Dave Tollner (Solomon, Country Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs. Would the minister update the House on the progress of the Commonwealth emergency response to protect children in the Northern Territory?

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 Solomon for his question and his obvious interest in the children of the Northern Territory. It has been nearly six weeks since the government announced its intervention into the Northern Territory. Of course, that was a response to the Little children are sacred report, with the one goal, the one aim, to protect the children of the Northern Territory. Much work has been done in that six-week period. I can report to the House that we have formed a task force headed by magistrate Dr Sue Gordon, a woman who is, unfortunately, too accustomed to hearing these sorts of things in her work in the children’s courts of Western Australia. She is currently living in Alice Springs and is moving around the Territory talking with, consulting with and reassuring the broader community, women in particular, of what the government is achieving and what our aims and objectives are.

Major General David Chalmers, who is the task force’s operational commander, is doing a wonderful job. He too is in Alice Springs with his team. They have visited all sites and made an assessment of some 47 of them. To date, 41 advanced communications teams have taken visits. Thus, a lot of work has been undertaken in that first phase. The reality is that there was a fair bit of misinformation, with people suggesting that the military were coming in to steal children and to shoot dogs, which of course never occurred. It was great to see the military getting out of the vehicles and young fellas running up to the soldiers and playing footy with them. That was in stark contrast to some of the media reports that filtered through in the early days.

I also want to take the opportunity to thank the volunteers. Over 400 medical professionals and doctors volunteered to go to the Territory to assist with this humanitarian work. Without their efforts it would simply not be possible to get the necessary health checks—so far 440 children have had health checks. Unfortunately I also report to the House that there have been referrals to authorities in relation to child abuse, and further testing of these children for sexually transmitted diseases has been undertaken. That is sad, but it is much sadder if the abuse goes undetected and the sufferings of those children are not brought to the surface.

Policing has been a key issue. The Australian Federal Police have been trained and have been sworn as special constables into the Northern Territory police force. They are on the ground in a number of communities, including Imampa, Mutitjulu, Santa Teresa and Haasts Bluff. An additional 10 AFP officers are undergoing training at the moment, and they will be deployed shortly. I am told that by the middle of this month the Queensland police will be ready to deploy. They will then undergo training and move into the communities.

There is much to be done today. I have introduced five bills into this House, including two appropriation bills for a total of over $580 million of additional Commonwealth expenditure. That is the commitment in financial terms. The Defence Force and our department are putting the human capital in place so that we have managers on the ground. These are the practical measures that are giving expression to our response to protecting the children in the Northern Territory. I bring to the attention of those who think the Commonwealth did not need to act, or thought that the Northern Territory would act, the comments by the Chief Minister in the last day. Ms Martin said:

The compulsory acquiring of town camps has nothing to do with protecting children.

This shows how out of touch she and her government are on this matter. I visited the town camps task force in Alice Springs last year, and they advised me that there was an average of one murder per month in Alice Springs and that Alice Springs had one of the world’s highest rates of stabbings. In May this year, two women were murdered in separate instances in the town camps. The legendary Australian artist Albert Namatjira’s 15-year-old great-granddaughter was raped and murdered.

In June last year Ms Martin said that housing was the critical issue, which highlights the challenges we face. Albeit that we get words of comfort from the Northern Territory government, it is very difficult to move forward and help these children when people still hold those sorts of attitudes. I will leave the last comments to the local Catholic priest, Father Raass, who said of the town camps:

These appalling conditions have led many people to despair and expose children to risk.

We have to stop that risk. This is why the government is moving. This is why the legislation is before the House. This is why the Howard government sees the urgency in protecting all Australian children at this time, particularly those in the Northern Territory.