Jana Stewart (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I really enjoy hearing a sense of urgency from the other side, which they never acted on in the 10 years that they were actually in government, when they could have done something about some of the challenges that are experienced by First Nations communities, especially in remote and regional areas in our country. I'm really interested to know where Senator Brockman and Senator Cash were in 2017 when there was $245 million cut from Indigenous housing, despite chronic overcrowding in your home state, which, standing over there right now, you're claiming to care so much about.

Don't even get me started on the almost $1 billion of cuts that happened on the former government's watch when they first came to power. And they have got the cheek, sitting over on the other side of the chamber now, to try to lecture us about what we are doing in First Nations communities. Can you imagine what that $1 billion worth of investment could have done in First Nations communities if it was sustained until today? Can you imagine what that $1 billion might have done? Instead, you chose to cut it. So it's a bit rich for you to sit over there and lecture us about the work that's happening in First Nations communities.

It's particularly rich to hear it as someone who has worked on the front line with lots of Aboriginal children and families, in out-of-home care, in child protection, doing the clinical work in the room with families. Looking in the eyes of families, I've seen the impact of the challenges that you talk about. So I absolutely understand how critically important it is that we get these things right.

But one of the things that we know weren't right was the cashless debit card. I find it interesting that you can talk about the difficulties experienced since the abolishing of the CDC, but nobody can actually find any evidence that it was working in the first place. It's really incredible. This was in briefs to your minister, who apparently said—it's interesting; what did she say?—'How disappointing it was that there was no evidence that it worked.' She wrote that on her briefs. But you wasted more than $170 million on that anyway, even though it didn't work. There was more than a billion dollars of cuts, and money was spent on things that don't actually work. But, sure, blame us for everything—and we've been in power for eight months.

What we do know represents the very best opportunity for change is supporting a voice to parliament, because the very communities that you claim to care about will have a direct voice into this place. What a difference that might make to the communities that you, sitting over there, claim to care about. We know, and I've certainly seen from the work that I've done, what can happen to the lives of Aboriginal children, families and people when they are given a seat at the table and when they are part of the decisions and the conversations that affect their lives.

I've worked in Aboriginal organisations in Victoria. I've spoken with many workers on the ground and CEOs of Aboriginal organisations who can give me many examples of where they have been put in the driver's seat and have gotten real outcomes for their families on the ground. The Voice is an opportunity to amplify that across the country, across the nation. Why would you not want to do that, when you sit over there and pretend to care about First Nations communities? Why would you not support a voice to parliament? Your voice for the last decade certainly hasn't worked for them. Aside from the real and practical changes that it would deliver for First Nations people on the ground, it is also an incredible opportunity to unify our country. It talks to the special place that First Nations people should and do have in our nation's history.