Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's common knowledge that the billions of dollars thrown at Indigenous programs far exceed the funds put into non-Indigenous programs on a per capita basis. Non-Indigenous government spending per capita is $22,000 versus $45,000 for Indigenous Australians. Tens of billions of dollars are spent each year on programs to assist Aboriginal communities both remote and major. From Jacinta Price's policy paper 'Worlds apart', published in January this year by the Centre for Independent Studies, we learned the Productivity Commission estimates that the government spent around $33.4 billion on Indigenous peoples in 2015-16. One stand out of those figures is that around $4.1 billion of that was spent on public order and safety alone. That's $6,300 per person, which is 10 times—yes, 10—the amount spent on the typical Australian. Isn't it a coincidence that, from 1971 to 2016, the year of the last official census, the population of Aboriginal Australians increased by 459 per cent during the rollout of these programs while the general population increased by only 83.5 per cent?

The people of Australia know it's way overdue for those on the Left and the Right to accept that the awful plight of so many Indigenous communities runs across party lines, and the system is being rorted. Indigenous families—any family—should never be political pawns. The hollow prize of hate speech, thrown across this chamber to deflect from the truth, is a badge of honour I and my party wear with pride. One Nation will continue to shine a light on the rorts, the injustice, the inequality and the discrimination— (Time expired)

Debate interrupted.