Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to make my contribution to the debate on this motion to take note of answers. Like your good self, Acting Deputy President O'Sullivan, I know there are a lot of people in this building who talk a lot about closing the gap and working in Indigenous communities, but I know from the heart that there are a number of us who actually walk the walk as well as talk the talk. Mr Acting Deputy President, you're one of them, and I'm one of them. For those out there who don't know, you and I are both co-patrons of the Men's Shed in Fitzroy Crossing, and I know the work that you have done working with communities around this issue. It's a very complex issue and it can tear families apart and tear friends apart.

It hurts my heart to have this debate, because it's a well-known fact in this building that I supported Ian Trust, Lawford Benning and Teddy Carlton in Kununurra when they worked to do the trial in Kununurra and Wyndham. I remember, with previous minister Jenny Macklin, committing to the trial. There was an air of hope that this would go a long way to, as you and I both know, trying our best to—and let's say it as it is—stop rivers of grog that were flowing through the Kimberley.

And I'll make this very clear: I only speak about the East Kimberley. I am not here to represent Kalgoorlie-Boulder's view, as I have not worked out there. I did a Senate inquiry there early in the piece, before the card came. But I am talking about the work that you and I have done, Mr Acting Deputy President, through the East Kimberley and through the Central Kimberley and the West Kimberley, where they do not have the card. Unfortunately at the time there was great support for the card; there really was. And it breaks my heart, because of the work that I still do in the Kimberley. And nobody, not even Senator Thorpe, who's not here today, who likes to have a cheap crack at us white privileged men—what would we know and what do we do?—well, you and I, we've got the runs on the board. To this day I still do my community work through the Kimberley. I still run the donated furniture and bedding for the victims of domestic violence and the homeless. I'm doing a run again next week, with donated gear.

It breaks my heart when I see kids the same age as my grandkids and I know there's no way they're getting fed three meals a day. It breaks my heart when I'm driving through Fitzroy Crossing and I see the kids. I've seen the footage of the kids trying to break into the Coles Express to get the bowser off so they can get petrol to sniff. I know the argument that I had to have, with great support from Coles Express—they were tremendous; Viva Energy weren't very good at all. But fortunately now, both there and at Ngiyali Roadhouse, the 97 per cent fuel is gone. So, we've lost the sniffable fuel. Thank goodness for that.

But it tears me apart to think, how the heck can we make these kids' lives better? I see kids going through Fitzroy Crossing, walking from Bayulu—you know where that is, Mr Acting Deputy President O'Sullivan; you've been there, like me. They are walking 14 kilometres in the middle of the night because they want to escape the violence and the nonsense that's going on in some of these drug fuelled communities—not all of them, but the ones where the parents aren't doing the right thing.

But I am a member of the Australian Labor Party; I don't apologise for that. I wish we could have some system that would go to taking away the pain that I feel and that you and others would feel every time they go up there. There's a lot of work to be done. But the truth of the matter is that the Labor Party took it to the election. And I will be voting with the Labor Party, with my party, on the abolition of the cashless debit card. I do have to say that Ian Trust—Senator Reynolds mentioned his name—is a personal friend of mine. I still work very closely with Ian—I was on the phone to him last week—and through Wunan and I admire the work he's done. I had a conversation with Ian just prior to Minister Rishworth going up there. I heard Senator Reynolds say 'not a lot of consultation'. Well, I know Minister Rishworth was in Kununurra because I know she met with Ian. She met up with the crew. She met up with everyone. Ian is one of the most wonderful people in the world, and I know that his people and his kids come first and foremost. I know he has some plans, so hopefully we can get together and we can try to mirror what's being done up in Cape York. But the truth of the matter is that it was taken to the election. The other side can bang on about it as much as they like because it wasn't a secret.

I've done my best within the Labor Party to put my views forward, and my view's in the minority. So Ian, I'll continue to work with you, mate—and Lawford!—and I hope to heck that we do all we possibly can to achieve closing these gaps. We've been talking about it for damn well long enough, and we're nowhere near it. On that, I will be supporting the bill that the government puts into the Senate and voting for the abolition of the cashless welfare card.