Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Hansard source

Australians continue to ask why the vast riches allocated to closing the gap over many years are not producing the intended outcomes. I have been speaking about this, and I've got the report that I put out on 14 June 1996. This is what I was referring to all those years ago—the inequalities in the system. Until we actually acknowledge and question this, nothing will change. Repeated failure to close the gap puts this good will at risk. I have always called for equality among all Australians. Assistance should be based on individual need. A person's cultural background or skin colour should never entitle them to more assistance than any other Australian. I will keep repeating that.

I'm pleased to see here in this chamber my colleague Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and hear her comments that are now starting to draw attention in the coalition—they are actually backing her up—but I didn't get backed up on that years ago, because it was the Howard government that threw me out on making comments on equality for all Australians. I was thrown out of the Liberal Party for saying it. It's quite interesting to see today that Senator Cash has made some comments with regard to this, and it's quite interesting to hear her comments. The Liberals are only now saying it should not be based on race but need. That sounds familiar, and I got thrown out of the Liberal Party for it. So it's good to see that they've finally woken up to themselves, because closing the gap is clearly not working.

I keep calling for equality for all Australians. In part of my comments that I've made here—I've got to go back to this as well. I got involved in politics because of Robert Tickner, who was a minister in the Keating government. This is Robert Tickner's comment: 'On this basis, the ABS 1991 national census included people of Aboriginal descent and people who were accepted as Aborigines by Aboriginal communities.' This means whites who married Aborigines or had adopted Aboriginal life and been initiated qualified not only for the census but also for welfare payments under the more generous Indigenous range of benefits. The then Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Robert Tickner, conceded that the growth in census figures for Indigenous Australians in 1991 reflected an increased willingness of people to identify as being of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander origin. This uncertainty as to what constitutes an Aboriginal lends itself to welfare abuse, false native title claims and other such injustices.

When government handouts are considerably more generous for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders than non-Aboriginal Australians, it is little wonder that more people are willing to hitch their welfare wagons to the Aboriginal gravy train. He said that, and I said it in 1996. Isn't it amazing. Hasn't the Labor Party done a turnaround in their attitude towards this? How many times have I asked for the identity of Aboriginals? But you won't even do that. As I said, forget about race. It's not about race, culture or your background. It should be based on an individual needs basis. We are all Australians together. Forget about whether you're Aboriginal. It should not come down to that.

Even in this report that I put out, which I've got here, for everything that you go through—whether it's health, education, legal aid or masters degrees—there is a clear difference in what you get if you're an Aboriginal, compared to a non-Aboriginal. Nothing has really changed today at all. If you look at some of these things here, referring back to health, things have to change. Till we acknowledge this, it's only going to get worse.

In what I have pulled up here, I also made comments about the corruption and misappropriation of moneys that is happening, but it falls on deaf ears in this place. What we need is to have a good look at these corporations. A good example of the different treatment is the standards of governance to which Indigenous corporations are held compared to the standards required of non-Indigenous corporations. Non-Indigenous corporations are required to meet the governance standards of the Corporations Act 2001. Indigenous corporations are only required to meet the standards of an act written specifically for them, the Corporations (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) Act 2006. Many Indigenous corporations can't even meet these softer standards, and the agencies which are supposed to enforce these standards are either disinterested or poorly resourced.

There have been many examples of poor governance in recent years, allowing corruption and nepotism to reign freely while entrenching disadvantage among those who need the most support. Boards of directors at some of these Indigenous corporations are passing illegal resolutions without required quorums or even outside of board meetings without required written agreements from every board member. Many directors are not even aware of their individual obligations, and training in these basic obligations is not mandatory. Many directors are simply appointed to support family members dominating boards, and required declarations of these connections are not adequately enforced.

Even worse is the paternalism which drives these much lower standards. It assumes a much lower level of competence and diminished capacity for Indigenous people, and that makes no sense at all. I've been told about the corruption that's happened, even on councils: a CEO councillor actually signed off on work to be done by his own company, and the work wasn't carried out. Do you want to do an audit? No-one in the wide world does.

Where is the accountability for the billions of dollars that are going into this Aboriginal industry? Under One Nation, we intend to abolish it. There won't be any Aboriginal department. There won't be 3,000 Aboriginal corporations. There won't be all these handouts any more. There will be accountability for taxpayers' dollars. The Aboriginal people will come under the same department as any other people.

As I said, too, you talk about health issues. We hear people in this place talk about the health issues.

Brochure material reads:—

this is going back to when I put this out in 1997—

"An organisation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People, for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People, controlled By Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People".

It says 'controlled by' them.

In the main, these clinics—which included medical, dental, along with specialist clinics like diabetic, child health, women's health, nutrition, mental health, ante-natal care, and welfare and community development—are exclusively for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. Expenditure for 1994-95 was $69.669m.

That's nearly $70 million. Off the top of my head, in the census at that time—1996—there were approximately 356,000 Aboriginals. Now we've got over 800,000 people claiming. Robert Tickner was right: everyone is jumping on the bandwagon. Between the 2016 census and the 2021 census, people claiming to be Aboriginal increased by 25 per cent. It's really working, isn't it?

And then you talk about the land.

In 1994 (most up to date figures were available) land was acquired for Aboriginal communities under land acquisition and maintenance and the Regional Land Fund. During that year, 45 properties were bought for $17.3m, of which approximately 30% was spent on pastoral properties.

Aboriginal organisations own (up to 1994) the staggering total of 77 cattle stations (prolific through the Northern Territory and Kimberley region), making those organisations the largest holders of pastoral property in Australia. This figure does not include land owned by individual Aboriginals.

The most disturbing thing about this vast land acquisition is that there is repeatedly no accountability or record of it !

What are we going to do about it? These are things that happened 30 years ago, and nothing's changed.

You keep talking about this. You sit in this place, and the only way it will change is if you start treating people equally on an individual needs basis. You talk about there being no water in the communities. If you are in remote communities and you're supposed to be connected to land and that's your culture, why are you relying on the white man's way of life to provide the services when you clearly don't want this? You can't have it both ways. Yes, look after those who are in need, but you also have to look after taxpayers' moneys, which have to be accountable to every taxpayer.

Stop screaming, because all it is is you're playing the victim card, and Australians have had a gutful of it. Start doing something. You've been given the opportunity to run these organisations yourselves, and nothing has happened. They're in worse conditions now as the years go by.