Tony Sheldon (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I've got to say from the outset that this is an incredibly cynical approach to what is an incredibly important issue. There is no real plan that has been exercised here. A plan involves a whole series of moving parts happening at once. What we've seen in the plan from the opposition is no plan.

Particularly in the case of the Northern Territory, they can start taking a leaf out of some exceptionally good examples that have occurred elsewhere. I'll go to some of examples of opportunities they had to support in the Senate, particularly in light of some of the debate that we had earlier today.

One of the things that's particularly important when we are talking about the critical issues of crime and family and domestic violence and the challenges in any part of the country—but specifically, in this proposition, in Central Australia—is talking about how we actually gain proper jobs and good opportunity, how we deal with the questions and challenges of crime and how all those matters are intermingled with the social compact in the approach that you take. Part of creating a healthy community is making sure there's more schooling and there's funding for it, because, as we know, substantial funding and meeting the Gonski requirements for funding—that's been put in place in the Northern Territory—is part of the mosaic and the puzzle. But we also need to make sure that we have economic success and jobs, and later I'll jump to an example in Fitzroy Crossing.

Today, we proposed the Future Made in Australia. One of the tenets, which every speaker on the opposite side spoke against, is about community involvement and a community compact when there are arrangements and funding put into business and community to get outcomes. Part of that community compact is to make sure that First Nations communities also have the opportunity to be trained and get jobs. When you start talking about training and getting jobs, the opposition opposed fee-free TAFE. When you want to build a community, you have to build it by giving training, skilling and jobs. That's part of the mosaic. It is not only the funding that has been put in place—which has been applauded by the Northern Territory government—but also the policies that make a difference. Those people opposite me right now oppose the fundamentals of making sure that we get the right social context and the right social opportunity to make sure that Central Australia moves forward.

I'll give the example of Fitzroy Crossing—such a beautiful example of the success of a community. In the case of Fitzroy Crossing, when that bridge was knocked down only a couple of years ago in those horrific floods, we saw the economic disconnection—and the community disconnection, most critically. When that bridge was rebuilt, it was rebuilt with local labour, with local training. It was rebuilt by 220 people from the local community being trained, and they received good, paying jobs. They were paid for real jobs. They were given jobs that actually gave them opportunity, and, when that Fitzroy Crossing bridge was built, not only was that bridge built back more successfully, and six months before it was due to be completed, but also the crime rates in that community decreased by 43 per cent, the number of kids going to school substantially increased and domestic violence decreased.

When those opposite talk about the issues they think are important, they don't talk about the real issues that actually glue communities together. When we start talking about making sure that we have the economic answers and approach, as part of the mosaic of getting it right, we start talking about Future Made in Australia; we talk about fee-free TAFE, which, only last week in Adelaide, the opposition was still speaking against. We have those opposite without a package of ideas or a plan that's successful. They really don't like the idea of it being successful because it requires community involvement, it requires government involvement and it requires business involvement. Whenever they see that tripartite approach—community, in the Future Made in Australia; business, in the Future Made in Australia; and government, in the Future Made in Australia—they immediately just turn off. They switch off. Well, go to Fitzroy Crossing and see how it works, because it does work. A social contract and social infrastructure can be built. Have the guts to support it and be fair dinkum.