Trish Crossin (NT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Issues facing Indigenous Australians have received much focus and national attention in recent weeks. These are matters concerning disorder, violence and dysfunction in Aboriginal communities. But the issues we have read about and watched on television are not news to people in this country. The statistics tell the story that Aboriginal people can expect to live 20 years less than other Australians. They have the highest rates of chronic diseases, many of which have their origins in early childhood or even before birth. They have the lowest educational outcomes of any group in Australia and the highest levels of unemployment. But it is not news. It has not happened overnight. Declining standards have been a reality for years—in fact, for decades.

I was heartened to hear the comments of John Hartigan, the News Limited chief executive, last week. He said that forcing people from communities into cities and towns does not work. He argued that what is needed is a long-term investment in infrastructure, education and employment. Nothing could be closer to the truth. He is on the money—he is spot-on. On Monday in this chamber a number of us had an opportunity to support Senator Bartlett’s motion in respect of Indigenous disadvantage. Today I want to build on some of the comments that I made on Monday. I particularly want to focus on the role of public figures—people elected to government office—including the role of this government and state and territory governments.

We have a new minister who has discovered the plight of Indigenous people. I would hope that he is genuine in his endeavour to improve their lot rather than using these people for his own political purpose. In the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly last week, Clare Martin moved a motion about an idea for a 20-year plan. I will come to more of that in a minute. During the debate in the Legislative Assembly, Syd Stirling of the Northern Territory government said that in fact decisions made by governments in the Territory in the seventies, eighties and nineties had laid the groundwork for the difficulties and problems we face today.

He went on to say that probably the watershed for Territory Aboriginal people as a whole came with the Ayers Rock campaign and the subsequent election of 1983. It was in that campaign that the pretext of the return to traditional owners of Uluru was used to divide the white urban vote from the largely Indigenous rural and remote voters by then CLP Chief Minister, Paul Everingham. I have spoken about this election to my former colleague Bob Collins, who was Leader of the Opposition at the time. He said to me that he had a choice of either supporting the hand-back of Uluru to traditional owners and risking losing the election or not supporting that and going on to probably be the first Labor Party Chief Minister of the Northern Territory. Bob did what he believed and knew was right. He risked the winning of that election for the good outcome of Indigenous people at Uluru.

That election began what became a morally bankrupt procession, lasting for more than 20 years, of subsequent elections in the Northern Territory, said Syd Stirling last week. He was right. Unfortunately, we now have the same people running the show down here in Canberra, assisting in running the office of the Prime Minister and cabinet. It is a shame that such divisions still exist when it comes to public comment about Indigenous people. It is a shame that Indigenous people are still used to score political points.

I want to go to some comments that my colleague David Tollner made in the House on Monday when he spoke about the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act and the amendments to that act. There is a very good reason why David Tollner is the member for Solomon, which takes in Darwin and Palmerston. These comments will show why. He stood up and said this:

... when you travel around community after community on Aboriginal land in the Northern Territory nowhere do you see a market garden that grows fresh vegetables ...

You are wrong, David. There are plenty of market gardens on out-stations at Elcho Island. I have visited them myself. No doubt Senator Scullion has seen them as well. In fact, after the last time I went to some of those out-stations along the road to the barge landing, I sent them back some seeds for cucumbers and zucchinis, because they were interested in trying to grow a few more different sorts of vegetables. David Tollner went on to say:

... nowhere do you see a butcher shop ...

Dave, take a trip out to Wadeye, because there is in fact a butcher shop in the rural transaction centre that your government actually built. It is a butcher shop that is owned, run and operated by Indigenous people. Every now and then they take a head of cattle from the pastoral stations nearby, chop it up and sell it on to the people in the community. What I am trying to highlight here is that often comments about Indigenous people are made out of pure ignorance, for political gain and political purposes. If we want to see real changes in Indigenous communities, we need to look at the causes of the problems. There is not just one solution for one problem, nor will it be the same in each and every place.

Figures regarding Indigenous outcomes in health, education, violence and incarceration have been documented extensively and in fact are printed year after year. While there may be some improvements in the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous outcomes, the gap is still great and as wide as ever, with no real progress ever really being made. The scale of the problem needs a national approach and a national commitment based upon research and not politics. This national approach should be based not on compassion or emotion but on some of the really terrific work that is being done out there by researchers and academics.

Minister Brough has chosen to sensationalise the problems in communities. While I do not deny that there is something that needs attention, his focus on law and order alone is simply not the answer. He purposely focuses on one of the symptoms of these problems rather than the cause. Let us focus on what Marion Scrymgour had to say last week in the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly. She said:

The shock, the hysteria, the grandstanding, the useless responses and the further erosion of traditional culture and respect for Aboriginal people. It is a cycle that keeps repeating itself. The same mistakes keep being made. The federal government and the dominant culture generally always manage to avoid accepting responsibility. The debate becomes hijacked with an agenda of cultural dismantling and assimilation.

The Chief Minister of the Northern Territory said last week in the assembly:

It is also important to remember that not all Aboriginal communities are in disarray.

And she is right. There are many Aboriginal communities that are as safe as any small country town in Australia—and sometimes the first priority for these communities is not to tackle law and order or to have a police station or a lock-up in the heart of their town. The climate of blaming, bullying and shaming only highlights the negative aspects of life in Aboriginal communities. A spotlight on law and order will not deliver a long-term, healthy, sustainable future; nor will that be achieved by ignoring Indigenous people and not engaging them in finding a way forward on how to resolve and improve these conditions.

Let us have a look at some success stories. One success story is Anangu Tours, which is an Aboriginal owned and operated touring company that operates out of Uluru. Another success story is the Titjikala community, who are working with Sydney based Gunya tourism to establish a five-star camp site. Progress is being made. Secondary education in remote communities in the Northern Territory was nonexistent up to 2001. In 2001 no Indigenous student in a remote community had ever graduated from year 12. But in 2001 there was a breakthrough. Rhonda Rankin, Lianna Brown and Mershach Paddy were the first to get their year 12 certificates at Kalkaringi. In 2004 we had another six and in 2005 we had 25, including seven from Wadeye, I might add. You do not see that reported in the news anywhere. Hopefully this year there will be at least 30 Indigenous students from remote communities who get their year 12 certificates. Secondary programs now operate at Maningrida, Kalkarindji, Papunya, Minyerri and Yirrkala.

Last week, Clare Martin gave an account of a meeting she had at Wadeye:

When I was at Wadeye last week, the community was talking about the national debate and how the focus had been, for a lot of that time, on Wadeye, about the gang warfare. A number of key members of the community said to me, ‘You know we are not like this most of the time. You know that we are fairly peaceful. We get on with things. Have we got challenges? Yep. But could you not explain better in the national media what it is like here?’

Clare simply replied that she has tried. Certainly there are public figures and members of this government who could also try to spread a better story in a better way.

Territory police are forming Territory-wide task forces to respond to the increased rates of child abuse—for example, in Katherine through the Peace at Home initiative—and a larger police presence is occurring in communities like Numbulwar, Kintore and Mutitjulu. But it is not going to happen over night—and it costs money. Paul Henderson tells me that it will cost $1.5 million to put a police presence in each of those remote communities, and that does not include the houses that those police officers will live in. The tri-state policing role that we heard about during the petrol-sniffing inquiry is a success story. Cooperation between the Northern Territory, Western Australian and South Australian police is working and needs to be encouraged, supported and rolled out further.

Today I want to support Clare Martin’s call last week for a 20-year plan. The Northern Territory government already has a five-year plan that outlines six priority areas. It is called ‘An agenda for action’. I will seek leave at the end of my speech to table the document. The agenda sets out a five-year plan to attempt to tackle a lot of the problems in health, education, law and order, employment and capacity building in communities. But this is one effort by one Territory government. We need the federal government to pick up Clare Martin’s idea and to lay down a 20-year plan. There are precedents for long-term plans—competition policy was a 10-year plan and the Living Murray initiative was an eight-year plan. Regardless of what political party wins the next election or subsequent federal elections, that plan should be there for this nation to sign up to. Liberal or Labor should sign on the dotted line and decide they are going to go ahead and do it.

I want to provide some comments made by an Indigenous member of the Northern Territory assembly last week. Alison Anderson said:

I remember sitting at the summit with the Prime Minister only three years ago in 2003. There were people like Jackie Huggins there, Professor Bonnie Robertson, and lots of other people. To stand here and try to remember some of the stories that were told to the Prime Minister of the nation that day at the summit hurts me. If the Prime Minister of the nation cannot take any notice of what people were saying three years ago, what is going to change?

Next week, this government will hold a summit on domestic violence. Let us throw down the shackles of politics and get some Indigenous people there. Let us get some really good people—for example, Barbara McCarthy, Alison Anderson, Carol Martin and Linda Burney—who can represent, stand for and speak to the minister on behalf of their people. Let us forget the fact that they are from the Labor Party. Let us decide to move the Indigenous disadvantage agenda forward and resolve the issues through a bipartisan approach.

Today I would like to call on this government to set up a 20-year plan. Clare Martin has asked this government to commit to $50 million extra per year to address the housing issue in remote communities in the Territory. The World Health Organisation has identified overcrowded living conditions, the resultant high stress levels, and poverty as key risk factors associated with child abuse. We know at Port Keats there is an immediate shortfall of 206 dwellings—and that is just at Port Keats. So let us have a 20-year plan to tackle housing, even if it means getting business on board. Let us pick up Tom Calma’s idea and implement his 25-year plan to combat Indigenous health problems. The ideas are there. It now just has to be done.

The other thing I think we should do is monitor that with a joint standing committee of the federal parliament. I am calling on Mal Brough today to include people like Senator Scullion, me, Warren Snowdon, David Tollner, Senator McLucas and Barry Haase—those of us in this federal parliament who have an interest in Indigenous affairs. Get us together. Establish a joint standing committee of this federal parliament so we can have a look at Indigenous disadvantage and work together. Give us a 25-year plan. Give us the tools with which we can actually have a look at the good things the federal government are doing and at the areas in which they need to improve so we can spread some good stories about Indigenous communities and have an oversight from this federal parliament. I seek leave to table the Northern Territory government’s five-year plan, ‘An agenda for action’.

Leave granted.

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