Kerrynne Liddle (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Indigenous Australians) Share this | Hansard source

I think one of the most troubling statistics is that five were on track and now there are only four. Guess which one is no longer on track? Sadly, it's baby birth weight. It's one of the data points that you can accurately predict. Every one of those numbers represents lives, families and futures, and every one of those numbers that are going backwards are going backwards under Labor.

There was ending the cashless debit card, the lifting of alcohol restrictions and then standing by and watching nine months before they were put in place and watching NAAJA collapse with its poor governance and doing absolutely nothing to intervene, even though a large proportion of its funding comes from the Commonwealth. People were anguishing in the Northern Territory without even having representation. That was disgusting, and it's factual. The disastrous situation of alcohol restrictions being lifted saw a 77 per cent increase in average monthly domestic violence assaults in Alice Springs, and Central Australia is still a long way from recovery, if ever.

Taxpayers deserve to know and to be able to interrogate why $300 million poured into Central Australia has not delivered a better, safer Central Australia. It simply hasn't. You just need to walk down the street to see that. I've done it many times, and not for work; I've been there as a local and as a visitor. What are more reasons Labor did this? The AIHW health performance framework summary report says the Labor fuelled cost-of-living crisis has made things worse, especially in remote areas and in primary health care. It's got harder than ever. We should know more about that. There are the Indigenous organisations that have failed to file mandatory reports with ORIC, their regulator. How come ORIC seem to think that they need to defend that? Why is it that frontline services are still waiting for funds while bureaucracy holds back the cash? It was done in Katherine less than two weeks ago, and that's a serious situation for those people.

With broken promises and lack of transparency, this is the most secretive government in living memory. The government claims that Indigenous issues will now be part of every day of estimates. What they don't say is what they've actually done to make this much better. It is not. The people who are going to lose out most are Indigenous Australians. (Time expired)