Claire Moore (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Women) Share this | Hansard source

I am moving to take note. I move:

That the Senate take note of the statement.

I've already started to take note, Madam Deputy President, and now I'll continue. In terms of the process, our shadow minister, Jason Clare, will be joining the minister this evening at the function, where he will have a chance also to continue discussion about a really important element of future policy.

I take the point the minister raised in his conclusion about the importance of having this engagement with our parliament. He said that these reports offered the opportunity to provide 'pressure and energy' to ensure that this 20-year plan will continue and engage with people across the community. Also in that space is the absolutely strong importance of collaboration across governments and the fact that that must be an integral part of the future, and also the acknowledgement of the extraordinarily important element of work with Indigenous communities across northern Australia. We know that one of the elements to make this program operate is to identify where the needs are greatest and also to look at who lives in northern Australia. It is a growing, wonderful part of the world but we do acknowledge that a very large number of Indigenous people live in northern Australia and they must be part of any plan into the future.

One of the things we do know is that these annual reports are important to the parliament. When we had a look at Hansard, we couldn't find a report that was handed down last year. Certainly there was the report the first time, but this is only the second time that a report has actually been made, from looking through Hansard.