House debates
Monday, 14 August 2006
Questions without Notice
Mr Gregory Andrews
2:50 pm
Kelvin Thomson (Wills, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Public Accountability and Human Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
My question is to the Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs. Did the minister or a member of his office assist Mr Gregory Andrews to prepare for his anonymous interview on the ABC Lateline program in June this year? Did this assistance include coaching on the form and content of Mr Andrews’s presentation?
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 his question. We had a similar question last week, which I answered in full. I say again: Mr Andrews did appear on that show. He did so with his face blacked out because he was concerned for his own safety. He did so because he had been threatened previously when giving evidence. In preparation for that interview, Mr Andrews sought and received assistance from the department on liability issues so that he would not either contravene the Public Service Code of Conduct or in fact make libellous comments. Those were the reasons.
He also provided the information of his notes to my office. My office did not coach him in any way. What he was referring to was not as a public servant of the Commonwealth; it was to his time as an officer working on behalf of the Northern Territory government in Mutitjulu. That is what he was commenting on in the Lateline program. What I find disturbing here is the Labor Party’s continual focus on a whistleblower, a person who wishes to lift the—
Mal Brough (Longman, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
The fact is that there were a number of very concerned Australian citizens, concerned about what has been going on at Mutitjulu, who reported in the Lateline program. I remind the House of some of the comments of those who reported, over and above Mr Andrews. There was Dr Geoff Stewart—
Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern Australia and Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Mr Snowdon interjecting
Mal Brough (Longman, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
who, discussing those people with chlamydia and gonorrhoea, said: ‘The prevalent age group that we would see would be in the age of 12 to 14 years old.’
Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Treasury) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Ms King interjecting
Mal Brough (Longman, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
‘There was a sort of cluster about that sort of age, but there were certainly isolated incidences in children much younger.’ STI levels in Central Australia particularly are certainly some of the highest rates nationally. On the same program—the one about which the member for Wills continues to attack the evidence of an individual, wondering why that person would come forward—Jane Lloyd, from the NPY Women’s Council, said this: ‘They also targeted children who do not have strong families, who come from dysfunctional families. He’—referring to the paedophile—‘has made threats against this office, the NPY, so Women’s Council had to withdraw all staff from there.’
Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern Australia and Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Mr Speaker, I raise a point of order on the issue of relevance. This question is about the relationship of the minister’s office with Gregory Andrews—
David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
The member for Lingiari will resume his seat. The minister is—
Patrick Secker (Barker, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Mr Secker interjecting
David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Order! I remind the member for Barker that he is interjecting from outside his seat. He is also warned. On the point of order: the minister is answering the substance of the question.
Mal Brough (Longman, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Thank you, Mr Speaker. Jane Lloyd, from the NPY Women’s Council, also referred to the threats from the paedophile. But it is interesting that the member for Lingiari should get up and speak on this and take a point of order, because in an article in the Sydney Morning Herald by Mr Skelton on 5 August on this whole issue of Mutitjulu he refers to ‘the culture of cover-up’. This is what the paper had to say:
A prominent figure in Labor’s Alice Springs branch says: “The ALP has always depended on the land councils to turn out the indigenous vote. With more and more blackfellas voting it’s better to be seen to be defending indigenous communities than attacking them. Warren is just doing what he has always done.”
Members of this House congratulate Mr Andrews for having the guts to stand up and lift the scab off this appalling situation and to try to rectify the situation on behalf of the people of Mutitjulu.