Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Dribble? Through you, Madam Acting Deputy President, it is dribble, is it? When was the last time you were in an Indigenous community, Senator Bernardi? Through you, Madam Acting Deputy President, when was the last time Senator Williams, that intelligentsia of all things political in the National Party, was in an Indigenous community? When have you ever stood and said in this chamber how disgraceful the way our Indigenous brothers and sisters live on their traditional lands is? It is shameful, but our leader, the Leader of the Government in the Senate, Senator Evans, was man enough to say that no-one has got it right. I support Senator Evans’s statement because it is just so true.

To bring us back to where we are now, you hear comments in the hallways in this great building that Senator Scullion is just being devious in moving this motion, that Senator Scullion is being evil, that Senator Scullion—the former Howard government Minister for Community Services—is playing politics or that he is just being a complete and utter dropkick. I would not say that. Not for one minute would I suggest that Senator Scullion is being evil or devious. I would not even suggest for one minute that he is playing politics or that he is a complete and utter dropkick—I would not suggest that. I honestly think that Senator Scullion does have the interests of Indigenous people and their communities at heart. Being a Northern Territory senator, he should have. The sad thing is that I think Senator Scullion has been grossly misled. He is grossly misinformed. He can turn on the passion, as most on that side can when it suits them, but, quite frankly, Senator Scullion is way off the mark because Senator Scullion, as I said, was actually the community services minister in the Howard government.

For 11 long years—let us not forget, 11 long years—what did you lot over on that side do? Through you, Madam Acting Deputy President, this is the travesty: in opposition they can all start wrenching on the heartstrings about how concerned they are about Indigenous housing and Indigenous communities, and how dare we mention closing the gap in Indigenous health and education and housing. How dare we? So at every opportunity, all of a sudden, that mob on the other side of the chamber is the custodian of all things wonderful about Indigenous Australia.

When you go into the communities and you see the children—as Senator Payne said, children cannot help where they are born—one would think that that side of the chamber would do everything they could to work with us. One would think that we would hold hands as Australians, regardless of the colour of our skin, and say that we are going to do what is best for Australia, what is best for the next generations coming through, regardless of their skin colour, rather than just using it as a political football when it suits that side.

And as has been said, we inherited this SIHIP. We did inherit it, but we are going to make it work because one of the great things about spending over $1 billion of taxpayers’ money is that the Rudd Labor government is going to do one thing that that side of politics could not do in its 11 years, and nor could others before that—that is, we are going to do it right. I know that may give those on the other side grief—Senator Bernardi, Senator Williams, you know you can put your hands on your heads—but we are going to do it right. What has happened over the years, and it has happened in most of the communities I have visited, is that you might find the odd new home. Take the Dampier Peninsula. It is not the Northern Territory, but their living conditions are still squalid. You will occasionally see a wonderful new home. And I have said it on many occasions: ‘What a wonderful new home. How long did it take to build that?’ They say ‘six months’ or whatever. The way it was done under the Howard government it was mix and match; it was hit and miss. There was always a little bit of political pressure, ‘Let’s chuck a new home into this Indigenous community.’

And for some strange reason, if you wanted to build a home in an Indigenous community, they always had to add another zero on the end of it. I do not know how that happens, but I can understand it. When building companies tender for these one-off homes, it is costly for them. They have to get labour, they have to provide accommodation, they have to provide the wages and the travel costs, and then the trucks have to get the freight up there, and we know how that all happens. And we also know that in the middle of the wet season, forget it; it is not going to happen in the wet. So there is a window of opportunity, usually it is about eight months—I will stand corrected if the Northern Territory is seven months or nine months, or whatever—but it all has to come together very quickly.

But what actually happens if you have only one new home built in a community? Within a month or two there are 25 people living in that one house. But previous governments, who thought they had done their little bit because they had put one home in this community, one home in that community, would just say, ‘Oh, aren’t we fantastic?’ Well they haven’t been damned fantastic! They have been absolutely remiss in their service to Indigenous Australia.

The important part of the Strategic Indigenous Housing and Infrastructure Program is the way that it will be done properly. What has been said here, and I will not go into it too much because it has been heard, but I must reiterate for those opposite in case it did not sink in, and I do not think it did sink in on a number of occasions—