Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

We are working, again in partnership with our First Australians, to support people into employment, because we on this side of the chamber recognise that the best form of welfare is in fact a job. Our Community Development Program has turned around Labor's disastrous Remote Jobs and Communities Program, which led to a massive disengagement because effectively it introduced an urban work for the dole program into remote areas. I am pleased to update the Senate that we recently announced that the CDP has delivered over 5,000 six-month job outcomes and has gone from seven per cent attendance to 70 per cent attendance in activities and jobs. I am pleased also to update the Senate that the ranger program that was originally started by the coalition government in 2007 now has grown to support over 2,600 rangers.

Every day in this portfolio we are employing more and more Indigenous Australians, and I acknowledge everyone, including those opposite, for working in partnership with the government to achieve these outcomes for our First Australians.