Nova Peris (NT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Senator Scullion. Is Ms Wendy Morton, CEO of the Northern Territory Council of Social Service, correct when she says that the minister's cuts to Indigenous programs mean:

We'll have more people in our hospitals. We'll have less children going to school, less people in employment.

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

No, she is not correct in that, because I am not cutting front-line services. We have had much about this in the media, and many groans from the other side. It is a great opportunity in question time to provide me with a quote not from some particularly eminent individual but from a service that is actually going to be cut, from a service that actually has a problem. I make no apology for the difficulty of some of these discussions. We seem to focus very much on the organisations. What I am focusing on is our joint constituency of Aboriginal and Islander people who receive those services. This is an opportunity to have a fair-dinkum discussion with all of these organisations to ensure that we have the outcomes that our First Australians deserve.

Nova Peris (NT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Minister, for a service that has been cut, I refer to the MacDonnell Regional Council President, Mr Sid Anderson, who says that his council in the Northern Territory will have to sack 51 Indigenous people as a result of the minister's cuts to Indigenous programs. Does the minister take responsibility for this outcome?

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

I do take responsibility for having a conversation with Sid Anderson's organisation about repairing it, telling them on Friday last that those holes had been completely filled. Now, I am sorry if the connectivity between those opposite and the shire that Mr Anderson represents is not as swift as mine, but he has obviously communicated to the senator that they were bit upset by that. But that has been completely repaired.

Nova Peris (NT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. I refer to the organisation Amity, which provides counselling services for people with drug and alcohol problems in the Northern Territory, which will lose four staff and the ability to deliver front-line services to 300 people as a result of the minister's funding cuts. Does the minister stand by his claim that the government's cut of half a billion dollars to Indigenous affairs would not have an impact on front-line services?

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

Amity is, I suppose, in the demographic of the many organisations that thought, reasonably, they would hedge their bets. They are currently funded under the Health portfolio. They will currently have an application under the Health portfolio to continue their funding. Amity are a good organisation; I expect that funding to be continued. They then applied—hoping to hedge their bets—to be funded under the IAS. I have said to them, 'You're currently funded through a different funding stream, under the Department of Health, and they should consider you properly for funding that will be announced before 30 June.' I have been very clear with Amity that that is the case.

So the simple answer to the question is that they have applied under the wrong stream. They know and are aware that their funding stream is under the Department of Health and will continue to be under the Department of Health, not in the discretionary grants stream under the Indigenous Advancement Strategy.