Kerrynne Liddle (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Child Protection and the Prevention of Family Violence) Share this | Hansard source

():  This motion is about Central Australia. It's from the CLP. Their recommendation's to actually fix the mess left behind by a policy that has done nothing to improve the lives of Territorians.

The coalition has stepped up its support-in-principle of the CLP's plan. I was in Alice Springs on election night after Territorians voted to get rid of Labor and to start to clean up the mess, putting their trust in the CLP. Labor broke the economy in the Northern Territory, and Labor has left families and communities broken. The Northern Territory, along with every other Australian state, rejected Labor's $400 million Voice referendum, and, while Labor was distracted by that, the cost of living spiralled, with greater impact on people in remote and regional areas.

Amid that, it was Labor that allowed the alcohol restrictions to be lifted there. Medical evidence to the 2024 coroner's inquiry into the deaths of women in the Northern Territory heard that what followed the lifting of those restrictions was a 77 per cent increase in family violence assaults in Alice Springs. Only a fool would have thought the outcome would be different. It was foolish and despicable, and it did nothing for the people of the Northern Territory.

For the Northern Territory, though, there's even worse to come, with Labor's plan to end income management. Income management restricts a portion of welfare so it can't be spent on anything but essentials. You never learn, though, Labor. What do you think will happen when you remove income management, when, in the Northern Territory, one in five people are on it? I hope Northern Territorians in the electorates of Lingiari and Solomon punish you for even thinking about that.

Central Australian Women's Legal Service's most recent report says that 339 of the 1,600 clients assisted last financial year experienced coercive control; 279 of those reports 'involved alcohol'—familiar words, spoken all the time when you talk about this dysfunction. Just look at what happened in the Northern Territory when you increased access to alcohol and gambling. It was the same when you removed the CDC in the communities that wanted it, in Ceduna, Kalgoorlie and the East Kimberley. You said yes to more violence in those areas and to more social distress.

What you've failed to recognise is that this isn't just about Aboriginal families. This is about all of the people who live there—everyone. In Central Australia, we're not talking about a huge number of children; we're talking about around 40. You know how I know that? It's because I was actually talking to people in Alice Springs about that last week. It's a bit of honesty from the locals: 40 children at any one time. Sometimes, it's up to 80, but it's only 40. You spent nearly $300 million for a 'better, safer Central Australia', you called it. And yet that's not what you've actually delivered. You did spend $130,000 on a temporary ice-skating rink in Alice Springs, in one of those summers, for no effect for the children who actually needed it. You also fund a bus service that runs until four in the morning—and not just in Alice Springs but in Katherine, too. I dare you to let your children out on the streets until 4 am. What is a service doing, going around and providing a bus service—funded by taxpayers; funded by this very place—until 4 am?

Let me tell you what it's like for Territorians after your handiwork: more assaults, violence and property crime. Insurance? It costs $800 more to insure the same car in Alice Springs than it does in Kalgoorlie, Port Lincoln or Townsville. You know what? I actually did the work. I asked a broker to look at it. There are more insolvencies in those areas. Businesses just can't do it anymore. Children should be in school, not on the streets—and not at four in the morning.

In my home state of South Australia, in Pipalyatjara, only two per cent of children attend school more than 90 per cent of the time; in Amata, it's three per cent; in Indulkana, it's five per cent; and in Yalata, a former CDC area, not one student attended school regularly, down seven per cent in 2023. Labor, you've failed these children, you've failed these families and you're failing Territorians.