Malarndirri McCarthy (NT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Indigenous Australians) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Thorpe for the question. There are two elements to this that I think are really important for the Senate to be aware of. One is that, clearly, the Northern Territory government have embarked on a piece of legislation that they already had in place prior to what we saw—and this Senate gave a condolence motion yesterday in regard to what has happened in Alice Springs. And, with the decision by the NT Children's Commissioner and the Australian First Nations commissioner for children, those decisions came about, Senator Thorpe, as a result of the concerns that were coming through what was happening in Central Australia. I have certainly reached out to the Minister for Child Protection in the Northern Territory, expressing my concerns that unless the minister is working with the First Nations—