Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to take note of the same answer. I am extremely distressed to hear of the closure of the office of NAAJA. I have spoken to NAAJA many times. They do excellent work. They have presented to the community affairs committee on various inquiries on a number of occasions. They provide vital and excellent services to Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory.

When I asked about the removal of legal aid funding in estimates, I was told that it would have no impact on front-line services. That was clearly absolute nonsense, because it clearly is having impacts on front-line services. When I asked the social justice commissioner, Mr Mick Gooda, about what impact cutting support for Aboriginal legal services would have—not just areas around policy and not just the cutting of advocacy funds—he very clearly said in estimates that this would have a direct impact on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and that it would have a direct impact on the incarceration rates of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. We are not going to close the gap if we continue to take funding out of supports for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Just 10 minutes ago, the issue Mr Mundine is talking about was raised: a further $600 million worth of cuts. That is over half a billion dollars' worth of cuts to funding for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. That is not simply efficiency programs. We asked in estimates where this funding was coming from. The department and the minister could not tell us where that funding was coming from. They have not done a systematic review of funding for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. What they have done is just take an efficiency dividend. So they cannot stand there and say, 'this is about delivering more efficient and better services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples', because that simply is not true. They have taken a razor to that funding.

And they are not satisfied with the $534 million that they are taking out of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander funding. Previously the government has sort of denied any ownership of these particular suggestions for cuts. But here we have Senator Edwards quite proudly suggesting another $600 million worth of cuts to funding supports for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

We know that we are not anywhere close to closing the gap. Yes, we have had improvements on certain indicators, which is absolutely fantastic. But we saw the latest COAG reform report and it clearly said that, if we do not step up activity, we are not going to meet the closing the gap commitments for the time frame we have in place, which is 2030. We are not on track to meet our closing the gap commitments.

This government has dramatically cut funding to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. You also need to bear in mind that those cuts are on top of the disproportionate impact that the budget will have on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. For example the cuts to income support are disproportionately going to impact Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The cuts to the disability support pension will disproportionately impact Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Senator Peris asked very important questions in this chamber and, of course, did not receive satisfactory answers. What is going to happen to the people that were previously represented and supported by NAAJA? NAAJA has provided invaluable services and not just to people in Arnhem Land; they do a lot of other work. This is not just about the impacts on that particular office; it will impact their work throughout the Northern Territory. It is an organisation that provides ongoing support for many Aboriginal people who have nowhere else to go for that level of support. It puts paid to the complete furphy that this government put around that their cuts would not have any impact on front-line services. Clearly it is having an impact. Clearly it will have significant long-term impacts.

Question agreed to.