Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern Australia and Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the minister for his response, but the point I want to get to, Minister, is exactly the relationship that exists between your department and the services which it carries out and those Aboriginal communities. What is envisaged in terms of providing additional training opportunities and indeed employment opportunities for these rangers who would otherwise be earning CDEP? What is proposed in terms of providing additional capacity for your department to provide real jobs for these people carrying out the functions which might otherwise be carried out by one of your agencies or in conjunction with one of your agencies? I understand that the budget papers go to some depth to talk about the proposals to change CDEP employment, including in your department, where functions carried out by your department overlap the CDEP communities—in this case, ranger programs. I would like to know how many rangers you expect to be transferred into full-time employment as a result of initiatives from your department.

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