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

I have already spoken about the management of the National Indigenous Australians Agency this week. I often ask myself: how do these Aboriginal bodies operate in greater secrecy than our national spy agency? It's broadly because of the pathetic leadership within Labor and the coalition not demanding transparency and accountability for fear of being subject to weaponised claims of racism. And our media aren't much better. They too need a clip under the ear for not reporting the billions of dollars wasted in the Aboriginal industry.

Since the NIAA's inception, it has awarded $3.5 billion in Indigenous grants, while the government has awarded $11.5 billion across all departments in the past five years. The administration of these grants by recipients has, in many instances, been found to be noncompliant with relevant legislation and government standards. Instead of prosecuting those responsible, the Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations, ORIC, just writes letters about good governance. It has prosecuted on a few small matters over a few thousand dollars, but the big players are untouched. It's like having the fox in charge of the henhouse.

The Australian National Audit Office report into the NIAA states:

The NIAA's frameworks for managing provider fraud and non-compliance are not fully fit-for-purpose—

and—

… do not fully comply with legislation or the NIAA's internal policies.

…   …   …

The NIAA's arrangements for the prevention, detection and referral of potential provider fraud and non-compliance are partly effective.

…   …   …

The NIAA's management of provider fraud and non-compliance risks is partly effective.

I've also had a look at the agency's corporate plan. It sets spending targets but no value-for-money targets. The plan sets out the goal to increase grants and contracts by three per cent per year. Yet, under the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act, Commonwealth entities must take all reasonable measures to prevent, detect and deal with fraud.

Under the Commonwealth grants rules, these grants must have an outcomes orientation, provide value for money and meet probity and transparency requirements. It looks like a very different standard is applied to Indigenous grants—no milestone reports, little transparency and no accountability for outcome delivery. It also appears that many investigators who are supposed to be looking into these matters are not suitably qualified. Until we learn the truth about how these grants are managed to prevent fraud, Australians can't vote for a voice to parliament and we can't protect this industry in the Constitution. It must be held to the same standards of governance as any other recipient of taxpayers' funding.

I'm calling on the Albanese government to instruct the ANAO to launch an immediate audit of ORIC, which has had oversight of $11.5 billion handed out in more than 19,000 grants over the past five years. I'm also putting the government on notice. The report by Sky News has prompted whistleblowers to contact my office with substantial evidence of more corruption in this unaccountable Aboriginal industry. We're talking about evidence that's been presented to: the former Minister for Indigenous Australians Ken Wyatt; the current minister, Linda Burney; and NDIS minister Bill Shorten. They've known about it for more than two years, yet the subjects of the investigation continue to lead an Indigenous body distributing taxpayer money.

Once again, we're talking about millions of dollars of taxpayer funded grants going not to help the people it was intended for but to line the pockets of corrupt leaders to fund their own lavish lifestyles, at the expense of better outcomes for the people they're charged to help. Once again, we're talking about what appears to be an institutional reluctance to investigate and prosecute fraud and corruption in the use of Indigenous grants despite clear evidence that there are many cases to answer for. It's probably no coincidence that government departments have gone suspiciously even more silent on the matter since the government began its dishonest, divisive and deceptive campaign for the 'yes' vote in the coming referendum on an Indigenous voice to parliament.