Nova Peris (NT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Attorney General (Senator Brandis) to a question without notice asked by Senator Peris today relating to the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency.

I rise to take note of answers to questions today in relation to the $1 million cut in federal funding to the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency, NAAJA, which has forced the closure of its office in East Arnhem Land.

Last Wednesday in this house, the Minister for Indigenous Affairs again repeated his false claim that no Indigenous front-line services would be affected by his government's cuts to Indigenous Affairs. At the very same time, NAAJA were announcing that their office in East Arnhem Land was closing. The NAAJA office in East Arnhem Land is clearly front-line. It has been providing front-line services for over 20 years. I want to read the announcement made by NAAJA CEO Priscilla Collins last week:

The NAAJA Board has very reluctantly decided to close our Nhulunbuy office from the end of this year, given the deep funding cuts that have been announced to Aboriginal Legal Services. This was a very difficult decision and a sad one for our service.

You might be aware that in the May budget, the Commonwealth government confirmed that $6 million is to be cut from Aboriginal Legal Services for the 2015-16 financial year. Based on current funding allocations, the cuts announced to Aboriginal Legal Services could see close to $1 million cut from NAAJA's core annual funding as from the next financial year.

We are also very concerned that more cuts to NAAJA programs, funded outside our core operational contract, may be on the horizon. Given the chronic underfunding of services like NAAJA, funding cuts directly impact on our ability to provide front-line services. We have had to act now to plan for how we can best provide services to our clients in the future.

After almost 20 years of having an office in Nhulunbuy we are very disappointed to have to make this decision. I take this opportunity to acknowledge the work of NAAJA staff, past and present, who have worked hard in our Nhulunbuy office and fought for true justice, dignity and respect for Aboriginal people in the East Arnhem Land region.

That is a very clear statement from NAAJA CEO Priscilla Collins that the office closure is a direct result of the Abbott government's funding cuts—funding cuts that they continue to insist, despite the fact that it is blatantly incorrect, will not impact on front-line services.

The Attorney-General defended his budget cuts as a budget measure. We already know that, when government ministers have no justification for their actions, they simply resort to this repeated excuse. But let me state clearly: this funding cut will cost the government more money. It will cost taxpayers money. The services provided by the East Arnhem Land office are proven to reduce crime and reduce reoffending. The independent Parole Board of the Northern Territory has pointed to the programs that NAAJA provide as reducing reoffending. There are countless other studies and reports that prove that programs like this reduce reoffending. The NAAJA office in East Arnhem Land keeps people out of our prison system, and keeping someone out of prison costs so much less than keeping someone in prison. It costs around $100,000 a year to keep someone in prison. So this decision by the Abbott government will end up costing taxpayers far more than it saves.

In his answers, the Attorney-General said that, when he visits East Arnhem Land for the Garma festival next month, he will try and fit in a meeting if his diary permits. What could possibly be more important in a trip to East Arnhem Land than to visit a front-line service that is closing as a direct result of his own funding cuts? NAAJA already have written to the Attorney General—just last week—requesting a meeting and asking him to see firsthand the services that they provide. I urge him in the strongest possible terms to take up the offer and visit the office he is forcing to close. The Prime Minister is also visiting Arnhem Land, for a week in September. He claims to be the Prime Minister for Aboriginal Australians. He has a week there. Will he find the time to visit a front-line service to Aboriginal Australians that his government is closing?