Andrew Giles (Scullin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Schools) Share this | Hansard source

I'm pleased to be able to make a very brief contribution to this debate on the Treasury Laws Amendment (2017 Measures No. 5) Bill 2017 and the ASIC Supervisory Cost Recovery Levy Amendment Bill 2017. I was pleased to have been here for the contribution of the shadow minister, the member for Fenner, and, in large part, my comments on this bill echo his remarks and confirm our position that we are not seeking to frustrate the passage of the bill. I'm also pleased to have been in the chamber for the contribution of the previous speaker, and I note that she touched on the issue of greatest concern to members of my party, the Australian Labor Party, which goes to the government's view of how we should approach definitions of indigeneity.

Like the member for Fenner, I think it's very difficult to see this outside of the wider context within which this debate is playing out. Like the member for Robertson, I, too, contributed to the parliamentary debate on Closing the Gap. That is an occasion where the parliament comes together to recognise some of our wider and multipartisan responsibilities towards our first Australians. I'm very pleased to hear of the progress being made in the member for Robertson's electorate. I was also very pleased to highlight some achievements of first-nations Australians in Melbourne's northern suburbs. But those achievements can't derogate from some of the fundamental and hard truths all of us have to acknowledge about the ongoing impacts of intergenerational trauma. These are issues of deep concern to me, the communities I represent and more broadly. While there may well be other opportunities to debate these issues—I'm sure there will be—the questions of definition cannot lightly be set aside, nor can the views of people like Professor Megan Davis, a very prominent constitutional lawyer and very prominent and effective Indigenous activist. I note the contribution of my colleague the member for Fenner in that regard.

When we think about the broad range of measures contained in the Treasury Laws Amendment (2017 Measures No. 5) Bill and the government's commitment to strengthen financial regulation and to deal with issues that may go to potential abuses and manipulation of financial markets by sophisticated financial institutions at the expense of ordinary Australian consumers, we can't divorce that from these very significant issues which go to the heart of how Australians generally deal with the concerns of Indigenous Australians.

When we are talking about this bill, the wider regulatory issues are obviously of great significance, but I think it is impossible to understate the significance of the appointment of a new Indigenous policy commissioner to the Productivity Commission. That is something of enormous significance, and that is why the member for Fenner and other Labor members have been setting out these concerns. These are concerns of not just members of the Australian Labor Party but the vast majority of first-nations Australians who have expressed views on this matter. These are matters that can't be brushed over. They can't be set aside for another time. They require all of us in this place to reflect not only on the significance of this particular proposal, this significant appointment, but also on the wider issues that were touched upon so effectively by the member for Robertson in her contribution.

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