Sean Edwards (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I too rise to take note of answers given by Senator Brandis. I acknowledge that this is a difficult area and it is a highly emotive area of what happens in our country and government policy and public policy and how it is formed. There are a number of things which related to Senator Peris's question to Senator Brandis. Firstly—and I will revisit this—was the budget issue; and, secondly, the fact that there is a willingness on the part of this government, which was expressed by Senator Brandis.

He had allocated to the legal services $290,000 extra in the budget to cope with the needs that Senator Peris was talking of. And, not only that, there was a one-off $600,000 front-line legal service payment made to that area. This is hardly the abandonment that Senator Ludwig talked about in his contribution a moment ago. He asserted that we sit on our hands on front-line services. I hardly think a $600,000 one-off payment is sitting on our hands. He also said that we did not want to address this area. Well, we are addressing it through the Prime Minister's office. The Prime Minister has taken responsibility of this area.

When Senator Peris puts forward figures that we are all aware of in this chamber, such as it is 15 times more likely that an Aboriginal or an Indigenous person will be incarcerated than someone from the mainstream community, we know that there is a problem. The Prime Minister, Senator Brandis, Treasurer Joe Hockey and the finance minister are working to get the budget back on track so that we have the resources to address these social injustices—things which senators from all sides of the chamber want to address. So, despite the feigned outrage from across the chamber, saying that this area had been abandoned is absolute nonsense.

In fact, we are taking a methodical approach to the way in which we deal with Indigenous peoples in this country and the way in which money and resources are allocated—so much so, that the chair of the Prime Minister's Indigenous Advisory Council has suggested that there may be some ability to save money from parts of the budget allocated to the outcomes of Indigenous people in this country so that that money could be reallocated, so that, in the longer term, the benefits of the budget moneys allocated can go to places where it will give, in the long run, more beneficial social outcomes for our Indigenous populations. The suggestion from the chair of the Prime Minister's Indigenous Advisory Council is that: 'Once you are getting every Aboriginal kid to school, then obviously we are going to need more resources.' So that is a priority. We have to get Indigenous children educated and out of the communities where they will not have any job prospects. That is the greatest challenge that we have: to lift these children from their no-prospect environments into environments where they do have prospects to make a contribution.

Of those savings, those resources, that we are looking to reallocate in the Indigenous area, there will be a re-investment. We believe that there are inefficiencies in the current system which have been caught up in the politics of the system.

Also, in Senator Brandis's answer to Senator Peris, he expressed a willingness to meet with the Indigenous communities of eastern Arnhem Land when he is up there in the short term. I think all of those people in those committees should take up Senator Brandis, the Attorney-General of this country, on his offer to come and visit them and hear what he has to say about his ideas on enhancing their prospects for a greater contribution and a more meaningful life without the threat of incarceration.