—just the two of them. It takes them five hours to drive remand prisoners into custody in Halls Creek. This is a national disgrace and obviously there is the matter for these two officers, as courageous as they are, of occupational health and safety. Do you think the state government has done anything to help them? They have had a request in for two more officers for as long as they can remember and all they get is silence. This is the same sort of silence that Western Australia is given under the blame game mantra of this government. Both state and federal governments say all of the right things about Aboriginal health, education, housing and welfare, but the reality is that nothing tangible, meaningful or lasting is being done—and Balgo is a classic example. This is Labor at its worst: saying all the right high-minded things, leaving the communities and doing absolutely nothing.

I want to highlight a further scandal in this community, apart from the 400 people in 30 houses and the two police officers with over 300 annual arrests. I want to mention this: the medical officer said to me, ‘We do not even have a mortuary facility.’ For those senators unfamiliar with Aboriginal culture—and there a few of them here this afternoon—I want to mention that often when an Aboriginal person passes away they are not buried for several weeks. The average temperature in Balgo is beyond 40 degrees. Is it not too much to ask that a state government with over $2 billion in the kitty in budget surplus could provide a small mortuary facility for this community and the surrounding communities? This is a national disgrace—and they sit over there saying that they are ending the blame game! Let me start the blame game. Let me put an end to bipartisanship on this. These people must be accountable. The federal minister needs to stand up to these corrupt state governments and do something about it. It is the wealthiest state government in our history, and we have a Commonwealth government with a $22 billion surplus, and these good people of Balgo cannot even get a mortuary facility.

I want to congratulate those people of Balgo who are working so hard and doing the wonderful things that they do without any significant assistance from either federal or state governments. The Catholic Church must be congratulated for the fantastic work it does, and I want to put on record the work of Father Eugene and Brother Rick, who run the school, and the Catholic parish. Where would the people of Balgo be without the Catholic parish, without the church’s consideration, love, care and support? It would truly be an even greater tragedy than it is now. I want to commend George Lee, who is chairman of the council, and all of the people of Balgo for the work they do, particularly in the area of the art work that they do. I want to congratulate Sally Clifford and Annette Cock, who run the art gallery, and all their staff for the dedication and professionalism they apply to that community in selling and promoting the community’s art work.

It might be surprising to know that Minister Roberts from Western Australia and federal Minister Macklin visited Fitzroy Crossing in April. When we were there, which was just last week, we heard that all the concerns—the models, the proposals, the work that had been done by the people of Fitzroy to help set out what plans they had—were put to these two ministers. The result was absolute silence. There was not even the courtesy of a response or a reply from either minister. This is absolutely disgraceful. They talk the talk but they do nothing in terms of walking the walk. With due respect to Minister Macklin—because I know she would want to take some action; she is a good person—this nonsense of ‘ending the blame game’ is actually about people’s lives. She must take action and do something positive for these people. ‘Ending the blame game’ is a euphemism for doing nothing. But, worse, it is the turning of a blind eye to the scandalous incompetence of eight hard years of state Labor.