Alan Eggleston (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

When the debate was interrupted, I was talking about the contributions the Howard government had made to various areas of services provided to Indigenous people. I had just finished talking about health. I did want to say that, in addition to the health programs, the Howard government made enormous contributions, for example, to housing for Indigenous people. The expansion of the Australian Remote Indigenous Accommodation Program, to replace the Community Housing and Infrastructure Program previously managed by ATSIC, was one of the great successes of the Howard government. It put in $293.6 million in additional expenditure for Indigenous housing in the budget of last year. I think that is a major point to make: that the Howard government had been concerned to improve the housing of Indigenous people in this country.

We also paid a lot of attention to creating circumstances in which Indigenous people could be economically independent, not only in terms of providing assistance with conventional education, but also in job skill education. For example, $234.2 million was included in last year’s budget for programs such as the Better Connections workshops, which were organised by the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations. Thirty of these workshops were held every year in places such as Darwin, Kununurra and Alice Springs, helping local Indigenous people look at innovative recruitment, employment and retention strategies to increase the workforce participation of unemployed people—particularly Indigenous people. We had the STEP—or Structured Training and Employment Projects—which covered a variety of specialised programs including the Tribal Warrior program, which received funding through a unique employment program in which 35 Indigenous job seekers sailed aboard a sailing ship called the Tribal Warrior and thereby gained a lot of confidence in handling situations, making them able to more effectively go out and seek jobs. There was an intensive training and work experience program for aged-care workers, where the training program was condensed from the usual three years to nine months. Twenty-nine Indigenous job seekers graduated from this course last year.

The Howard government also spent something like $104.8 million on supporting the preservation of Aboriginal culture, through programs such as the National Indigenous Television funding, which had funding of some $50 million and was launched in Sydney last year; the Indigenous Remote Radio Replacement project, which was provided over $3.3 million over three years to replace ageing and unreliable radio infrastructures; and the Digitisation of Indigenous Cultural Resources program, in which $10.2 million was provided to complete the task of protecting the most at-risk and fragile deteriorating parts of the collection of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander work in the museums of Australia.

In conclusion, it is apparent from what I have said that the Howard government had many programs addressing Indigenous disadvantage at a micro level. There is still much to do, but a great deal has been achieved. The Howard government has a very proud record of contributing to and supporting Indigenous people of Australia in many areas, including health, education, housing and preservation of Indigenous culture.