Scott Ludlam (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I am going to remember that, Senator Evans, forever.

Senator Chris Evans interjecting—

I get that; I understand that. We will fix that—there is time to fix that. The total absence of evidence underpinning this policy goes to, if we cannot compel the government to provide evidence tonight on the passage of the bill, the least that we can do is bring forward the reviewing periods. Where is the evidence that the continuation of this ineffective and misguided approach is going to help if we consolidate and entrench it? To date there has been no such evidence that the measures of the intervention have been effective. Again, narrowing down specifically to the clauses that we have been dealing with tonight and setting aside the other issues which obviously have strong community support, the evidence simply is not there of the coercive impacts of this policy.

Evidence indicates a top-down approach will not be effective and is actually undermining what the government says it is trying to achieve: Aboriginal people having stronger futures—the title of the bill—and taking control of their lives.

The Australian Human Rights Commission put the following view that there is an:

… extensive body of research and evidence that shows Aboriginal community governance is a key factor for the sustainable development of Aboriginal communities.

…   …   …

This is supported by research from the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, which demonstrates that when Indigenous communities:

make their own decisions about what development approaches to take, they consistently out-perform external decision makers on matters as diverse as governmental form, natural resource management, economic development, health care, and social service provision.

This evidence stands in stark contrast to the policies of this government and not only do they intend to enforce these policies on Aboriginal people for another 10 years but they wish to do so without a review, just flying blind for another seven years.

This is a top-down, paternalistic and punitive set of measures from the outset which has meant that its ability to improve the lives of Aboriginal people in the Territory was extremely limited. Evidence of that can be found in the summary provided by Dr Bath, the NT Children's Commissioner—someone who should know a fair bit about the issues that we have been canvassing this evening—of ongoing child welfare issues in the Territory. That summary states:

The ineffectiveness of the Intervention in improving the wellbeing of Aboriginal people in the NT is also evident when looking at the Closing the Gap in the Northern Territory Monitoring Report. The report details how school attendance has declined since 2009, that child hospitalisation rates have increased and confirmed incidences of personal harm and suicide have more than doubled since 2007 …

These are scary statistics put on the public record and put to the committee by someone whose job it is to know these things. It went on:

The Intervention was supposed to improve the lives of Aboriginal people but it has further disempowered them and has wasted resources. These resources could have been used to develop programs that were better targeted and were developed in partnership with Aboriginal people.

The Greens oppose a continuation of the intervention—and I hope I have made that pretty clear tonight. If we are not successful in preventing this legislation from passing, we can at least make sure that it is reviewed as soon as possible. The amendments that I have withdrawn are identical to those that Senator Scullion has proposed through Senator Payne, and I am pleased to support an amendment that will at least bring forward a degree of evidence so that the people debating this bill or its future reforms at a quarter to one in the morning, those of us who are still there, maybe hopefully will have a solid evidence base on which to make our judgment calls. I join Senator Payne in commending these amendments to the chamber.