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

My heart goes out to the family of this poor little girl. You'd think there could be nothing worse for a family than to experience the abduction and murder of an innocent five-year-old. However, there are things that make it worse. This was a tragedy that could have been prevented and was not unprecedented. The appalling setting in which it happened is a national disgrace that shames Australia. It should disgust us all that any Australian child is forced to live in such squalid and dangerous conditions in an obviously dysfunctional community.

It's been almost 20 years since the Little children are sacred report, and it's evident that children in these Northern Territory communities are no safer today than they were back then. Justice for this tragedy will be fully served only when children in these communities are no less safe than children anywhere else in Australia. Justice will be completely served only when those who are responsible for the ongoing dysfunction of these communities are held to account. Justice will be achieved only when the Indigenous corporations, which receive huge amounts of taxpayers money to close the gaps, are held accountable for their failures and their rampant corruption and nepotism.

For years now I have spoken out about what is happening in our Aboriginal communities, these Aboriginal industries—corporations—and the waste of money. It is not about lack of money; it is about lack of ability or will to do something about it. How many times over the years have we spoken about this, time and time again? And nothing happens. How often have we spoken about Closing the Gap? And it's only got worse.

We have to get rid of the racial division that's happening in this nation and pull together as leaders, to listen to the people in these communities, to read one report from a resident in this town saying: 'I've been complaining about the conditions of the house. I can't get a lock on my door. The stove doesn't work.' It's not through a lack of money, because millions of dollars have gone to that community, run by the same council leaders that have done it for years because there's corruption and nepotism. How many times have I asked for reports to be done, audits to be done, but you shut your ears to it; you're not interested. What's happened is disgraceful, and I've spoken about it before.

I've been to Doomadgee. I've seen the children on the streets there. You know why? Because they're frightened to go home because of dysfunctional homes and because of the abuse, the domestic violence, the alcohol, the drugs that are taken—even the sexual abuse of these children. But we turn a blind eye to it. You can't say anything about it, because you're called a racist. It's disgraceful. I feel for these poor children. I feel for the communities where there is domestic violence. Until you really face facts about what is happening in these communities and speak up and be truthful about the matter—go and find out where the billions of dollars are going. Why hasn't it been spent to improve these lives? Why do these people and these children live in squalor? They don't have the right education. You can't intervene, because you're called a racist. Call it out for what it is. Look past that.

We have an obligation to every child in this nation—every child. It doesn't matter what colour their skin is. If they're living in these conditions, then you take them out of those conditions and put them where they are going to be loved and cared for. But this man who allegedly committed this offence—that has to stop, too. And this is not the first child. I have heard that this has been happening to other children, children as young as two. The sexual abuse that happens in these communities has to stop. We have to intervene. We have to do something about it. For God's sake, we're all Australians. Get past what colour our skins are, whether Indigenous or non-Indigenous. Look after our future generations.