Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for External Territories) Share this | Hansard source

He said 'dishonest'. He ought to come and apologise for that, because they are not dishonest; they are entirely accurate.

Tobacco smoking, for example, is estimated to be the leading cause of the burden of disease amongst Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people; it is responsible for about 12 per cent of that burden of disease. Yet this $165 million is a direct cut to antismoking programs. Let me tell you just a little bit of data: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians are more than three times likely to have diabetes than other Australians; they are twice as likely to have signs of chronic kidney disease; they are more than four times as likely to be in advanced stages of chronic kidney disease; and they are at experiencing increasingly high levels of chronic conditions at a comparatively young age. If you want to stop this, you have to do a range of things. One of those things is to get people to stop smoking.

Currently the smoking rate among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people across the nation is 47 per cent; compared to the general population which is about 14 to 15 per cent. If we can cut down smoking rates, you can have a direct material impact on closing the gap. Yet this government forecast—when they were in opposition—by the then shadow Treasurer saying he did not think these programs were any good. We have learnt was has happened as a result: these programs have been cut. Frankly, you cannot have it both ways, and it is really dishonest of the parliamentary secretary to come into this chamber and abuse the integrity of the shadow minister at the same time that he gives this piffle of an argument, which is in fact empty.

We are making some progress. As has been pointed out, we will reach the target of halving the gap in infant mortality rates for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children under five, and that is a very important thing to do. It is being done as a result of investments made over a number of years by the participation of Aboriginal community controlled health services, through public health organisations and through private practitioners. It is being done in a coordinated way and it is only by addressing this particular need, by addressing programs that will deal with child and maternal health, that we will get the outcome we are after. We will only do that by continuing the investments that have been made.

As the shadow minister has said, we are very pleased that the government has adopted the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health plan, and we are looking forward to its implementation strategy once it is developed.

But I have to say, standing here and listening to the shadow minister talk about the administrative changes which have been made, the governance changes, which are simply chaos—no-one knows what is happening across in PM&C, let alone the Prime Minister or the minister responsible.

We know that the Indigenous Advancement Strategy is an absolute mess. Decisions were supposed to have been taken late last year; they have been put off we are told now until the end of March. That means organisations, as the shadow minister pointed out, have been wondering whether or not they will be funded beyond the end of this financial year. They have no certainty; they cannot tell their staff whether or not they will have a job. Yet somehow or another this is a good thing, because the parliamentary secretary gets up here and tells us that his governance arrangements are making a difference. But they are not making a difference. They are creating chaos and uncertainty. And we know, as do they, that the whole thing is a mess. Five thousand applications have been received under the IAS. Critical services, including women's shelters in remote communities, did not receive their funding previously. And it is clear it is not proposed to fund them under this strategy.

We need to be very clear. We want to work with the government in a bipartisan way to improve these outcomes. But we cannot be bipartisan in approaching the budget in the way this government approaches the budget. We cannot accept that we must be bipartisan when we see administrative decisions taken which are inimical to getting the outcomes we all want. We cannot be bipartisan in supporting the government in that regard, just as we cannot be bipartisan in supporting the government for doing what it is doing.

It is scandalous really. The previous government funded the establishment of 38 children and family centres across the country out of the National Partnership Agreement on Indigenous Early Childhood Development. This government has refused to provide them with ongoing funding and said that it is all a state responsibility. We know what happens in those cases. In my electorate, Yuendumu, Maningrida, Gunbalanya, Ngukurr and Palmerston have all been affected by this government's decisions, and that will adversely affect the outcomes for young kids. On the one hand, you are talking about getting more kids to go to school, making sure they all have a job and making sure communities are safe, but at the very same time you are not providing certainty for funding for organisations across 38 communities, having a material impact on the outcomes you want to achieve. It beggars belief.

I know that not all members of the government support the positions which have been adopted. I do know there are people of good will across the parliament who want to see an improvement in these outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. But I think it is worth noting that the Closing the Gap Steering Committee report makes a series of recommendations; one of which is particularly important. The government, just prior to Christmas, scrapped the National Indigenous Drug and Alcohol Committee. For what particular purpose, it is very hard to understand. But this particular committee provided a process for getting coherency and opportunity for communication around Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander drug and alcohol issues. It meant that experts, administrators, doctors, nurses and health workers—everyone involved—could come together and discuss what were the best options for improving outcomes. That is gone. It no longer exists. And it says to me that the government is not really serious.

I commend to the parliament the Close the Gap Campaign Steering Committee report. It is entitled Progress and Priorities Report 2015. I commend the report to all members of parliament to read because it does make, I think, some good arguments as to what we should be doing and makes some, I think, very well founded positions on what we should be doing.

For my own part, there is one area that I want to make sure we continue to invest in, and I hope the government will continue to do so—that is, invest healthily in the Aboriginal community controlled health service organisations around this country, who have been fundamental in us achieving the gains thus far and will be fundamental to making sure we achieve the gains we all want to achieve in the end.

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