Jacinta Nampijinpa Price (NT, Country Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Indigenous Australians) Share this | Hansard source

I would suggest that that's a fairly ignorant response to what I have just asked. It should be the responsibility of members of this parliament to have a greater understanding, not for the purposes of simply standing up and making grandiose statements of virtue that we have got to this point. Does the government in fact recognise the elements of traditional culture that contribute to some of the very real and threatening circumstances that individuals are faced with in some of these remote communities? You speak of makarrata. The term 'makarrata' is actually about offering oneself up for traditional customary law punishment—a spear in the leg—and you're throwing this term around as if this is wonderful for Australia. Does the government actually view makarrata—is this the government's way of insisting upon non-Indigenous Australia to present themselves to Indigenous Australia for punishment?