Pat Conroy (Charlton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Nikinpa Aboriginal Child and Family Centre in Toronto is at risk of closing its doors next month because the government failed to commit further funding in the budget to the National Partnership Agreement on Indigenous Early Childhood Development, which expires next month. When in government Labor provided $6½ million through the agreement to build the facility, which is opposite Biraban Public School, in Toronto, and which services the high Indigenous population in that area. The centre provides clinic rooms for GP services, as well as antenatal care and education; child health check-ups and immunisation; chronic healthcare services; family referrals; counselling and parenting classes, as well as child care for over 30 kids. These are services that are improving the early childhood outcomes of Indigenous children in the local area, giving them the best possible start in life.

In addition to this, the centre is home to an IT room used to teach computer skills to seniors, and meeting rooms which are used to provide Aboriginal employment services, tenancy advice and a meeting place for Westlakes elders. Also opened recently is the centre's four-room early education and care service, which runs in conjunction with Hunter TAFE to provide on-site delivery of certificate III in children's services. When I visited the centre last week, on my second visit there, I was very impressed not only with the quality of the facilities and the care provided but with their focus on preparing and empowering Aboriginal children and families for their transition to mainstream schooling.

This is a really valuable service for our community, one which we simply cannot afford to lose. The NPA was a COAG initiative which was aimed at closing the gap for Indigenous people. The agreement was supposed to be reviewed at COAG next month, but, with the budget, Tony Abbott has made clear his intentions. He is abandoning the families and communities in Toronto that rely on this centre. It is a cop-out to say that, because these centres have been built, the federal government have kept their end of the bargain. That is not the intent of the agreement. They are shifting the cost of keeping this centre running to the New South Wales government but, more unforgivably, they are shifting their responsibility on closing the gap as well.

Tony Abbott declared himself the Prime Minister for Indigenous affairs, but his budget of broken promises has gutted $500 million from programs that support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. There is very little detail about where the axe will fall, but we do know that more than $165 million has been ripped out of Indigenous health programs over the next four years, more than $15 million has been cut from the National Congress of Australia's First Peoples and, of course, the failure to renew the NPA will have a devastating and long-lasting effect on our Indigenous communities, including those in my area. Closing the gap requires more than just words; it requires support and commitment. With this budget, the Prime Minister has delivered neither.