Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

We continue to have interjections from the other side. I have to say that they should really focus on trying to get some answers to this issue because they are being substantially left behind. The principle that most Territorians and I know all Indigenous Australians want is equality in their communities. That is exactly what they are going to get under this government. We actually plan to make sure that people live in communities that work in exactly the way that every other community works. It is a very simple process. It is a process of normalisation.

Everybody accepts that not all of these communities are the same. I know I have a number of comparisons. If you go to one of the communities in my electorate, Daly River, you will find that it is quite a well functioning community. The houses are wonderful. When you look at it, it is no different from any other place in regional Australia. Yes, we need to go a long way, but I know that Miriam Rose Bowman and others will show the leadership that is necessary in that place to ensure that that goes forward.

I have to say that one of the principal concerns that I think we have—or most Australians do—is: why is it so different in Indigenous communities? It is that fundamental question that this government has focused very much on answering in the last few months. If we are going to have normalisation in these places, we have to accept that many of the Indigenous communities, particularly in my electorate, are communities where the demographic is such that they live in an area where there is not necessarily a whole range of resources. There are not the opportunities available in those areas that there would be in other places.

But, of course, they are trapped. They are trapped because of one issue: education. I am talking not only about learning to read and write but also about simply having sufficient education and confidence, as the leaders in those communities do—the older people in those communities have those skills—to be able to leave the communities and home towns where they were born and go out into the external community to work, as other Territorians and Australians do. If you look anywhere in regional Australia, you will find that there are plenty of demographics where the opportunities adjacent to where people live are small in number. They are not opportunities that will allow a population to grow and thrive without creating massive unemployment. That is simply because of the opportunities that are adjacent to those areas geographically.

Of course, we do not have that demographic reflected in Indigenous communities. Indigenous communities tend to remain static in their own country. Instead of having the confidence to move out and ensure that they can take opportunities in other areas, they cannot move. That is fundamentally about education. When you have an education, you have choice. The passport to freedom in an Indigenous sense is an education. In so many of the communities now, particularly in remote regional Australia, we have a centre hub. Around the centre hub we have what we call outstations. The outstation argument has been argued up and down. People need to be on country, but it has taken people away from those services.

A fundamental rule of the way forward would have to be that, if we are going to support places like outstations and homelands, we need to make sure that they are in fact connected in some way throughout the year to adequate education and health services. That is an absolute fundamental. It happens everywhere else in Australia. Without that building block of education, I think the circumstances we will find are that Indigenous housing and health in these communities are going to be again offset by the very small number of opportunities that present themselves.

This motion also goes specifically to housing. There are a couple of fundamentals on how we approach Indigenous housing. We have asked the states and territories to provide, effectively, housing. There are a number of mechanisms through which that is done. But I have to say that it is very sad that some jurisdictions around Australia—and it appears that it is in fact all jurisdictions around Australia—when it comes to Indigenous housing are failing miserably. That is not just a measure of what I think or a political statement based on the fact that they are all represented by the Labor Party. The fact of the matter is that $141 million less was spent on Indigenous housing in all of those states and territories than should have been the case. That is an outrage.

I think that people on the other side who are trying to take any sort of moral high ground need to rethink their position, talk to their state and territory colleagues, get on the program and ensure that they spend the funds that are appropriated directly on that housing. Actually, they need to perhaps take a little bit of advice from some of their leadership. I think it is about leadership. It is a fundamental aspect of this. The ALP national president, Warren Mundine, says that the ALP needs to make changes in its approach to Indigenous policy. Where were they for nine months when we were trying to cut off the head of the sacred cow, ATSIC? Where were they then? They were wasting time. We would not be having the debate if ATSIC were alive and well and standing in the way of good governance, leadership and progress in this matter. Again, there are delays. He goes on to say, referring to the ALP:

... the party had to look more favourably at the mutual obligation deals now being struck between Aboriginal communities and the Federal Government.

They fought that all of the way. Again, I implore those on the other side to have a little bit more of a progressive look at this issue. At the moment, as we speak here, we are now debating in the other place the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Amendment Bill 2006. As I understand it, those on the other side are in fact opposing it. They are opposing measures that would allow people to own their own homes—a fundamental right, I believe, of Australians. They will be able to own their own homes. They will not be able to own their own homes unless we get support from all people in this place. Yes, we will probably get it through because it is commonsense, but I appeal for a bit of commonsense from the other side. (Time expired)