Mal Brough (Longman, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to make a couple of brief comments in closing regarding the Galiwinku situation and, of course, the Nguiu situation. The 50 houses were part of a broader package which involved the Northern Territory government and the provision of policing—there are no sworn police permanently on Galiwinku, which has a population of 2,500. There is inadequate healthcare and there is inadequate education. It was about bringing together a package of economic development, housing, education, policing and a range of other initiatives which most Australians would take for granted as being our God-given right living in this wonderful country.

In relation to the 50 houses—and I particularly draw your attention to this—no-one will stop the provision of housing in Galiwinku if they decide to stay where they are. The 50 houses are through home ownership, and home ownership cannot happen when the land is not owned by an individual but is owned by a collective. That is money with which people would actually be assisted to build and own their own home. So there will be no reduction in the normal housing assistance that would be provided to Galiwinku. This is money that the budget has put aside to help Indigenous people own their own homes. It is a new approach. It is over and above that.

We all know that there is inadequate housing in many Indigenous communities. We are trying to find ways to improve the number of homes, the quality of the homes, how long the homes last, the rental collection on those homes and the maintenance of the homes—I guess, ultimately, for the people who say to me, ‘Why don’t I have the right to own my own home?’ They do not understand that because, as you say, it is their land. It is no individual’s land; it is collective land. It is the same in Nguiu in relation to the federal government’s commitment to a college—which of course is a church based college—in that the land tenure is very important when you start putting that sort of money in there: who actually owns it, and is it at the whim of a third party?

Most importantly, I reassure the people at Galiwinku that, in the event that they elect not to go down this path, that is their right and it remains their right. They will be eligible for housing from the Northern Territory government, which of course has the majority of the responsibility for housing, as do the states—for whatever there is in the normal way of things. We were trying to explain to them that there is a way of getting a lot more and, in doing so, improving all the situations that we know housing will. Again, I thank the member for Lingiari and the member for Banks for their constructive comments and thoughts, and I commend these amendments to the House.

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