Christopher Back (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is my privilege to ask my last question of the Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Senator Scullion. Can the minister update the Senate on how the Turnbull-Joyce government is working in partnership with Indigenous Australians to deliver outcomes particularly in the priority areas of education and employment?

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

Before I move to the government's achievements in this area I would like to once again acknowledge the valuable contribution of Senator Back. We wish him and his family all the best in the future. I am pleased to inform the Senate that we are working in partnership with Indigenous communities, and the investments we are making are great news for our First Australians. We are ensuring that there are opportunities for people first to get an education and then to transfer into employment. It is evident that it is very hard to get an education if you are not at school, and our Remote Schools Attendance Strategy has assisted over 14,000 students over 77 schools in the last 12 months. We have provided this assistance by ensuring we work with the communities, which means we have employed 450 local truancy officers who understand the children, the families and the circumstances in those communities. Again, it is a matter of working in partnership with the communities.

We have taken that approach in the area of employment as well. We have broken the cycle of training for training's sake. We have the VTECs—the Vocational Training and Employment Centres—and we have just passed the 6,000 permanent jobs mark for Indigenous jobseekers. Our Indigenous Entrepreneur Fund ensures that Indigenous businesses have the opportunity to make a start and succeed. Sometimes it is a piece of infrastructure, or it might be a backhoe or a photocopier or a giraffe. Whatever it is you need to run your business, this is the fund that can sort it out. We have achieved an awful lot over the last 12 months. We are going to continue to push on with our reforms, and all of these reforms will be based on ensuring that we are working with communities, working with the people we want to assist. I am sure that we will be able to continue to deliver these results.

Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Back, a supplementary question.

Christopher Back (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I congratulate the minister on that impressive list. What new programs is the government providing to support Indigenous Australians, particularly those in regional and remote areas?

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

Thank you for the question, Senator Back. Since the 2016 election we have been delivering on our commitment to support Indigenous entrepreneurs. We have introduced a $90 million Indigenous Entrepreneurs Fund, which is for Indigenous businesses in regional and remote areas. That is because we recognise that the challenges for business in regional and remote areas—the nature of the markets, the nature of business—are different from those in the cities.

We are also tailoring the Indigenous Procurement Policy to Indigenous businesses in remote communities. Under this policy, government agencies that are looking to procure goods have to seek out an Indigenous business first. We are really sending a signal, and that signal is: if you want to do business with the Commonwealth government in a trillion-dollar economy then you need to be thinking about whether or not you are doing business with Indigenous Australia. It is working. We have gone from $6.2 million, and now I can update the Senate: instead of $407 million, it is $434 million. (Time expired)

Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Back, a final supplementary question.

Christopher Back (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Finally I ask: can the minister outline how the Turnbull-Joyce government's approach of working in partnership with Indigenous Australians has delivered better outcomes and new jobs over the last 12 months?

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

We are working, again in partnership with our First Australians, to support people into employment, because we on this side of the chamber recognise that the best form of welfare is in fact a job. Our Community Development Program has turned around Labor's disastrous Remote Jobs and Communities Program, which led to a massive disengagement because effectively it introduced an urban work for the dole program into remote areas. I am pleased to update the Senate that we recently announced that the CDP has delivered over 5,000 six-month job outcomes and has gone from seven per cent attendance to 70 per cent attendance in activities and jobs. I am pleased also to update the Senate that the ranger program that was originally started by the coalition government in 2007 now has grown to support over 2,600 rangers.

Every day in this portfolio we are employing more and more Indigenous Australians, and I acknowledge everyone, including those opposite, for working in partnership with the government to achieve these outcomes for our First Australians.