Mark Coulton (Parkes, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I too rise this evening to speak on the Closing the Gap report delivered by the Prime Minister. I say at the outset that the Parkes electorate is one-third of New South Wales, and I am not sure if I am the second or the third highest Aboriginal population of any electorate in this place. But representing the Aboriginal people of western and northern New South Wales is a job that I take very seriously and a job of which I am enormously proud. I represent a large part of the Wiradjuri area, the Gomeroi and other areas to the west. Those communities right across my electorate have large numbers of Aboriginal people in them.

I might start by talking about some of the issues that we are confronting, but I hope to finish on a more positive note. I might also note that last weekend was the 50-year anniversary of the Freedom Ride. We had a re-enactment of the Freedom Bus last weekend, and I was very proud to be in Moree. It came through my electorate at Dubbo, had a day at Wallagoot and then came back to Moree. Fifty years ago in Moree the Aboriginal children were prohibited from using the pool. The pool is something that defines Moree; it is an artesian wonder, and people come from all over the world to take the waters at Moree. The local children were prohibited.

At the 50th anniversary I was speaking to some of these no-longer-younger people—they are getting on a bit; it was 50 years ago! But they were saying what a big deal it was. Charlie Perkins came to town with 29 university students in a bus. They drove down to the mission and said, 'Do you kids want to come to the pool?' They said sure, and on the bus they were singing Little Pattie's song of the day, 'Stompin' at Maroubra', as they went up the Streets of Moree to go to the pool. It was a big confrontation. In hindsight these big changes that we see are obvious, but at the time it took enormous courage because it was going against the convention. I am very proud to say that Moree is a very different place now than it was, but it was only within our generation 50 years ago that we had this level of discrimination in the town.

I am pleased to say that now Moree would be one of the few places in Australia where its workforce in the council represents the community. Twenty-three per cent of the workforce in Moree are Aboriginal people. The Moree council has a director who is an Aboriginal man, who I believe is the first Aboriginal director of a local government body in Australia. They have taken a real lead. Last year I was also very proud to be part of the reconciliation action plan. There was a large function in the Moree town hall where the Aboriginal community and the non-Aboriginal community came together to work towards and recognise a reconciliation plan for Moree. One of the elders in Moree, a well-known gentleman by the name of Lyle Monroe, whom I was sitting with that night, said that he did not ever think he would see a night like that in Moree. So we have come a long way.

Also in this place I am a member of the Standing Committee on Indigenous Affairs, and at the moment we are doing an inquiry into foetal alcohol syndrome. While that is not an exclusive condition for the Aboriginal communities, it is certainly prevalent in the Aboriginal communities. The fact is that a mother using alcohol at the time of conception can set the patterns and limitations on that child for the rest of their life. There is even evidence starting to show that possibly excessive use of alcohol by the father at conception can affect that foetus and the child and person it grows into. So alcohol has been a big issue for these communities—not exclusively, but it has afflicted them. Unfortunately, now we have moved to another stage. Even when we were in Cairns last week for the hearing of the committee, social workers from Cape York communities that have taken the decision to become dry communities are now battling with ice, as is every community in my electorate Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal. Unfortunately for the Aboriginal people, these low forms of humanity that peddle in these drugs target disadvantaged communities.

If we as a society, as a community, do not tackle this issue head on, the consequences will be with us for a long, long time. When children at a young age get involved in taking these amphetamines, mainly sold as ice, more often than not they do not get a chance to grow up. If it does not lead to their early death, it certainly leads to a mental impairment that will affect them for the rest of their lives.

But I would like to finish up on some positive notes. Across my electorate in Moree, Brewarrina, Bourke, Coonamble and Dubbo, the Clontarf Foundation has been working for some time. Clontarf is doing a great job at keeping kids at school, encouraging them and mentoring them. It is one of the great pleasures of my job to be involved in Clontarf. Clontarf has been building relationships with the employers in town and corporate employers.

This time last year, two boys from Coonamble went to Sydney to undertake a 12-month traineeship with Leightons construction, one of the largest construction companies in Australia. On the weekend I got this text—wouldn't you know it; it has timed out, but bear with me. It is from one of those boys from Coonamble, and it goes like this: 'Me and Cody have a full-time job now with Leighton after our trainee finishes in April, and we're going to get a big pay rise. From Steve and Cody and the Coonamble boys.' When I was at Coonamble at Christmas time, I was talking to a young lad of about 13 or 14, in year 8. I said, 'Mate, have you worked out what you might do when you leave school?' He said: 'Too right. I'm going to go to Sydney and work for Leightons.'

It was not a concept. These two boys, until they were involved in the Clontarf Foundation, would not have had an opportunity like that. It just would not have been thought possible. I am personally so proud of them, and I know their community is and their family is, and that is happening all over. In Moree, we have young lads who have traineeships with GrainCorp and so on.

We have more to do with the girls because, more often than not, when the girls become women, they are the powerhouses that run the communities. They are the strong ones. Quite frankly, if we are going to close the gap in these communities, we need to do more to empower the younger women. I have done some work with people like Kristy Knight in Dubbo, who has a group called Shine Sisters, who are helping these kids. Some of these girls have already been in trouble with the law. We are looking at doing a range of things for these girls. The Moree Boomerangs football club, after successfully coming back from 12 years of being banned, now are looking at programs for younger children, boys and girls, in sporting and mentoring to keep them going.

While we talk about closing the gap in this place and we talk about the Aboriginal people as a whole, I am personally convinced that we need to be out there and we need to be helping people one person at a time, one community at a time. Until we personally take ownership and put our heart and soul into helping our Aboriginal brothers and sisters, we are never going to close that gap. But I take great heart, as I go around and speak to the communities, whether it be in Bourke or Brewarrina, Condobolin, Lake Cargelligo, Moree, Dubbo or anywhere else, at the great work that these communities are doing to help themselves. What we need to do is to be giving that help and encouragement, keeping the children encouraged to stay at school and go into employment so that they can be the role models of the future and breaking this vicious cycle that has been afflicting these people for so long.

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