Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I hear you say you appreciate it, and I genuinely mean that. But if Minister Plibersek or I when I was the minister did the wrong thing, let me tell you, we were hauled before the court of public opinion for doing so. That great old pub test. The media will soon catch you out. Besides, when you're a minister you've got a lot of responsibilities to do the right thing. I know that ministers in the Labor, Liberal and National parties take those responsibilities very seriously and earnestly, as they should.

There are already Indigenous-specific children's commissioners in the Australian Capital Territory, Queensland, South Australia and Victoria. Do we need more? Do we need another layer and level of bureaucracy? I doubt it. The Department of Social Services is also already required to consult children and young people, and we know that children and young people are our future irrespective of race, creed or whatever else. But the focus should be on ensuring existing bodies do their jobs, not on creating new bodies and then almost abrogating the responsibility that should lie with existing agencies and the minister.

In his book The Gulf Country: The Story of People and Place in Outback Queensland from 2019, Richard J. Martin writes, 'Aboriginal people on the stations were most commonly involved in stockwork, where their understanding of country and skill with animals were highly valued by the pastoralists.' I use this reference for this particular bill not because I'm straying off the topic—I'm not—but because what we saw in the outback country of the gulf land in Queensland, in the Northern Territory and in other parts was an opportunity taken away from young Aboriginal people when a previous Labor government on 7 June 2011 stopped the live cattle trade to Indonesia.

Mr Martin writes: 'The contributions of Aboriginal women were commonly around the homestead, where they worked as domestics or in the garden. Both men and women helped to look after children.' In this book—and it is a good book and I recommend it—he praises the work and role done by Indigenous communities, and Indigenous people moreover, particularly in agricultural work, to the point where he said they were the best at it of those in Australia employed and engaged in the practice of stockwork. Many of those Aboriginal people lost the opportunity to continue that work when, in a knee-jerk reaction, Labor stopped the live cattle trade. It was a shameful decision that was subsequently overturned. It didn't help the young Aboriginal stockmen who stopped doing it and were never re-engaged in the process. And I say that because many of them were young. Many of them were either just school leavers or getting into the trade as teenage boys.

We need to give Aboriginal youths every hope and prospect of being able to be their best selves. I'm not so certain that this legislation does that. We don't need another onerous layer of legislation. Some might say 'costly'. I would argue against that point. I would say that the $33 million or so would be far better spent in going to the nub of some of the real Aboriginal youth issues. You won't find them in Canberra. You won't find them generally in the eastern states. But anybody who's ever been to Alice or Katherine or Arnhem Land or anywhere else in the Northern Territory—and I know the member for Lingiari would back me up here—will see where money needs to be spent in the Indigenous space.

I know how hard I fought, with the member for Solomon and the former member for Lingiari Warren Snowdon, to ensure that the Northern Territory had two seats. I did that against the best wishes, let's say, of our coalition partners at the time—not that I want to open up old wounds or even current ones! Why is it right that people in Katherine would have to travel hundreds upon hundreds of kilometres to see their local federal member who would be in Darwin? I don't always think people in Canberra get that. I don't always think people in Canberra understand that.

For the best outcomes for our Aboriginal youth, we need to make sure that money is being spent where it best meets the needs, wants, hopes and expectations of people in those remote Indigenous communities. I don't think this legislation does that, and I think we would be far better off going back to the drawing board and thinking this through again.

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