House debates Questions without Notice
Indigenous Communities
Ms Julie Bishop Curtin, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition
3:23 pm
My question is to the Prime Minister.
Unidentified interjection - Hansard doesn't record who said this
Government Members:
Government members interjecting—
Harry Jenkins Speaker
Order! The Deputy Leader of the Opposition has the call. Those on my right will cease interjecting.
Ms Julie Bishop Curtin, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition
Is the Prime Minister aware that yesterday his Northern Territory representative Senator Trish Crossin sought to trivialise the child abuse and neglect in the Northern Territory when she said that ‘only 50’ children had been referred to Family and Community Services so far? She went on to say:
So the dramas and the charades and the attention that was sought by the previous government in relation to child sexual abuse and child neglect, I believe, were severely overstated.
Prime Minister, isn’t the abuse of one child tragic enough—let alone ‘only 50’? Will the Prime Minister require Senator Crossin to apologise for these dismissive and contemptuous remarks?
Kevin Rudd Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister
I am unaware of the remarks that the Deputy Leader of the Opposition has referred to. Can I say this about child abuse: wherever it occurs, whether it is in Indigenous communities or non-Indigenous communities, I think all of us in this place are united around one basic precept and it is called zero tolerance. Any kid anywhere, whether they are in an Indigenous or a non-Indigenous community, should be fully protected. When it comes to Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory, the reason we on this side of the House, amidst a whole lot of controversy at the end of last year, supported the Northern Territory intervention was the findings of the report Little children are sacred. As I said at that dispatch box on the day that the Prime Minister at the time announced the government’s intended intervention, my response was entirely shaped by the extraordinary findings within that report about the incidence of child abuse. That drove our support for the Northern Territory intervention. That drives our continued support for that intervention. It drives our determination to review the outcome of that intervention by the 12-month point.
Brendan Nelson Bradfield, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition
Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order regarding relevance. The question is: will the Prime Minister discipline his Labor Party senator from the Northern Territory and apologise for her deplorable remarks trivialising the sexual abuse of 50 Aboriginal children?
Harry Jenkins Speaker
The Leader of the Opposition will resume his seat.
Kevin Rudd Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister
As I said before, I have not seen those reports, but I state on behalf of the government and, I believe, of the opposition: from our point of view on this question there is zero tolerance and we will deploy every resource necessary in the Northern Territory and elsewhere to combat at every level any incidence of child abuse, including child sexual abuse, because it is repugnant to all decent human beings.
Ms Julie Bishop Curtin, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition
Mr Speaker, I seek leave to table the Senate Hansard where Senator Crossin said ‘only 50’ children and that it was ‘severely overstated’.
Anthony Albanese Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House
You cannot table Hansard.
Sophie Mirabella Indi, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Local Government
You are giving immunity to your lame ducks.
Simon Crean Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Trade
Oh, Sophie is away! How is the cheese, Sophie?