Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister.

Government Members:

Government members interjecting—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

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) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

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) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

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) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

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) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Leader of the Opposition will resume his seat.

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

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) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I seek leave to table the Senate Hansard where Senator Crossin said ‘only 50’ children and that it was ‘severely overstated’.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is leave granted?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You cannot table Hansard.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is not granted.

Sophie Mirabella (Indi, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You are giving immunity to your lame ducks.

Simon Crean (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Trade) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Oh, Sophie is away! How is the cheese, Sophie?

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Minister for Trade will cease interjecting.