Melissa Price (Durack, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As we head towards Christmas it is timely to think about those for whom Christmas Day will be just another day—nothing special, just a struggle to keep a roof over your children's head, keep them safe and put a meal on the table. This is a good reminder for us all. Today I am presenting a petition regarding the activities of a charity called Feed the Little Children, in Broome, in the electorate of Durack. It has been approved by the Petitions Committee.

The petition read as follows—

To the Honourable The Speaker and Members of the House of Representatives

This petition of residents of Broome, Western Australia being Aboriginal women draws to the attention of the House that we the undersigned, respectfully say that we are struggling to maintain household food security for our children for a range of complex historical, social, cultural and economic reasons. Our children face higher risks from health, mental health issues, and imprisonment, all of which are linked by empirical evidence to household food insecurity; and are 13.4 times more likely to be recorded in child protection statistics than non ATSI children. We strongly support the activity being carried out by Feed The Little Inc. (FTLC Inc.) charity that helps us maintain household food security for our children and develop culturally sensitive food security specific capacity building/training for our children.

We therefore ask the House to please help us Aboriginal women and our children in our struggles by:

a. Providing urgent funding, resources and data to the unique FTLC Inc. Charity to continue to help us and stop it from closing.

b. Conducting a Parliamentary investigation to confirm or deny FTLC Inc. impacts on juvenile crime reduction, increased juvenile health and wellbeing, increased school attendance and breaking poverty cycles for our children.

c. Provide an MOU between relevant government agencies and FTLC Inc. for immediate access, in accordance with legislation, to all necessary sanitised aggregated child data relating to health, mental health, education, crime and child protection to help collect quantitative evidence.

from 75 citizens

Petition received.

I am pleased to present this petition to the House and commend the work of the principal petitioner, Clinton Durham. This petition in support of the Feed the Little Children charity has been signed by residents, primarily Aboriginal women, from the beautiful coastal town of Broome on the Kimberley coast of Western Australia. The petition draws attention to the House that many Aboriginal women are struggling to maintain household food security for their children and families, for a range of complex historical, social, cultural and economic reasons—and often their children go hungry. These Aboriginal children face higher risks from general and mental health issues and imprisonment than other children. We have heard that a lot in this House in the last 12 months. Children who are always hungry cannot function properly, and this is why there are so many school breakfast programs—food and shelter must come first; they are basic needs. This petition from Aboriginal women says:

… our children … are 13.4 times more likely to be recorded in child protection statistics than non-Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.

We strongly support the activity being carried out by the Feed the Little Children Incorporated charity that helps us maintain household food security for our children.

The signatories to the petition 'ask the House to please help us Aboriginal women and our children in our struggles by (a) providing urgent funding, resources and data' to the Feed the Little Children charity so that they can continue to keep their doors open assist mothers and children. They ask the House, secondly, to conduct an investigation to confirm or deny that the charity does in fact positively impact juvenile crime, health and wellbeing, school attendance and the poverty cycle; and, thirdly, to provide a memorandum of understanding between relevant government agencies and the Feed the Little Children charity, primarily for access, in accordance with legislation, to sanitised aggregated data relating to health, mental health, crime, child protection and so on, in order to help quantitative evidence of the positive impacts of the charity.

I commend the work of the Feed the Little Children charity and the petition to the House.