Warren Entsch (Leichhardt, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs. Is the minister aware of reports that ‘customary practice’ has been used to justify serious crimes in Indigenous communities? What steps is the government taking to ensure the safety of women and children in these communities?

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

I thank the member for Leichhardt for his question. The member for Leichhardt knows the Indigenous communities up in the cape and the Torres Strait. He advocates for them and wants to see a better future for them. With the recent media attention, he is no doubt aware, as everyone in this place is, that the use of what some people have described as ‘customary practices’ or ‘cultural practices’ as a defence is totally unacceptable in modern Australia. These are not cultural practices; if they have been, they have no role to play in 2006.

The Acting Prime Minister has written today to the premiers and chief ministers. He has outlined in that letter that this is a key issue that we collectively as a nation can deal with. We can ensure that all Australians are treated equally under the law and that no group can use ‘cultural significance’ as a defence and thereby get a lesser penalty for the rape of a 14-year-old girl.

Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Childcare) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Ms Plibersek interjecting

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

There is an interjection from the other side that the High Court has dealt with this issue. I am referring to a 14-year-old girl who was raped for two days. The offender received a one-month sentence in the Northern Territory. When the sentence was appealed, the perpetrator of that crime received three years, suspended after 18 months. I do not believe that any Aboriginal Australian or any other Australian would believe that is an acceptable penalty for that crime.

Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Childcare) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Ms Plibersek interjecting

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

That is unacceptable, I say to the member for Sydney. The Prime Minister has said:

… I have the strongest possible view that every citizen of this country, whatever their ethnicity, is entitled to the protection of Australian law but is also subject to Australian law in all its dispensations and I do not believe in any shape or form in the application of customary law by our courts or anywhere in this country.

Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Treasury) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Ms King interjecting

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Ballarat is warned.

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

What I have asked for is that we come together as a nation to acknowledge that the major reason people find it impossible to report crime is that they know what the outcome will be.

I have not had the chance to inform the Acting Prime Minister yet—but I am able to do so now and, in doing so, to inform the House—that the Northern Territory has today informed me that its police minister and attorney-general will be attending the summit. That is a very positive thing. I spoke last night to the South Australian Indigenous affairs minister, who was also very positive and intends to attend the summit—as does the New South Wales minister.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

I remind those members from the opposition who continue to interject that law and order and the criminal justice systems have always been the responsibility of the states and territories. The Howard government are saying, ‘We are going to stand by you and we are going to assist Australian men and women no matter who they are or where they live.’ We are putting partisan politics aside. We are putting aside the issue of states and territories. I am very saddened by the attitude of some who sit opposite.