Nita Green (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on this motion this evening, and I do so while acknowledging that the call for a royal commission into child sexual abuse relates to really abhorrent behaviour. Nobody on this side of the chamber—or, I don't think, anyone at all in this chamber—would suggest that any type of child sexual abuse is okay or that any type of child sexual abuse is apologised for by any policy of any government, previous or otherwise. It's really important that we get that language right in here tonight because victims are listening, and I'm sure they would want to hear that everyone in this chamber thinks there should be steps taken to protect any child in any vulnerable position, including reporting to police when people become aware of issues and making sure there are systems in place to protect children. It is really clear that that is something that I think all senators would say is a good thing to do.

Key experts who have considered this call for a proposal, particularly the people who are dealing with child sexual abuse in Indigenous communities—those organisations have said they don't support a royal commission because they want to see more funding and more action right here and right now. I think it's important to put on the record what the government is doing, what action the government is taking and what funding the government is providing in this space. There is the National Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Child Sexual Abuse; it's a 10-year whole-of-nation framework to establish a coordinated and consistent approach to prevent and better respond to child sexual abuse in Australia in all settings, in all families, online and in all organisations. I just want to be clear that a diverse range of non-government stakeholders were consulted on the strategy, including victims and survivors of child sexual abuse and their advocates, and First Nations people. In the development of this strategy, advocates were spoken to and also members of the Indigenous community.

First Nations people, families and communities are a priority group under the national strategy. There are a number of measures under the national strategy specifically designed to support and empower First Nations people. They include two measures led by the NIAA currently, which is action that is happening right now, right on the ground, delivering trauma aware, healing informed and culturally appropriate resources to improve early disclosures and experiences, which is a very important step, and developing healing approaches in partnership with First Nations experts, which are in place and contemplate the specialist support service system for First Nations victims and survivors of child sexual abuse.

The national strategy is a broader, whole-of-community approach. I want to commend the steps taken by this government to put these plans in place. Of course the Keeping Our Kids Safe cultural safety National Principles for Child Safe Organisations resources are designed for this. It's really important that they reach out into Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

The rest of this motion talks about closing the gap. I want to talk about that. What is insinuated in the motion is some sort of bipartisan approach. I think that would be great. Let's have a bipartisan approach to closing the gap. Let's have a bipartisan approach to funding housing in Indigenous communities. We know that housing is incredibly important in Indigenous communities. We know that on this side of the chamber we sought to fund $100 million of funding through the HAFF for repairs for Indigenous community housing. The previous government—I appreciate that there are people sitting on the other side of the chamber that weren't part of the previous government, but many of them were—they walked away from NPARIH. They refused to fund Indigenous housing. Our government is really committed to understanding the Closing The Gap targets. The things that lead to closing the gap are incredibly important, as are all the things we are talking about. That's why we're stepping through methodically and taking this work seriously.