Jacinta Nampijinpa Price (NT, Country Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Recently, the ABC's Four Corners program highlighted the prevalence of homicide and domestic and sexual violence faced by Aboriginal women, particularly in places like the NT. While the ABC should be commended for the program highlighting a crisis of epic proportions, it was wrong to frame this issue as if it has never been highlighted before. It was in fact one of the reasons for why the Howard government initiated the Intervention. The ABC failed to consult former NT Minister for Women's Policy, Bess Nungarrayi Price, who worked alongside my fellow senator, Michaelia Cash, to develop the first national action plan to address DV.

As part of the former Country Liberal Party government, she made 23 separate media releases and five presentations on the floor of parliament on the issue. Over the last two years there have been approximately 82 separate occasions where DV against Indigenous women has been mentioned in a speech, a question or a response to a question in the Senate and House of Representatives. Yes, the justice system needs to be better to better support victims, but every single one of us needs to be honest about the contributing factors that myself and women like my mother are vilified for highlighting, and why the media, like the ABC, pretend we don't exist. We live the cultural factors that contribute to the violence and demand responsibility from our families, communities and perpetrators.

I commend the work of the Tangentyere Womens Family Safety Group; it disappoints me, however, that their CEO in 2016, Walter Shaw, attacked me after my 'Ending the Violence' National Press Club address, by calling me an oxygen thief and putting me on notice. He has accused me of politicising DV and has stopped me from speaking at White Ribbon Day events in my hometown, while obstructing any involvement to support the Tangentyere women. It's no wonder Aboriginal women cannot come together to demand change, when we're not only victimised at 40 times the national rate but constantly being controlled by the Aboriginal patriarchy, who get away with their behaviour because they too are classed as victims because of colonisation. Let the Aboriginal women have our feminist movement, not just white leftist women!