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

I rise to express my continued deep disappointment in the conduct of the Albanese government in serving our most marginalised Indigenous Australians in this country. When the CDC was removed from our most vulnerable community members, they were left behind and forgotten. The only real justification—it was not evidence based justification—was to appease the woke, paternalistic academic voters of the inner city, who are far removed from the circumstances of those living in remote Australia, where the highest rates of domestic violence, fuelled by alcohol and substance abuse, exist. This government has been completely and utterly asleep at the wheel. As the shadow minister for Indigenous Australians, I have not seen any constructive, proactive, commonsense approaches towards improving the lives of our most marginalised Australians.

The CDC was ripped away from the vulnerable. It was ripped away because those with a louder voice and with better access to media—those who could belittle the voices of the vulnerable—were heard, and not the vulnerable. The concept of the Voice was to provide an opportunity for the voiceless to be heard. In contrast to the Minister for Indigenous Australians doing what the taxpayer pays her to do, getting out of her seat in Sydney and going into communities in remote Australia to understand the needs of our most marginalised, Senator Liddle and I live in these circumstances. While it was argued by Labor that the cashless debit card is a racist measure, a similar form of income management was still allowed to remain in the Northern Territory, where 25 per cent of the population is Indigenous. So it's okay for some Aboriginal people—but not those outside of the Northern Territory—to have the support of income management?

I have firsthand experience, going way back to 2007, of speaking to the very first recipients of income management, who told me their stories. A non-Indigenous woman was able to get her child back in her life. The child was taken from her because she was an addict. She managed to improve her life and get off her addiction, and her child was able to be returned to her care. Another woman, an Indigenous woman, said she could now feed her children; there was food in the fridge for the kids because family weren't taking that money from her. In traditional culture we have a demand-sharing economy: anything that you own your family has access to. When your family members are struggling with substance abuse and addiction, you are a target. They will badger you. It is not right in Warlpiri culture to say no to your family, and you're confronted with this behaviour. The cashless debit card was a protection, but, no, some academic in Sydney or Melbourne knows better than the Aboriginal person out bush living this culture—the culture that you all romanticise but that you're not subjected to.

This government cannot come up with a single policy to improve the lives of our most marginalised, because all its eggs were put in one basket: the failed Voice to Parliament. As Minister Burney said, if she had the Voice she would tell the Voice: 'Bring me ideas on this; bring me ideas on that.' She couldn't be bothered to go and find out herself from the people on the ground who are affected by policies such as removing the cashless debit card. Shame! I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.