Nita Green (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Kirriri, or Hammond Island, is an island in the Torres Strait. It's around 3,000 kilometres from this place—or, perhaps better put, there's a ferry and a small plane then a big plane and then another plane between that island and Canberra. The short ferry ride from Thursday Island to Hammond Island glides you over crystal-clear waters. There is only one word to describe the Torres Strait, and that is 'paradise'. And you do feel a million miles away from the rest of the world. It is an ancient place, full of culture and custom. When I was there recently, I heard stories of families from the mainland arriving for a visit one day and then never going home. It's just that kind of place. On Kirriri Island, the streets skirt the coastline, as if everyone is vying for the best slice of the best view in the world. Seeing the water or being close to the water is important spiritually and practically. Each house we pass is cared for. Gardens are watered when water restrictions permit. Private memorials for loved ones sit adorned outside their front steps, with fresh flowers and polished headstones—a sign of respect for generations past; a sign of closeness to the families that grow up around the graves. These homes are important.

Kirriri is where the Torres Strait Island Regional Council's Mayor Fred Gela delivers services and advocacy on behalf of 15 island communities. His reach goes all the way up to Saibai and to Boigu Island, which lie a short boat ride from PNG—a short tinnie ride, in fact. Across these 15 islands, there are six different dialects, five different First Nations clusters, 23,000 border movements, and 900 social houses. I imagine that most people living on Kirriri feel the distance from this place, too—not just in terms of kilometres. It would be hard to feel heard from so far away. It is the same for many communities in the cape and the Torres Strait. When your issues, your way of life and the things that are important to you are not being talked about or considered here, it makes the distance seem deafening. The government talks a big game about standing up for regional Australia, and we saw evidence of that tonight. But somehow they forget that regional Queensland includes remote Indigenous communities. I wish that senators opposite would give such impassioned rants about these regional Queenslanders!

Tonight, I want to talk about these communities and the homes that they love and the promises that they were made, because, no matter how far away they live from this place, as Australia's First Peoples and as Queenslanders, they deserve to be heard. This isn't confected outrage or some political pointscoring; this is just really important to those people. Right now, tonight, many members of the Indigenous communities across Far North Queensland are going to sleep on couches, in crowded homes, in the homes of their sisters, cousins, aunties and uncles, because there are simply not enough houses. Homelessness and overcrowding is a very real, present way of life for Indigenous communities. In May, before the election, the member for Leichhardt, Warren Entsch, and former Minister for Indigenous Affairs Nigel Scullion promised Indigenous communities in Queensland $105 million, to be provided directly to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander councils, to fund remote Indigenous housing. It was a promise well received by the council and mayors like Fred Gela. It wasn't the funding that they had hoped for. The federal government had walked away from the National Partnership Agreement on Remote Indigenous Housing. The partnership had seen more than $1 billion invested into housing in regional Queensland between 2008 and 2018 through a partnership between the state and federal governments.

But the Morrison government have refused to commit funding. The announcement that they made instead to provide money directly to councils was the federal government's alternative to signing back up to NPARIH. But six months on, they have failed to allocate any of this funding. Six months on and there is no indication by the Morrison government that they have reached an agreement with any entity to deliver the vital funding. Six months on and no houses have been built, no jobs created and not $1 handed over; yet waitlists for housing continue to grow. The councils need to know when they will receive this funding so that they have the certainty that they need to employ workers and plan maintenance.

I was in the Torres Strait last week and I was told that there is a seven-year waitlist for housing. In the meantime, some households have up to five families under one roof, with seven to eight children sometimes sharing one room. This is completely unacceptable. This funding is crucial to support health and economic outcomes for First Nations communities. Many First Nations people live in households that are overcrowded, a situation that can lead to a wide range of health problems. Overcrowded living conditions can lead to increased risks of chronic ear and eye infections, skin conditions, respiratory infections and mental health issues. Overcrowding can also make it harder for children to get a good night's sleep, to study at home and to grow up happy and healthy.

Housing programs do more than provide health outcomes; they also provide jobs and apprenticeships for local workers in the communities, supporting the skills and development of local economies. Cape York mayors have said that housing projects have become a key economic driver for many Indigenous communities, supporting jobs and providing apprenticeships for young people.

The NPARIH wasn't perfect, but the government's own review of it found that it was making good progress on the problem of overcrowding and recommended that the recurrent program be funded. In Queensland, the program built 1,114 new dwellings and refurbished a further 1,490. It is a disgrace that the Morrison government walked away from NPARIH. It is a disgrace that six months after its alternative funding model was announced it looks like it was more like a thought bubble than an announcement—an election promise made to keep these communities quiet.

The member for Leichhardt in this government has a job to do when it comes to regional communities, and he is not doing it. He made a promise and he needs to keep it. He said that he would fix this problem and he hasn't. The member for Leichhardt needs to stand up in Cairns tomorrow and tell Indigenous communities when they will receive this funding—no 'what ifs' and no 'maybes'; just a date when construction can start—but he won't do that. He will fob off these questions and play politics and try to point-score and blame the state government. As we have seen so clearly tonight, Liberal senators opposite are preoccupied with what the state government is doing and not what their government has failed to do.

Six months after this announcement was made, still no new houses have been built in communities that desperately need this housing. No wonder these communities don't feel heard by this government and feel far away from this place, when these issues that are so important to these communities are fobbed off and when these communities are told that 'one day' they will receive this money but are not told the date that it will be received. I can understand why they feel that they are so far away from the decisions that are made in this place.

This is an issue that should be raised by a voice to parliament by the First Nations people—not a voice to parliament that doesn't include the Torres Strait islanders who live north of the Cape. If we had a genuine voice to parliament, if the Uluru statement were accessed in the way that our First Nations people have asked, would I really need to be standing here talking about people who live 3,000 kilometres away and advocating on their behalf or would they be doing it for themselves? Ultimately, that is what we need in this place, and I hope that this funding is delivered long before the First Nations people— (Time expired)