Slade Brockman (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I too rise to speak on answers to questions from Senator Scullion on Indigenous housing. I will refer to the contribution of Senator Dodson. He described a 'fog of confusion'. Well, there certainly isn't a fog of confusion from the government's point of view. Social housing in remote communities, just like any other community, is clearly a matter for state and territory governments.

The Commonwealth remains in negotiations with Queensland, West Australia, South Australia and Northern Territory governments about future funding arrangements beyond the one-off 10-year remote housing agreement that's due to expire in June. State Labor housing ministers from Western Australia, SA and Queensland have been out spreading mistruths on remote housing. The Commonwealth has not made or announced any decision regarding future funding arrangements for remote housing. Negotiations with the states remain ongoing. Unlike the Northern Territory, other state governments have not put any money on the table for Indigenous housing as part of these negotiations.

I will just refer to the minister's answer, which was very clear, that he has significant concerns that the Commonwealth's involvement in this space caused the states to withdraw—caused the states to stop doing their job. And that is what we have to address in any arrangements going forward. We have to make sure that Commonwealth government funding isn't merely giving the states an excuse to walk away from their own responsibilities in this very important area. If the state Labor governments were fair dinkum about this, they would have put forward a commitment, but they haven't.

It's important to note, as I've said, that public housing remains a state and territory responsibility, notwithstanding the fact that the Commonwealth invested more than $6 billion in housing last year, including over $1.4 billion in Queensland, $620 million in my home state of Western Australia and $440 million in South Australia. These funds are allocated on the basis of all citizens in their states, but state governments have decided that they will not spend a single cent in remote or Indigenous communities. These state Labor governments should not be so city-centric. They should invest some of this money into remote and Indigenous communities.

In the past 10 years, in fact, the Commonwealth has invested $5.4 billion across the states and the Northern Territory to support jurisdictions in managing their responsibilities for remote housing. It's time for those jurisdictions to step up, to do their fair share and fund public housing for their residents in remote communities in the same way as they do for non-remote communities.

But this isn't just about the money; it's about how we do business. It's making sure that Indigenous people and Indigenous communities have a greater role in delivering the work, from deciding how the investment is rolled out to actually working on the ground to build the houses. But, again, this is an area of policy which is principally the responsibility of the state and territory governments. They need to step up. They can't keep sitting on their hands, doing nothing in this space, expecting the federal government to take over their responsibilities. They need to step up and take a key role in what is a very, very important issue.

I also just note briefly in the time remaining to me that today the Closing the gap report was tabled, and obviously this is an area of keen interest to many people in this place. We've seen Closing the gap now since 2008, and we've seen some positives. Obviously, many of us would have liked to have seen a lot more positives over those 10 years. It does tend to be a two steps forward, one step back environment. But there have been some encouraging developments in this space. We've seen improvements in long-term health outcomes, and the target to halve child mortality is back on track. Educational outcomes are improving, and targets for early childhood and year 12 attainment are, again, both back on track.

Obviously, turning around the current situation for Indigenous communities is a long-term project, and everyone in this place knows that. What works is not always clear. Some things that work in one community might not work in another. So we have to keep driving towards these targets and trying to do positive things for all Australians.