Ron Boswell (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Community Services, Senator Scullion. Will the minister update the Senate on the serious challenges confronting Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory and what the government is doing to protect the children in these communities?

Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Minister for Community Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Boswell for his question and acknowledge his feelings of abhorrence of child abuse wherever it occurs in Australia. This issue is seen in exactly the same way in the eyes of every Australian. I rose in this place yesterday in response to an unsolicited question from Democrat Senator Bartlett and I made it absolutely clear that this government will stop at nothing to ensure that the protection of Indigenous people and their children in these communities remains a priority of the highest level.

This is no less than a national emergency. I am happy to inform the Senate that we will not be dealing with this in any other way than as a national emergency. We have had the cyclone of child abuse leave battered the minds and bodies of the most vulnerable of First Australians across the Northern Territory and very likely across the top of the entire Australian continent.

We have today announced a range of initiatives that deal with the emergency response in much the same way as we would with any other type of cyclone. We will first move to stabilise the communities in which this is happening, and then will we move to normalise them. In the most recent report, which is entitled Little children are sacred, one of the principal recommendations and recognitions in the report is that there is a very close association with substance abuse, particularly alcohol—the rivers of alcohol that run into Indigenous communities—that needs to be dealt with. The initiatives announced today indicate that in all Aboriginal lands in the Northern Territory described under the Aboriginal land rights act, and town camps and other Indigenous communities identified by the act, there will be no trafficking of any alcohol, there will be no consumption of any alcohol and there will be a total prohibition on alcohol, with the only exemption being for existing areas that are licensed under the Liquor Licensing Act.

Today we have foreshadowed amendments to the welfare act that ensure that those persons who have been on welfare for more than a two-year period will have coupons for 50 per cent of their welfare payment. This will ensure that the safety and welfare of the family and the children are met. Of course, the future of these individuals is a function of school attendance and there will be announcements made in much the same vein with regard to welfare payments and school attendance. Also, every child in these communities is going to have a health check.

The Commonwealth will compulsorily acquire some 50 townships. We will then move, under the Constitution, to ensure that compensation is paid on just terms. We will be providing extra police—10 police from every police force around Australia—to assist the Northern Territory with the provision of safety and law and order and to provide the same cover of law and order that we enjoy in all other parts of Australia. We will be assisting with the clean-up of the communities by ensuring that we have the Welfare to Work process. We will be banning the possession and use of X-rated pornography in these communities and in these areas. We will be abolishing the permit system as it applies to public roads and public areas within townships.

These are wide-ranging changes, and many will say that many rights will be trodden on. There is no doubt about that. But we fundamentally believe that it is the right to protection of the youngest and most vulnerable of our First Australians that should come first.

Ron Boswell (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Could the minister further inform the Senate on initiatives to rid Australia’s Indigenous communities of child sex abuse?

Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Minister for Community Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the senator for the supplementary question. We will also be appointing administrators to these communities to assist in the governance of the communities. We are making broad based reforms. This is all about how the Commonwealth can assist in this emergency. On one of the most important issues and incentives required in this, we are formally referring the issues that were highlighted in this report and others to the Australian Crime Commission for investigation. It is a great tragedy in the eyes of every Australian that we get newspaper reports and we get the Little children are sacred report that identifies 45 communities across Australia and we know that there are paedophiles working within those communities. The frustration of it is that everybody knows it reflects the Australian view that these perpetrators need to be brought to justice. That is why all of these matters will be referred directly to the Australian Crime Commission.