Jess Walsh (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I inform the Senate that the President has received the following letter, dated 5 February 2024, from Senator Nampijinpa Price:

Pursuant to standing order 75, I give notice that today I propose to move "That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:

The Albanese Government's failure to address Central Australia's crime and community safety crisis, and their failure to partner with the Northern Territory Government to deliver practical solutions."

Is the proposal supported?

More than the number of senators required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

With the concurrence of the Senate, the clerks will set the clock in line with the informal arrangements made by the whips.

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price (NT, Country Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Indigenous Australians) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

Pursuant to standing order 75, I give notice that today I propose to move "That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:

The Albanese Government's failure to address Central Australia's crime and community safety crisis, and their failure to partner with the Northern Territory Government to deliver practical solutions."

Today I speak about this very urgent matter. It is a matter that is very close to my heart and has been ignored by the Albanese government for too long. The reality is that my home town of Alice Springs and the region of Central Australia more broadly has changed so much since I grew up there. It is a spiralling and has been spiralling for some time.

The Albanese government thought letting alcohol restrictions lapse would be helpful. They thought throwing $350 million at us would fix it. The previous Northern Territory Labor government thought they could fix it. But neither of them did. In fact, from my experience, what those Labor governments did, or perhaps more accurately didn't do, has made life much worse. We continue to live with the effects of their irresponsible decision-making, and that is why this matter requires urgent attention.

It's no secret to anyone that the current situation in Central Australia is dire. The NT has been in the national headlines disproportionately, due to a breakdown in law and order and, more specifically, the disorder in Alice Springs, which culminated in two separate curfews.

The narrative in the media is borne out in the data. When we look at youth offending, the number of young people in detention on an average night nationally is 2.7 in 10,000, but in the NT that number is 22.2 in 10,000. Rates of family and domestic violence continue to rise, with increases of more than 20 per cent across the Territory and more than 150 per cent in some regional areas. Frontline services cannot meet demand. One in five children in the NT have a child protection notification, compared to one in 20 nationally.

Given all of this, it was a relief when the CLP enjoyed a landslide victory and formed a majority government in the Northern Territory in August last year. The new CLP government have made swift legislative changes like strengthening bail laws. They also strengthened law enforcement on the ground through action such as establishing the Fugitive Task Force in Alice Springs, which saw at least 50 high-risk repeat offenders get taken off the streets, away from where they could cause further harm.

The Northern Territory government is doing everything it can, but there are additional measures for which they need the cooperation of the Commonwealth government to get done—things like making sure welfare payments are made on days when takeaway alcohol isn't available and making sure there are mutual obligations for those in receipt of welfare. They want to see an audit of federally funded programs—sounds familiar—and reform of royalty distribution. These are things I have advocated in favour of for so long. Finally, they want to broaden the pathways to income management for people like parents who don't send their kids to school and want to increase the managed amount for parents of youth offenders.

These are practical measures and they must urgently be adopted by the Albanese government. We know they will have an impact on the community. We know they will encourage the responsible use of money—spending it on things like food instead of alcohol. They will encourage people to find meaningful training or employment. They will have a positive impact on crime and violence in the region. That is why the coalition has been clear about their in-principle support for these measures. Unlike the leader of the Labor government, the leader of the coalition, Peter Dutton, cares about the people of Alice Springs and the wider Northern Territory. He cared enough to come and stay in Alice Springs and to talk to people on the ground and understand the reality of the situation residents are facing.

Now is not the time for Anthony Albanese to back away from the important issues. He cannot back away and pretend that these places or issues do not exist just because they are complex or uncomfortable to face. That is why I'm calling on the Prime Minister to stop ignoring the crisis that has gone on for far too long in Central Australia and calling on him to do more than just throw money at us and hope we go away. I'm calling on the Prime Minister to stand up and show some leadership and support to the Northern Territory. I'm calling on the Prime Minister to urgently agree to the implementation of all seven measures proposed by the NT government.

Tony Sheldon (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I've got to say from the outset that this is an incredibly cynical approach to what is an incredibly important issue. There is no real plan that has been exercised here. A plan involves a whole series of moving parts happening at once. What we've seen in the plan from the opposition is no plan.

Particularly in the case of the Northern Territory, they can start taking a leaf out of some exceptionally good examples that have occurred elsewhere. I'll go to some of examples of opportunities they had to support in the Senate, particularly in light of some of the debate that we had earlier today.

One of the things that's particularly important when we are talking about the critical issues of crime and family and domestic violence and the challenges in any part of the country—but specifically, in this proposition, in Central Australia—is talking about how we actually gain proper jobs and good opportunity, how we deal with the questions and challenges of crime and how all those matters are intermingled with the social compact in the approach that you take. Part of creating a healthy community is making sure there's more schooling and there's funding for it, because, as we know, substantial funding and meeting the Gonski requirements for funding—that's been put in place in the Northern Territory—is part of the mosaic and the puzzle. But we also need to make sure that we have economic success and jobs, and later I'll jump to an example in Fitzroy Crossing.

Today, we proposed the Future Made in Australia. One of the tenets, which every speaker on the opposite side spoke against, is about community involvement and a community compact when there are arrangements and funding put into business and community to get outcomes. Part of that community compact is to make sure that First Nations communities also have the opportunity to be trained and get jobs. When you start talking about training and getting jobs, the opposition opposed fee-free TAFE. When you want to build a community, you have to build it by giving training, skilling and jobs. That's part of the mosaic. It is not only the funding that has been put in place—which has been applauded by the Northern Territory government—but also the policies that make a difference. Those people opposite me right now oppose the fundamentals of making sure that we get the right social context and the right social opportunity to make sure that Central Australia moves forward.

I'll give the example of Fitzroy Crossing—such a beautiful example of the success of a community. In the case of Fitzroy Crossing, when that bridge was knocked down only a couple of years ago in those horrific floods, we saw the economic disconnection—and the community disconnection, most critically. When that bridge was rebuilt, it was rebuilt with local labour, with local training. It was rebuilt by 220 people from the local community being trained, and they received good, paying jobs. They were paid for real jobs. They were given jobs that actually gave them opportunity, and, when that Fitzroy Crossing bridge was built, not only was that bridge built back more successfully, and six months before it was due to be completed, but also the crime rates in that community decreased by 43 per cent, the number of kids going to school substantially increased and domestic violence decreased.

When those opposite talk about the issues they think are important, they don't talk about the real issues that actually glue communities together. When we start talking about making sure that we have the economic answers and approach, as part of the mosaic of getting it right, we start talking about Future Made in Australia; we talk about fee-free TAFE, which, only last week in Adelaide, the opposition was still speaking against. We have those opposite without a package of ideas or a plan that's successful. They really don't like the idea of it being successful because it requires community involvement, it requires government involvement and it requires business involvement. Whenever they see that tripartite approach—community, in the Future Made in Australia; business, in the Future Made in Australia; and government, in the Future Made in Australia—they immediately just turn off. They switch off. Well, go to Fitzroy Crossing and see how it works, because it does work. A social contract and social infrastructure can be built. Have the guts to support it and be fair dinkum.

Dorinda Cox (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Greens won't be supporting this motion about practical solutions today. In fact, it reads exactly like the coalition's election platform. There are three points that I want to make with the limited time that I have here today. One of those is very, very clear: you can't police your way out of the situation that's happening in Central Australia. This is hundreds of years of trauma based on colonisation, displacement, the eradication of culture and the segregation of people. It's also known as the White Australia policy, and God forbid that we are going back to that time. Some people in this country actually believe that this happened a really, really long time ago. When I speak to people that's what they say. But next week is actually the anniversary of the national apology to stolen generations people. Every year there is a breakfast here in this place. It is no surprise to hear, because I've spoken about it many times in this chamber, that I am from the following generation of children. My mother was in a mission, taken from her family. This happened to many mobs across our country. This is the cycle of dysfunction that was created for us.

The second is that the rates of family and domestic violence throughout the Northern Territory are unacceptable. They are absolutely unacceptable. That's what Senator Shoebridge and I heard when we were on the missing and murdered First Nations women and children inquiry. There needs to be significant investment but in crime prevention and early intervention, not punitive approaches that criminalise people and continue to paint black people in this country as people who are simply absolutely inadequate or cannot do for themselves. There is a mountain of evidence about the systems failure, that we do not provide the basic human needs—food, water, shelter and safety—in our communities. These need to be approached by every level of government to make sure that we are actually coming together and finding common ground to fix that instead of these inflammatory comments about what's happening in our community. (Time expired)

Matt O'Sullivan (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Nampijinpa Price for bringing this important urgency motion before the Senate today. For those following along at home, I think it is important to read it so people understand what it is we're actually debating here and so we're central to the core of the issue of what we're actually discussing here. The motion Senator Nampijinpa Price brought here reads:

The Albanese Government's failure to address Central Australia's crime and community safety crisis, and their failure to partner with the Northern Territory Government to deliver practical solutions.

It's writ large that this is patently true, that this is not happening under the Albanese government. There is not the cooperation with the Territory government to get the results on the ground that are absolutely necessary.

In Senator Nampijinpa Price's contribution she remarked on the fact that the data around youth offending is getting worse. It's getting worse. It's not getting better. The number of young people in detention on an average night nationally is 2.7 in 10,000, but in the NT that number is 22.2 in 10,000. Family and domestic violence continues to rise, with increases of more than 20 per cent across the Territory and more than 150 per cent across some regions in the Territory. One in five children in the NT have a child protection notification compared to one in 20 nationally. If that figure doesn't frighten the living daylights out of you and spur you on to greater action, I don't know what will. Our children are our most vulnerable citizens. This is occurring right here in our country. This is a truly terrible situation that is happening right now.

We've seen decisions by this government that more often than not are simply driven by an ideological obsession and we've seen their unwillingness to provide the practical solutions that we know work in these communities. They need to listen to people on the ground, rather than someone in an ivory tower coming from some academic position and often in different communities and, indeed, different states and different parts of the country, such as the universities of Sydney, Melbourne and elsewhere. These academics, who think they know best, want to keep these communities in this utopian little view that they have and aren't prepared to listen to the people on the ground that actually know the solutions that they want. Why won't they go there? Why doesn't the government go and listen to communities on the ground?

One of the things that was working quite well, although no panacea, was the cashless debit card. When we were in government, we were in the stages of replacing the BasicsCard that was brought in by the Labor government. It was a very clunky and old technology that was quite restrictive and limited the ability for people to have more autonomy over their lives. We were replacing it with the cashless debit card, a much more advanced technology. There were improvements that were being implemented. But in one of the very first pieces of legislation that this government brought in, without listening to anyone on the ground and without consulting anyone in the communities—we saw through the inquiry process and through estimates that there was no consultation—they ripped away the cashless debit card from the Northern Territory and from the four trial sites where it was occurring.

My point is they're not prepared to bring in practical solutions. Instead, they're only listening to those who have got an ideological obsession, who are detached from the reality of what's actually occurring on the ground and who are imposing their ideological obsessions on these communities. This is why we're seeing these sorts of results. We need practical solutions that come from the insights of people on the ground, who know what they want. This government needs to listen. They're proving that they're not able to, so put us in charge, because we'll make it happen.

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

I'll just briefly say that this government has lost its way—and so have the state governments—in dealing with the escalating crime that is happening. I want people to think about this. As crime increased, we had the Voice debate in this nation. What it's done is to pit one Australian against another. There's hatred brewing out there: 'You've stolen our country. You've invaded our nation.' We've got senators here who are standing up; it's war. It's just ridiculous where we are at this moment. That's being transmitted to the kids who see this is happening. Children feel they can get out there and do whatever they want to. They have no respect for anyone else in our society. Every day on our TV screens we see the hatred and the crime that's being committed. Up in Cairns 60 cars have been stolen in one month. You've got kids behind wheels of cars, drag racing to outrun the police. What is happening about it? Nothing.

I went to a meeting this morning with the minister's office about Closing the Gap. I asked the question: do you have self-determination? She said: 'Yes, we do. We have all of our community groups. We have our members and organisations, and it goes from the bottom up to the top.' I said, 'It's really not the state governments that are stopping you.' She said, 'No, it's not.' The fact is that the people, themselves, who are in these organisations cannot run them because they don't know what the hell they're doing. Until you actually have people who really understand the process of being directors of companies, who can stop the nepotism and really get to the issues of it—it's not the government, it's not the taxpayers and it's not the lack of interest. It's people who have not got the understanding of how to really deal with this whole issue. So start taking the blame for your own inability to do the jobs that you are supposed to be doing, and help the kids of this nation.

David Shoebridge (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

First of all, I want to commend the words and the work of my colleague, Senator Cox. I endorse everything she's said. I want to be clear. When we were up in the NT, on the missing and murdered women and children inquiry, what we heard from all of the services, from all of the communities, was that they are in desperate need of investment in housing, in economic empowerment and in health care. To deal with the crisis of domestic violence, services for women and children are desperately needed. That's investment that's needed urgently.

Just this week, we heard from the NT children's commissioner, from a jurisdiction where up to 100 per cent of kids in custody are First Nations, where the UN has called out the abuse in NT prisons. This is what the NT children's commissioner said:

Therapeutic models of youth justice are not ideological; they are evidence based … We know that once a child enters the formal system—

the criminal justice system—

they are more likely to return, particularly if they are detained. In contrast, youth diversionary programs and alternative responses that operate outside of the … court system are more effective in helping children get their lives back on track …

Let's have more of that— (Time expired)

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

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question is that the motion moved by Senator Nampijinpa Price be agreed to.