Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Indigenous Australians) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. In June 2022 the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation wrote to the government pleading for the Commonwealth to extend the NT alcohol ban for an additional two years to maintain their dry status and prevent a spike in alcohol related injury and offending. Why did the Prime Minister ignore these calls from Indigenous leaders?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his question, which goes to a very serious issue of course. Today the cabinet met, and the Northern Territory cabinet met as well, chaired by Natasha Fyles, and she already made a joint announcement on our behalf after we received the report from Dorrelle Anderson. It's true that there were changes as a result of the decision of the former government to stop the stronger futures program in June last year, after it was put in place by the formal Labor government in 2012 over a 10-year period under then Minister Macklin.

The Northern Territory government will legislate new alcohol restrictions when they meet next week so that Northern Territory town camps and communities can return to an opt-out system. The dry zones will remain in place until an approved community alcohol management plan is developed and agreed to by the liquor controller in the Northern Territory, and then it will need to be put to the local community with a 60 per cent threshold.

But, as the member is aware I'm sure, this is not just about alcohol. Indeed, of the 96 remote communities in the Northern Territory, 88 of them are dry. This is about intergenerational disadvantage. It's about the lack of employment services, a lack of community services, a lack of educational opportunity. This is intergenerational disadvantage, and the truth is that all governments could have done better—Labor, Liberal in the Northern Territory, here in Canberra could have done better.

That's why we have also announced a Central Australia plan for a better, safer future for Central Australia with $250 million of investment on top of what we announced just a week ago. That will include improved community safety and cohesion through more youth engagement and diversion programs, along with improved CCTV and lighting. It will improve job creation. It will improve on country learning; importantly, prevent and address issues caused by faecal alcohol spectrum disorders; provide better services; invest in families; invest in domestic violence services. These policies will be developed and implemented in partnership with the Northern Territory government, with the Northern Territory controller, Dorelle Anderson, who's been put in place. They're driven by one goal: real, lasting improvements in people's lives.

We know it will not be solved overnight, but we know you get better outcomes if you involve communities on the ground rather than think decisions should be best made in Canberra. That is why we've structured this. I'm very pleased that the cabinet approved this on that basis, after receiving the report from Dorelle Anderson. That report will be released publicly for all to see now that it has been considered by both the Northern Territory cabinet and the Australian cabinet.

I invite the opposition to participate constructively in this. There's nothing to be served by trying to politicise these issues. What we need to do is work together, all of us, to achieve better outcomes for the most disadvantaged group in Australian society: First Nations people. That's what my government's committed to doing.