James Paterson (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to take the opportunity, at the outset in taking note of answers today, to place on the record my genuine and sincere disappointment at the choice opposition senators have made about the questions that they focused on today and about the ones they have chosen to take note of following question time today. I preface this by saying to Senator Kitching that this is not intended to damage your political career or mine, but I do have some respect and admiration for you and there are occasionally areas where we do have agreement. But instead of choosing to focus today on the very fair and reasonable questions, and very important questions, that Senator Dodson asked about closing the gap; instead of choosing to focus on the other big policy issues we've been debating in this chamber and in this building this week on emissions reduction or energy prices; and instead of choosing to ask questions about the very serious and real challenges that our regional communities are facing in recovering from bushfires, drought and now, in some areas, even from flood, the opposition has chosen to focus their take note and one of their questions today on a social media video posted during January by the Liberal Party of Australia.

This, very sadly in my view, sums up the priorities of the opposition. What they could have instead chosen to talk about or reflect upon were what I thought were two excellent speeches in the House of Representatives today by both the Prime Minister and the opposition leader on the Closing the gap report. I thought they set out very clearly and articulately the different approaches that the government and the opposition take on these matters, but also some important areas of agreement. For example, I thought that there were three positive things about the Prime Minister's speech today. On the one hand, he was very direct and very honest about the areas in which we have made progress and about the areas where, unfortunately, we have not made progress towards the Closing the Gap goals. I thought it was good, though, that it remained largely positive and optimistic throughout because, particularly in the space of Indigenous affairs, we cannot allow ourselves to become despondent and negative all the time. We should be sober and realistic about the challenges that we have, but we should celebrate the progress that we have made.

It was also deeply philosophical; it talked about a thoroughly liberal approach to assisting Indigenous Australians to empower themselves to help improve their own situation. I thought the Prime Minister framed those issues very well. Equally, although I didn't catch all of the opposition leader's speech, I thought that the parts that I heard very clearly set out their commitment to constitutional change as the pathway which they thought was the best way of fixing the problems that Indigenous communities face that we all accept and are concerned about. Instead, we have heard a five-minute speech from Senator Kitching and a question today about a video that was posted on social media—not an advertisement, which it has sometimes been inaccurately characterised as—and which featured some freely and publicly available, or not, footage from the defence department.

I represent the state of Victoria, as does Senator Kitching. The community of Gippsland in the far-eastern Victoria has been particularly badly hit. I think they will be harshly judgemental in thinking the senators representing them in this place are having an argument about a social media video and its authorisation and not the homes that they lost, the lives that they lost or the lessons that we need to learn from this bushfire season to make sure that it doesn't happen again or, if it does happen again, that we are better placed to respond to it and manage it. I think that's the focus that they would want us to have.

I am pleased to serve as the deputy chair of the Finance and Public Administration References Committee. This chamber has referred to it an inquiry into the bushfires, and I am looking forward to working in a bipartisan way with Labor senators and the new chair of the references committee, Senator Ayres, from New South Wales, to get around to affected communities to hear their stories, to understand their experience and to make tangible and useful recommendations to government ahead of the next fire season about how they can respond. I really hope that that committee is not at all or in any way detained by silly, partisan, Canberra, inside-the-bubble arguments about social media videos and authorisations. I hope it is wholly and solely focused on substantive matters and things our constituents actually send us here to do.