Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

The fact that all of the sufferers of this condition are Aboriginal people does not necessarily mean we should use Aboriginal money to fund it. If a person in Sydney needs a wheelchair, we look to the health and disability sectors to provide for that. Why should it be any different for Aboriginal people in their communities? Why should we be asking them, in effect, to provide their own money rather than the Commonwealth providing the money as it would anywhere else across this country?

The grant from the Aboriginal Benefits Account that was promised by the former minister would have been a bit of a workaround to provide recurrent funding from an Aboriginal fund that was clearly not set up to provide for this. I did not support pulling out Aboriginal money from the Aboriginal Benefits Trust Account for the MJD Foundation as a substitute for mainstream health funding. It is not its purpose and would not maintain the integrity and sustainability of the Aboriginal Benefits Trust Account. But the principal issue is that we should not ask Aboriginal people to pay for something which every other Australian would take for granted is paid from mainstream funding. (Time expired)