Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate agrees that there should be no discrimination based on skin colour, race, religion or ethnic background when determining the level and use of funding in all cases where:

(a) government funding is made available to Australian-based community programs; and

(b) grants are made to assist and empower communities to escape the cycles of poverty, unemployment, alcohol and drug abuse, and violence.

I rise to bring to the attention of senators and the people of Australia, yet again, the inequality that exists in the funding of Indigenous programs, and the continuing desperate circumstances of the victims of this financial bastardry and mismanagement. I've learned of this in my many conversations over the years with Indigenous communities across Australia. Unlike many vocal urban Aboriginal elites, I have walked through the streets of remote Aboriginal communities in Queensland, the Northern Territory, South Australia and Western Australia. I have listened and I have understood. Whether it's sitting on the beach on Thursday Island or at the base of Uluru, just being in remote communities and listening to elders and residents has been profound and very informative.

There's not one Indigenous community I've met with that isn't concerned, and they want to share what's going wrong. A lot of these people can't even gain access to their own land, which has in many cases been given back to the registered native title bodies corporate, which are often more restrictive than the government was. Many of these bodies, especially in rural and remote areas, are highly restrictive, to the detriment of the Aboriginal people. Some are charged to go on their ancestral land. Worse still, some are denied access altogether.

But those conversations in both the large communities and the rural and remote locations always turn to the needs that their isolation and situation bring—needs reflected in a lack of adequate housing, a deficiency of infrastructure, widespread alcoholism, out-of-control levels of domestic violence, repeated sexual abuse, including of young children, and a lack of effective pathways to escape the cycles of poverty and unemployment that are often normalised and passed on from generation to generation. Those communities live on the other side of what the highly respected Indigenous spokesperson Jacinta Price referred to in The Australian recently as 'the chasm'. She described in detail how the Aboriginal elite, the activists, the academics from the indoctrination centres posing as universities, those with their hands out for grant money and those with the loudest voices who want to change the date of Australia Day all live in the city on their side of the chasm.

When was the last time you heard one of the members of the elite in this space saying anything positive or uplifting about Indigenous achievements? When was the last time you heard one of the activists who identifies as Indigenous talking up the efforts of those in remote locations working to succeed? The elites, the truth deniers—they know there are a multitude of ways to end the misery. They know there's a tonne of money being poured into programs. When they call for an Indigenous voice in the parliament they deliberately don't remind you that there are multiple Indigenous voices already here. In fact, the percentage of those identifying as Indigenous in this place is greater than the percentage in the national population. And why won't we hear stories of achievement, of encouragement, of empowerment, of Indigenous role models and success stories? Why won't you hear them remind their people of Neville Bonner, who came from a little island in the Tweed River to become the first Aboriginal to sit in the Commonwealth parliament and who, as Senator Bonner, went on to be re-elected in four subsequent elections? He was also proud to accept the Australian of the Year award in 1979. He's a stand-out role model for young Indigenous people and their parents, but his story isn't used by the Aboriginal elites because this hero of his people doesn't fit their political agenda.

Mick Dodson, Aboriginal and professor of law, who also accepted the Australian of the Year award, in 2009, summed up the widespread Indigenous success the elites and their mates don't want you to hear about when he told The Sun-Herald in 2010:

It's becoming unexceptional to have successful Indigenous filmmakers, artists, doctors, academics, lawyers, nurses and politicians.

As a nation we love to celebrate the achievements of all Australians. We're that kind of society and we love, as a nation, to cheer the underdogs. We cheer. We celebrate. And so many of our kids try to be like their heroes—the battlers, the ones who give it a real go, as well as the ones who succeed. That's the real Aussie.

And it's not based on the colour of your skin. They want to rewrite history. They have made it their mission in life to reframe Australia, both its history and its present. They spray their venom. They hiss their threats and slurs. They denigrate our great nation and all it stands for. They work hard to indoctrinate our youth with their lies and to divide our country. And their division isn't between black and white; it's between black and everyone else.

Senator Thorpe interjecting—

So many of them seem to have made it their life's work to enjoy their substantial salary—

Senator Thorpe interjecting—

and the profile of their city based positions while they work to ensure Indigenous communities remain trapped in permanent victimhood—