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

The Community Development Program works because it works in partnership with local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations. It will respond to local community priorities that meet the needs and aspirations of local jobseekers. It will take advantage of the opportunities and circumstances of local job markets because it's delivered by local organisations and allows the local decision-making.

When I became minister, I inherited what I think most around this place would agree was a failed remote jobs and community program that was introduced by effectively non-Indigenous employment companies with head offices in Brisbane, Sydney or sometimes even overseas. We don't agree with that approach. I suspect no-one in this place does. We believe in local organisations running that. We believe in empowered communities. That's what the CDP will deliver. Organisations like RASAC, in the APY lands, are now delivering this program for the benefit of their own communities.