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

Today I rise to speak about the domestic violence and related deaths in the Northern Territory as well as the government's inaction and failure to address these issues at their core. Reports in the Australian yesterday highlighted this pressing issue which demands attention from the Australian government.

Yesterday the Australian reported on the alleged murder of a mother of four from Alice Springs at the hands of her partner. This alleged perpetrator had appeared in court 54 times over the last decade. He had an extensive history of criminal activity, including breaches of intervention orders, aggravated assault, fighting in a public place and breaching court orders. I don't know how many more times any of these incidents are needed before the Albanese Labor government takes this issue seriously. But, in case they need reminding, I'd like to highlight some of the incidents that have occurred in the Northern Territory over the last few months.

In September 2024, a man who cut his partner's achilles tendon had a history of three decades of assaulting and perpetrating violence against women. In October 2024, a man who fatally stabbed his wife had a violent history, including kicking his wife in the face and using a traditional hunting stick to fracture her legs. In January this year, a man killed his wife after a session of drinking hand sanitiser. He had previously breached the good behaviour bond for aggravated assault.

There has been ample time and opportunity for the Albanese government to show they are willing to do whatever it takes to combat the rates of family and domestic violence in Indigenous communities, but time is running out. I'm standing here today because this government has failed. They have failed to take definitive action and they have failed to partner in a meaningful way with the Northern Territory government to fight this scourge. The Territory government have called on the Labor government to back them in and to support them in measures that only the Commonwealth can bring about.

The Prime Minister was in Alice Springs, of course. He pops in and pops out quite regularly, but only to pop in and never to speak to those people on the ground, those grassroots people and individuals—not heads of organisations but people. He still refused to commit to implementing the requests of the Territory government. All he wants to do is announce millions of dollars to blind people to the lack of action he and his government are taking. He's not interested in practical solutions or in calling out what is really causing problems in communities, like alcohol and drug abuse, and cultural acceptance of violence. Let me say that again for those who find it hard to listen to those words: cultural acceptance of violence and low expectations of Indigenous leaders.

That last point is critical. Too many Indigenous community leaders, who are Labor aligned of course, are failing our women by refusing to acknowledge that there is a problem or refusing to exhibit behaviour that is any better. In fact we have a striking example of this in the newly appointed chair of the Central Land Council, Mr Warren Williams, who has publicly said that he doesn't agree with me. That is all very well—he's entitled to his own opinion of course—but he has also said that he is 'sick' of my continued attacks on land councils and other organisations. Well, maybe if they didn't have chairmen who had a history of domestic violence and maybe if they had removed these people or knew of their backgrounds before putting them in these places of leadership, I would stop calling them out.

To be clear, I don't attack these organisations just for the sake of it. I call out this behaviour because it falls well below what we should accept in this country, but, for some reason, we have lower expectations of Indigenous Australians. I call it out because these organisations need to do better. We just had the Closing the Gap statement. We've seen the results of the Closing the Gap program yet again, and we sit back and wonder why we can't close the gap and why we can't reduce violence or sexual abuse of Indigenous children.

Let's not forget that the Central Land Council is an organisation that has a key role in implementing policy to combat Indigenous disadvantage in Central Australia. Organisations like the CLC have so much opportunity, and yet, Mr Williams, the chair of that institution, has a criminal history. He has been convicted of violent behaviour and breaches of intervention orders. I will continue to call out the racism inherent in the low expectations that we apply to Indigenous people, especially those in leadership positions. Everyone in a position of leadership in this country must be held to the same standards of behaviour no matter their race, heritage or background. I call this out because we need to end the patterns of violence and violent offending in communities, and I refuse to hold Indigenous Australians to a lower standard than anyone else in this country. I call upon the Albanese government to do the same: to have the courage of their convictions, to stand up for our marginalised and not to be afraid to take meaningful action.

Mr Williams, I know, has lamented the fact that he was called out by me over his previous history. His response, in effect, was that everyone else, such as the previous chairman, has a similar history. Isn't that an indication of a systemic problem, if other chairmen have a history of violence? That is why I've been calling for an inquiry into land councils and statutory authorities, yet the government, in bed with the Greens, has refused every time. I have stood at land council meetings and seen my own grandmother punched in the face. I saw nothing being done about it at that meeting, while men swell around and determine the decisions on behalf of everyone, taking those decisions out of the hands of women.

We talk about the rights of women in this country, but we're not serious about the rights of Indigenous women in this country. Leaders of organisations are saying that I conflate this issue. It's nonsense! Perhaps look in your own backyards. Maybe there's a perpetrator amongst your own that you haven't dealt with. Maybe that's the problem. Indigenous women have not had our feminist movement, and where is our feminist sisterhood to back us up? Crickets! They're nowhere to be seen.

Mr Williams is not the only one, of course. I've called out the chair of NAAJA, Hugh Woodbury, who had a very recent history of domestic violence. The organisation tried to back him up and say: 'No, no, no. He's alright. He's changed his ways.' No, no, no. It's no good in a leadership position, especially in an organisation that's supposed to serve victims of violence. I've called out Mr Benedict Stevens as the chair of the Lhere Artepe board of directors, and then there's the Tangentyere board, which also had a perpetrator on the board, Mr Philip Miller. I will continue to call out these perpetrators because it's my responsibility to do so and because I've fought all my life as a survivor of domestic violence. This is what I will do, and I don't care if it makes people uncomfortable.

I won't accept, from Mr Williams, a statement trying to suggest that he is the right person for the role of Chair of the Central Land Council and his trying to liken his circumstances to my own. I've revealed those publicly lately, in terms of my challenges in overcoming drugs affecting my life. My circumstances came about because I was a victim of domestic and family violence. I was hospitalised by a perpetrator.

Unfortunately for Mr Williams, he was a perpetrator, so he cannot compare his circumstances to my own. I will continue to call for him to stand down, if he thinks he is the honourable man that he suggests he is now—one who claims to now support those trying to reduce violence in Indigenous communities. If that's what you're doing, continue down that path. Step down from that position and let someone who doesn't have a history such as your own—let a woman, perhaps—be the chair of the Central Land Council instead. Step down. Show you're honourable by doing that, and call out sexual abuse of our children in our communities, which is also rife in this country. I'm not going anywhere. I'm here to stay, and you can all be confronted with this.