Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr President. I think everyone in this chamber treats this issue seriously. I know Senator Scullion has taken a keen interest in these matters over the years and he knows the challenges in this area, as his government found out. I wish that we could actually get a more bipartisan approach in trying to resolve these issues.

This is a large scale housing program. The program will deliver, as well as housing, substantial employment and training outcomes for Indigenous people in remote parts of the Northern Territory, with a key target of 20 per cent of the total workforce across the life of the program.

Senator Scullion makes a claim in his question—as he did yesterday in a speech I think he gave to the Senate—that is just factually wrong. I hope it is not politically motivated, but it is factually wrong. Between April and October last year, the Northern Territory government completed a major tender process to select the alliance consortium of companies that would deliver these works. It was essential, as he knows, that the process was done properly. We have had too much failure and too much mis-spending in this area. It is a five-year program delivering over half a billion dollars worth of capital works and the government needs to ensure the best possible companies were engaged for the work. Governments are also working—