Zali Steggall (Warringah, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

Earlier this month I had the privilege of visiting the Torres Strait Islands with Senator Tammy Tyrrell as part of the Australian Defence Force Parliamentary Program, which enables MPs to experience life and work alongside our incredible ADF personnel. It was such an amazing experience, and I feel so incredibly privileged and lucky to have had the opportunity to participate and see firsthand the incredible dedication and the sacrifice that is made by our Defence Force personnel.

I joined the Army Aboriginal Community Assistance Program, AACAP, a partnership between the Australian Army, the National Indigenous Australians Agency and the 19th Chief Engineer Works. If you haven't heard about it—especially the new members in this place—please go and find out. It was such an incredibly eye-opening experience, and it's one we should all really participate in to appreciate the value of the work being done. AACAP delivers vital infrastructure, health and dental services, and vocational training and education to remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, as well as giving our defence personnel an opportunity to do a deployment and practice the logistics and the skills that are so essential for their role.

I spent time with the health and training teams on Warraber and Erub islands, and on Horn Island and Thursday Island as well. They are all so incredibly remote. Being there gave me a real firsthand appreciation for just how remote these communities are and how difficult it is for them to access the services that we take for granted. While I was there, I had the opportunity to meet with local council members and understand their challenges and frustration around housing and accessing a lot of services. There are very real challenges for them. I also had the opportunity to visit the 51st Battalion, Far North Queensland Regiment, based on Thursday Island. Again, we hear a lot about our closest land border being with Papua New Guinea. It was incredibly interesting for me to go and visit.

In one community on Warraber Island, the Defence Force personnel—dentists and two nurses—are providing over $50,000 worth of dental care to community members who in some instances, had not accessed dental care for over 10 years. It's incredibly important to understand the value of that for that local community. Some of the residents were, in fact, receiving treatment for the very first time.

The Army was also there upgrading and constructing critical infrastructure which helps them to develop their skills and also delivers something the community is calling for and needing. As you can imagine, it was so incredibly remote that the logistics of planning for this—where everything, including all of the construction materials, had to be taken to these remote locations—was an incredible logistics exercise. I'm deeply grateful to the defence personnel who generously shared their time, their stories and their expertise with me, and I'm grateful for their contribution to this program, because it requires many of them to be away from their loved ones for over four months of the year. It's a big sacrifice in an environment where I can say there were no luxuries. We slept on camp beds and we were in the same conditions that the defence personnel are in.

The Productivity Commission's Closing the Gap report shows that we're only on track to meet four of 19 targets when it comes to First Nations Australians' disadvantage, and health outcomes remain incredibly concerning. There are minimal gains in health assessments and declining use of GPs and chronic disease management services. Nearly 25 per cent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are unable to access dental care when needed, and costs remain a massive barrier, with 10 per cent unable to afford a dental visit. As you can imagine, on these islands the cost of everything was exacerbated by remoteness.

So I would argue that AACAP is an incredibly valuable program. It delivers real outcomes, builds stronger communities and builds our defence force capabilities. I was quite shocked to hear that, despite its success, AACAP may not continue. It has not been funded past 2026. It is a co-partnership between Defence and Prime Minister and Cabinet, and so I am calling on the government to ensure it continues to be funded. The year 2027 would be its 30th anniversary and, at the moment, it's up in the air whether or not this incredible program will continue. I want to thank all those that I spoke to for their incredible service and for sharing their experiences with me.

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