Marion Scrymgour (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to start by thanking all those involved in this inquiry into community safety, support services and job opportunities in the Northern Territory. I say a particular thank you to the chair, Senator Pat Dodson. This was a difficult inquiry to navigate, with many often conflicting agendas, a challenging local political environment and confronting stories of crime, alcohol abuse and, in particular, violence. The chair charted this inquiry with great respect and was able to provide tangible recommendations.

In my first speech to parliament, I spoke urgently of the need for both governments to look at ending the Stronger Futures legislation in the Northern Territory. Primarily, this was a job for the Northern Territory government. Alcohol restrictions, as we know, can be contentious, yet the results we are seeing in Alice Springs in recent times speak to their efficacy. We have seen marked declines in police reporting of alcohol fuelled violence, particularly of alcohol as a contributor to family and domestic violence. Giving our families and frontline agencies a reprieve through the reduction in the availability of alcohol is a good thing.

It is my view, after speaking with our health services, tourism sector and community members, that the current alcohol restrictions in place should continue. But alcohol abuse and alcoholism in general is a symptom of a fractured community and families. There is a huge amount of work to be done to address the underlying issues. The recommendations provided in this inquiry represent a solid starting point on overarching recommendations for the Northern Territory government and the federal government, through the National Indigenous Australians Agency, to review the end of Stronger Futures, to analyse why the lapsing of this legislation happened in such a disjointed manner. However, the recommendations of particular interest to me are recommendation 4.43 and recommendation 6.

Recommendation 4.43 calls on the federal and territory governments to review contractual arrangements to focus on outcomes. There is a lot of money being made from Aboriginal poverty. The former government's privatised Community Development Program, which was meant to provide employment for people but instead lined the pockets of private companies, is an example of that. Taxpayers expect their money to go towards tangible outcomes, and frontline service organisations must be held accountable for every dollar of government funding they receive. It was evident during the inquiry that there is a swathe of well-meaning and often extremely effective organisations doing very good work on the front line, yet it was also evident that there is a strong need for accountability and coordination of services.

Another critical element of this inquiry was the need to drive strong employment pathways for Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory.

Many of the social woes we face are because there is a critical lack of meaningful employment. Good work, but particularly work that utilises the innate strengths and knowledge of Aboriginal people, can provide a sense of purpose, value and self-esteem. What it also does is empower families to look after themselves, enabling financial autonomy away from the welfare system and the opportunity to grow intergenerational wealth.

Recommendation 6 calls on CDP providers to actively engage with Aboriginal communities. This would seem an obvious practice but it is unfortunately not. I was recently out in the Utopia region in my electorate, a region that has been deeply neglected. It is hard to imagine a more disadvantaged part of the country, and yet people throughout the region, from Ampilatwatja to Arlparra, were telling me that they wanted to work. They want to be employed. They want to create a better life for their children. The current model is thoroughly broken, with the former government absolutely undermining our remote employment program and instead, as I said before, lining the pockets of private providers. I cannot tell you how important it is for us to rebuild the old CDEP. It is an essential part of rebuilding our bush communities and providing pathways for our young people.

It would also be remiss of me not to mention the Albanese government's Central Australian plan when talking about social challenges in central Australia. This $250 million plan is empowering our local Aboriginal leadership to effect change. The Lhere Artepe traditional owner patrols funded by NIAA are having a huge impact. Our businesses and local communities are speaking to my office every day about the changes these patrols are particularly having with those businesses.

In addition to the $250 million is the $40.4 million education funding injection, which is enabling local schools to provide much-needed services and to expand programs to engage our young ones and their families in the education system. I want to thank the Minister for Education for this funding and also for his recent visit to Alice Springs and sitting down with all of those principals throughout Central Australia. Those schools simply did not have the resources to properly engage our young people. It's a bit hard to believe, but prior to this funding it would have taken 26 years for schools in the Northern Territory, particularly in Central Australia, to reach the Gonski recommended levels of funding for our schools. On the eastern seaboard, that would have been unheard of, but in the Northern Territory, it would have taken 26 years to actually bring those schools on par. So I applaud the government and the Minister for Education, because the difference this funding will make is enormous. All of the principals and teachers I have spoken to throughout Central Australia have certainly welcomed the $40.4 million for those schools to address some of the disadvantage.

Our $10 million justice reinvestment package will bring together a community coalition to prevent our people from entering the justice system, an absolutely essential piece of government policy in Central Australia. Our $50 million infrastructure component of Central Australia will mean that communities get the vital infrastructure they need to provide services and support to the community. On top of all of this, we have an ambitious remote housing program as well as significant funding for homelands. For too long, housing in the bush has been left to languish, but that won't be happening under this government. For the first time in a long time, the people of the Territory have a federal government that is absolutely committed to addressing the social changes we face in our communities.

So while this inquiry unpacked a number of policy failures and neglect under the former government, the Albanese government won't be heading down the same track. I look forward to following the implementation of this report. Again I want to reiterate my thanks to all of my colleagues but also particular thanks to the chair of this inquiry, Senator Pat Dodson. I certainly want to thank the staff that travelled and worked with the committee to come to the point of the report that was tabled.

It is a testament to the committee that we were able to engage in this inquiry in a respectful manner. Although many of us share different views we were able to come up with a strong report, and that comes down to the chair but also to the deputy chair. I want also to acknowledge the member for Durack and the role that she played in the absence of Senator Dodson in making sure that all members were able to focus on the recommendations and the report that we finally tabled.

It is a strong report. It provides a blueprint for government to move forward. I hope that we can all work together to try and end what is a fraught issue in the Northern Territory and end some of the disadvantage that we see impact on Aboriginal people not just in Central Australia but right throughout the Northern Territory.

Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

SLING () (): From the outset, I acknowledge the member for Lingiari and her leadership in the Northern Territory. Together, as the members of the House of Representatives representing Territorians, with our colleague Senator McCarthy, we are united and committed to working together on improving community safety, support services and job opportunities throughout the Northern Territory.

I welcome this report on the inquiry into those very issues—community safety, support services and job opportunities in the Northern Territory. It's incredibly important. I acknowledge the chair, Senator Pat Dodson, and the deputy chair, as the member for Lingiari did. Senator Pat Dodson, from Western Australia, with a long connection to the Northern Territory, noted that Aboriginal communities in the NT have been leaders in advocating for the rights of First Nations people for many decades. From my own electorate, the Larrakia people, of course, petitioned in the seventies, but members would be aware of the Yirrkala declarations, the Barunga statement that went to Prime Minister Bob Hawke at the time and leadership on issues that brought us to the Uluru Statement from the Heart.

But even with leadership from First Nations people from the Northern Territory over the past 15 years, their right to self-determination has been deliberately denied by governments. Many Australians would be shocked to hear that, but it is the truth. In previous policy regimes governments have destabilised, disempowered and disorientated Aboriginal communities. Governments have taken away power and, instead, made them dependent on government for survival. Governments have done very little and have actually had very little accountability. These actions occurred under the guise of a failure of Aboriginal communities to run their own affairs, and throughout the inquiry, from speaking to members of it, the committee heard repeatedly about the failure of those top-down approaches and it heard the pleas for government to invest in communities and in community led solutions.

That is the alternative, to create economic opportunity by employing local Aboriginal people and by investing in genuinely Aboriginal controlled organisations. There is some investment in community led health organisations, and they show real benefits, but there are so many other ways in which community and Aboriginal controlled organisations can improve the lives of First Nations people living in the communities of the Northern Territory. But it requires listening to and acting on what communities say will work best. Incidentally, it may not have escaped the attention of honourable members listening that that is exactly what is proposed with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice. That's what it's all about, listening to what will work best.

Though the committee could not get to all of the communities across the Territory, Aboriginal organisations and frontline community service providers from Darwin, Alice Springs and Maningrida spoke to this point during the inquiry.

Deputy Speaker, as you know, Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory are very resilient. For those of us not from a First Nations community, it's hard to get your head around how disconnected they can be from power and opportunity, but they are incredibly resilient to still be leading and working within their communities to solve the challenges that they face. But we've got to do our bit as government to support them in the community-led programs. I think it is true—and it's not a partisan point—that they've been let down by governments of all stripes over the years. But they continue to show up with solutions and work with governments in good faith, despite the history of their right to self-determination often being denied. In response to the resilience that these communities show, this report makes recommendations that seek to address the disempowering legacy from those top-down approaches, particularly over the last 15 years or so.

Many of these solutions are place based initiatives, and that's important. They recognise that past attempts through the Northern Territory National Emergency Response, which people would remember as being called the Intervention in the Northern Territory, and the following Stronger Futures in the Northern Territory Act were largely ineffective. Some good things were done, but, on the whole, they were ineffective. The acts largely did not work and have left us in the situation we are now in, where children who were born in that period from 2007 to 2008, during the height of the Intervention—and I worked in the communities in the Northern Territory at that time, so I understand the context in which this was occurring—are the children that are at risk of causing harm today. That's why the committee recommended that the NDIA and the NT government review the inadequate preparations for the sunsetting of the Stronger Futures in the Northern Territory Act.

I was speaking with the Northern Territory government during the period of this transition, and it's why the committee recommended that the NT government needed to provide adequate support and resources to communities to assist them in the development of community alcohol plans. Again, the idea is to empower communities to lead in creating bottom-up solutions. For example, the report recommended that the NT government formalise how the community can ask the minister to exercise their temporary emergency powers in its Northern Territory Liquor Act 2019 and that the Commonwealth ensure that large businesses operating in remote regions employ local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. It shouldn't need to be said, but it does, and that's why it's recommended. It also recommends that the Commonwealth implement community-led justice reinvestment initiatives, particularly in Alice Springs and Katherine, as soon as possible. But, to that, our government has added Darwin, and I'm appreciative that that has occurred. It is appropriate, and I've met with the Attorney-General to discuss this. Community-led justice reinvestment initiatives do work, as we've seen in Bourke in New South Wales, and it's also been great to speak with Tom Calma about this, with him knowing the NT and Darwin as well as he does. These are some of the very important recommendations made in this report, which was a consensus report, and I commend it to the House.

Debate adjourned.