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

I just want to acknowledge this afternoon that we are standing on Aboriginal ground: the traditional country of the Ngunawal and Ngambri people—country and sovereignty which was never ceded from colonial days right up to today.

I am proud to add my voice to that of Australian Greens senator Rachel Siewert, who has spent years travelling across this country listening to communities to effectively bring their views into this place. I am reminded of the words of a friend of mine in the Top End, who noted that one of the gaps we are trying to close here is the gap in understanding. This gap exists initially in our minds: the gap between the lived experience of Aboriginal people across this continent and the mostly white politicians from far away, who set about designing bureaucratic structures to address the aftermath of racism, discrimination and inequality in this country.

At its best, closing this gap of imagination and experience leads to some of the community controlled service delivery that we celebrate today—services that are making a meaningful difference to people's lives. And at its worst, we get things like mandatory sentencing and the NT intervention, which saw the worst kind of disempowerment levelled at vulnerable people in order to provide white politicians with a cheap photo opportunity.

Today I want to join my voice to those who have spoken in this debate so far to acknowledge the people across all parts of this spectrum of understanding who have sought, against the odds, to wrench back meaningful service delivery and community self-determination in the areas where they are needed most, and to confront directly the epidemic of youth suicide, the indiscriminate imprisonment of Aboriginal people, and the chronic health conditions which needlessly cut short so many lives.

This morning as I joined colleagues, activists and service providers to hear the Prime Minister, the opposition leader and the Leader of the Australian Greens renew our commitment to Closing the Gap, I allowed myself a moment of optimism. There are gains recorded in this year's annual report. They were hard-fought and, if anything, they highlight how much further we have to go.

Senator Siewert has ably described the big picture and the role that the Greens play in working to secure lasting improvements in health and wellbeing for Aboriginal people. I want to focus on one example of the kind of organisation that we should be supporting if we want to see the gap in life expectancy and health close in a meaningful way. Senators may be aware of the Dumbartung Aboriginal Corporation, which operates in Perth's southern suburbs. Director Robert Eggington, project officer Selina Eggington and their colleagues over many years have built the unique and important organisation. Dumbartung welds together crisis care and culturally-appropriate healing services with an unrivalled collection of artwork and cultural materials, referral services and political advocacy.

I particularly want to acknowledge Dumbartung's work in taking on youth suicide, surely the most tragic consequence of the multiple challenges faced by Aboriginal families. The organisation proposes a break from old habits. It envisages an Aboriginal task force and the establishment of a three-tier safety net of safe places that begins with culturally-appropriate services delivered by Aboriginal people. It is designed to move people in crisis through a sequence from crisis response to a referral service to mainstream health providers.

Western Australian premier Colin Barnett has acknowledged that even as funding to mainstream service providers has gone up so the tragedy of youth suicide has increased. We need a new approach, because what we are doing at the moment is not working. We do not need the continuation of an approach that originates in the premier's office or even in this parliament but one that arises from the communities most affected and best placed to identify the kind of help they need. That means changing and channelling the direction of some of the funding streams. Dumbartung and advocates like Robert and Selina should not have to spend half their days on the scrounge, looking for funding to continue the kind of work that they do from month to month. It sucks up so much time that could be so much better spent.

I want to add my support to the justice reinvestment approach that Senator Siewert mentioned, and to thank my colleague Senator Penny Wright from South Australia for championing this initiative. Anybody who has heard the former Human Rights Commissioner Tom Calma speak out about justice reinvestment will know that this is the way to go for Australia. We need to build communities, not prisons.

I also add my voice to those of Senator Nova Peris and Senator Siewert in condemning the closure of the Aboriginal legal services. If anything, we should be increasing the funding to these stretched community legal services, which do extraordinarily important work in preventing people from being incarcerated in the first place.

To Robert, to Selina and to everyone who works for the protection of kids, country and culture: may your campfires burn forever.