Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I withdraw that. I take that back. What a stupid contribution that was from Senator Macdonald. He talked about giving Aboriginal kids and Aboriginal families the opportunity for an education. Well, Senator Macdonald—through you, Mr Deputy President—I am going to help you out. One of my passions is Aboriginal kids getting access to education. It is not only my passion but also the passion of Mr Andrew Forrest. We saw the Forrest report. The first point that came out of the Forrest report was that the No. 1 issue was to give Aboriginal kids in remote Australia in particular access to early childhood education. No-one in this chamber or anyone with half a brain—I will be careful how I put that—would argue that Aboriginal kids should not get access to early childhood education.

In the previous governments—the Rudd and Gillard governments—we spent some $300-odd million of taxpayers' funds building childhood and family centres. There are four in Western Australia. One is in Roebourne. For your benefit, Senator Abetz—through you, Mr Deputy President—you should go and visit them. You might learn something. There is one in Fitzroy Crossing, called Baya Gawiy. There is the Little Nuggets centre in Halls Creek and one in Kununurra. We funded them. The previous Labor government funded them to the tune of $950,000. Unlike where some of the mob opposite might come from—the leafy suburbs of Melbourne, Sydney Adelaide and Perth—they do not have the ability to raise their own funds. They have been and are still doing a fantastic job to give Aboriginal kiddies and—shock, horror!—white kids the opportunity to get ready for preschool or kindergarten.

The mob on the other side, through Mr Abbott, who calls himself the Prime Minister for Indigenous affairs, have decided to take the axe to that vital funding. They have chucked that funding out. There is no more funding, yet I have to sit here and listen to Senator Macdonald talk about the opportunity for Aboriginal kids to get an education. How the heck can they when the government are cutting their funding?

You do not have to take it from me. You can take it from someone who is probably one of the most respected Aboriginal leaders in this country. I actually call her a friend—Mrs June Oscar, a senior Bunuba woman from Fitzroy Crossing. I want to quote some words from Mrs Oscar. She says that:

… the Fitzroy community faced a crisis, as many child-protection workers, police, teachers and medical staff had children who used the centre.

That is the Baya Gawiy Child and Family Centre in Fitzroy Crossing, which this mob refused to fund. She goes on to say:

They could be forced to stop work or leave the region … We cannot continue in this state of quandary—it impacts on our kids, the retention of staff, jobs and service delivery …

That is from one of the most respected Aboriginal women in the country.

I cannot believe that senators opposite can have the audacity to stand here and push forward their credentials when their credentials are cutting vital funding streams to projects in the Kimberly region—and in South Australia, if Senator Gallacher is there—through the APY Lands and in Queensland and the Northern Territory, where all of a sudden we will just stop funding this opportunity for kids and for families, Aboriginal and white, to get access not only to early childhood programs but to the very vital area of allied health. And this is going to come as a bigger shock, but Fitzroy Crossing, some 300 kilometres from Derby and 450 kilometres from Broome, does not have resident speech therapists. The therapists for that mob over that side actually visit from Broome, or, at the Little Nuggets centre in Halls Creek, they come down from Kununurra. These centres actually provide the opportunity for kids to have access to allied health while they are there too.

It appals me when I have to listen to senators on that side all of a sudden become the experts in Aboriginal Australia. Now, I take nothing away from Senator Macdonald; he is based out in the country. But the rest of them have no idea. I just think Senator Macdonald was, sadly, just trying to defend the indefensible. He was trying to defend a government decision that deep down in his heart he could not sit here and look me in the eye and say he agrees with. I wish I had more time.