Jan McLucas (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Mental Health) Share this | Hansard source

I also take note of the answers given to questions today by, in my case, Senator Scullion. If that was a defence of what happened in the budget, goodness me, I am sure that the people out there will be thinking, 'I have no idea what the minister has just said.' I will read from the budget paper and I will seek leave to table a copy of the paper. It says:

The Government will achieve net savings of $534.4 million over five years through efficiencies resulting from the rationalisation of Indigenous programmes, grants and activities administered by the Prime Minister and Cabinet and Health portfolios.

It says that $534 million will be saved. That means $534 million will not be spent on providing services and programs for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in our country. You cannot deny that this is what is said in your own budget papers. Senator Scullion stood up and said, 'That's incorrect.' Those are hollow words; there is nothing there. We know that $534 million was cut from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander programs in the last budget and now we hear that Mr Mundine, the chair of the Prime Minister’s Indigenous Advisory Council, wants it to go further—'We want to cut more programs.'

I asked questions of Senator Scullion today about what is happening in the tobacco cessation programs. We know very clearly from Senate estimates that there are large cuts in this program, but we have not been able to nail it. So it has been very interesting to see that Dr Tom Calma has had to come out himself to explain what is really happening with Indigenous smoking. We know that in this country we are making progress. We have cut the level of smoking for the whole population considerably. We are one of the best in the world. But we are not winning the race to cut the smoking rates of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. About 42 per cent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people smoke cigarettes, and that is not acceptable. But we know that in some remote communities that figure is up to about 70 per cent.

And now we find out that $130 million has been cut from the Tackling Indigenous Smoking program. We know that the way this is happening is by not replacing people who are currently employed on Dr Calma's program when they resign. In Darwin, there is a situation where one of the major teams should have six staff working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to help them not to start smoking or to stop smoking, but that complement of staff is now down to two. Dr Calma said that they are only doing a third of what they have the capacity to do, and he says further that reducing information about smoking will contribute to the early deaths of Indigenous Australians.

Is that not a wake-up call to this minister—this minister who says: 'You can't ask me questions about that; I'm the Minister for Indigenous Affairs; that's not in my portfolio'? Well, if you are the Minister for Indigenous affairs who is responsible to the Prime Minister, who calls himself 'the Prime Minister for Indigenous Affairs', don't you think that it is pretty important that you be very aware of the impact of cutting $130 million from targeting smoking? Your own budget papers say: 'Tobacco smoking is the most preventable cause of ill-health and early death amongst Indigenous Australians, and smoking is responsible for about one-fifth of deaths amongst Indigenous Australians.' Don't you think that the Minister for Indigenous Affairs should care, and that that is something he needs to be engaged about? He simply said, 'It's not my portfolio; I don't know.' I asked him to confirm whether or not he agreed that tackling smoking would be the best way of decreasing early, preventable deaths in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and he did not take the opportunity to agree with that. He did not bother. This is meant to be the Minister for Indigenous Affairs in this country, providing representation and support for those people who are some of the most vulnerable in our community, and his response is: 'It's not my portfolio; you can't ask me questions about that.' But his defence today of $534 million worth of cuts was, frankly, almost laughable—being able to say, 'A bit here and a bit there and a bit somewhere else.' Five hundred and thirty-four million dollars was cut, and you know it. (Time expired)