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

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Minister for Defence, Senator Johnston, and the Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Senator Scullion, to questions without notice asked by Opposition senators today relating to the manufacture of the next fleet of Australian submarines and to Indigenous affairs policy.

In my address this afternoon, I will focus on the answers given by Minister Scullion to questions that were asked of him today. From my perspective, two themes seemed to emerge from the answers to those questions during question time. The first one was that all of the issues that were being raised by Labor senators were not his responsibility; they were someone else's responsibility. They were either the responsibility of a state government or in fact our responsibility, which is somewhat troubling since he has been the minister for quite some time now.

Senator Sterle asked some very important questions about the impact of the cuts of more than $28 million in the state of Western Australia to the municipal and essential services funding program. Frankly, Minister Scullion's response was flippant and dismissive; in fact, it seemed that he did not care. It was all the responsibility of Western Australia. So $28 million has been cut from those services in Western Australia, and the state of Western Australia has responded by saying that up to 150 communities will be closed down. That is appalling and atrocious—it is quite an irresponsible response from Western Australia—but we should look at the history here. Let us not forget it was Minister Scullion who came into this chamber and proclaimed proudly that agreement—that was his word—had been reached with a number of states and territories around the municipal and essential services program, that they would be phased out and that this was an agreed position. The comments from the Queensland Premier and the Western Australian Premier would put a lie to the claim that this was in fact an agreement. Western Australian are still responding by saying that they will stop municipal services to up to 150 communities, with the result that we will see another Mapoon; we will see another event where people will be forcibly removed from their communities, with huge impacts on more regional centres around the community. And I commend Senator Scullion for his work in promoting this issue to the community.

I also want to draw attention to the issues around the huge cut, the more than $500 million cut, to Indigenous services following this budget. As well as that, as well as half a billion dollars cut from Indigenous programs, we have seen the monumental throwing up in the air of the funding programs to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations. This has been a monumental change, and all in one hit. We have seen services not even apply for funding because it was too complex. We have seen the minister or his department have to go back to talk with up to 75 organisations providing absolutely essential services across the country. They have had to talk to them about how they are going to continue to provide services to Indigenous communities, services that include domestic violence shelters. They cannot have just assumed that everyone was going to apply for these services; they must have had some knowledge that these services would simply close their doors, that they would not continue.

We have also seen the Prisoner Throughcare Program and the anti-recidivism program cut; the Aboriginal Family Violence Prevention and Legal Service defunded; preventative health programs like the tackling smoking program have been cut significantly. We know that Indigenous people smoke at a much higher rate than the non-Indigenous population, so to cut anti-smoking campaigns in your first budget is surely terribly short-sighted. Healthy lifestyle programs have also been cut. But what I found astonishing, and this goes to a question of credibility, was the second theme that appeared in today's answers. When I asked the minister if he was aware of Indigenous groups, who would not speak on the record because they feared their funding would be cut, who found that the Indigenous Advancement Strategy criteria were not clear, he said he had not heard those concerns. Now Minister Scullion stands there every time we ask him questions—he is so connected to the community, but if he has not heard those concerns, then he is not listening. (Time expired)